News Archives - Page 7 of 17 - Wilderness Land Trust

900 Acres of Critical California Habitat Protected

October 7, 2022- In northern California’s Mendocino County, tucked between the Wild and Scenic Eel River and peaks of the Sanhedrin Wilderness, lies 900 acres of private land known as the Thomas Creek property. Last week The Wilderness Land Trust closed on the property and is now in the process of transferring it to Mendocino National Forest.

The rolling hills of the Thomas Creek property are spotted with protected oak savannah and groves of madrone trees, home to a thriving community of rare plants, spotted owls, martens, bears, mountain lions, and deer. Among the rare plant species is the Anthony Peak Lupine which only grows in Mendocino National Forest. The Thomas Creek property provides a link between lower-elevation habitats and the mature fir forests that blanket the high country, as well as a critical wildlife corridor between the Sanhedrin Wilderness to the north and additional National Forest lands to the south.

The property also contains one of the last private sections of Thomas Creek, an important tributary to the Eel River, and critical spawning grounds for its steelhead and coho salmon fisheries. The Eel River hosts both summer and winter runs of steelhead, but as its 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 Thomas Creek an important refuge.

Due to its importance in regional conservation efforts, the project has gained support from the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers California Chapter, Redwood Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Willits Environmental Center.

“The Thomas Creek project will contribute substantially to meeting the larger regional conservation efforts”. -Ellen Drell, Willits Environmental Center Director

“This purchase would also be an excellent addition and model for State and Federal 30×30 goals to conserve and restore 30% of lands and waters by 2030.” -Devin O’Dea, California Chapter Coordinator Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Our relationship with the private landowner began in 2011 when we purchased another of their nearby properties located inside the wilderness boundaries to help complete the newly designated Sanhedrin Wilderness. So, when it came time for the landowner to decide the future of this property, they had confidence that the Wilderness Land Trust and Mendocino National Forest would ensure its protection for future generations and complete the deal efficiently and professionally. The 900-acre property became a high priority for the Trust and the agency for its climate change resilience value and high threat of development with the potential to be subdivided into six building sites.

Over the coming months, we will be working closely with the USFS leadership at Mendocino National Forest, the regional office, and Washington D.C. to complete the transfer of this important landscape to public hands.

Introducing our newest staff member Margosia Jadkowski

September 23, 2022- It is my pleasure to introduce myself as the new Director of Marketing & Communications for the Wilderness Land Trust. I’m so excited to join the amazing team at the Trust and to bring my diverse experience to help tell the stories of the wilderness areas we work to protect and the people who have been shaped by them.

I grew up in rural Maine, and studied Geology at Colby College. It was while working as a research assistant, mapping tectonic fault zones in Wyoming’s Medicine Bow Mountains, that I first fell in love with the wilderness of the West. While I’m still a nerd for rocks, I quickly realized that my passion lies not just in studying mountains, but in connecting people to them and protecting them for future generations. With that inspiration, I earned my master’s degree in Sustainability and Environmental Management from Harvard University, focusing on land conservation communications. Since then I have worked for a variety of government agencies and non-profits on community-driven conservation and recreation projects, most recently for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and Whitefish Legacy Partners.

Living in Whitefish, Montana with my husband Garrett and dogs Pete and Duckie, I enjoy exploring my backyard of Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex by foot, skis, and paddle.

As the Wilderness Land Trust celebrates its 30th anniversary year, I feel so lucky to be joining an organization with such a rich history of accomplishment and connection, and am excited to be part of its continued growth. Most importantly, I am looking forward to connecting with many of you, our supporters and partners, as we work together to keep the promise of wilderness.

Jumbo Lode Acquisition | Protecting Silver Creek

September 9, 2022- This month, The Wilderness Land Trust closed on a 12-acre inholding called Jumbo Lode in the Wild Sky Wilderness of Washington. This property is located in the heart of the Silver Creek drainage. It is a steep tangle of underbrush and tall trees. At the base of the property is Silver Creek, a tributary to the North Fork Skykomish River, which provides important habitat for spawning salmon. Jumbo Lode is, admittedly, very hard to get to and would be very hard to develop. Considering just this one property alone, one may wonder why we go through the effort.

