FORT ROSS CONSERVANCY
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Mission Statement
Fort Ross Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) and California State Park cooperating association, connects people to the history and beauty of Fort Ross and Salt Point State Parks. Founded in 1973, our mission is to promote educational, environmental, and interpretive activities at Fort Ross State Historic Park and Salt Point State Park. Operating solely on income from grants, membership, donations, and bookshop revenue, FRC staffs the Fort Ross visitor center 7 days a week; designs, implements, and underwrites youth programming for marine ecology and living history education; interfaces with and provides educational tours to visitors, maintains website that receives 100+ hits a day, creates PR and marketing for the park, manages special events, and successfully promotes interest in our parks at local, state, national, and international levels. FRC's over-arching and single-minded goal is to create a sustainable long-term environment that ensures Fort Ross and Salt Point remain vital, open, and accessible.
About This Cause
Fort Ross Conservancy (FRC) stewards two California State Parks with incredibly rich and diverse histories. Fort Ross is a 3,400 acre California State Park that showcases historic structures and exhibits that bring to life the former Imperial Russian settlement, early California Ranch era, and Kashaya territory. Salt Point is a 6,000 acre State Park with incredible beauty and a rich Native California history. Fort Ross Conservancy’s goal is to provide accurate and inspirational interpretation of the distinct eras (indigenous Native California, Russian, and Early American Ranch) and the people (Kashaya, Alaska Native, Creole, Russian, Ranch) who have lived on these lands. FRC has cultivated relationships with academics and publishers from around the world to research and publish first-hand accounts of Alta California and its pre-Gold Rush history, and to continually explore these international stories. Equally as important, these two parks boast miles of pristine coastline and phenomenal natural history. FRC has evolved from our early years of being a studious “historical association” and we now promote and protect our natural history with the same integrity and enthusiasm as our cultural history. This allows us to tie these two threads together, for the history of Fort Ross and Salt Point is inextricably tied to the Pacific Ocean's resources—Russians settled Alaska in their hunt for "soft gold," and later migrated down the Pacific coast to Sonoma county in search of a more hospitable climate for agriculture. For example, FRC created a citizen science marine mammal census program to capture population changes of marine mammals living offshore and along our coast, with data used by national organizations. FRC designed and implemented one- and two-day outdoor educational marine ecology programming for middle and high school aged students that teaches marine stewardship using the historical backdrop of Fort Ross, described at www.fortross.org/marine-ecology.htm. FRC created a successful scholarship fund to make this program available to under-served youths. FRC expanded support of the park beyond the Russian era to include better emphasis on the California Kashia and the Alaska Native people. FRC also funds Russian language interpretation at Fort Ross. Other projects include funding and orchestrating, in coordination with National Park Service, an Orchard Management Plan to better protect our historic orchard. This work has been accomplished by engaging with corporations and foundations who share Fort Ross Conservancy's mission. We hope you will join us in making these public lands thriving and invitating destinations for us all.