6,982 acre Pit River Tunnel Property Conserved

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Shasta Land Trust is pleased to announce the permanent protection of 6,982 acres located along the Pit River near Montgomery Creek and Big Bend in northeastern Shasta County. The property comprises the largest conservation easement held by the Shasta Land Trust, and was protected in partnership with the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, PG&E, and CAL FIRE. 

  • The property will serve as a California State Demonstration Forest for CAL FIRE, and will be managed with regard to watershed protection, habitat restoration, climate change mitigation, and sustainable timber production.

  • The land is the ancestral territory of the Pit River Tribe’s Madesi band, and contains numerous historical and archaeological sites of cultural significance. 

  • The property protects a variety of habitats, including conifer forest, montane hardwood, oak woodlands, meadows, wetlands, and substantial portions of the Pit River. 

  • Numerous wildlife species inhabit the property’s rich aquatic and forested habitats, including osprey, bald eagles, herons, belted kingfishers, rainbow trout, wild trout, and many aquatic and amphibian species. 

  • The property protects scenic viewsheds along the Pit River, including dramatic canyons, meadows, a 139-foot waterfall, and forested land. 

  • Recreational opportunities on the property include fly-fishing, swimming, and whitewater rafting, with a boat launch open to the public at the Madesi River Access site. 

We are incredibly excited to play a role in the protection of this vital property of Shasta County and the many benefits it will bring to our community! 

2022 Fall Update

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As we near the end of 2022, we invite you to read more about our conservation successes over the past year, and beyond. Since 1998, we have strived to protect the incredible waterways, forests, oak woodlands, working ranches and family farms in the greater Shasta County area. Our progress is shown by the incredible timeline of properties protected as shown above – all thanks to your support.

Read more about the properties protected this year in our fall update, including two properties protected and returned to the Pit River Tribe located in the Hat Creek, Pit River, and Fall River regions. Also learn more about the recently protected Cal Fire property located in the Cow Creek area, and UC Berkeley's Center for Forestry and Fire Research property located in the Pit River area, that will serve as research sites to study and mitigate climate change impacts.

3,244 Acre Marble Creek Property Conserved

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We’re pleased to announce 3,244 acres of forest, oak woodland, and riparian land located east of the Pit River, and northeast of Shasta Lake, now protected forever! The property will be owned and managed by Berkeley Forests, UC Berkeley’s Center for Forestry and Fire Research and Outreach, with the intent to develop and test management strategies for forested watersheds to adapt to climate change.

  • The property will be the sixth research forest for the University of California, and will be their first research forest within the Shasta-Cascades region, providing access to different habitats and ecosystems that will expand the University's capabilities for environmental studies.

  • Environmental research may include studies focusing on water quality, greenhouse gas fluxes related to forest vegetation, timber growth and yields, fire risk, and pests and diseases, to determine how those factors impact corresponding habitats for rare plant and animal species.

  • The property lies within the Pit River watershed and encompasses sections of Marble Creek and Cape Horn Creek, as well as 27 ephemeral streams.

  • Protection of the numerous wetlands, groundwater springs, and surrounding Lower Pit River watershed will protect essential habitat for threatened and endangered aquatic and invertebrate species in the region.

  • The property provides substantial prime habitat for many bat species and provides high-quality nesting and foraging habitat for special status raptor species, including a variety of ospreys, hawks, owls, harriers and eagles.

The protection of this biodiverse property and its potential for critical ecological research in this environmentally sensitive time will be an enormous asset to our understanding of how to best mitigate climate change impacts. We look forward to partnering with Berkeley Forests as a resource for local studies that can positively impact our region’s resilience to climate change and fire threats. 

Hat Creek Property Conserved and Returned to the Pit River Tribe

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We are pleased to announce 1,636 acres now protected forever in the Hat Creek Area! Located within the Pit River Tribe’s Illmawi Band’s ancestral territory, the property has now been returned to the Tribe’s ownership as the original stewards of the land. 

The property joins Shasta Land Trust’s protected or soon-to-be protected lands in the Hat Creek and Pit River confluence, totaling an expansive 4,245 acres. The connectivity of this property to adjacent protected lands serves as an incredibly valuable addition to the Hat Creek conservation area. 

