Year in Review 2024

The past year was full of collaboration, connection, and celebrations. Take a minute to pause and look back at what we’ve done – all of us, in big and small ways – over the past year as a region. See below!

Looking ahead, in 2025, we will celebrate five years since the transformation of TOGETHER Bay Area from the Bay Area Open Space Council. It was in the dark and challenging days of 2020 that a new iteration of this organization was formed by many hearts, heads, and hands. That gives us confidence for what we can do together now. We contain that potential. We look forward to embracing the possibilities and finding even more ways to work together for the lands that are integral to a thriving Bay Area and all people who live here.

January & February

  • The Right Relations program kicked off in February with two cohorts, including 80 participants from TOGETHER Bay Area organizations, supporting alliances with local Native American Tribes and Tribal communities through learning, action, and community. This program is co-designed and co-led with Redbud Resource Group.

  • Dozens of land management agencies submitted their Geographic Information System (GIS) data to update the Bay Area Protected Areas Database (BPAD). With thanks to our partner GreenInfo Network, we announced the 2024 release of the Bay Area Protected Areas Database. Stay tuned for an invitation to submit data to BPAD in January 2025!

  • We launched a series of Policy Learning Sessions to make our coalition’s advocacy efforts more accessible to people working at TOGETHER members with a range of backgrounds and experience levels. We’re all learners and experts!

March & April

  • Members of the TOGETHER Policy Committee journeyed to Sacramento to meet with legislators and advocate for funding for climate resilience projects and programs. In meetings with 14 legislative offices, including some legislators themselves, we asked them to support funding for the State Coastal Conservancy and the inclusion of a climate resilience bond on the November ballot (spoiler alert: it was on the ballot and it passed!).

  • Fifty participants in the Right Relations program visited Coyote Hills Regional Park for a day with Sogorea Te’ Land Trust to learn about their history, current work, and partnerships.

May & June

  • We hosted the 2024 Together Conference! Over 400 people from across the Bay Area and beyond joined us at the Gateway Pavilion in San Francisco joined us to explore Transformation & Tight Timelines, and nearly 1/3 of them attended for the first time. Over 280 people went out on one of our 10 field trips hosted by TOGETHER Bay Area member organizations. We heard from 23 speakers who shared their stories, from the main stage to breakout sessions, online and in person. The conference was made possible thanks to support from 43 sponsors! (psst: we’ll do it again in May 2025 and we’d love to see you there)
  • The Wildfire Data Working Group met online to learn from experts about forest health projects happening around the region. Watch recordings of the 2024 sessions here. We also attended a field trip in partnership with FLAME, a working group focused on connecting professionals working on-the-ground for good fire.

July & August

  • Participants in the Right Relations program’s Phase Two cohort headed to Sunol on a field trip hosted by SFPUC. We visited the Alameda Creek Watershed Center and learned a lot about water, native plants in the watershed, and SFPUC’s partnership with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. See photos here!

  • The American Indian Cultural District and the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (a new TOGETHER Bay Area member!) hosted a field trip for Right Relations participants at Fort Mason in San Francisco. We learned a lot and left with new perspectives. See photos here!

  • The Climate Bond, AKA Proposition 4, is put on the November ballot! We started a 3-part Proposition 4 Briefing series as the Yes on 4 campaign revved up, giving members a chance to hear from Prop 4 campaign leadership about messaging, polling, ways nonprofits could be involved, and more.

September & October

  • We ramped up our collaborative efforts to support Proposition 4! We published op-eds and spoke to journalists and participated in live conversations and attended media events. We created a resources hub to make it easy to learn about what was included in Prop 4 and what it could enable. And we hosted three Climate Risk Reduction: A Showcase of Bay Area Solutions events, where TOGETHER members presented about how the Bay Area is stepping up to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis and how Proposition 4 could positively impact the natural places we love. See below for recordings!

  • The TOGETHER Bay Area board and team retreated to the West Point Inn on Mt. Tamalpais to look ahead at the organization we need to become in order to achieve the priorities in our Strategic Direction. Plus, hummingbirds!

  • At Dimond Park in Oakland, 187 species were observed by a group of people of all ages at a bioblitz co-hosted by Salted Roots, Friends of Sausal Creek, California Academy of Sciences, and TOGETHER as part of the Connecting Urban Biodiversity project. You’re invited to learn about this project at the Connecting Urban Biodiversity: Integrating Communities, Cities & Regional Conservation webinar on February 5!

  • At the closing session of this year’s Right Relations program, twenty TOGETHER member organizations shared their plans to take educated and impactful action for healthy lands, people, and communities and to build the region’s capacity to strengthen Tribal sovereignty. Read about a year of Right Relations impact!

November & December

  • Proposition 4 passed! 👏👏👏

  • Thirty colleagues from TOGETHER member organizations joined us at the annual Policy Summit to lead, learn, and level up. We thought strategically, got creative, and broke bread together.

  • Together as a region, we are making progress in a big way! The Conservation Lands Network 2.0 Progress Report announced over 130,000 acres conserved by TOGETHER Bay Area members and partners since 2019, moving us closer to the regional goal of 50×50. Want to learn more? Sign up for our CLN Progress Report Live event on February 12! You can also read more about the CLN Progress Report in our Regional Conservation Strategy blog.

  • We welcomed new members and celebrated the end of the year at a festive happy hour in Oakland. Welcome to the organizations who joined us in the past year: Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, Native Sage Environmental Consulting, Petaluma River Park Foundation, Stillwater Sciences, and TOPO Collective! And to everyone who started a new role with your organization. If you’re interested in getting involved with TOGETHER Bay Area next year, check out upcoming opportunities here!

  • We’re excited to cap off the year by sharing that our own Annie Burke, TOGETHER Bay Area’s Executive Director, has been named a 2025 Bay Nature Local Hero for Conservation Action!

Looking ahead

2025 marks five years since we transformed from the Bay Area Open Space Council to become TOGETHER Bay Area. We’ve grown into a large, diverse coalition that’s making an impact, and we’re just getting started.

Join the celebration of the past five years of regional collaboration and join us as we get ready for success years to come! Keep an eye on the calendar and emails as we announce opportunities to work together in 2025.