Looking out at Cazadero Valley to the South and Black Rock Mountain to the North, on top of the ridge line, Teravana appears a serene landscape—with redwood forests, chaparral with giant Madrone and Manzanita, and rolling velvet Northern Californian hills. But just as humans do, even the land herself holds stories of death and rebirth, trauma and healing.
We directly address climate-changing trends to restore biodiversity and natural resilience. This means abandoning limited ways of viewing our relationship to the natural world, to embrace the ethos that there is inherent wisdom in natural processes and living things.
We’ve partnered with ecologists and foresters to create a sustainability plan. Using the combined wisdom of academic and indigenous knowledge, our ecology goal is to help heal the earth, create biodiversity, and live in the latest age of fire and drought in California. It is our commitment to care for Mother Earth the way it cares for us, providing us with everything we need to thrive.
To help Teravana’s ecosystem flourish with diversity, we are proud to partner with WellKind, our sister organization. If Teravana is where nature heals humans, WellKind is where humans heal nature, through community-driven ecology projects.
Ecology is about restoring relationships with the world around us. We understand that we exist within a web of relationships: Plant dependent on Animal, Animal dependent on Plant, and all dependent on favorable conditions on this planet. There is inherent wisdom in life, and we incorporate this “knowing” into our interaction with nature and our land.
Nurture Flora & Fauna
We seek to use and restore the land for the plants and animals that live here. The Bobcat is respected by indigenous peoples as one of the most ancient and wise animals. They thrive in healthy, protective forests and in open meadows, with birds, insects, and small mammals of many kinds. By making Teravana hospitable to Bobcats, we can create an ideal environment for this elusive species, and all it is dependent upon to flourish.
We’re also establishing a native plant nursery on-site to propagate trees and shrubs most suited for our climate-changing world.
Restore Soil Health
Soil is the foundation of health for plants, animals and people. To heal the soil, we restore vital nutrients and attract more birds and animals whose droppings fertilize the soil in a virtuous, life-sustaining cycle.
Conserve Water
Today, drought, pollution, and extractive industry has diminished the quality and quantity of the earth’s water supply. We not only care for our water, but also make sure that wildlife on our land has access to healthful and abundant water. We plant native grasses with long root systems to guide life-giving rainwater deep into the ground, use permeable surfaces to capture the water and reduce harmful runoff and flooding. We seek to keep our water pure and do not not use pesticides or harmful chemicals on our land.
Trees equal water, and water equals life. Trees conduct evapotranspiration, which means they release not only oxygen but moisture and particulates into the air that create beneficial atmospheric conditions. They also draw down carbon from the atmosphere and store it safely in the ground. When plants are removed from the land, the soil dies, and water dries up. One of the best things we can do for global warming is to save old, native trees, who sequester more carbon than saplings.
Test Forest Soil
Regular measuring allows us to get a baseline of how the living landscape changes over time.
Population Surveys
Our lush forests are home to three species of Oak, giant Manzanitas, Redwoods, and Madrones. As part of our reforestation plan, we are replanting native trees and tending to our redwood population which was over harvested in the 19th and 20th centuries. Ultimately, our goal is to restore healthy biodiversity.
We regularly test to learn about how water is moving from the land back into the atmosphere, an important part of the water cycle.
Measure UV
In the last 10 years, we’ve seen more sunburned trees than in decades past. We study patterns in our local ecological systems so we can protect our trees, animals, and communities while learning about the current state of the environment.
Self-sustainability
We aim for carbon neutrality, and harvest energy freely given by the sun with Solar panels. Solar energy is the primary source for all structures on Teravana.
