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Land Trust Success Stories: Northwestern Region
Easements and Blackhawk Wildlife Preserve Featured in Idaho Statesman IDAHO - An in-depth article in the Jan. 16, 2007 edition of The Idaho Statesman focused on conservation easements, and noted the Payette Land Trust's easement on the Blackhawk Wildlife Preserve as one of the newest in Idaho. Read the article, "Conservation easements gain a toehold in valley." (posted 2/16/07)Back to Home Waters' Strategic Success
OREGON - When we last covered the Deschutes Basin Land Trust in 2003, they had recently completed a purchase of the Metolius Preserve, a 1,240-acre tract of critically important forest habitat. More recently, they protected the stunning 1,120-acre Rimrock Ranch. All of this is part of their successful Back to Home Waters campaign that originated in 2000. Back to Home Waters is a strategic conservation plan that aims to protect much of the remaining habitat for salmon and steelhead in the upper Deschutes River Basin. With that protection in place, these fish can be restored to the basin for the first time in forty years. The project’s success depends on protecting important fish habitat in private ownership, including working farms and ranches in the Whychus Creek and Crooked River watersheds, as well as in undeveloped private lands in the Metolius River watershed. In August 2006, the land trust took another important step in the project by finalizing the land protection agreement with landowners Bob and Gayle Baker of Rimrock Ranch. The Ranch contains productive rangeland, pine forests and more than 1.6 miles of Wychus Creek that steelhead will use for spawning. It is also home to golden eagles, redband trout, wintering mule deer, and sensitive bat species, including the spotted bat. The Back to Home Waters project demonstrates several important of aspects of strategic conservation by:
Regional Scope Conservation Priorities The priorities are chosen by using a database the land trust created. It incorporates typical GIS data (parcels, roads, zoning, soils, etc.) along with somewhat less typical data (qualitative and quantitative habitat assessments) and data they developed themselves. “We’re basically looking at parcel size, adjacent parcel size, stream habitat quality, soils, migratory corridors, development potential, and growth pressure,” Nye said. Partnerships When working with the various upper basin conservation organizations, the groups prioritize projects and raise money to support the programs. Nye explained that, “while we all compete for funding, we seem to be having success at applying funding to the highest priorities within the program, irrespective of which group actually raises or receives the money.”
Stewardship Amanda Egertson, land steward for the land trust, recommends another method of raising funds for stewardship – writing grants for individual projects. “I wanted to build two pedestrian bridges and viewing platforms along our nature trail in order to channel recreation use and reduce soil compaction in the riparian area.” By submitting a request to the National Forest Foundation, the land trust was awarded the funds. She also explained that along with the organizational partnerships “our volunteers are an absolutely critical part of our organization and our success.” Whether it is helping plant native vegetation, constructing or maintaining trails, assisting with forestry work, or pulling up weeds, “they really make the stewardship of each Preserve possible.” Conclusion
An Ancient Grove of Trees Stands Tall MONTANA - At a spot between the Rattlesnake Mountains and the Big Blackfoot River in Montana, there stands a grove of trees centuries older than the United States itself. The oldest ones—some more than 400 years old—are yellow-bark ponderosa pines, which are very tall and very straight, with trunks measuring as many as four-feet in diameter. Local hikers have appreciated the pines silently for years, and one of them, a woman named Margrit Syroid, recently helped transform that devotion into something more tangible: protection status. More (posted 2/16/06) Bigfork Area: Neighborhood Conservation Model
The organization was recently featured in a series of articles in the Bigfork Eagle and Daily Interlake highlighting their work in the Bigfork region. The Bigfork Eagle profiled landowners Don and Sharon Schlitz, who donated two easements in 2003 and 2004 - 180 acres of forest that will conserve wildlife habitat on Wolf Creek, and 100 acres of farmland where Sharon grew up and their son Mark runs a tree farm. “This land has special meaning to our family and community,” says Sharon. According to Amy Royer, Regional Director at MLR, the media coverage of MLR’s work has helped educate and broaden the outreach of their mission, giving landowners the opportunity to learn about what MLR is doing for individuals as well as the community. Royer explained how this area is a great example of their neighborhood conservation work, which focuses on cumulative land projects. She commented that, “this type of building block conservation often produces greater gains than the piecemeal approach, and really helps strengthen an area as a whole.” The 714 acres of land protected in Bigfork in 2004 brings the total to over 1,400 acres within 11 different projects. (posted 7/12/05) Deschutes Land Trust Completes Purchase for Preserve OREGON - The Deschutes Basin Land Trust (OR) recently announced that it has successfully purchased the land to create the Metolius Preserve. The parcel, a 1,240-acre forest tract near Camp Sherman, Oregon, contains important fish and wildlife habitat. The property lies west of Camp Sherman on Lake Creek, a primary tributary to the Metolius River. It contains habitat critical to efforts to reintroduce salmon to the upper Deschutes River. Spring chinook once spawned in the forks of Lake Creek on the property, while sockeye salmon historically swam through to their spawning gravels above Suttle Lake. Situated within a highly diverse forest, the new preserve will support a variety of wildlife including a large herd of elk. Songbirds migrating between Latin America and Canada use the area as a waystop.
