In honor of our 50th Anniversary, and to help tell the story of 50 years of open space protection, restoration and enjoyment, we are delighted to bring you this series we’re calling Open Stories, a collection of conversations about the many ways to connect with nature and your public open space.

In her 101 years on this earth, Jean Rusmore did much to promote the preservation of open space. She contributed to her local neighborhood, community and to the larger world through hiking, writing and advocating for the environment.
Rusmore was the San Mateo County Advocate for Committee for Green Foothills in the 1960s. “Her enthusiasm, warm smile and laughter were tremendous assets in convincing decision makers to protect the Skyline and coastal areas of San Mateo County.” said Green Foothills’ Legislative Advocate Lennie Roberts.
While raising her family in Ladera in the early 1970s, she started a hiking group called the Walkie Talkies that still meets monthly. Later, she turned her attention to documenting the area’s trails. Between 1982 and 2008, Rusmore – along with friends and co-authors Frances Spangle and Betsy Crowder – hiked miles of trails as research for a series of local trail guides. The first book published, Peninsula Trails, was one of the early guides to Midpen trails. “These were hidden gems,” Rusmore once said. “Nobody knew about the trails. They didn't tell anybody.” The book can still be found on the shelves of long-time Midpen staff.

Richard Tejeda knows first-hand the power of nature to transform a life. While growing up in South San Jose he became familiar with the revolving-door system many youth and adults can suffer due to social injustice. “I was surrounded by negativity like drug dealers, drug addicts—including family members,” he says. “Nature literally saved my life. I was supposed to be a statistic, but I couldn’t let that happen. I had to reinvent myself, and nature was a positive escape from the everyday negativity of my neighborhood."
Bad decisions as a youth had him stuck in a seemingly hopeless situation. He altered his path when he began fishing in Santa Clara County Parks – immersing himself in nature to escape his troubled past and surroundings. The time spent outdoors inspired him to return to school, eventually graduating cum laude from San Jose State University with a B.A. in environmental studies and a minor in sustainable water resources. He also began sharing his love of nature with the community in roles at a host of local organizations: Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, Santa Clara Valley Water District, Environmental Volunteers and California State Parks.
Tejada founded Saved By Nature in 2018, with the goal of introducing and connecting people of all backgrounds, ethnicities and abilities to the natural wonders and recreational opportunities of the outdoors. He has been recognized by the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters as 2020 Environmentalist of the Year and as Bay Nature’s 2022 Community Hero. He’s clearly blazing a trail for others to follow.
Funds provided by the Midpen grantmaking program will allow Saved By Nature to provide field trips to Midpen preserves for students from Davis Jr. High, Stipe Elementary, and Edenvale Elementary.

Much of the land protected by Midpen can be attributed to the efforts of former General Manager Craig Britton. After joining Midpen in 1977 as land acquisition manager, Britton was promoted to assistant general manager in 1979 and served as the District’s second general manager from 1994 until his retirement in 2008. During his time at Midpen, the District grew from just eight preserves to the 26 we now own and manage!
Imagining a scenic corridor along Skyline Boulevard, Britton led Midpen in connecting a greenbelt of open space preserves in the Santa Cruz Mountain region. He liked to be in the thick of things and his favorite memories are of the tough negotiations, where he could find a bargain price or leverage grant funding for a purchase. “Some of the toughest negotiations were not the external one, but internal ones,” he remembers, “to decide that [a property] had a high enough priority and a need as we looked at a whole network of trail connections and habitat values.”
Britton also led Midpen to work with the local Coastside community to extend the district boundaries to the San Mateo County coast in 2004. The Coastside Protection Area has now protected over 11,000 acres of natural and agricultural lands that contribute to the area’s rural identity, natural beauty and quality of life.
“The natural world is what sustains us,” Britton, reflecting on his time at Midpen, said. “Even if you never step foot on the land, there’s a feeling that you get when you see open space, especially if it’s preserved. And you think 'that’s my open space, I’m one of the owners of that.' And you want to see that it’s cared for and it’s retained and it’s enhanced.”