The property is located within the Hat Creek watershed and the Pit River watershed near Lake Britton. The proximity to both watersheds makes it an essential conservation zone for aquatic species like blue heron and osprey, as well as a variety of endangered and threatened species like sandhill crane, bank swallow, Shasta crayfish, rainbow trout, and sculpin. The area adjacent to Lake Britton and the Pit River has one of the largest populations of bald eagles within the U.S., in addition to significant populations of osprey and peregrine falcon.

The landscape features a range of diverse habitats including Montane hardwood, conifer, ponderosa pine, and annual grasslands. A wet meadow and several ephemeral streams appear on the property as well. Protection of these habitats and waterways benefit migratory species and native wildlife, and contribute to water quality downstream in the larger Sacramento River watershed. 

This property which contains immense cultural, scenic, and ecological values can remain safe from the risk of development forever! We are thankful for our partners at the Stewardship Council, Pit River Tribe, and PG&E for their support of this conservation project. 

Celebrating our Re-accreditation by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission!

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The Shasta Land Trust is proud to announce that we have been awarded re-accreditation by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission! 

The desire to renew accreditation demonstrates our ongoing commitment to permanent land protection in northern California, with over 31,992 acres of farmland, open space, and wildlife habitat protected since our founding in 1998. 

Accreditation demonstrates sound finances, ethical conduct, and responsible governance as an organization, and signifies the ability to provide lasting stewardship of our conserved properties. Over a one-year period our organization provided extensive documentation and was subject to a comprehensive third-party evaluation prior to achieving this distinction. Out of 1300+ land trusts across the United States, only 461 are accredited.  

Our rich natural resources, open spaces, and scenic beauty of northern California are essential to the health and vibrancy of our local ecosystems and community. As we work together to protect natural habitats and diverse ecosystems threatened by development, we are grateful for our community of willing landowners, partners, and donors who support our mission. We are proud to serve our community and hope you join us in celebrating our continued commitment to protecting the land you love. 

About the Land Trust Accreditation Commission:  The Land Trust Accreditation Commission inspires excellence, promotes public trust and ensures permanence in the conservation of open lands by recognizing organizations that meet rigorous quality standards and strive for continuous improvement. The Commission, established in 2006 as an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, is governed by a volunteer board of diverse land conservation and nonprofit management experts. For more, visit www.landtrustaccreditation.org.

Backpacker's Get Out More Tour

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Backpacker's Get Out More Tour

We're pleased to be featured as a host in Backpacker's Get Out More Tour! Backpacker’s outdoor experts travel across the US for a series of informative and inspiring backpacking gear and skills CLINICS, interactive DEMO HIKES, and celebratory PINT NIGHTS. 

Join us for a hike along the beautiful Hat Creek, explore gear clinics by Redding Sports LTD, and enjoy a celebratory fundraiser night at Wilda's Grill. View the full line-up of events & register below!

 

Sports LTD Skills Clinic

Monday, August 22, 6:30 PM - 9 PM
Join Redding Sports LTD for a fun night of skills building and information with Backpacker Magazine. Participants will be given discount coupons for backpacking gear and be entered to win in gear giveaways.

Sign Up Here

 

Shasta Land Trust Hike

Tuesday, August 23, 9 AM - 10:30 AM
Join the Shasta Land Trust for a free hike along the idyllic Hat Creek for a tour of this soon to be conserved property. Learn about the many biodiverse features of the land, the stewardship and restoration practices in place, and long-term conservation goals in this environmentally significant region. 

Sign Up Here

 

Pint Night Fundraiser at Wilda's Grill

Tuesday, August 23, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Join us for a celebratory fundraiser at Wilda's Grill for a night of delicious food & drink! Come learn about the Shasta Land Trust's conservation work with Executive Director, Paul Vienneau. Each pint purchased will benefit the Shasta Land Trust's local conservation efforts. 

Ancestral Land Conserved & Returned to the Pit River Tribe

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The Shasta Land Trust is pleased to announce the conservation of 1,826 acres protected forever in partnership with the Pit River Tribe and the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council. Situated Northeast of Burney and Southwest of Fall River Mills, the protection of this culturally rich and ecologically biodiverse land has now been returned to the Pit River Tribe, who will once again steward the property as the original indigenous caretakers of the land.

Click the photo to read more about this property.

  • The conservation easement preserves the ancestral lands of the Illmawi and Ajumawi people of the Pit River Tribe who foraged and hunted on the land for centuries.