The campaign drew interest from supporters around the world, though it was the local support that proved decisive. "This has been a really tough time to raise money, but the Metolius is such a special place that the community’s response was truly phenomenal. Over 700 families, companies, foundations and agencies contributed to make this dream a reality," said Brad Chalfant, the land trust’s executive director. Gifts ranged from $600,000 from the Paul G. Allen Forest Protection Foundation and $450,000 from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to $10 and $20 gifts from longtime residents. The land trust obtained an option to purchase the tract from Willamette Industries, shortly before Willamette was acquired by Weyerhaeuser. The purchase was completed with Weyerhaeuser after an ambitious campaign to raise the funds to buy, restore and manage the forest land. The acquisition is part of the land trust's Back to Home Waters campaign to restore salmon and steelhead to the upper Deschutes River Basin. "Relicensing the Pelton-Round Butte hydroelectric project near Warm Springs, which includes a plan for getting anadromous fish through the dams, creates a historic opportunity to bring salmon and steelhead trout back to the upper Deschutes Basin," Chalfant said. Now that the Land Trust owns the land, Chalfant said that the most immediate challenge is to balance the public's desire for access against the need to begin providing stewardship. "With the acquisition accomplished, we now need to convert roads to trails, restore disturbed areas, reduce the risk of wildfires and improve wildlife habitat," he said. "We've got limited funding to start that work, so we'll continue raising funds and will ask local folks and businesses to help with many of these projects." (posted 08/22/2003) Summer Chum Recovery on Discovery Bay
The Discovery
Bay estuary is considered the most intact of its type on the Strait
of San Juan de Fuca. The land trust, which will raise $98,000 in Protecting Habitat For Salmon and WaterfowlWASHINGTON - The Nisqually River Basin Land Trust, in its largest purchase since its founding in 1989, bought the 96-acre Grauwen Farm, originally a dairy farm but now used for pasturing cattle. The old farm lies in rural Pierce County, two miles upstream from where Ohop Creek enters the Nisqually River, an area used by wintering waterfowl and bald eagles. Ohop Creek is the third largest tributary to the Nisqually River, providing important habitat for cutthroat trout, steelhead and fall Chinook, pink, chum and Coho salmon. Protection and restoration of the creek is highly ranked on the Nisqually River Chinook Recovery Plan. The land trust plans to implement salmon habitat restoration on the site, partnering with other organizations to help fund and carry out the work. "Because the property lies along a well-traveled road, it is both highly visible and highly accessible," noted President George Walter. (posted 5/24/02) | ||||||||||||
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MONTANA - The 
WASHINGTON
- The Jefferson Land Trust is using a $400,000 grant from the Salmon
Recovery Funding Board to protect more than three miles of stream
within the Salmon and Snow creeks and 300 acres of estuarine and
riparian habitat. The creeks provide habitat for the Hood Canal
summer chum salmon, listed as an endangered species. The area, at
the head of Discovery Bay, saw more than 1,500 chum salmon return
to spawn last year.
local contributions, will use both conservation easements and land
purchases to conserve the land. Project partners are the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Jefferson County Conservation
District, North Olympic Salmon Coalition, Wild Olympia Salmon, Trout
Unlimited and Jefferson County. (posted 8/20/02) 