A new multi-use educational facility at the Hopland Research and Extension Center will make it possible to extend UC’s outreach and influence beyond its current uses. This new facility will serve the needs of the entire community, allowing county-based Cooperative Extension advisors, campus-based faculty, and other educators to conduct educational programs that meet the needs of people within the north coast region. In particular, the new facility will serve environmental, agricultural, conservation, and community groups. It will provide opportunities for both students and teachers from the area’s schools and colleges to enjoy hands-on experiences in learning about the region’s natural resources and their wise management. The 5,139-sq.ft. facility is designed as a friendly, open place that relates to the unique natural landscape and climate. It will encourage use of outdoor spaces for break-out sessions and informal learning opportunities.

The program for the new facility envisions a meeting space capable of accommodating 198 people for outreach and extension programs. Also included is space for housing, displaying, and utilizing the Center’s collections of plants, animals, and Native American artifacts. Research/lab space will allow school classes exploring the area’s natural history to bring in and utilize soil, water, and plant samples
from the adjacent Parson’s Creek riparian zone. UC faculty, graduate students, and research technicians will have work space and storage space for materials and equipment that will encourage interaction with visitors and school classes. A catering and food preparation area, in addition to accessible restrooms, will allow us to host both small and large groups who are engaged in learning about management of natural and agricultural systems. Adjacent to the facility, nature trails and natural history displays will invite participants to explore the adjacent natural areas and reach new levels of understanding about how humans interact with their environment, both in positive and negative ways.

Sustainability plays a key role in the Center’s design and its features provide an opportunity for users to directly experience and learn about state-of-the-art green technologies and design that relate to the local environment in a direct, transparent way. This integrated design approach will create high-performance environments that teach about the virtues of environmental stewardship on a daily basis.

We have included 21 such “Green Works” elements as integral parts of the overall design that are not in the base bid construction budget, which provide special opportunities for donor gifts. The areas include Water, Shelter, Energy, Food, and Site Features. This booklet describes what each of these elements is, how they work, built examples, and estimates of their cost.

The cost estimates are preliminary at this time. Until the funding is in place, detailed design (which will be required to set a realistic price) of some of the more complex systems cannot occur.

Education serves as a catalyst to positive change. Good intention, without sound information, achieves little. It is through deep knowledge and a growing understanding of ourselves as participants in a vast, intricate system that we are empowered to create a healthier dynamic between and within communities and the natural world. Aldo Leopold, one of the forefathers of the modern environmental movement, stated, “We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.” We may conserve that which has value, but we will only protect that which we love. The transition toward a sustainable future must be propelled by an effective education system that teaches us how inherently valuable and beautiful the natural world, is with all of its diverse life forms.

Leopold also wrote, “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” From the time of the University’s original purchase of the former Pratt Ranch in 1951 and its transformation into the “Hopland Field Station”, its mission has been to improve our understanding and subsequent management of rangelands, oak woodlands, chaparral, watersheds, wildlife, and wildlands. While the Center’s resources are typical of many areas within California’s extensive Coast Range, it is also unique in its biodiversity and other natural resource values. But, beyond its physical and biological attributes, it has become a special place for those who have lived, worked, and studied here.

It has been said that education alone cannot change the world; but, education, fueled by a genuine desire and love for the land and the life it supports, will inspire us to transform our conceptualizations
into reality. As we complete the fi rst decade of the 21st Century, we understand in new ways the limitations of our earth’s resources, and we recognize that the way in which we live can have impacts that are not just local, but global. As the world’s human population continues to grow and impact both fi nite and renewable resources, we as a society have begun to seek ways to embrace healthier, simpler,
more-balanced lifestyles. Taking one step at a time, we can learn to individually create our visions of a healthy dynamic. Starting at the local level, positive change will ripple out into the world.

This booklet invites you to join our effort in specifi c ways. While the University of California’s capital funds will allow us to build a facility that will accommodate a certain level of extension and outreach education, we desire that our facility itself demonstrate innovate, forward-looking solutions to resource management concerns. We want every student, every teacher, and every visitor who comes to the Center to be intrigued and inspired by what is possible. To do this, we need your help. It is, in many ways, the opportunity of a lifetime.

Bob Timm
Center Director
Source: Leopold, Aldo. 1949. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford University Press, New York.