Caretaking Public Land

August 19, 2020 6:39 PM

What nonprofit and government agencies should we contact about taking care of their land and living on it while doing so?

We are specifically interested in Northern California. We know about camp hosting, we are more interested in not hosting. We know about caretaker.org. We are more interested in taking care of public land than private.

Our only internet access right now is via an e-ink e-reader, so local organizations where we can mostly talk to people on the phone are ideal. Navigating large, info-dense websites like volunteer.gov? Not so much.

1) What types of organizations should we contact? (e.g. land trusts, county parks)
2) What specific organizations in Northern California do you know of that might fit the bill? (especially Humboldt/Mendocino/Yolo counties and surrounding areas)

posted by sibilatorix to Grab Bag (1 answer total)

I'm surprised there's no answers here yet, I was kinda hoping to learn. But maybe can you be a little more specific as to what you want to do? "taking care of govt. land while living on it" could be something like a mining claim; I've seen like 40 acres of California mountain land for a ridiculously low 'price' because what you're buying is just the right to use the land a bit. And no one's paying you to mine, but that's about all you can do.

Or are you looking more at something like a job, where the goverment will pay you to sit on land that they own, and 'caretake' it in some fashion-- then maybe you're thinking of things like those Fire Lookout Towers you can stay in for a while, provided you look out for fires.?
posted by The otter lady at 6:19 PM on August 20, 2020