As the daughter of Jack London State Historic Park’s former resident ranger, Nicolette Hayes literally grew up inside the park. From the time she was born in 1984 until she left for college at 17, she had the run of the Beauty Ranch on Sonoma Mountain, where she played in the redwood fairy rings and had her own special wishing tree.
“It felt like the park was my own backyard,” says Hayes.
A data designer by trade, she studied geography and later Communication Design at Pratt Institute in New York. Like London, she traveled the world, but always yearned to return to Sonoma Valley. While a home in the park was no longer an option, Hayes did the next best thing, settling in Glen Ellen with her husband, Jon Schramm (a new park volunteer), and their two young children.
She brings a singularly intimate understanding of the park to her role as a new member of the board of Jack London Park Partners, a nonprofit that was created to manage the park in the wake of a state budget crisis in 2012. Her late father Greg Hayes championed the effort to keep the park open.
A favorite place
The beautiful home Jack designed for his pigs — teasingly referred to as The Pig Palace by people who thought it was a little over the top. I can’t help but admire the humaneness that is infused in every detail. From the thoughtful layout that allowed pig families to stay together with their own front yard and extensive backyard for foraging, to the joy that it brought to Jack to play with the little piglets, it feels like an example of what is possible if you allow beauty, adventure, and a little bit of love to guide decision making, which is how I’ve tried to organize my own life.
A passion project
One of the most exciting is a regenerative garden that we’re in the process of planning and building off the parking lot, which coincidentally, is one of the places where my friend and I tunneled a trail and encountered poison oak as kids. We’re going to create an actual trail that is educational and will engage kids. As a mother of small children, I’m excited to have something they can enjoy that is accessible within just a short walk.
Reflections on serving
This couple (Jack and Charmian), who sailed the world seeing the best it had to offer, still saw in Sonoma Valley “a quiet place in the country to get out of nature that something which we all need,” leading to it being preserved for future generations. The fact that Jack London Park Partners is helping to expand that appreciation to serve our community feels like such an essential service that I’m really proud to be a part of.