Dennis Danielson joined the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District as a ranger in 1979, joining some of the first to be hired by newly formed agency. “When I was hired there was no maintenance staff so the ranger staff ‘did it all’. We were the ambassadors and face of the District. Building and maintaining trails was a major element as well as enforcing the regulations, responding to emergencies and providing information to visitors.”
Danielson was inspired to become a ranger as a teenager after assisting in a rescue during a family vacation to Lassen National Park. He worked as a seasonal employee at East Bay Regional Parks and Sequoia National Park before landing a job at Midpen. After eight years he promoted to supervising ranger. “My entire career was ‘in the field’. It was a good fit for me and matched my interests and skill set,” Danielson remembers. “Rangers are at our best when the situation is at its worst. It’s always a team effort – fire departments, sheriff’s deputies, dispatch, medical evacuation helicopters – we know the preserves and how to reach someone in need.”
After years of watching Midpen grow from the front lines, Danielson is thankful for his experience. “I took great pride in being the first boots on the ground of a newly acquired property and installing the first preserve sign,” he recalls. “I had the advantage of living on a preserve as a resident ranger for most of my career, providing 24-hour response for emergencies when needed. I lived at Monte Bello, Purisima Creek Redwoods and Skyline Ridge. An early morning run would offer a view south towards the Monterey Bay. In the summer the fog would shroud the redwood valley of the Pescadero drainage below with Butaño Ridge appearing above like a floating island. In the spring the wildflowers on Russian Ridge would cause me to pause. In the winter there would be clear views in every direction. On the clearest of days you could see north to Mount Tamalpais and the snow covered Sierra through a gap in the east bay hills.”

As a Bay Area transplant, Joel Gartland was looking for ways to get to know the region. What he found was the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Enamored by the vision of circumnavigating the San Francisco Bay through connected hiking and cycling trails on the region’s ridgelines, he began attending meetings, learning about different trails, preserves and areas to explore. His curiosity propelled him to begin participating in volunteer events, join the Board of Directors and eventually become the organization’s Volunteer and Events Coordinator.
When he worked for the Ridge Trail, Gartland partnered closely with Midpen staff. “I was consistently impressed,” he said. “We did large trail events and numerous volunteer trail workdays with the District.” One annual event he organized, Ridge Trail Cruz, organized hikers, bicycle riders and equestrians to travel along the Ridge Trail through Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, Skyline Open Space Preserve, Long Ridge Open Space Preserve, Castle Rock State Park and multiple county parks.
The Ridge Trail and Midpen work collaboratively to form a network of regional trails to connect people to preserves and a variety of other open spaces, improve access for bicyclists and equestrians and enable visitors to explore farther without having to leave the trail system. With over 400 miles of completed Ridge Trail, there is no shortage of breathtaking views and sections. However, when pressed to name a favorite, Gartland hesitated, “I just love the concept…there are so many beautiful sections here; Russian Ridge, Long Ridge, Purisima Creek Redwoods…”
Trail interconnections can improve safety by reducing the need for trail users to walk or ride on roads between preserves and parks. The Ridge Trail and other regional trails exemplify the big picture of land conservation efforts in the region. Protecting the natural environment and preserving open space is a collaborative effort between land-management agencies, regulatory agencies, non-profits like the Ridge Trail Council, private landowners and the public.
“I look forward to new open spaces and being able to ride from one end of the District to the other on the Ridge Trail.”

April is #NationalVolunteerMonth, and in some areas, wildflowers are blooming more profusely as a direct result of the work of our many indispensable volunteers. Abe Oren is one of those volunteers!
He began his journey as a Midpen volunteer a few years ago when he joined a volunteer group project removing French broom at St. Joseph’s Hill Open Space Preserve. “It was a blustery day with a bit of rain, and we were pulling big broom plants up to 10 feet tall,” said Abe. “It was hard work and muddy, but from that first day I was hooked!”
“When I'm pulling weeds, I often get into a meditative frame of mind — it is so nice to clear one's mind for a little while.”
Last year’s impressive California poppy bloom along the Rogue Valley Trail in Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve was partially the result of five years of Abe’s hard work in Midpen’s Advanced Resource Management Stewards (ARMS) program. ARMS volunteers coordinate with us to adopt a location within a preserve and work independently on a wide range of tasks that assist in our complex open space restoration.
Abe has been diligently surveying the area and removing invasive yellow starthistle and Italian thistle so that endemic species like our state flower can proliferate. Of the many projects that he has tackled with Midpen, this is the one that he is most proud of. “It has been a big job, and I've worked it several years. It is much better now than when I started and so I feel this project is a success.”

