Organization & Mission

Our Mission

To Inspire and Ensure Stewardship of the State Parks in Mendocino County.

How We Started

In 1984, several local park rangers were concerned that funding was being cut for educational programing in our state parks. To ensure that quality educational programming would continue, they set out to establish what is now known as the Mendocino Area Parks Association MAPA (now called MendoParks).  They established MendoParks’ basic premise:  “Appreciation, through Education, leads to Preservation”. 

At first, MendoParks supported the operation of the Ford House Visitor Center at the Mendocino Headlands State Park. Soon, MendoParks began raising funds for the state park seasonal interpreters (or naturalists), interpretive publications and exhibit panels. Over the years, MendoParks took on the operational support of several visitor centers, including Van Damme, MacKerricher, and the Elk/Greenwood Museum.

As a 501c3 non-profit organization, MendoParks is entirely self-sustaining and receives no government funding or tax dollars for operations. Since 2004 alone, MendoParks has donated over $1.4 million dollars in support of State Parks in Mendocino County- all of which stays local, supporting our well-loved Parks.

MendoParks currently supports 10 State Parks in Mendocino County with educational activities, park improvements, and operations of Visitor Centers:

• Mendocino Headlands State Park

• Westport Union Landing State Beach

• MacKerricher State Park

• Jughandle Natural Reserve

• Caspar Headlands State Beach

• Russian Gulch State Park

• Van Damme State Park

• Manchester State Park

• Greenwood State Beach

• Navarro River Redwoods State Park

Your donations make a difference for State Parks in Mendocino County! All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent as allowed by law.

For information on planned giving, please contact MendoParks Director.

 Check out our impact: Download our tax Form 990 — 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021