Public access to Colorado’s Chicago Basin protected!

January 24, 2025-

For most visitors, the hike to Chicago Basin in Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness starts on the historic Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad as it winds 30 miles through the mountains. From the train stop, the Needle Creek Trail climbs steadily for 6 miles till the valley opens up into the sweeping views of Chicago Basin and the surrounding peaks. Due to its convenient access from the train and to its iconic 14,000+ ft peaks, the basin is a popular destination, with heavy use through the summer months for hikers, backpackers, and mountaineers.

Most of those visitors who come to Chicago Basin for the scenic beauty and quiet solitude of the wilderness are unaware that the trail they’re traversing crosses several privately owned inholding properties where that experience is not guaranteed. Without the protections of the surrounding wilderness, these properties could be developed with cabins, resorts, or mining and timber operations. Suddenly their wilderness experience could be dominated by the buzz of chainsaws, the thwomp of landing helicopters, or even the trail blocked and closed to the public. This lingering threat to public access, as well as the integrity of the fragile, high alpine ecosystem has driven our work in the Weminuche, along with wilderness areas across the county.

The Trust recently protected our 15th property in the Weminuche Wilderness with the acquisition of a 30-acre private inholding property with both Needle Creek and the Needle Creek Trail running through it. With flat, buildable stream-side sites the property was at risk of development. Now protected, public access on the trail to Chicago Basin has been ensured for future generations to enjoy. Needle Creek is an important tributary to the Animas River. This water source, along with vibrant aspen groves that stretch from the creek up the slopes of the Needle Mountains, create habit for a wide range of wildlife. The Needle Creek property scores high for climate change resilience, biodiversity, and landscape connectivity, all important conservation values that will be protected as wilderness.

Now that the property has been acquired by the Trust, we will begin restoration work this summer to remove the remnants of a hunting camp left by a previous owner to restore it to its wilderness character prior to transfer to public ownership and addition to the wilderness. This project builds off the nearby 7-acre Emerald Lake property that the Trust acquired in 2018 and transferred to be added to the wilderness area in 2023.

California’s Mount Lassic Wilderness now complete with last remaining inholding removed!

January 10, 2025-

The Wilderness Land Trust recently acquired the last remaining inholding in northern California’s Mount Lassic Wilderness, completing the wilderness area by removing the lingering threat of development on the 160-acre Bear Creek private inholding property. This is the 18th wilderness area the Trust has completed.

The Mount Lassic Wilderness is of significant ecological importance, with several uncommon habitat features. Rare alpine vernal pools and unusual serpentine soils have created unique habitat conditions home to rare species. The endangered Lassics Lupine depends on the sufficient snowpack and shelter from summer heat found in the Mount Lassic Wilderness to survive. The area is also home to the northern spotted owl, blue grouse, marten, fisher, mountain lion, black bear, and goshawk. Old-growth forests of Douglas fir, incense cedar, and Jeffery pine cover much of the area.

The 160-acre Bear Creek property includes tributary streams to the Wild and Scenic Van Duzen River. The Van Duzen River, as well as the Eel River which it flows into, host healthy salmon and steelhead runs. The salmon and steelhead populations are not only important species in the ecosystem, they support recreational and subsistence fisheries. The Van Duzen and Eel River host both summer and winter runs of steelhead, but as their waters warm due to climate change, the health of the fishery has become stressed. Juveniles require cold temperatures to survive, making cold water tributaries such as found in the Bear Creek property an important refuge.

With acquisition of the Bear Creek inholding property complete, we will now begin the process of transferring it to the Six Rivers National Forest. The Wilderness Land Trust has previously protected 253 properties totaling over 37,000 acres in 44 wilderness areas across California.

2024 by the numbers: Celebrating a year of wilderness wins

December 27, 2024-

As 2024 comes to a close, we’re celebrating another year of successful projects protecting the wilderness you love across the country.

This year we protected 42 properties totaling 2,073 acres from Alaska to Virginia. With the threat of development removed, they will remain open for wildlife to roam, resilient habitats to thrive, and people from all walks of life to explore. The monetary value of these lands is over $37 million, but the real value that they bring to our lives through clean air and water, solitude, and inspiration is so much greater. In this fast-changing world, their intrinsic value surpasses any dollar amount.

