Jackie Steuer has been serving Sonoma Overlook Trail as a Stewards and much more for about 25 years, since its conception. Enjoy this chat between Jackie and Overlook Chair Jess about Jackie’s continuing experience with the Overlook and her background in environmental science, which includes years of service at Yosemite National Park.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Welcome, Jackie!  I appreciate your taking the time today to share your history with the Overlook Trail.

The oldest picture I’ve seen of you was taken on the Overlook kiosk groundbreaking day.  Your daughter was there!

Jackie
Yes, she was!  Thank you for having me.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Please spell her name for me.

Jackie
So it’s two words: Qing Chen. It means “early morning.” The Q is pronounced “ch”, so it sounds like Ching Chen.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
The other interesting thing I noticed is your Facebook profile, which talks about the fact that you worked at Yosemite, that you went to Berkeley, and you earned your degree in environmental biology.

Jackie
So it was a BA in biology from the College of Letters and Science. But one of the emphases that you could choose from was ecology. And that’s what I chose.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
That’s terrific. And you were a ranger, an interpretive ranger at Yosemite, correct? In addition to a couple of other roles, it looked like you were an instructor.

Jackie
Right.  I moved up to Yosemite to be an instructor for what was then called Yosemite Institute. That was their environmental education program. We had mostly high school students that came up and hiked with us for a week, and we were responsible for covering human history in the park as well as, you know, natural history. It was a fun adventure. You were supposed to go out with the kids all day, basically, from like nine until four, give or take.

You could choose your route. You could choose your topic for the day and work in, you know, activities and games and whatever else you came up with. So it was very self-directed; everybody’s program was very different. We had instructors who were English majors or history majors, lots of science majors, art majors, etc.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
So a lot of different angles, and what a wealth of essential information to know as well.  Sounds like they would take people from lots of different facets of life and still I’m sure no one knew everything.

Tell me about when your relationship with the Overlook began.

Jackie
Unfortunately, the reason I left Yosemite was because of an on-the-job injury. When I moved here, I was still young. I still wished I were working in a way that bettered the environment in some way but I just couldn’t.

I subscribed to the Index Tribune and saw a notice that the City was looking for people to serve on some of their commissions. At the time, there was one called the Environmental Advisory Commission. That commission doesn’t exist any longer, but it did at the time. And so I applied and actually Larry Barnett was one of the people who interviewed me and I was selected for that commission. Karen Collins was also on the commission and she and Maggie Haywood had been, you know, talking about wanting a trail system in town. When Karen talked about it, when she was looking to have it progress, she asked if anyone else on the commission was interested in helping. And that was of interest to me so I said I would. So then, you know, as the steps started proceeding, I was there from the beginning helping with it.

Also, as I was kind of thinking about our interview today, I recalled how many jobs I’ve had for the Overlook Trail. Back at the beginning, I was doing all the check writing and bookkeeping as a treasurer kind of person for the trail.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
I was going to ask you about the various roles. You were chair at one point, or co-chair?

Jackie
Yeah, I was co-chair. So Maggie and Karen were co-chairs for about three years, I would say. And then they said, “we’ve done a lot and we want to move on to other things,” and they asked me to chair. I said, “Well, you guys had a co-chair and I really liked the way that worked. So Karen found Hope Nisson, and she and I co-chaired. And then when Hope wasn’t really having a good time as a co-chair,
I recruited John Donnelly and he had been a docent at the time. So he and I co-chaired.

During that time, I adopted Qing Chen.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
And so, in this history, when did the issue of a resort possibly being developed on the hillside that is now the Overlook Trail system come up?

Jackie
Well, we were just getting going on, you know, talking with the City about the possibility of a trail. And simultaneously, this resort was in communication with the City. And so it was right at the beginning, around the year 2000 or a little before that.  Yeah, it was maybe 1999 even.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
So it was sort of kismetic, as I would call it, that the desire was there to build a real trail system. And then this resort thing happened and it all kind of converged.

Jackie
That’s right.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
I believe that you’re the only current steward who’s been there since Go, as Chair, Treasurer, Outreach Chair and in many ways, much, much more than that. You’re so often the one willing to lead.

How often do you actually visit the trail these days? I know you’ve had your injuries.

Jackie
Well, I don’t, actually. One of my hips is still irritated, so going uphill is a problem. So I didn’t visit at all in 2025.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Well, I’m sorry that that’s still a thing.

Jackie
Yeah, I actually was thinking that I wanted to go and give it a try again on a weekday when it’s not as busy so that I won’t feel bad if I turn around partway up. But I just, I’ve been trying to get my hips to completely become pain-free before I challenge them by going uphill.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Well, as you know, especially with Roy Tennant’s dedication to the trail, it gets smoother and smoother and smoother. I mean, his goal, and he will tell you this, is to get as much of the trail to be as smooth as a pool table as he possibly can.  A lot of the trail is just that smooth and more of it gets smoother all the time. And I know it’s about an uphill thing, but I believe you’ll find that there are far fewer trip hazards, et cetera, to deal with.

Jackie
Yeah. It’s the steps I’m thinking about.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Yeah, steps are good for some folks and not others.