Former Midpen General Manager Steve Abbors is a naturalist at heart. In conversation he casually throws out facts about birds and butterflies. He logs hundreds of trail miles per month.
Caring for the land was a main driver throughout his career. “If you look at a map of the Bay Area, it’s surrounded by this great, green area of land in public ownership,” Abbors explains. “The oxygen that we breathe, the water that gets purified, the food that we have, the carbon that gets sequestered. That’s all done there. That’s what that land is, it’s our life support system. So, we care for the land that cares for us.”
After growing up and spending the majority of his career in the East Bay with lengthy stints at East Bay Regional Parks and the East Bay Municipal Water District, Abbors moved across the bay and finished out his career as Midpen’s general manager from 2008 through 2017.
While at the helm of Midpen, Abbors led the District in the creation of a public vision plan, working together with the public to chart a 40-year course forward. This plan helped Midpen realign our focus to equally embrace all elements of our braided mission: preservation, protection, education and enjoyment. The subsequent passage of Measure AA, a $300 million general obligation bond approved by voters in 2014, followed, and allowed Midpen to complete, among many other projects, the long-awaited opening of the Mount Umunhum summit in 2017.
In one of his final acts as General Manager, Abbors oversaw the creation of a conservation easement over the Mount Umunhum summit with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Mount Umunhum is a sacred site to the Amah Mutsun people and is central to their creation story. “We view the conservation easement a unique opportunity, and a responsibility, to help reconnect the Amah Mutsun people with their culture. That connection, to their culture and the land that supported it, was severed centuries ago,” Abbors said when the agreement was first approved.
When asked to name his favorite preserve or trail, Steve hesitates before calling out the former PG & E Trail in Rancho San Antonio Preserve – now named the Stephen E. Abbors Trail. During his time at Midpen, Steve hiked this trail nearly every day after work. “You get a lot of exercise, but it’s also a place where you can see wildlife…rabbits, deer and pale swallowtail butterflies,” Steve remembered.
Once a naturalist, always a naturalist.

Perched high above the sprawling neighborhoods, downtowns and business districts of Silicon Valley, Don Weden often thinks about balance. The need for intelligently designed urban cores needs to be juxtaposed by nearby, easily accessible open space. “I’ve always been drawn to the 30,000-foot view,” he said as he explained both his penchant for sweeping vistas and his career in long-range planning.
In his 32 years as a Planner for Santa Clara County, Weden has been involved in crafting Master Plans for the County and Midpen, helping guide the future of the region. “Fifty years ago, most of the regional parks, trails and public open space lands did not exist,” he said. “We have an excellent ecosystem in this county of agencies, advocates and nonprofit organizations that helped create and now expand open space preservation.” The key efforts and decisions made in the 1970s laid the roots for subsequent successes.
As the population has grown and suburban communities have become more urban in character, “these preserves have been an important element of the quality of life that we have enjoyed,” Weden said. He believes one of the keys to Midpen’s success over the years has been the quality and professionalism of the staff, both in its offices and out in the field. “That quality and the high standards they have set has given residents a system of outstanding open space preserves that they – and future generations – can use, enjoy, and be proud of.”
Although he retired nearly 20 years ago, Weden continues to stay be involved in the development of the region. He served on the advisory committee for Midpen’s 2014 Vision Plan and has given hundreds of lectures and presentations on the future of the county and region advocating for smart growth and preparing for an aging county.
When not in front of a crowd, he’s often visiting his favorite open space preserve, Rancho San Antonio, hoping to spot his favorite animals, newts. Visiting usually once a week, he marvels that every time is a new time, whether it’s a spotting new wildflower bloom or observing wildlife – something his late wife Kim often remarked on. “We live in a wonderful place with such a treasury of landscapes, waterscapes, the Bay the Ocean, creatures and critters of all shapes and sizes," he said. "It’s a fantastic setting for human settlement.”

