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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Viewsheds protected in Colorado’s Raggeds Wilderness

August 23, 2024-

The Trust recently transferred a small property just outside Colorado’s Raggeds Wilderness to public ownership to be added to the National Forest.Straeder Lode is just over 10 acres of steep, rugged mountainside on the slopes above Baxter Basin. A popular hiking route from Crested Butte, Baxter Basin and Daisy Pass offer incredible views of flowering alpine meadows, waterfalls, and jagged ridgelines.

The Trust first purchased Straeder Lode in December 2021, and since then has been working to transfer it to Gunnison National Forest. Now that it has been transferred, it can be enjoyed by future generations of recreationists.

Properties like Straeder Lode are a great example of the impact of viewsheds on our wilderness experiences. If you were to close your eyes and imagine one of your favorite places in the wilderness, the picture you conjure would likely include a sweeping view. The area that can be seen from any particular point is known as its viewshed. And when we go to the wilderness for solitude and inspiration, our experience is shaped by more than just the ground we step foot on, the trail corridors and campsites. It is shaped by all we see from those places. So if you were to imagine that from your favorite place in the wilderness your view now included a busy road, or a private resort with helicopters coming and going, or mining equipment and heavy machinery moving the mountainside, you would likely find your experience altered. No longer would you have the same sense of quiet, of solitude in the vastness, and of remaining a visitor in the landscape.

So for a property like Straeder Lode, sitting within the viewshed of popular trails like Baxter Basin and Daisy Pass, the threat of privately owned properties within the wilderness landscape isn’t that public access would be cut off on the trails, it’s that the experience of those traversing those trails would be altered and diminished.

 

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Come along to the recently protected Spring Canyon project

August 9, 2024-

With this year marking the centennial of the Gila Wilderness, America’s first wilderness, we’re thrilled to share that last week the Trust completed our purchase of the 40-acre Spring Canyon inholding. As one of only five remaining inholdings left in the Gila, this acquisition brings us one step closer to completing the wilderness and Aldo Leopold’s vision for protecting this special place.

Our staff recently visited the Gila with our USFS partners, traveling across its landscape in much the same way Leopold did over 100 years ago: on horseback. Come along on a virtual site visit with this short video to see the Gila’s spectacular landscape, learn about its history, meet our USFS partners, and visit Spring Canyon to see its important wildlife habitat and water resources.

Thank you to the 162 donors who helped us to raise the funds this summer needed to purchase the Spring Canyon property! Your generous support makes our work possible! Thank you also to our friends at the Rewilding Institute, Wilderness Watch, Virginia Wilderness Committee, and Northeast Wilderness Trust for helping spread the word about the project.

 

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Wilderness and the lungs of the planet

July 26, 2024-

Increasingly, summer in the West has become synonymous with wildfire season. As of this week, 89 large wildfires are active in the US and have burned 1,611,409 acres. But the impacts of those fires reach far beyond the communities directly affected by them, as smoke blankets much of the country, reaching through the Midwest and New England and well into the Atlantic Ocean. With it comes impacts ranging from reduced visibility to unhealthy air quality.

Map showing the extent of current wildfire smoke from fire.airnow.gov

It’s hard to say whether to call it irony or a perfect example of the balance and interconnectedness of the natural world that the same forests that cyclically burn also help to purify the air of smoke caused by those fires. Forests are often called the lungs of the world for how they help to remove pollutants from the air, ranging beyond smoke to carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. Our nation’s forests offset around 13% of our greenhouse gas emissions every year. Of course, these benefits are provided beyond the boundaries of wilderness areas: roughly 30% of the US is forested, but only 4.5% is wilderness. Urban trees and forests can be particularly impactful as well, as a single tree can absorb 10 pounds of pollutants and 48 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. Interestingly, some trees are more efficient at removing pollutants from the air: the needles of coniferous trees can continually absorb pollutants for several years, while the broader leaves of deciduous trees have more surface area for particulate matter to attach to. “The various species differed more than we expected. Larch, which is a conifer that sheds its needles each autumn, was best in test. Larch trees absorbed the most particle-bound pollutants, but were also good at capturing gaseous PAHs,” found one study.

Clean air is one of the many benefits that wilderness provides, but it is also one of the requirements of protection of wilderness. While the Wilderness Act does not call out clean air as one of the characteristics of wilderness to be preserved in its natural state, the Clean Air Act does categorize wilderness areas larger than 5,000 acres that were established prior to 1977 (totaling 139 of 806 designated wilderness areas) as the highest level of mandated protection against air pollution (with all other wilderness areas are categorized as the second highest level of protection). Development of private lands in and around wilderness areas can be a major source of local air pollution emissions. By limiting this development we are not only aiding in the protection of wilderness character, we are protecting the forest ecosystems which remove pollution from the air.

More broadly, protecting large connected ecosystems in their natural state allows these natural processes and cycles, which are nothing short of miraculous in their efficiency and ingenuity, to go on unimpeded. While technology can offer additional options for removing pollutants from the air, which will likely be increasingly needed to mitigate the climate crisis, you don’t have to look farther than out your window, at the nearest tree, for the original technology of the lungs of the planet.

 

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