We are incredibly grateful to the Christian Science Monitor for their thoughtful and inspiring coverage of the restoration work happening here in San Geronimo, California. Their recent article beautifully captures the spirit and significance of the transformation from a shuttered golf course into a vibrant, living nature preserve—and highlights the broader national movement to rethink how we use open space.
As the article notes, the former 18-hole San Geronimo Golf Course, once a manicured landscape for recreation, is now a sanctuary for endangered wildlife. The fairways have given way to wildflowers and tall grasses, and most importantly, San Geronimo Creek—now free of a long-defunct dam—is seeing the return of endangered coho salmon for the first time in meaningful numbers in decades.
This restoration didn’t happen overnight. For over 30 years, our founder, Todd Steiner, and the team at Turtle Island Restoration Network worked persistently to revive the natural flow of the creek and protect the local watershed. The closure of the golf course in 2018 opened the door to make this vision a reality. And today, we’re proud to say it’s a place teeming with life—both aquatic and terrestrial—and a hub for the community, from birdwatchers to dog walkers.
As the Monitor reports, we counted about 300 salmon nests (redds) this year—an encouraging milestone and a powerful reminder that with patience, persistence, and community support, recovery is possible.
We deeply appreciate the Christian Science Monitor for helping to shine a light on this important work, and for showcasing how restoration efforts like ours—and others across the country—can build climate resilience, protect biodiversity, and reconnect people with the natural world.
To read the full article, visit Christian Science Monitor. Let’s keep turning fairways into wildways!
