LandPaths will manage Willow Creek for another three years under the current agreement. In 2009, if the general plan has been completed (it is expected to be by early next year) and adopted, and if the funds are available, State Parks will take over. After that, the roles of the two nonprofit groups will change. Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, which recruits, trains, and handles administrative details for about 350 State Parks volunteers in the Russian River area, will likely expand its volunteer operations at Willow Creek. Whether or not LandPaths stays on "depends on whether there's a role for us to play," said Craig Anderson. "I have the feeling we'll be needed elsewhere by then."

The involvement of local citizens in a state park from its beginning yields benefits for the public in the long run, said Andrea Mackenzie, the Open Space District's general manager. "At Willow Creek, there was already significant community involvement--in volunteering, in getting grants, in stewardship. When you have a history like that, when you have a built-in group of volunteers who love the park, that's more than just a public agency coming in, buying a place, and protecting it. The State can't provide that; that has to come from the community."

In the past there were the Pomo and Coast Miwok, the original people of this place we call Sonoma County, who lived on the land and used it lightly. More recently it has been the multigenerational ranching and farming families who kept their land holdings intact and large enough to be thought of by the rest of us as "open," wild, and unspoiled. The future of Willow Creek will be written by people who live there now and will come in the future, who will learn about it and love it and find the connection to land that has been in so many ways forgotten in modern-day America.

It's a Tradition

The southwestern coast of Sonoma County is unspoiled because local residents have worked imaginatively and persistently for more than 40 years to keep it that way, for their own and the public's enjoyment. It's a place where you not only can wander freely, but also study landmarks of California's coastal conservation movement. At Bodega Head a deep man-made pond, "The Hole in the Head," marks the spot where a nuclear power plant was about to be built in 1962 but was scrapped when citizens discovered the site was on an earthquake fault. Upcoast, 30 miles north of the Russian River, Sea Ranch catalyzed the 1972 Save Our Coast initiative by claiming nine miles of shore for private use. The California Coastal Act of 1976 ensures that you can now visit some of that shoreline, as will the generations after you. The tradition of innovative activism and collaboration for the sake of the coast is alive and well in this county. If you want proof, ask anyone involved with Willow Creek.

To obtain an access permit, join a guided hike, or get more information, call (707) 544-7284 or see www.landpaths.org.

This article is greatly abridged. For the full text, see the print edition of Coast & Ocean.