04/27/2026
On April 18th, staff from our Reentry and our In-prison Programs teams took participants on a restorative nature outing at the Ruth McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve and Millerton Lake in the Sierra Foothills.
We spotted golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, California quail, acorn woodpeckers, turkeys, towhees, and wrens under Valley and Blue oaks with our Audubon docents. We read tracks in the mud: turkey feet, tail feathers, what looked like coyote prints, a small mystery written in the earth.
We rested on a granite slab beside a creek where the Mono people once made their home. At least six grinding holes worn into the rock. Depressions in the ground where lodging once stood. A kitchen, a gathering place, a homestead that held a community for generations before displacement. We sat in that history quietly.
Then Millerton Lake: sandwiches, cold water, fishing poles, and a meditation. And Johnnie, who started the morning saying he was intimidated by nature, walked out of the water saying, “I just shed so many layers. I can’t believe how bad I needed this.”
This is what healing looks like. Nature is not a supplement to our work. It is central to it.
Congratulations to our Reentry Team, and gratitude to the Sierra Foothill Conservancy, our Audubon docents George and Georgine, and every participant who showed up and let the land do its thing.