The Wilderness Land Trust prioritizes acquisitions through an internal ranking system. Some properties that are larger in acreage, close to an important resource, easier to get to and develop, or include public access rise to the top of our list of priorities. And some are part of a larger effort by the Trust. The Jumbo Lode is an example of the latter.

While the 12-acre property is smaller and far more remote than many, it is an important piece in our quest to fill in the Silver Creek drainage puzzle. The Silver Creek drainage was once cluttered with private parcels from the Washington mining era. One small parcel may not change a landscape but an entire drainage of parcels does. The Wilderness Land Trust is working hard to pick these parcels up, one by one, until the entire drainage is part of the Wild Sky Wilderness and free from the threat of mining and logging. Jumbo Lode is the 18th parcel the Trust has acquired in the Silver Creek drainage. By doing this work, we are making sure that Silver Creek remains a viable and critical part of the Wild Sky Wilderness habitat. Jumbo Lode is our latest success in this effort.

We are grateful that we have supporters who understand this work and allow us to continue it. Thank you for all you do to help us keep the promise of wilderness.

Boots on the Ground: California

August 26, 2022-

Boots on the Ground: A Site Visit Series

The Trust is fortunate to share frequent stories of success with you. One critical component of our work leading up to the success is visiting each property in person. As part of our own due diligence during the acquisition and transfer phases, we join with our partners to meet landowners, inspect property conditions, validate property boundaries, create a plan for any stewardship needs, execute restoration plans and experience the wilderness character for ourselves. These trips often require logistical planning and backcountry travel, but are one of the most fulfilling duties of our work. We invite you into the wilderness with us on our last site visit.

Date: August 19, 2022
Location: Mormon Meadows Property, Bodie Hills Wilderness Study Area, CA
Staff: Aimee Rutledge
Theme: Lekking Juniper Sage Territory

The field day started at the 960-acre Mormon Meadows property along Clearwater Creek in Bodie Hills, CA. The Wilderness Land Trust acquired this property in 2019. Multiple agency partners, including the US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service, are providing funds to the Trust to restore this property for sage grouse before we transfer the property to the US Bureau of Land Management for permanent protection.

All around the meadow, juniper forests have encroached on former sagebrush habitat. Generally, in the western United States, junipers became 600% more dense in the last 150 years. Sage grouse, a bird that evolved in a large and treeless landscape, suffer when trees take over. Birds avoid mating or nesting if there are more than a couple trees on the landscape, likely because conifer woodlands are riskier habitats for grouse with more predators. Other sagebrush-reliant wildlife like mule deer and songbirds are also negatively impacted when conifers crowd out the perennial plants they need for food and cover.

A study from the Warner Mountains, an area with similar sagebrush habitat to the Bodie Hills, found that 29% of marked hens moved back to nest in restored habitat just three years after conifers were cut. Additional research in the Warners also revealed the abundance of sagebrush-loving songbirds, also species adapted to large treeless expansions, doubled following restoration through juniper removal. For more information see this link.

But, as always, balance is extremely important. Heritage juniper trees have many traditional uses for Native Americans (bark for primitive camp fire-starts and roof thatch, smoking for deerskin tanning, wood for kitchen utensils and bows, greens and/or dried berries for teas for treating fever, pain, and other health uses, digging sticks as well as potential food or flour in times of need), and provide habitat for pinyon jays. So, our team’s job was to mark older, heritage junipers for retention before starting the restoration project. We first hiked into the trees to discuss how to mark large, heritage juniper trees for retention, including trunk sizes, bark texture, and crown appearance.

We then prepared GPS equipment with the boundaries of the restoration area surrounding the meadow and creek, including former documented leks or breeding grounds for the sage grouse. And, we grabbed plenty of water and donned hats and sunscreen for our work in the high altitude Eastern Sierra sun. The Bodie Hills are around 7,000 feet in elevation and stretch from the Eastern side of the Sierra to the California-Nevada border just north of Mono Lake. They contain three wilderness study areas and host migrating deer and pronghorn antelope, along with sage grouse and many other species.

