“This is not just a piece of land to us. It’s family. If you don’t know your cultural history, your language, your land, you lose your identity. This property brings us back home,” says Billyrene Pinola, a member of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians.

With osprey soaring overhead, waves crashing onto the coastline in the distance, and adults and children exploring a young redwood grove, Pinola and dozens of members from the Kashia community felt at home—even in a place many of them had never stepped foot—when they gathered to celebrate the establishment of the Kashia Coastal Reserve.

This piece of land on Northern California’s legendary coastline is etched with dense redwood forest, towering coastal bluffs and waterfalls, and expansive views of the Pacific Ocean. Perched along Highway 1—that storied ribbon of road stretching 650 miles along the California coast—the reserve was the ancestral home of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians until the tribe was forced inland 150 years ago. Ultimately settling on a small, water-poor reservation, the Kashia lost all but 40 acres of their ancestral lands and had lived with restricted coastal access since their retreat.

In 2015, Trust for Public Land purchased the 688-acre property from the Richardson family, which had owned the land since 1925.

The Kashia Coastal Reserve restored ownership of coastal lands to the Kashia, protects important cultural sites, and provides a place to connect present and future generations of the Kashia with their heritage.

A project that is bigger than environmental conservation, the Kashia Reserve represents an important social justice story.

“The coast is a mosaic of undeveloped and developed land,” says Jonathan Toste, a local open space advocate who was keen to show his support by attending the ceremony. “What the Richardsons have done [by selling this ranch] is to create a balance: protecting the land from people while still allowing them to come to the land. The Kashia aren’t the only ones who come out here to pray. To see the coast, the birds and plants, that is a deep prayer for me.”

The tribe will manage the property as a demonstration forest and as a gateway for educating and engaging the public about the history and practices of native people in the area. The Kashia will also allow the California Coastal Trail to extend north from Salt Point State Park across their land, giving the public their first opportunity to experience this dramatic stretch of coastline.