Our Purpose

We are an organization of family farm, ranch,and forest landowners and resource managers in the North Coast Region of California dedicated to the promotion, communication and implementation of those ideals and policies that support the ecologic and economic sustainability of natural resources and open space in family ownership.

The Buckeye Story

Aesculus Californica ‚ The California Buckeye Tree ‚ is an important native to our landscape. It is distinctive, yet largely unknown and undervalued. Deeply rooted to the land, this hardy and adaptable tree has much in common with family forest and rangeland owners in Humboldt County. A small group of local landowners and resource managers came together in 1999, concerned about the fate of these working landscapes under family care. As the organization evolved it seemed only natural that we should call ourselves, "The Buckeye Conservancy."

Today we are a non-profit organization with over 200 family, individual and commercial memberships, representing over 300,000 acres of forests and ranchland in the county.

The Buckeye approaches its mission with an open and inclusive style. We are promoting our good stewardship and its public benefits to the community. We are raising awareness of the pressures that are forcing families off the land. And in a collaborative way, we are proactively seeking common sense solutions that will strengthen the economic and ecologic sustainability of these lands. We are - "families... ranching for good."

The Buckeye Mission

• Promote sound resource management practices and policies that contribute to the ecological health of our region's wildlands, to good natural resource stewardship, and to a healthy, stable economy.
  
  
• Through education, enlist the understanding and support of groups and individuals from fishing, environmental, governmental, and other perspectives.
  
  
• Maintain the integrity of our rural landscape, by encouraging the continuation of family-owned farms, ranches and forest lands through improvement of our ability to pass these lands on to the next generation and minimize loss due to sale, fragmentation or inappropriate development.
  
  
• Communicate the principals of our land ethic to other sectors of society, as constructive alternatives to counterproductive regulatory restrictions.
  
  
• Encourage and support high-quality, peer-reviewed science, based upon the collection of sound, objective data - both current and historical - that accurately describes our environment and its resources.
  
  
• Provide information and expert assistance to family landowners desiring to maintain open space through use of conservation easements.
  
  

Board of Directors - 2006