So we celebrate these end-of-year accomplishments with the pride of a job well done, and as a reflection of the collective impact of our dedicated community of partners and supporters. But we also reflect on them knowing that their totals fall short in telling the real story of our work. That story is one of long days spent in the field, in landscapes from desert to high alpine, along rivers and coast, through conditions from sunny blue skies to pouring rain and snow. It’s the story of a relationship built with a landowner over 20 years that leads to them finally choosing a path of conservation for the land they and their family have loved for generations. And it’s a story that’s not just ours, but shared by dozens of partners, from local organizations to tribes to federal agencies, and hundreds of generous supporters from around the country.

When you give to the Trust you support not just the land acquisitions and transfers, but all the work that leads to them: the field work and relationship building, the habitat restoration and helping to guide agency policy, the title work and appraisals. It is only with your support that we can share these end-of-year accomplishments.

If you haven’t yet donated, please consider making a gift before the end of 2024.

Celebrating 94 acres protected in Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness

December 14, 2024-

The Payette Land Trust and Wilderness Land Trust recently partnered to protect a 94-acre private inholding within Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.

At 2.3 million acres, the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states and is home to over 180 miles of the free-flowing Salmon River. Its large, connected habitats are rich in biodiversity with over 280 species of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.

The Annie Creek property is located near the western edge of the wilderness area, approximately 40 miles from McCall, Idaho. Surrounded by the steep, forested terrain characteristic of the wilderness area, the Annie Creek property includes gentler slopes and flat potential building sites, which along with its proximity to a well-maintained road made it particularly vulnerable to development. Private inholdings within designated wilderness, such as Annie Creek, carry none of the protections of the surrounding lands, and can be subject to further development. The property was purchased from a private owner by the two land trusts with the goal of permanent protection from development, and was made possible by generous support from the Leuthold Foundation.

“The fast pace at which Idaho is changing requires voluntary partnerships between private landowners, organizations and foundations to conserve Idaho’s natural beauty. We are proud to work with the Wilderness Land Trust and the Leuthold Foundation to conserve this unique property into the future”

-Payette Land Trust Executive Director, Craig Utter

“Thanks to our partnerships with the Payette Land Trust and the Leuthold Foundation, this special place will be protected for future generations to enjoy in one of America’s most iconic wilderness areas”

-Wilderness Land Trust President, Brad Borst

Annie Creek is the 12th property protected by the Wilderness Land Trust in Idaho, totaling over 1,300 acres.

Giving thanks this holiday season

November 27, 2024-

As our staff steps away from the office this week to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, we’re taking a moment to reflect on all that we have to give thanks for. We are so grateful for the fulfillment of mission-driven work, the community that makes it all possible, and the wild places that have shaped each of us throughout our lives and led us to this work. From all of us at the Trust, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!

Brad- This holiday season, I am most thankful for our generous donors who provide the critical financial resources that we need in order to pursue our mission. They routinely welcome me into their homes or to sit down and share a meal, share their personal experiences that connect them to wilderness, and offer all that they can to support what we do. All of them are more than supporters of The Wilderness Land Trust. They are family and I remain forever grateful for their generosity.

Aimee- I’m thankful for all our partners who make our work possible—most recently the Mad River Hot Shot Crew who got me into the last inholding in the Mt. Lassic Wilderness last week in the snow, just beating out the atmospheric river coming in off the Pacific, so we could move forward on the project this winter!

Margosia- I’m thankful for the wonderful coworkers, family, friends, and dogs who I get to spend time with exploring the wild places we work to protect!

Kelly- I am thankful for a mission and vision I am inspired to work towards, project partners and supporters who help us achieve it, a team that makes the job fun, and site visits! I am very grateful for site visits.

Lisa- I’m thankful for the extraordinary generosity of our donors, who continue to hold wilderness close to their hearts and support with trust with an unwavering commitment. Together, we add to wilderness year after year, growing what we all have to be grateful for!

Tasha- This year I am thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow at an organization where I am passionate about the mission. I am beyond grateful to the amazing and wonderful staff at the Trust that have been so inviting and encouraging in this new work adventure.

 

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Celebrating a year of conservation success in our 2023-2024 Annual Report

November 1, 2024-

Every fall, after our fiscal year has come to a close, we report back to you, our partners and supporters, in our Annual Report on what we have accomplished together in the previous year. This year we had lots to celebrate as we acquired lands in and around wilderness across the country and transferred them to public ownership.