As we prepare to welcome visitors back to the David C. Daniels Nature Center next Saturday, April 2, this week Open Stories remembers Judy and David N. Daniels.
As nature center hosts and significant contributors to Midpen, Judy and David felt honored to welcome countless weekend visitors to the David C. Daniels Nature Center (established and funded in large part by the Daniels' and named in memory of their son).
Judy began volunteering for Midpen in the mid-1990s as a Nature Center and an Outdoor Education Docent. In 2002, David and Judy felt the role of Nature Center Docent was meaningful volunteer work to pursue as a couple and did so together for 13 years. The Daniels were remarkable people and deeply committed to open space conservation and enriching the experiences of others.
Supporting opportunities for contemplation, education and recreation was always precious to David and Judy. It was their hope that people will become inspired by visiting open spaces and it would foster an appreciation for, and stewardship of, the natural environment.

Shortly after moving to the Bay Area to work in tech, Jayita Bhojwani took a hike that would change the course of her career.
“I had signed up to attend a docent-led wildflower hike at Russian Ridge and came back completely awed – by the enormity of Midpen’s story of the land they’d protected, by the magnificence of the vistas, and by the wildflowers, which felt nothing short of miraculous,” said Jayita.
“My experience led me to attending many more docent hikes over the years, and I was inspired by the many docents I hiked with – their knowledge, their love of nature, and their willingness and enthusiasm to share this with the public. With each hike, my horizons widened, my appreciation of the world around us grew, and I eventually decided to apply to the program myself – to deepen my own understanding as well as to be able to give back and share this beauty and wonder with the public.”
Since 2016, Jayita has been an indispensable member of Midpen’s volunteer and docent-naturalist programs. She was also inspired to take care of nature, not just as a hobby but as a career.
“My involvement with Midpen through its hikes and the docent program, and learning about California’s natural and cultural history, eventually led me to change careers, to focus on using technology for social good,” says Jayita. “I left the high-tech world and now work for a non-profit that assists others with technology and mapping, in the fields of conservation, recreation, education, public health, and social equity. I will always be grateful to Midpen…for the inspiration and encouragement.”

Karen White’s oil paintings capture the vibrant color of Bay Area open space through every season. Not only does Karen paint scenes depicting open space, but she also paints outdoors in open space. She will often paint small color studies “en plein air,” and then return to the studio to create larger, stylized versions of the small paintings she created while out in open space.
According to Karen, “painting Bay Area landscapes – Midpeninsula Regional Open Space Preserves, County parkland, community gardens and more – [is] part of who I am as an artist.” She first discovered Midpen’s preserves not as a painter, but as a parent.
“As one of several field trip drivers for students at Duveneck Elementary School, I had the chance to visit Deer Hollow Farm at Rancho San Antonio Preserve,” says Karen. “The goats, of course, were a highlight with the children! At Los Trancos Preserve, we saw the shifted ground during fascinating ranger-led earthquake hikes along the Nonette Hanko San Andreas Fault Trail. I discovered the fantastic views from Skyline overlooking La Honda Creek Preserve all the way to the Pacific.”
Later, she would return to these spots that she had discovered in order to paint them. Monte Bello Open Space Preserve has become one of her go-to painting spots. She especially appreciates the “amazing views at every point along White Oak Trail.”
“While hiking or painting in our open spaces, I feel peace, the freedom of being part of our natural world. Overlooking expansive vistas of rolling hills as far as the eye can see brings a sense of calm, as well as endless artistic inspiration.”

Raja Ramakrishnan travels the world with his camera, capturing nature “in its most pristine form.” His photos show us glimpses from Singapore, New York, Vermont, Hawaii, and southern India’s wash of lush green. From first light to nightscapes, backpacking camps to busy city streets and lighthouses to cathedrals, Raja calls himself the chaser of light. Luckily for us, Midpen is one of his regular chasing grounds. His first preserve visit was to Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve back in 2004.
Since then, he has captured sunset rays streaming through the tree line on Black Mountain ridge, shadows falling across the rolling hills of Monte Bello, and California poppies en masse as they rise to greet the day. “After a busy work week, I look forward to going on hikes,” says Raja. “I am able to stay fit by hiking...and taking nature photographs in local areas without traveling 4-5 hours to Yosemite or the Sierra Nevada region.”
“To me, nature is the best healer,” says Raja. “[It] provides a meditative effect. I mostly do solo hikes without headsets or electronic devices, which allows me to recharge by just listening to my footsteps and the sounds of nature.”