We split up into teams to survey different restoration sections and took off up hillsides around the meadow. We carefully looked for the types of trees we had discussed and marked each tree meeting our criteria multiple places with bright pink forester’s tape, wrapping each marker twice around a branch before we tied it to make sure it stayed on.

The end of our day brought us to the top of a ridge with a vista of tall Eastern Sierra peaks. We tried to “think like a grouse” and picture the overall landscape post-restoration as we looked down over the hillside we had marked, visualizing the marked trees spread in restored sagebrush habitat.

At the end of the day, we were parched. The importance of water sources like Clearwater Creek for breeding, migrating and feeding in this dry landscape became abundantly clear especially in the face of climate change and increased drought.

We wish you great adventures in wild places as summer winds down and we thank you for your continued support of our work.

Keeping the Promise of Wilderness,

Aimee

Project Updates

August 12, 2022-

In the last two years, The Wilderness Land Trust has completed fundraising campaigns for several critical property acquisitions. Your generosity funded the purchase of these lands and covered acquisition costs. We are happy to provide you an update on the second phase of those projects, the transfer to public land.

Achenbach | Organ Mountains Wilderness, NM

WLT acquired 109 acres and secured trail access at the mouth of Achenbach Canyon in February 2021, protecting wildlife habitat and scenic views within the 500,000-acre wilderness. The Trust is grateful for our partnership with Friends of Organ Mountains Desert Peaks. We continue to work with the Bureau of Land Management staff to transfer the Achenbach Canyon property for permanent protection, which will take a few years. Thanks for your support of this important acquisition at Achenbach Canyon to protect future public access.

Panama and Principal Lode | Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, CO

When we purchased the 19-acre Panama/Principal Lode property outside of Aspen, Colorado in the fall of 2020, we knew there was work to be done to get the property “wilderness ready” in order to transfer it to the White River National Forest. A historic cabin on the property needed to be emptied of its contents, its roof dismantled, and the mounds of trash surrounding it, removed.

The Trust enlisted the help of The Independence Pass Foundation (IPF) with the cleanup and throughout last summer, volunteers made multiple trips to the property to haul out everything from old bedsprings to a heavy table and chairs to a yoga mat. The culmination of this work happened in late August, 2021 when the Trust, IPF, and the Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV) dismantled and carried out a wood-burning stone, the cabin’s plywood floor and metal roof.

We are happy to report that, upon the completion of this cleanup, the property is now ready to be transferred to become part of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. We are working with the US Forest Service staff to complete this transfer.

Little Chetco | Kalmiopsis Wilderness, OR

The Trust acquired this 60-acre mining claim adjacent the Little Chetco River in 2017, the last remaining private inholding within the 180,000 acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness. This southwest Oregon wilderness contains the headwaters of three national wild and scenic rivers — the Chetco, North Fork Smith, and Illinois — clean, clear waters that provide critical habitat for salmon and steelhead. Our acquisition and impending transfer to the USFS permanently removes the threat of a former active mining operation that directly impacted critical spawning beds and water quality of the Chetco River drainage.

Acquisition of these properties removed the threat of development, but there is an equal amount of hard work in transferring these properties to our agency partners for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Your continued support of The Wilderness Land Trust provides the resources for our staff to complete site visits and due diligence in that second phase of work. Please consider making a gift to steward these lands into public ownership!

Boots on the Ground: Alaska

Boots on the Ground: A Site Visit Series

The Trust is fortunate to share frequent stories of success with you. One critical component of our work leading up to the success is visiting each property in person. As part of our due diligence during the acquisition and transfer phases, we join with our partners to meet landowners, inspect property conditions, validate property boundaries, create a plan for any stewardship needs and experience the wilderness character for ourselves. These trips often require logistical planning and backcountry travel, but are one of the most fulfilling duties of our work. We invite you into the wilderness with us on our last site visit.

Date: July 12, 2022

Location: Wheeler Creek Property, Kootznoowoo Wilderness, AK

Staff: Aimee Rutledge and Kelly Conde

Theme: Boating, Bushwacking, Boundaries and Buddies

The field day started at the US Forest Service office in Juneau, AK donning waders and XtraTuff rubber boots. The Tongass National Forest is the largest intact temperate rainforest on the planet. So while the property we were planning to visit was well above the water line, walking through the brush can leave you just as wet as walking through a stream. Every site visit includes some bushwhacking to find property corners and boundary lines and in Alaska, that means hiking in waders.