Read the Annual Report

 

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Exploring the wilderness you love through maps

October 18, 2024-

In July we shared with you about our work to create a first of its kind GIS-based national inventory of private properties in and around wilderness. This tool has already been valuable in our work for how it allows us to explore the wild places we work in in a different way. We’re excited to share with you some free mapping tools that are available to the public to help you explore the wild places you love as well.

For many of us, some of our most memorable wilderness adventures began with pouring over a map: planning routes, interpreting how the topo lines would translate to the landscape under our feet. Maps help us to understand the vastness and connectedness of these wild places beyond what we can see from any valley or peak. While folding out a paper map on the trail will always be a quintessential wilderness experience, a new generation of mapping tools is helping us to understand wilderness in new ways.

The Find Wilderness tool from The Wilderness Society is an interactive map that asks where the wildest places are. With it you can visualize the wildest 30% of lands in the US, in each state, and in each county. You can scroll through the story map or click ‘explore data’ in the right hand corner to toggle between layers and zoom in on your home or favorite wilderness.

The Climate Atlas is a collaboration from several conservation groups to map six ecological indicators as well as composite models showing a location’s overall conservation value, importance in climate change mitigation, and importance in maintaining biodiversity. You can explore by zooming in on a specific landscape and switching between the composite models and individual indicators in the menu.

Probably the most complex of the three, The Resilient Lands Mapping Tool from The Nature Conservancy also maps composite models for resilience, connectivity & climate flow, and biodiversity. It also maps different component data for those models, including things like elevation, slope steepness, and bedrock and soil. You can also use more technical layers like soil carbon, vegetation and land cover, and different categories of conservation protection. This tool also allows you to draw a polygon on a specific property or area and have it analyzed for resiliency, connectivity, and climate flow.

Exploring the landscapes you care about, whether they are your own backyard or the wilderness areas you return to year after year, through maps can help deepen your understanding of and appreciation for them. After all, many of the things we value wilderness for most, like its clean air and water, thriving ecosystems, and balance of natural systems go beyond what our own eye can see. It is also essential to understanding what we are working to protect and what strategies have the most impact. We hope you enjoy nerding out on these maps as much as we do!

 

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Fossil Ridge Wilderness grows with Trust’s 5th Colorado transfer this year

October 4, 2024-

This week the Trust completed the transfer of our 183-acre Cross Mountain project in Colorado’s Fossil Ridge Wilderness to public ownership. The transfer comes on the heels of two other successful projects in Gunnison National Forest this year: the 10-acre Straeder Lode just outside the Raggeds Wilderness, and 10-acre Copper Glance Lode in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

This most recent transfer will permanently protect the property, which straddles the wilderness boundary and has nearby road access leaving it vulnerable to development and uses incompatible with the surrounding wilderness.

“This acquisition protects wild and undeveloped viewsheds and consolidates private ownership within National Forest System lands, eliminating the need for special use authorizations. Acquisition of these parcels will help strengthen and preserve Congressionally Designated Wilderness Areas.”

– Dayle Funka, Gunnison District Ranger

The Trust’s process for protecting wild places like Cross Mountain has two phases: first we purchase the property from the private landowner, then we hold the property until it can transfer to public ownership. We typically aim to be acquiring and transferring roughly the same total value of projects each year to keep our Wilderness Opportunity Fund (WOF), which funds the majority of our acquisitions, at a healthy level.

Striking this balance isn’t always possible though. As our work gains momentum in new areas and sometimes decades-long relationships with landowners and partners grow, more and more acquisition opportunities are becoming available. This is, of course, something to celebrate. But each project moves at its own pace, with the time between the purchase and transfer of a property typically taking 2-4 years. In some regions we’ve seen this timeline stretching longer and longer as our agency partners do their best with limited capacity. When this happens, these factors can converge resulting in a backlog of transfers, meaning more of our WOF is tied up in projects than is available to take advantage of new conservation opportunities as they arise.

There are two meaningful solutions to this challenge: First, our lands staff and partners have been hard at work this year to clear this backlog of transfers, both to see projects completed and successfully protected, and to make more Wilderness Opportunity Funds available for new acquisitions. Cross Mountain is the fifth such project in Colorado transferred this year, marking significant progress toward this goal. Thanks to it, we already we have another five Colorado projects in development in the Holy Cross, Uncompahgre, and Weminuche Wilderness Areas and Red Cloud Wilderness Study Area.

