NATURE CONSERVANCY : Private Organization Helps Protect Lands : Nonprofit agency attempts to plan ahead for whole ecosystems to preserve diversity.

The Nature Conservancy, an international, nonprofit conservation agency based in Arlington, Va., today has 645,000 members and has helped protect 6.5 million acres nationwide. But it had humble beginnings back in 1951.

“That’s when things were first starting to get destroyed environmentally,” said Kelly Cash, the group’s public relations director. “A group of scientists noticed that many unique places were disappearing. They decided if they wanted to save these areas they would have to buy them.”

Those initial 364 members used their $1,022 in the bank to launch the fledgling organization. By the 1960s and ‘70s, the Nature Conservancy had found its niche, Cash said.

“The members used (a scientific approach) to identify the land that was most unique,” Cash said. “It was kind of a museum fortress approach. We bought the land and saved it and allowed people to come and look at it.”

Today, the conservancy still manages more than 1 million acres across the country. The rest has been sold or transferred to public agencies that promise to preserve it.

“Our new direction is to look at whole landscapes and whole ecosystems with the idea if you plan ahead, ultimately you will have more diversity,” Cash said. “At the same time, you can hang on to what is native and unique about a place.”

California, with its 100,000 conservancy members and headquarters in San Francisco, has by far more reserves than any other state. Some of the California reserves include:

* Coal Canyon, an April, 1991, purchase of 953 acres in northeast Orange County consisting of one of four remaining stands of Tecate cypress trees in the country. It has been sold to the state Wildlife Conservation Board, an arm of the state Department of Fish and Game, but the conservancy still manages it.

* Santa Rosa Plateau, a 3,100-acre reserve in Riverside County purchased for the restoration of native grassland, oak woodlands and stream-side habitat.

* Coachella Valley, a 13,000-acre parcel near Thousand Palms outside of Palm Springs. This oasis in a sea of sand provides refuge for more than 130 species of plants and 180 species of animals.

* Cosumnes River, a 3,400-acre reserve near Sacramento, purchased for the restoration of stream-side forests.

* Nipomo Dunes near San Luis Obispo, a 3,417-acre preserve within an 18-mile stretch of coastal dunes, was purchased for its American Indian artifacts and its fragile dune ecosystem.