Growing up in Los Gatos below what is now Midpen’s El Sereno Open Space Preserve, Jay Thorwaldson learned to ride a horse when he was just 3 years old. He spent his childhood riding the ridges and valleys of the Santa Cruz Mountains, exploring from Mount Umunhum to the town of Alma, now under Lexington Reservoir. Growing up with near unlimited access to these hillsides instilled in him the importance of permanently protecting the land for future generations.
With such a beginning, it’s not surprising that Thorwaldson played a key role in the formation of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Working as a reporter for the Palo Alto Times, he created a beat for himself covering the region’s parks, open spaces and baylands. When Nonette Hanko, a Midpen founder and former board director, expressed to him her concerns about losing the wild places she knew as a child, he sparked an approach she hadn’t considered. “I told her environmentalists needed to do what they did in the East Bay in 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, and form a park district to buy the land at fair market value in order to safely preserve it in perpetuity,” Thorwaldson recalled.
Thorwaldson shared that conversation with his editor, Alexander Bodi, who asked him to draft an editorial on the subject, which ran on February 16, 1970. That editorial, in turn, gave Hanko the path she needed to organize others toward a lasting solution.
“For me there are three takeaways,” Thorwaldson said. “A knowledge of history is important in mapping future choices. The press has a vital role to play in terms of presenting information and ideas that can generate the all-important responses from individuals and, as Margaret Mead once observed, one person working with others can make a huge difference – in this case a 65,000-acre difference — for many generations to come.” Thorwaldson retired in 2011 after a 50-year career in journalism. He now lives in El Dorado County, still surrounded by open space and exploring the trails.

After retiring from a career in finance in 2001, Claudia Newbold wanted to “do something useful.” This meant finding out how to help care for the open space that she loves so deeply. Claudia first became interested in protecting open space when she and her late husband were hiking the trails together and began attending some of Midpen’s docent-led hikes.
In 2003, Claudia joined Midpen’s Volunteer Trail Patrol program. Visitors to Windy Hill Open Space Preserve may have encountered her as she does her twice-weekly patrol of the trails there. Claudia hikes over 10 miles during each patrol as she answers questions from visitors, and reports hazards like fallen trees. “Claudia has over 7,000 hours of service in her more than 20 years with Midpen” said volunteer program manager Jen Williams. “She is such a wealth of knowledge. She knows exactly which trails to hike after storms to immediately report trail repair needs.”
As a Midpen volunteer, Claudia has worn many hats. In addition to Trail Patrol, she has also assisted at community events, volunteered in our office and served as a Land Steward (formerly known as Preserve Partners), removing invasive species from the preserves. However, her favorite project has been documenting the memorial benches and markers throughout the preserves and researching the people they commemorate.
Over the past 20 years, Claudia has hiked all 247.5 miles of trail at Midpen, but Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve will always hold a special place in her heart because of the many memories that she made while hiking there with her late husband.
Claudia hopes that everyone finds the same joy that she does in open space: “Whenever I can, I try to introduce others to these wonderful spaces and share what I have learned.”

An advocate, environmentalist and public servant through and through, Betsy Crowder dedicated much of her life to the preservation and the restoration of natural habitats within the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Her early love of the outdoors was sparked by her family’s regular camping trips in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. A Boston native, she moved to the Peninsula in 1948 to attend Stanford University. While there, she began to understand the collective power of organized advocacy through her participation in multiple environmental and civic organizations such as the Audubon Society, Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy and the League of Women Voters.
Never one to back down from a cause she believed in, Crowder was known for her passionate spirit and unabashed candor. Crowder was appointed to the Midpen board in 1989, serving until her death in 2000. During her tenure Midpen increased its holdings of open space on the Peninsula from 29,000 to 43,000 acres and expanded to the San Mateo County coast. Crowder was an active and a contributing member of the California Native Plant Society, San Mateo County Trails Committee, Bay Area Ridge Trail Council, Bay Area Open Space Council and Committee for Green Foothills.
Her legacy lives on through the Betsy Crowder Trail in the Windy Hill Preserve. The half-mile trail runs past Sausal Pond where you may be treated to sights of egrets, blue herons, wood ducks, dragonflies or even the western pond turtle.