The second way we are working to address this challenge is growing our Wilderness Opportunity Fund. You can join us in supporting the WOF with a revolving donation that will be reinvested in new acquisitions over and over, deepening the impact of your gift. Revolving funds can be named in honor or memory of an individual or foundation, and can be included in estate planning. Low or no interest loans can also be made to the WOF to acquire a specific property, multiple projects in a specific region or state, or as needed across our entire lands portfolio. Learn more about joining our Wilderness Opportunity Fund or contact info@wildernesslandtrust.org.

 

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Public access protected as Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Grows

September 19, 2024-

This week another gap in Colorado’s Collegiate Peaks Wilderness was mended as The Wilderness Land Trust transferred the 19-acre Panama Principal Lode to be added to the wilderness area.

With the transfer completed, the threat of development has been removed from the property, and the wilderness area has been made more whole. The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness is located between Leadville, Aspen, and Crested Butte, and is a prime example of sensitive alpine habitat. With eight 14,000’+ peaks within it, it has the highest average elevation of any designated wilderness in the lower 48 states and includes 40 miles of the Continental Divide. Dwarfed krummholz trees dot the landscape, growing in twisted shapes, sheltered from the wind by surrounding rocks, showing how extreme the environment is within this high alpine terrain. Only the hardiest animals make this landscape their home. In fact, in 2009 a male wolverine was spotted in the Collegiate Peaks, the first confirmed sighting in the state since 1919.

M56, the young wolverine radio collared in Grand Teton National Park before making his way south to the Collegiate Peaks.

The 19-acre Panama Principal Lode property adjoins and builds off the success of two other Trust projects: the Grandview Lode which was added to the wilderness in 2019, and Spotted Tail Lode which is awaiting transfer. While they are all relatively small properties, their cumulative impact grows as we eliminate more and more inholdings throughout the Collegiate Peaks and nearby wilderness areas. Protection of the Panama Principal Lode also benefits recreation in this popular area, with public access now ensured on the Green Mountain Trail, which runs through the property. The property is also within the viewshed of the scenic Hwy 82 as it climbs to Independence Pass.

This project would not be possible without the donors who generously supported it, the volunteers who helped to restore the property to its wilderness character, and our partners at the Independence Pass Foundation and U.S. Forest Service.

“The Independence Pass Foundation is beyond thrilled that the beautiful Panama and Principal claims have become part of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, where they can be preserved and protected and enjoyed by the public for all time. HUGE thanks to The Wilderness Land Trust and the US Forest Service for making this possible, and to the dozens of volunteers who over four months hauled several tons of dilapidated structures and debris from the properties to make them ‘wilderness ready’ for transfer. What a wonderful way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act!”

– Karin Teague, Executive Director Independence Pass Foundation

This is the 14th property in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness that the Trust has protected.

 

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Cleaning up Washington’s Wild Sky Wilderness

September 4, 2024-

After the Trust acquires a private property in or around wilderness, we work with our agency partners to assess whether any restoration work is needed prior to transferring it to public ownership. Our goal is to restore the property to its wilderness character, improve habitat, and mitigate any public safety concerns on the property. What exactly that restoration looks like is different for each property, and has ranged from removing cabins, vehicles, and commercial mining equipment, to closing historic mine adits, and packing out trash.

A few weeks ago Trust President Brad Borst and Senior Lands Specialist Kelly Conde hiked into several properties owned by the Trust in Washington’s Wild Sky Wilderness with our USFS partners. Thanks to its rugged landscape and lush temperate rainforest, our Wild Sky Wilderness projects are notoriously difficult to access. Brad, Kelly, and two USFS employees hiked 10 miles through this terrain, crossing logs over steep ravines, to visit our Greater New York and Rambler Lode properties. There, they were able to clean up and pack out several tables, metal sheeting, a pully system from a mine opening, rope, webbing, and some other assorted trash.

While not the most complex restoration project we’ve completed, it signals we are getting close to being able to complete the transfer of the 15 properties we currently own in the Wild Sky Wilderness to public ownership later this year. About 1/4 of Washington’s remaining wilderness inholdings are in the Wild Sky Wilderness, and another 1/2 are in the adjacent Henry M Jackson Wilderness. This transfer is the exciting culmination of several years of work, and will have a real impact in unifying this wilderness landscape which is highly fragmented by many private inholdings.

 

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