Sentinel Landscapes
Sentinel Landscapes are federally designated priority areas that contain high priority lands for multiple federal and state agencies along with military installations of national importance to the Department of Defense. LegacyWorks Group is supporting the evolution of the program at the national and local levels to better enable each Sentinel Landscape Partnership to set and achieve highly ambitious, landscape scale conservation, community and disaster resilience goals.
Good Fire
In 2017, the Thomas Fire raged through Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. At the time, it was the largest, most devastating wildfire in history; burning more than 285K acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, destroying over 1,000 buildings, resulting in over $2.2B worth of damages and causing over 100K people to evacuate their homes.
The Heart of Ellwood Mesa
Ellwood Mesa is an important node in a connected mosaic of protected lands in Goleta. It is also one of the most important overwintering sites for the western population of monarch butterflies. Monarch populations are declining globally, and the overwintering population at Ellwood has declined as well, raising alarm bells in the community.
City of Goleta Ellwood Mesa
The City of Goleta’s Parks and Open Space Division invited LegacyWorks Group to help them unveil their efforts to restore the monarch butterfly habitat at Ellwood Mesa.
LegacyWorks Santa Barbara Community Resilience Portfolio
Community resilience is our collective capacity to endure, respond and recover from adversity. Resilience allows us to adapt and grow after a disaster, whether a pandemic, flood or wildfire. At LegacyWorks, we work to build community resilience every day as we show up in service of emerging community needs.
Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard
During 2020-2021, LegacyWorks partnered with Santa Barbara County to develop the Community Data Dashboard to provide residents and leaders with timely access to trustworthy data on COVID-19. In 2022 our partnership expanded COVID-19 monitoring and reporting through implementing wastewater surveillance.
Community Wellbeing Dashboard
Last year we partnered with the Santa Barbara County CEO’s Office and six County departments to develop and launch a Community Wellbeing Dashboard that reports on an array of metrics across nine key focus areas. Together we developed a community wellbeing framework that allows us to identify and report on key factors that contribute to community wellness, creating a tool to inform decision making and track progress over time.
Resilient Santa Barbara County (RSBC), PACEs Connection and Network of Care
Resilient Santa Barbara County (SBC) is a countywide network dedicated to preventing and reducing the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Santa Barbara County. It is overseen by the ACEs Steering Committee, a group of volunteers who are shaping the vision, purpose, principles and objectives of this emerging network.
Network of Care and FindHelp
The LegacyWorks team worked alongside Cottage Health to help provide support for community organizations to implement FindHelp. FindHelp is the platform chosen by the Network of Care to implement a standardized referral system and resource directory throughout the county social sector.
Library Ad Hoc Committee Facilitation
The Santa Barbara County Library Ad Hoc Committee was established by the Board of Supervisors to find a sustainable and equitable model for county libraries. Members of the committee include two County Supervisors, four Library Directors, one member of a library Friends group, one Library Advisory Committee member, and the Director of the County Community Services Department.
Bill Leahy Announcement
LegacyWorks is pleased to announce Bill Leahy as the newest member of our Santa Barbara team. Bill joined LegacyWorks in the Fall of 2022 after living up the coast on the 25,000-acre Jack & Laura Dangermond Preserve, where he served as Deputy Director for several years.
LegacyWorks Santa Barbara 2022 Wildfire Resilience Portfolio
Wildfire affects every person and every sector in our community; the scale and complexity of this problem requires every one of us to take action to advance our region’s resilience. We must learn to adapt and develop new strategies for learning and working together.
Wildfire Incident Dashboard
In consultation with diverse stakeholder groups, including Santa Barbara County Fire and community stakeholders, the LegacyWorks team developed a Wildfire Incident Dashboard prototype.
Prescribed Herbivory
Prescribed herbivory and grazing is a unique tool that can reduce fire fuels, create mosaics of open space in thick brush, reduce invasive species, improve soils and native habitat, and reduce the risk of high-severity fires.
Indigenous Cultural Burning Practices
Indigenous people traditionally used low intensity fire to shape landscapes, ensure the abundance of culturally important plants, create clearings for wildlife and open understories for access to foraging areas. Today, Good Fire has functionally been removed from our landscape due to the loss of cultural burning traditions combined with more than 100 years of aggressive fire suppression.
Goleta Riparian Corridor Wildfire Risk Reduction & Restoration Project
The Goleta Riparian Corridor Wildfire Risk Reduction & Restoration Project was funded by a California Coastal Conservancy Grant and builds on initial planning work by the Environmental Defense Center that identified wildfire risks and restoration opportunities in numerous sites within twelve watersheds.
Wildfire Resilience Collaborative
Santa Barbara is rich in natural communities that are specifically adapted to its Mediterranean weather patterns. These include coastal scrub, chaparral and foothill woodland plant communities, some of the world's most imperiled ecosystems.
Teton Program Update
Ten years ago we began working with the LOR Foundation to help assess the opportunities, threats and challenges facing the region and to outline a strategy to invest in regional wellbeing and resilience. Community leaders identified dozens of opportunities for deep impact that fell outside of the reach of their organizations, highlighting a critical need for greater collaboration.
Adapting to Our Changing Hydrology
Wyatt Penfold is a lifelong Teton Valley farmer, just like his father and grandfather. He grows potatoes, quinoa and other grains in the fertile soil that abuts the west slope of the Tetons. Wyatt is feisty and entrepreneurial and struggles to sit still. He lights up when he talks about water. With a combination of flood irrigation and center pivot sprinklers systems, Wyatt can produce amazing crops even in our extreme conditions.