Anne Teller bequeathed $500k to Sonoma Land Trust

Anne Teller would have turned 89 on June 26 of this year, and though she died in 2019, her legacy lingers.|

Anne Teller of Glen Ellen’s Oak Hill Farm would have turned 89 on June 26 of this year, and though she died in 2019, her legacy continues.

The widow of the founder of Sonoma Land Trust, Teller was always passionate about conservation of the Valley’s natural resources. Beginning with the transformation of Oak Hill Farm from undisciplined grassland into a thriving source of organic produce and ornamental plants, Teller and her late husband Otto cared deeply about protecting the Valley’s unique grandeur.

Soon after their marriage in 1976, the Tellers summoned various Sonoma Valley activists up to their farm to discuss ways to permanently protect local landscapes. What began as a conversation quickly morphed into a movement, one which has now protected more than 50,000 acres of pristine habitat in and around Sonoma County.

In 2019, the trust received the Land Trust Alliance’s National Land Trust Excellence Award, distinguishing itself from more than 1,000 other conservation organizations across the U.S.

Before dying of cancer last year, Teller quietly bequeathed $500,000 to the Sonoma Land Trust, never breathing a word of the gift to anyone.

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