Solano Land Trust, Benicia can boost tourism together, director says

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Solano Land Trust Executive Director Nicole Byrd spoke to the Tourism Committee of the Benicia Economic Development Board on Thursday, telling members about her nonprofit and how it can boost tourism in Benicia.

The Land Trust, which recently marked its 26th anniversary, protects more than 20,000 acres of county land, Byrd said. “We do that one of two ways. We buy the land, and we own it and try to open it up to the public. Or we work with farmers and protect land through conservation.”

Byrd said the group’s success can be traced to the fact that Solano County residents “have a very strong sense of place. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we still have these open hills in our community, we still have a lot of working agriculture in our community, and even though we have I-80 coming straight through and you can get to the mountains, and you can get to the bay, right here in Solano County we have that rural-urban interface.

“A lot of us here really love that about this place,” she said.

The Land Trust supervises such properties as Lynch Canyon and the King-Swett Ranches. It is currently trying to purchase Rockville Trails, a 1,500-acre parcel of open space near Fairfield.

“People from outside of Solano County come in all the time to visit (this place), so it is going to be another great attraction,” she said. “It is also helping to build a trail system that is eventually going to connect Solano County to Napa County. This is one of those key pieces.”

Byrd said the benefits in protecting the county’s open spaces are many, among them the opportunity they afford residents to live a healthy lifestyle. “Solano County is the only county in the Bay Area that doesn’t have a parks district, so we’re filling that role, or trying to,” she said.

With respect to tourism, she said, the Land Trust hopes to spread the word in Benicia about events and activities. And she wants that to be a two-way street: After the nonprofit’s events, participants — who hail from all over the Bay Area, Sacramento and the foothills — are seeking a place to go.

“We’re bringing people into this region, they’re staying for a few hours, and then they finish their hike and they’re hungry,” Byrd said.

The group’s connection to Benicia is strong, she said: Bob Berman, an officer with the Benicia State Parks Association, was a founding Land Trust board member and has been on the board for 26 years. Solano Land Trust also has worked with Arts Benicia.

The Land Trust also does a lot of work with the schools, she said, bringing students to the open spaces and training teachers to be docents. “They can become a docent and kind of learn the lay of the land, learn the safety issues out there … then they can access the properties themselves.”

But the question, Byrd said, is how to get people from a Land Trust event to Benicia. “If they’re driving down 680, what if we could entice them to hop back off the freeway?” she said.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity down here in Benicia for us to work together.”

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