CAZADERO, Calif. (KGO) — ABC is teaming up with Out Magazine to recognize the Out 100. The annual list celebrates 100 LGBTQ+ trailblazers making a difference in their community. Nikola Alexandre, co-founder of Shelterwood Collective, received the honor.
Lush greenery stretches for as far as the eye can see in the Cazadero region, known as the Hidden Gem of Sonoma County. If Cazadero is the gem, then the Shelterwood Collective is among its crown jewels.
“Shelterwood is an attempt at worldbuilding that features queerness, land stewardship, joy and an exploration of what could be,” said Alexandre.
Alexandre is the co-founder of the 900-acre plot that centers on reconnecting Black and Indigenous LGBTQ+ people with land and the techniques used to preserve it.
The plot is located approximately 45 minutes north of Guerneville and is based on the unceded territory of the Kashaya Band of Pomo Indians.
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“Really, there’s no other way that we can move forward as a society without addressing the historical harms done to our people, to our communities, and without addressing the harm that was done to our ecosystems. Really those are the same thing,” Alexandre said.
At the heart of what Alexandre and his small staff do is healing land by healing people, and healing people by healing the land.
He took ABC7 News anchor Julian Glover on a tour of the property purchased back in 2021. This dream of Alexandre and his co-founder Layel Camargo was made possible thanks to generous grant funding made possible in the shadow of the murder of George Floyd.
The vision for this land was born out of a gathering that followed another national tragedy: the 2016 Pulse Nightclub Massacre. A retreat, hosted by a close friend, inspired Alexandre to dream big.
“It was incredibly powerful to be around people who were mourning, who were celebrating being with one another,” Alexandre recalled. “For some of those folks it was the first time being in a community space that wasn’t just purely nightlife. So it was a chance for me to just really see the power of being outside together-what it meant, what it could mean.”
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During the tour of the land, Alexandre shared with ABC7 News about the work being done to make the facilities on the property accessible.
The Stacy Park Milbern dream studio is the first universally accessible cabin at Shelterwood. The cabin, named after the late disability justice leader, features wider doors, accessible bathroom and kitchen, and a wraparound deck with ramp access.
The cabin’s deck also buttresses up to a grapefruit tree allowing disabled guests using mobility devices the opportunity to pick their own fresh fruit.
“One of our core tenants of operations is that disability justice is grounded in all the work that we do,” said Alexandre.
The Dream Studio is one of the 10 cabins on the property which used to be a Christian youth camp for 70 years before falling into disrepair. Half the buildings have been renovated to welcome groups up to Shelterwood to relax, restore, reconnect, and learn – all in community.
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Jose Beccera, a volunteer turned staff member, cherishes Shelterwood’s community-focused mission.
“Being able to organize and throw these events for the community fulfills that sense of family and bringing people together,” said Beccera. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 100 degrees out here, if it’s raining, getting the people here and doing some work together is very gratifying.”
The work is both gratifying and necessary as the Shelterwood team actively tends to the needs of the sprawling forest.
The team protects the area against fire dangers and increases the land’s resiliency.
“You can imagine, if a wildfire were moving across this landscape, it has all this small debris that it can burn up and thus carry it as it goes. So what we’re doing is we’re coming in to thin out some of the smaller vegetation to create spacing between the different trees here,” said Alexandre.
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Alexandre, who holds a Master’s of Forestry and an MBA from Yale, oversees the forest management work. In doing so, they partner with the Black and women-led organization Biswell Forestry Cooperative to tend to the land.
The team there is creating opportunities that Alexandre could only have dreamt of growing up in New Mexico, and eventually southern France where discrimination made him feel like an outsider.
“I spent a lot of my time outdoors, dealing with all the various expressions of racism and homophobia that I was experiencing growing up by just letting myself wander,” he said. “When it came time for me to figure out what to do with my life, I was wanting to think through what could I do to give back to what helped me become the person that I am, what kept me safe and alive throughout my early years.”
Now, Alexandre is creating a safe space for the next generation: work that’s earned him the honor of making this year’s Out 100 List.
“To do that work and to get this visibility, I hope is a message of hope and inspiration. I feel incredibly grateful to be able to bring this work to a larger community, a larger platform,” said Alexandre.
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