MCL Mission
To preserve, protect and enhance the natural assets of Marin County
Advocacy
MCL’s Environmental Advocacy Goals
Preserve natural resources through stewarding our public lands
When MCL founders chose their course to protect the scenic coastal shorelines and inland ridges of Marin from exploitation and set them aside for the public’s future enjoyment, they were also prescient! Protected natural areas have become the cornerstone for conservation of biodiversity, a concept unknown to MCL’s founders. Decades later, over half of the […]
Reduce wildfire risk while protecting native habitats
Wildfire is “natural,” an agent of ecosystem renewal and positive change. It can also be deadly, destroying lives and homes and wildlife habitats, and releasing toxic pollutants into air and water, and emitting huge quantities of greenhouse gases. Fueled by a build-up of live and dead vegetation, driven by wind, and exacerbated by extreme drought […]
Preserve ecological systems and watersheds across all lands and waters
Everyone lives in a watershed! Miles of ephemeral creeks and intermittent streams thread through Marin’s watersheds, connecting ridgetops to bay and ocean, land to water. Some watersheds drain the agricultural lands and villages of West Marin into Tomales Bay or into coastal estuaries and the ocean. Watersheds to the east, largely obscured by urban development […]
Rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon sequestration, and adapt to climate change
To reduce and prevent the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis, it is imperative that greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) be rapidly brought to a point where reduced emissions are more than offset by drawing more carbon out of the atmosphere than is released into it. At the same time human societies must become resilient […]
Prioritize protecting the natural world and ecosystems, and simultaneously promoting equity and quality of life, in local and regional planning
Over the decades, Marin’s towns and cities have grown up to replace thousands of acres of grassy former dairy ranches, historic once-tidal marshes, and wooded valleys, primarily in the eastern part of the county. Linked by a main north-south transportation corridor, the urban settlement pattern is dense but, nonetheless, has left elements of former upland […]
Collaborate across boundaries to connect natural and working landscapes
Productive landscapes can “work” for both biodiversity and people! The pastoral scene of Marin’s rangelands, defined by fences and windrows, farm buildings, grazing livestock, and small crop lands, places almost a third of the county’s land area in a private “green-space.” Supported by public-private partnerships and strong public policy and zoning, ranches from a long-ago […]
Preserve and enhance biodiversity of native species and habitats
Biodiversity underpins all life on earth. It should endure in all ecosystems and pervade all of human society. Yet biodiversity, the product of 3.8 billion years of evolution, is under siege worldwide! Marin County, perched on the edge of the continent between ocean and bay, with its complex geology, topography, soils, and vegetation, lies at […]