I don’t know if you know this, but in regards to the new steps that were put in during the spring project last year, none of them have a huge rise and many of them have a very shallow rise.

There have been plenty of people that say they love all the work that’s been done, and there have been a few people who do not like the steps at all and make it known. And it’s just, you know, its one way of doing it. But I understand that for some folks with certain issues, steps can be tricky.

So what has volunteering for the Overlook Trail meant to you over time?

Jackie
Well, as I say, the environment is really important to me, caring for it, helping other people understand about it, helping people enjoy the environment, nature, you know, that whole thing. And so it’s been a way for me to stay connected to my first love. I mean, I knew I wanted to major in the environment and in ecology back in college, so it’s been my passion throughout my life. And [The Overlook] gives me a chance to stay connected to that.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
I know you have some other volunteer jobs, correct? Or have had? Well, yes. So I was co-chair of the Earth Care Alliance at the First Congregational Church for quite a few years. I, again, really liked being in a position where I could help people learn. One of the things I did with that position was to participate in producing a weekly email that went out to all the members of the church and I would write an Earth Care Hint. Just something that you could do in your life that would be gentler on the environment, whether it was, you know, using a compost bin or just all kinds of little things that everybody could think about incorporating into their lives.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
I think that’s really smart. Small steps, right?  Communicating the small steps, because if you’re talking about something big, people just kind of go straight into overwhelm and they just don’t bother jumping in that ocean. But the little bits, those really add up.

So I think of the Overlook as having many different meanings for different people. For some, it’s their exercise, their Stairmaster, in a sense. For some people, it’s their stress relief. For some people, it’s a social scene, and they only hike when they’re going with someone else. For some people, it’s a real sanctuary. Outside of your work on the Overlook, what does the place mean to you?  How does it have meaning for you outside of sort of the task-oriented side of things?

Jackie
I feel like it’s a connection with nature, which is why I have fought at various times against allowing dogs on the trail. I want places for native wildlife to have sanctuary as well as for people to have sanctuary. There are dog parks and there are bike paths where dogs are allowed that let them have their paved paths or whatever the situation is, but we need places where native wildlife is allowed to be protected and safe.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Well, that is a remarkable concept that you just communicated, that both people and native wildlife need a sanctuary. I find that it does get to be a little tricky to explain to people, especially people with dogs that they love like family, that the Overlook is a protected habitat.  It’s not just that it’s illegal to have a dog or a bike on the trail. It’s actually a protected habitat and it changes the nature of that habitat when you bring in pets. So I like the way you put that.

Jackie
I just looked at a Sonoma Ecology Center email that talked about a resilient landscape program that they’re starting that covers the [Boyes Hot] Springs area.  I emailed three friends who live in that area saying that they might be interested in this. It’s a $1,500 landscaping granting give away to people who qualify.

One of the people who emailed back to me said he felt like he had taken care of that when he ripped out his front lawn.  I really wanted to say something more because what he did was he put in a bunch of rocks in his front yard and that is not providing habitat for native wildlife. So yes, you’re not putting water into the soil every other day to water your lawn, but what does a bunch of rocks do for our environment? That is missing a good part of the point, you know?  I think when you’re not sort of in the industry or in the realm of environmental landscaping or protecting wildlife, or you aren’t familiar with what is native to our area, you don’t understand the need for native wildlife to have native plants to live with.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Actually, the UC Davis Master Gardener Program for Sonoma County has some fantastic resources in that regard, including a connection to the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership’s Smart Plant Picker.

Jackie
I used them. I pulled out my front lawn about three or four years ago and had them come out. And now I have gorgeous little shrubs across my front yard that native wildlife visits.  Hummingbirds and the various and sundry other birds and quail running through once in a while.  I love it.

Sonoma Overlook Trail
It’s incredibly useful if you’re going to plant a tree or other plant.  The other wonderful factor about those resources is that many of the trees have been specified as most likely to survive and thrive for the next fifty to one hundred years. So not only are you picking something native, something drought tolerant, something that makes sense in your zone, et cetera, but you’re also picking something the most likely to give long term return on your investment. And the City has a new master tree list, so when someone wants to remove a tree from their property, they receive that list of those trees as a resource.

So circling back to the Overlook trail, if there were any sort of wish that you have for the Overlook going forward, what might that be?

Jackie
Well, getting it protected in perpetuity would be my biggest dream. And, I don’t know. Is there any chance that it could be expanded? Like would the city be willing to buy out edges of other people’s properties to expand our trail up there?

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Actually, the Ecology Center has been in discussion with landowners in the area for a long time to perhaps set up some conservation easements their properties, which may or may not translate later to an extension of the trail.

I’ve been trying for years to get a permanent conservation easement on the Overlook Trail, and it’s been quite a slog.  We believe that the City is going to change the designation from Public Facility to Park before long.  Once it gets to a Park designation, it would be really difficult to develop it going forward.  I mean, obviously you want to keep walking down that road until it’s a permanent conservation easement, but once it finally designated as Park, it’s a real cause for celebration.

Jackie, thank you for your time, and thank you for your 25 years of dedication to the Overlook Trail.

Jackie
You are welcome!