In 1998, Frances Reneau decided to reevaluate her life. “I was 43 and going through a midlife crisis in my career,” she recalls, “I wanted a change.” Having worked seasonally with Midpen in the past, she knew spending her time outdoors brought meaning to her life, but she wasn’t sure which career path was right for her. After speaking with a few Midpen rangers, Frances decided to apply to be one of them. She got the job.
Before becoming a ranger, Frances enjoyed other careers but quickly realized that this was where she belonged. “Being a ranger is a total life highlight,” she says. “The mission of the District jived so well with what is important to me, and it was something to wrap my life around.” Frances had so many unforgettable experiences that she decided to write about them in her memoir, Ranger Chick, which features many exciting tales of her life in green pants.
“I’ve lived in places with little park or open space lands — when you don’t have open space, you miss it,” says Frances. She believes there is a part of every person that loves the feeling of looking out into open land and only seeing vistas and nature. Frances knows firsthand how overwhelming it can feel to care for open space but is not ready to throw in the towel yet, “we need to do our best to make the land healthy for the future.”
Even though Frances is now retired, she still spends her time at Midpen volunteering as a docent naturalist. For many years, Frances has dreamed of leading a series of 24 hikes in the preserves. This year, as part of Midpen’s 50th anniversary, Frances has made her dream a reality with the All Preserves Great & Small hike series. “I will feel very proud when this has been accomplished,” says Frances “what better way to honor the district than to visit these preserves and talk about what makes them special.”

For this Open Story, we honor the late Wallace Stegner, Stanford’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and dedicated conservationist. Stegner was an avid appreciator of Midpen Open Space from our 1970s beginning to his death in 1993. Given his place in history as one of the most venerable voices of the American West, it’s easy to imagine how his time in the open space fed his passion for the sanctity of the outdoors. His 1960 “Wilderness Letter” helped Congress pass the 1964 Wilderness Act, establishing the national wilderness preservation system.
In his letter he wrote:
Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed…if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence. We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.
Today, Midpen visitors can rest on the Wallace Stegner stone bench in the Long Ridge Open Space Preserve, a favorite perch. The landscape opens here, allowing sweeping views of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, allowing one of our greats indeed room to breathe, and maybe even, room to dream.

Born and raised in Southern California, Aurora Perez’s earliest outdoor memories are of camping trips in the Angeles National Forest. She celebrated many birthdays together with her family amongst the trees, in the snow and under the stars.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry from UC Davis, Perez began her career in the SF Bay Area with positions at the National Park Service, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and Marin Water.
Her first introduction to Midpen came at a wildflower walk led by Latino Outdoors at Russian Ridge in 2019. “It was such an awesome welcome!” Perez recalls. “I got to learn and identify lots of beautiful wildflowers with the Latino Outdoors community and make connections to people, plants and the open space.”
Perez now helps share her knowledge about recreating responsibly in the outdoors as the SF Bay Area Regional Coordinator for Latino Outdoors. You can see her in some of the videos and virtual presentations we’ve produced with LO. If you see her out on the trail be sure to say hello!

Valentin Lopez had recently been elected chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band when the elders paid a visit. They said we needed to get back to taking care of Mother Earth and all living things, Lopez explained. “We didn’t know how we were going to do that because whenever we would look at the lands, we’d see ‘private property,’ ‘keep out,’ ‘no trespassing,’” he said. “So, we did what we always do, we prayed. We prayed as a tribe, asking Creator to help us find a way back.”
Read More

Caring for the Land that Cares for Us. Fifty years ago, our community prioritized clean air and water, healthy habitats for diverse native plants and animals, ecosystems that are resilient to the effects of our changing climate and places for people to connect with nature – that's what Midpen provides in perpetuity.