“You have to do the work; you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t put in the time.” —Caryl Hart
Hart, 66, developed a passion for environmentalism at a young age. Born and raised in West Los Angeles, she recalls a childhood spent lying under trees and gazing up at the sky—she craved the outdoors. When she was in sixth grade, Hart’s family moved to the Santa Ynez Valley, where they owned a spacious piece of land; she
Preserve in 2020, about the time of her appointment by then-state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to the Coastal Commission. From that girl lying beneath the trees of L.A. to leading one of the state’s most powerful land/water- use commissions, the road to conservation has been as long and winding for Caryl
became an immediate fixture at the rolling creek near their house. The seeds of environmentalism were firmly planted, setting her on a path to pursue environmental law. When considering her career options later in college, the lure of the criminal courtroom shone brighter than that of environmental law, and Hart went on to serve as a public defender in San Francisco and Marin County. She met her husband Mickey—drummer in a little North Bay- based band called the Grateful Dead—in 1990 and they settled in the Sebastopol area soon after. While her frustrations with life as a public-defender grew—the state’s 1994 incarceration-heavy Three Strikes law was a particular sore point—that lifelong passion for conservation blossomed. In the 1990s, she chaired the Sonoma County open space advisory committee, co-founded parks-advocacy nonprofit LandPaths, and went on to earn an appointment in 2000 to the state parks commission, upon which she served for 13 years. For seven years beginning in 2010, Hart was director of Sonoma County Regional Parks and, as an encore, served as interim director of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space
Hart as it has been rewarding. “It’s like any passion…it’s just part of your DNA and who you are,” she says. We asked Hart about the work of the Coastal Commission, the current challenges facing the California coast—and, most importantly, what’s her favorite local beach. ..... When you first got involved in local land use in the 1990s, Sonoma County wasn’t known for its open space conservation. What changed? Before I even went to grad school to get my doctorate in environmental policy, I was on the Ag & Open Space Committee—I think I was the chair of that for a period of time. I was also on the State Park [and Recreation] Commission which I was also the chair of. During that period—I moved here in 1990-1991—there was very little parkland or open space in the county. In fact, Sonoma County ranked at the bottom of the list for parkland. With friends and people that
24 NorthBaybiz
June 2024
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