We spent this day with our important project partners — the US Forest Service lands, recreation and realty staff from the Tongass National Forest, the Southeast Alaska Land Trust (SEALT) and one of the willing landowner who helped us by providing his firsthand knowledge of the land.

The property is located south of Juneau, Alaska, on Admiralty Island, the Kootznoowoo Wilderness (“Fortress of the Bears” in Lingít) is aptly named, as Admiralty Island is said to have the world’s highest concentration of brown bears in the world – an estimated 1,600 bears. This is more than one bear per square mile of the island. While sea life was abundant, there were sadly no bear sightings for us on this trip, although the landowner mentioned seeing a mother and cub just before our visit and USFS staff noted that bears frequently come down to Wheeler Creek!

To get there, we departed Juneau by boat with USFS staff at the helm and whizzed through Chatham Strait on the west side of Admiralty Island National Monument next to the humpback whales, Dall’s porpoises and pink salmon that call it home. After careful maneuvering at the right tide, two of us “sounding” for depth and debris, we anchored at the mouth of Wheeler Creek.

Watching for Alaskan brown bears, we boated up the creek to our recently purchased property in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness.

We scouted through the thick rainforest and ravenous mosquitos for property boundaries with USFS and SEALT, and got acquainted with adjacent long-time property owners for a potential next purchase.

The end of our day brought us near a humpback whale. We paused the boat to listen to the whale’s breath swishing from its blowhole, reminding of why our work is so important.

Whale Video

The urgency to protect the biodiversity of this most wild of places in the face of climate change becomes clear with a view of the drastically reduced Mendenhall Glacier, the backdrop to Auke Bay/Juneau.

We wish you great adventures in wild places this summer and we thank you for your continued support of our work.

From the Wild,

Aimee Rutledge and Kelly Conde

2022 Spring Newsletter – Celebrating Three Decades of Protecting Wilderness

July 2022-

Happy 30th birthday. Close your eyes and make a wish.

If you dream of landscapes where wildlife are free to roam, rivers and streams run cold and clear, and the opportunity for solitude amongst breathtaking beauty abounds, The Wilderness Land Trust can help make those dreams come true.

It’s been 30 years since The Wilderness Land Trust was established to counter the threat of commercial, residential and private development in the heart of our nation’s wildest places. During this time, our projects have expanded in scope and scale, initially focused on wilderness areas near Aspen, Colorado and now stretching from Alaska to Arizona.

Today, we have permanently protected more than 55,000 acres and placed 522 parcels of formerly private land into public ownership—a positive impact on more than 17 million acres of federally designated wilderness across the American west.

Please enjoy details of our latest projects and partnerships in our Spring Newsletter. It features a special 30th anniversary insert that takes you on a joyful journey on some of the places we have protected together.

We remain most grateful for the opportunity to partner with you—our generous donors, landowners, agency staff and project partners—to make a meaningful difference in the world and preserve its unique beauty and biodiversity for future generations.

Please feel free to share this newsletter with family, friends or colleagues you think may be interested in supporting our good work. We welcome their involvement and thank you for your help and generosity in spreading the word.

Beyond the Ghost Town Lies a Stranger Lode

June 30, 2022 – The Holy Cross Wilderness of Colorado is one of miles of trails and stunning beauty. It sits between the Vail Pass and Thompson Divide wildlife corridors and allows everything from elk to Canada lynx to pass through unencumbered. This wilderness area is also riddled with private land that threaten that passage. The Wilderness Land Trust recently ramped up our efforts to remove these threats and as a result, in the last year we have acquired five parcels in the Holy Cross Wilderness.

The Stranger Lode property is our latest acquisition and is located along the shores of Cleveland Lake just inside the southeast side of the wilderness area boundary. The hike to Cleveland Lake is short and steep. It follows a road that was build in 1883 to support the mining town of Holy Cross City. Today, the road is a well-known world class 4×4 excursion. On the weekends, it is crowded with those with the skills and will to drive up to what is now the ghost town of Holy Cross City.

