Escondido Creek Conservancy started with a couple of neighbors planning over a kitchen table and has grown over the last few decades to include about 3,500 acres, $63.5 million in assets and a robust educational program that reaches thousands of students. This year, the nonprofit is celebrating 35 y ears since its incorporation with a variety of community activities. An anonymous donor also has agreed to match all donations this year up to $1 million. A group of more than twenty Escondido Creek Conservancy monthly hike attendees hike up to Frank’s Peak in San Marcos. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) “It’s just an incredible opportunity to be able to celebrate the 35th in a way that will be transformational for the organization and for conservation in general,” said Sheri Lees, the conservancy’s brand and marketing director. The mission of the conservancy is to preserve and restore the Escondido Creek Watershed, which encompasses more than 75 square miles stretching from the mountains above Lake Wolford in Escondido to the San Elijo Lagoon and shores of Encinitas and Solana Beach. The conservancy started in the late 1980s when Leonard Whittwer and Steve Barker, two Elfin Forest residents, teamed up to preserve open spaces and push back against development in the unincorporated rural area south of San Marcos between Escondido and Encinitas. “We realized pretty quickly that we we’re going to have to do something different,” Barker said. “We were losing the development game, so we needed to change the rules.” As they researched areas to conserve, they realized that most of the region’s open land was around the watershed, which became a natural boundary to focus on. The first piece of property they purchased after incorporating in 1991 was 21 acres in Olivenhain that is now known as the Bumann Preserve. The nonprofit’s work became part of a larger movement across the state and nation to balance development with preserving open space for native plants and animals. As they worked, other organizations, such as wildlife agencies, the county of San Diego and water districts, got involved with conservation in the area as well. “This area became a kind of a mitigation hotspot instead of a development hotspot,” Whittwer said. Now the organization that began with only volunteers has 10 full-time employees and roughly 3,500 acres across the region that were purchased by a combination of public grant money and private donations. Executive Director of the Escondido Creek Conservancy Ann Van Leer shows a point of interest to a group of more than twenty people participating in the monthly hike in San Marcos on Saturday, February 07, 2026. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) Ann Van Leer, the organization’s executive director, said it’s rewarding to see the work of other conservation groups in North County alongside their own. “A lot of really good things have happened in the last couple of decades,” she said. “North County would be a very different place if it weren’t for all of us, the respective conservation groups that have worked here.” Because there aren’t many large sections of land available along the watershed, the organization has shifted its strategy toward purchasing smaller parcels that help link fragmented native habitats. The work of the organization goes well beyond simply buying property. Much of the difference it’s able to make in the community is with the help of more than 100 volunteers who help clean up the property, remove invasive plants, plant native species and keep everything watered. “We love our volunteers and are always looking for additional volunteers,” Van Leer said. A group of more than twenty people stop to take in the view while participating in the Escondido Creek Conservancy monthly hike. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) Another large component is its education program. Education has been part of the group’s efforts since the beginning, but have grown greatly in the last few years. “We need to grow stewards for the future,” Barker said. “We sign on to protect these properties for perpetuity, which is a huge, daunting word. It really is going to take the next generations and the generations after that to fall in love with nature and really feel that it’s important to keep this conservation effort going.” One way the conservancy educates students is with an educational program at the Elfin Forest Interpretive Center that third-grade students in the Escondido Union School District participate in. The center opened in 2009 through a partnership between the conservancy and the Olivenhain Municipal Water District. More recently, the conservancy started a 10-week after-school and a high school program where students can actively learn about careers related to habitat restoration. Last year, the conservancy created an outdoor classroom at its main office with a grant from the Escondido Community Foundation. In addition to local school districts, Education Director Ariel Reed also works collaboratively with local tribal leaders on educational summer programs on the reservations of the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians and San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, an effort she’s planning to expand. Participates in the Escondido Creek Conservancy monthly hike as they walk up to Frank’s Peak in San Marcos on Saturday, February 07. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) “It’s a cool blend,” she said. “It’s teaching us a lot about traditional ecological knowledge.” The conservancy has also expanded public outreach over the last few years, with guided hikes, yoga classes and family events. Despite all the growth over the years, Whittwer and Barker said they still feel the same entrepreneurial spirit that drove them in the beginning. They are now members of the nonprofit’s board. “Looking back now, it’s pretty cool, pretty rewarding,” Barker said. “For me, the best thing is how many people are excited and passionate about the things that we were talking about at a kitchen table 35 years ago – that there are other people that picked up the baton and have moved it forward.” Information about upcoming community events the Escondido Creek Conservancy is planning can be found on the conservancy’s Eventbrite page. ...read more read less