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Feldman (Esther) and Community Conservation Solutions records
7136
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Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: Esther Feldman and Community Conservation Solutions records
Creator:
Feldman, Esther
Creator:
Community Conservation Solutions
Identifier/Call Number: 7136
Identifier/Call Number: /repositories/3/resources/3250
Physical Description:
6.83 Linear Feet
8 boxes
Physical Description:
3.75 Gigabytes
38 computer folders and 142 computer files
Date (inclusive): 1984-2022
Abstract: The Esther Feldman and Community Conservation Solutions records document the work conducted by Esther Feldman and/or Community
Conservation Solutions (CCS) from the 1980s through 2020. The collection focuses on two major subject areas: (i) ballot measures
and campaigns creating public financing for park and conservation projects and (ii) land-based projects involving land acquisition,
native habitat restoration, park creation, 'green' stormwater and urban runoff capture, planning projects, legislation, and
community engagement. The initiatives documented in this collection created over three billion dollars in new public funds
for parks, natural lands, rivers, recreation, and conservation purposes in Los Angeles County and in California. These projects
also established a model for over 35 billion dollars in new conservation public finance for similar legislation and ballot
measures in the West, especially in Oregon and Washington states, and throughout the United States, and led to permanent park
funding through Los Angeles County's Measure A: Safe, Clean Neighborhood Parks, Open Space, Beaches, Rivers Protection, and
Water Conservation Measure.
Language of Material:
English
, Spanish; Castilian
.
The Esther Feldman and Community Conservation Solutions records document the work conducted by Esther Feldman and/or Community
Conservation Solutions (CCS) from the 1980s through 2020. The collection focuses on two major subject areas: (i) ballot measures
and campaigns creating public financing for park and conservation projects and (ii) land-based projects involving land acquisition,
native habitat restoration, park creation, 'green' stormwater and urban runoff capture, planning projects, legislation, and
community engagement. The initiatives documented in this collection created over three billion dollars in new public funds
for parks, natural lands, rivers, recreation, and conservation purposes in Los Angeles County and in California. These projects
also established a model for over 35 billion dollars in new conservation public finance for similar legislation and ballot
measures in the West, especially in Oregon and Washington states, and throughout the United States, and led to permanent park
funding through Los Angeles County's Measure A: Safe, Clean Neighborhood Parks, Open Space, Beaches, Rivers Protection, and
Water Conservation Measure.
The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, campaign materials, accounting, reports, press clippings, videos, born-digital
files, and ephemera associated with ballot measure campaigns and other land conservation efforts. The collection also contains
slides, photographic prints, and posters, including comprehensive slide files of the Baldwin Hills, Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook,
the Baldwin Hills Park Plan, the Zev Yaroslavsky L.A. River Greenway Trail, and the Natural Park-Air Pollution Solution at
the Ramona Gardens Housing Development.
The collection documents various projects that have shaped Los Angeles County's system of protected natural lands, rivers,
park and recreation lands, and trails surrounding and interlaced within metropolitan areas. The material in the collection
links goals relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion with permanent county park funding that prioritizes building parks
in park-poor, low-income communities of color.
Esther Feldman has been a leader in protecting and creating new parks, natural lands, and open space in California since the
1980s, and is responsible for creating over three billion dollars in new public funds through ballot measures in L.A. County
and throughout California and the U.S. for park, recreation and conservation purposes. From 1988 to the present, Feldman's
work includes: numerous park and open space funding, land and water conservation efforts throughout Los Angeles County; launching
the Trust for Public Land's Los Angeles Field Office; creating the Trust for Public Land's National Public Finance Program,
which has since helped create over $35 billion in new conservation public funds throughout the U.S. through over 428 ballot
measures in 33 states; and twenty-three years of leading Community Conservation Solutions, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization
that she established in 1998 that pioneered urban park projects integrating both nature and people. The new public funding
that Feldman created, along with the additional hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private funds that her work
leveraged, has permanently changed the landscape of L.A. County, helping to fund a diverse range of urban park projects and
the permanent protection and restoration of tens of thousands of acres of parks and natural open space.
In addition to every city and unincorporated area of Los Angeles County that has received funding, regional areas, rivers,
and tributaries that have benefitted include (
partial list only):
- Los Angeles County Beaches
- Santa Monica Bay
- Santa Monica Mountains
- Mt. Washington
- Ascot Hills
- Verdugo Hills
- Santa Susana Mountains
- San Gabriel Mountains
- Santa Clarita Woodlands
- Whittier-Puente Hills
- San Jose Hills
- Baldwin Hills
- L.A. River
- Rio Hondo
- San Gabriel River
- Santa Ana River
- Santa Clara River
- Compton Creek
Advance notice required for access. This collection includes both analog and digital files. The collection's digital files
have been copied to the USC Digital Repository. The digital files are not publicly accessible online. Researchers wishing
to request access to the digital files should email specol@usc.edu.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special
Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
[Box/folder no. or item name], Esther Feldman and Community Conservation Solutions records, Collection no. 7136, Regional
History Collection, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Esther Feldman, June 23, 2022.
Timeline of Esther Feldman's Work, by Entity
The records in this collection are from Esther Feldman's work carried out for the following public agencies or non-profit
organizations during the years indicated.
| November 1984 - November 1988 | The Planning & Conservation League, Sacramento, CA |
| Research Director and Assistant Campaign Director | |
| November 1988 - June 1994 | Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), Los Angeles, CA |
| Director, Special Projects | |
| August 1994 - March 1997 | The Trust for Public Land (TPL), Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA |
| 1997-2020 | Community Conservation Solutions (formerly Community Conservancy International - name was changed in 2010) |
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Bills, Legislative -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Community-based conservation -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Archival resources
Conservation of natural resources -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Archival resources
Environmental policy -- California -- Archival resources
Environmental protection -- California -- Archival resources
Land Use -- Environmental aspects -- California -- Maps -- Archival resources
Land Use -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Planning -- Archival resources
Landscape protection -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Archival resources
Natural resources conservation areas -- Law and legislation -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Archival resources
Nature conservation -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Archival resources
Nonprofit organizations -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Parks -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Political campaigns -- California -- Archival resources
Recreation -- California -- Los Angeles -- Planning -- Archival resources
Referendum -- California -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Regional planning -- California, Southern -- Archival resources
Brochures
Born digital
Correspondence
Digital images
Digital media
Ephemera
Financial records
Maps
Memorandums
Moving images
Newsletters
Newspaper clippings
Photographs
Presentation drawings (proposals)
Renderings (drawings)
Reports
Research (documents)
Site plans
Slides (photographs)
Surveys (documents)
Community Conservancy International -- Archives
Community Conservation Solutions -- Archives
Feldman, Esther -- Archives