History

Apprentices working under the tutelage of Alan Chadwick in the Covelo Garden Project, sponsored by the Round Valley Institute for Man and Nature.

In 2010, the Round Valley Institute had become somewhat dormant in California and the Board discussed and voted to change the name in order to better support current activity, which was happening more outside of California, as well as internationally, to be just The Institute for Man and Nature.  The original RV Institute remains today to foster and support the Archives of Alan Chadwick's work in a facility at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Today, the Institute is supporting projects in the United States as well as in The Congo(s), Liberia, Nigeria, and Colombia.

The Founders of the Institute were part of a nonpartisan working group of environmentalists, including Ruth and Alfred Heller, Alfred Wilkins, Richard Wilson, William "Bill" Press, State Senator Peter Behr, and many others which set the stage for the Institute to act for preservation and environmental stewardship as we know it today.  In the 1980’s the group worked tirelessly to bring sustainability into the Forest Practice Act as part of reviewing Timber Harvest Acts.  This lead to Richard’s appointment as Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, under then-Governor Pete Wilson as well as to his becoming an original member of the California Coastal Commission.   Ruth and Alfred Heller funded the first endowment for the Agroecology Program at UC Santa Cruz, the first UC project to focus on what would come to be known as "sustainable" agriculture systems. In 1993, following the recommendation of an external review committee, the Agroecology Program's name was changed to the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems to reflect the center's dual interests in both environmental and social aspects of sustainable agriculture.  As part of family, Richard has been a trustee of the Michael J. Connell Memorial Fund and is responsible for distributing funds to the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara as part of their research programs. Richard is past president of the Planning and Conservation League, a member of the Board of Directors of California Environmental Trust, and a past board member of California Tomorrow, another organization that published a journal called Cry California, started by Alfred Heller. Bill Press became known as the voice for ecology working for Los Angeles for TV stations KABC-TV and KCOP-TV in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and served as director of the California Office of Planning and Research under Democratic Governor Jerry Brown (1975–79). Bill is the past president of the California Democratic party.