Wrapping Up the Year 2021 - Conserving McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park Land

We are thrilled to announce the protection of approximately 135 acres of forested lands just south of Lake Britton. This project was finalized just days before the new year, capping out our total number of completed projects in 2021 at an organizational record of five in a single calendar year!

View of Lake Britton from the newly conserved land

The newly conserved area within the Pit River Watershed lies nine miles north of Burney, CA and falls within unceded territory of the Pit River Tribe. As the new holder of a conservation easement in this area, Shasta Land Trust acknowledges this land’s ancestral history: Indigenous peoples of the Pit River Tribe stewarded and subsisted off of these forests for thousands of years, conducting hunting and gathering practices as well as ceremonies upon sites of cultural significance. 

Throughout the last century, this section of the Pit River Watershed was owned and utilized by Pacific Gas & Electric for hydroelectric operations that took a great toll on the land and waterways. Now under the ownership of State Parks and the official protection through a conservation easement with the Shasta Land Trust, this unique section of McArthur Burney Falls Memorial State Park will remain protected open space in perpetuity. Excitingly, this project is the first piece of a much larger land conservation effort around Lake Britton.

A mix of hardwood and conifer trees grow in a mosaic-like pattern throughout the mountains of this now conserved land. Stands of California black oak and Oregon white oak grow adjacent to clusters of towering ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Douglas-fir, and incense cedar. Small openings in the forest canopies allow light through to the ground below, enabling the growth of fragrant sumac, wild rose, gooseberry, manzanita, and deer brush, as well as silver lupine, wild ginger, yarrow, bracken fern, coyote mint, blue elderberry, mahala mat, and rubber rabbitbrush. Critically, this newly protected open space provides habitat for nearly 100 individuals of a rare plant species called slender goldenbanner, latin name Thermopsis gracilis.

This variety of botanical species provides abundant foraging and shelter opportunities for an incredible array of wildlife. Many birds including bald eagle, sandhill crane, willow flycatcher, black swift, and Osprey frequent the region. It also provides suitable habitat for the threatened West Coast fisher, which once inhabited a much larger territory throughout Canada and the United States. This area’s ecological connectivity to Lake Britton and surrounding streams makes it an essential conservation zone for aquatic species like river otter, western pond turtle, southern long-toed salamander, Pit-Klamath brook lamprey, and waterfowl as well as a variety of endangered and threatened species like Shasta crayfish and rough sculpin.

Lucky for us residents of Shasta County, we are able to visit these protected natural communities through the public access benefit of the California State Parks system. Hiking trails, including a quarter mile of the infamous Pacific Crest Trail and the Pioneer Cemetery Trail, wind their way through the newly protected land. Clear views of Lake Britton in the foreground and Mount Shasta in the distance make this a truly special area for sightseeing. 

Shasta Land Trust is both proud and humbled to play its part in safeguarding the recreational and ecological values of this open space. We extend our gratitude to our partners at California State Parks, Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, and PG&E for their role in moving this project forward to its completion, and to our supporters who help us move all our land conservation efforts forward, today and always.