Just a mile above the ghost town and within the wilderness is Cleveland Lake and the Stranger Lode property. Where Holy Cross City provides a destination for extreme motorists, the lake provides solitude and serenity for hikers.

Though the Stranger Lode parcel is small at only 9 acres, it posed a big threat. The property is flat and scenic and close enough to the wilderness border and a road to increase the likelihood of cabin development.

With the threat removed, The Wilderness Land Trust is turning our focus to transferring the over 50 acres of land that we now own in the Holy Cross Wilderness to public ownership. It is because of you, our supporters, that our work continues and areas like the Holy Cross Wilderness move, piece by piece, towards a truly protected place. We thank you!

A creek winds between forested hillsides

WLT Protects Cabin Sites From Development in Southeast Alaska’s Chuck River and Kootznoowoo Wilderness Areas

June 16, 2022 – The Wilderness Land Trust partnered with the Southeast Alaska Land Trust (SEALT) to acquire two inholdings: the Wheeler Creek 5 and Chuck River Bend properties, in order to protect their watersheds and the salmon, brown bear, and Sitka black-tailed deer that call them home. When our transfer of this land to the U.S. Forest Service is complete, a total of 33 acres of new wild lands will be added to the Tongass National Forest and permanently protected from private development.

Located south of Juneau, Alaska, on Admiralty Island, the Kootznoowoo Wilderness (“Fortress of the Bears” in Lingít) is aptly named, as Admiralty Island is said to have the world’s highest concentration of brown bears in the world – an estimated 1,600 bears. This is more than 1 bear per square mile of the island. The Chuck River Wilderness is also south of Juneau but on the mainland, and is bordered by the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness. The Chuck River is a major producer of several species of salmon, but especially pink salmon. Both wilderness areas are located within the Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States, and the largest intact temperate rainforest on the planet. The Tongass has sometimes been referred to as America’s Climate Forest, for its unmatched ability to mitigate climate change. It remains one of the most important forests in the world.

Despite its remoteness, residents and visitors can access these wilderness areas by boat or float plane, and often do. In fact, remoteness is often the draw for many people who end up building private cabins in such areas. Preserving the ecological integrity, size, and connectivity of these wilderness areas serves to provide a high level of resilience in the face of climate change, establishes secure habitat for native wildlife, and ensures the economic benefits of recreation and tourism for both residents and visitors of Southeast Alaska.

The Wilderness Land Trust, in partnership with the Southeast Alaska Land Trust, has now completed three projects in Southeast Alaska, including conserving the largest remaining inholding in the Chuck River Wilderness.

A heartfelt thanks to all our supporters and our partners – Southeast Alaska Land Trust and private donors – for making these acquisitions successful.

Another Win for Wilderness on the Snake River

June 2, 2022 – The Wilderness Land Trust recently worked with the US Forest Service (USFS) to add 82 acres to Oregon’s Hells Canyon Wilderness Area. The private parcel, which is on a scenic bench above the Snake River and has the Reservoir Bench Trail running through it, is in the heart of the wilderness area and threatened the public access to the trail and the ecological integrity of the area.

This project was unique in the fact that the Trust acquired and transferred the property on the same day. The USFS had been working directly with the landowners, Idaho Power, and already had the due diligence completed and funding lined up to acquire the property. The two parties, both informed by their own bureaucratic process, came to a stalemate over legal documents and the Trust was called to step in as a third party.

The Wilderness Land Trust is designed to be nimble and to take on risk if the end goal is to create a stronger, more unified wilderness. We were created that way for this exact situation. The Trust was able to step in with the flexibility to get the deal done. Now, the Hells Canyon Wilderness is one step closer to being whole.

As we continue to celebrate 30 years of accomplishments, this project proved that these accomplishments are ever-building. The more we complete in a professional, efficient manner, the more we’re able to do. We are forever grateful to be called upon by our strong federal partners to do the work of keeping the promise of wilderness. And we are forever grateful to you, our supporters, for ensuring that we’re around to receive that call.

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