New Modini center opens in Healdsburg

A new Stewardship Center for the 3,370-acre Modini Mayacamas Preserve has opened in Healdsburg, providing a place for volunteers, staff naturalist and resource ecologist David Self and others to meet and learn about the rugged property east of Healdsburg. An open house is planned for April 18.

Ranchers Jim and Shirley Modini, who owned 1,725 acres of land for more than 70 years, bequeathed that parcel to Audubon Canyon Ranch in 2002, requesting that it be preserved forever. Jim Modini passed away in November 2011, Shirley Modini in July 2012. Their land was merged with the Mayacamas Mountains Sanctuary, formerly owned by the National Audubon Society, to become the Modini Mayacamas Preserves.

The stewardship center will be Audubon Canyon Ranch’s “first sidewalk-facing urban interface,” opened in the residence that once provided housing for Modini caretakers and was included in the Modinis’ bequest.

The building now is divided into two sections. Self and wife, Sue Maxwell, live in one part, while the center operates in the other.

Education program assistant Scout Wise will spend two days a week there, and the office will be staffed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Events and workshops will be held in the garden, where tree stumps now provide seating.

“Our goal is to create a culture that sustains nature,” Wise said. “The stewardship center offers a conduit to the preserve and provides a chance to strengthen and enrich the education component of our mission.”

Although the organization has 26 members on its “well-oiled and functional” staff, more volunteers are needed in town and to cover such large tracts of land at the preserves, said Ann Burnett, director of education and outreach.

“We are a heavily volunteer-oriented organization, and we can find a place for everyone who volunteers to pursue what is most important to them,” she said

“Responsible visitors” also play a role in deterring irresponsible behavior on the preserves. Volunteers find themselves cleaning up broken glass and clay pigeons, for example, left by poachers and trespassers. Visitors carrying binoculars or cameras “offer a particular deterrent to them,” Burnett said.

A native plant garden has been developed in the front and side yards of the Healdsburg stewardship center, incorporating ceanothus (California lilac), scarlet monkeyflower, yarrow and showy milkweed with some of the original landscape plantings. Sue Maxwell led the planting.

Wise said she hopes the gardens will inspire others to include native plants in their yards.

“This is the public face,” she said. “We’re leading by example and hope to open people’s eyes to what could be growing in their front yards.”

The Modinis first signed away development rights to the property about 15 years ago, working with the Sonoma County Open Space and Agricultural Preservation District. The Modinis, both wildlife enthusiasts and land conservationists, had lived on the property since Jim Modini returned from the Coast Guard in the mid-1940s. His family had owned the land since 1867; the Modinis had no children.

The Modini Mayacamas Preserves offers panoramic views of Mount St. Helena, the Alexander Valley and the Mayacama Mountains, and is part of 12,000 acres of contiguous habitat protected by conservation easements with the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District.

The acreage provides such diverse habitats as oak woodlands, pine forests, grasslands, chaparral, riparian forests and serpentine outcrops, and includes wildlife like black bears, bobcats, badgers, mountain lions, Northwestern pond turtles, golden eagles and dozens of species of other birds.

The community has access to the preserve from Pine Flat Road and can birdwatch from pullouts. Audubon Canyon Ranch also offers guided hikes and certification for off-road hiking and access.

The Modini Stewardship Center is located at 226A Center St. The open house is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18. For more information, email scout.wise@egret.org.

Find Audubon Canyon Ranch and information about its preserves at egret.org.