  • The property protects a variety of habitats including coniferous forest, mixed chaparral, annual grasslands, and several wet meadows.

  • The land provides essential foraging land and habitat for native wildlife species therefore protecting the biodiversity of the region.

  • Situated within the Pit River watershed, conservation contributes to healthy waterways and habitats vital for the subsistence of many aquatic species, such as the Federally Endangered Shasta Crayfish, Oregon spotted frog, and western pond turtle.

  • The property provides a unique conflex of stunning vistas of several iconic regional mountains, including Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen, Burney Mountain, and Saddle Mountain.

Click the photo to read more about this property.

A unique cultural, ecological, and scenic treasure of the Pit River canyon area, we are thankful for the support of our dedicated community and partners who helped protect this land and made this work possible.

Best,




Paul Vienneau
Executive Director

Help protect the lands you love! We need your help TODAY

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Conserve priority lands and support a community more adapted to meet the effects of climate change, wildfire, and habitat loss.

As this year’s fire season approaches, we stand with you in trepidation for what this threat poses to our community.

We have all witnessed the destruction caused to our community, neighboring lands, and sometimes even our own backyards. We have seen once pristine landscapes rendered unrecognizable, wildlife habitats devastated, and pervasive and unhealthy smoke render our valley unusable for months. For all of us, this new season of extreme fire behavior has undoubtedly changed how we live our lives.

Now more than ever, conservation is playing a leading role in limiting the scope of wildfires and reducing their damage when they do occur. While we don’t hold the key to stopping these fires completely, as climate change leads to increased temperatures, strengthened wind events, and extended drought, the work you make possible today allows for the possibility of creating a safer tomorrow.

With proactive ecosystem management, we have the ability to educate landowners as we acquire new conservation easements and provide resources for fire stewardship and land management techniques to better withstand the most pressing threats of climate change. These well-managed properties will lessen the fire spread potential to neighboring lands and enhance community safety and fire preparedness on a regional scale.

Thoughtful land conservation will also ensure that future development needs are not in direct conflict with wildfire prone areas. By ensuring that our critical ecosystems are protected, we can mitigate future risk to our community and strategically guide the growth demands of our region.

Protecting our most threatened landscapes promises greater ecosystem resilience and resource security as our climate rapidly changes. With your help, this is possible. Conserving these priority lands ensures that our community is not only better equipped to combat the effects of wildfires, but that we are also protecting wildlife habitats, recreational areas, biodiversity hotspots, pristine watersheds, and supporting sustainable agriculture.

As we learn to utilize land conservation as a tool capable of wide-reaching benefits, the need to ramp up the work becomes even more evident. With your help, we have the ability through targeted land protection to address a critical future environmental need.

By donating to the Shasta Land Trust today you help lay the framework for a better tomorrow.

Please join this community effort in protecting the lands we love. Your contribution will make a difference at this most pivotal moment.

Shasta Land Trust Conservation Highlights

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As we look ahead to the rest of the year, I’d like to thank you for all you do to support local land conservation here in Shasta County. Your commitment to protecting significant lands in northern California has an incredible impact on our community, and the Shasta Land Trust as a whole. We have so much exciting progress to share, and it’s all thanks to your continued support. 

Thanks to you, a 135-acre property south of Lake Britton will remain protected open space in perpetuity. Nestled within the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, this property has incredible ecological value, biodiversity, and public recreation opportunities. 

The property’s 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. This property also serves as habitat for nearly 100 individuals of a rare plant species called slender goldenbanner. 

We are excited to share that our caring donors can also enjoy the natural beauty of this land, as it is accessible to the public within the California State Parks system. Preserving these recreational spaces adds value to our local economy and promotes a wealth of opportunities to actively enjoy the natural beauty of our lands. 

Because of your support, we were recently awarded the Land Trust Alliance’s Land and Climate Grant. Thanks to your generosity, we were able to leverage your donations to meet grant matching requirements, resulting in a larger award. 

This grant will fund work on a climate smart Strategic Land Conservation Plan, which will identify targeted lands that will better withstand the effects of climate change, as part of a 10-year conservation plan. As a result of this work, you are protecting local natural communities and water resources from the predicted effects of climate change within our region.

As an organization, we have made great strides over the past few months in adding two excellent staff members, who because of your support will increase our capacity to protect more valuable land. In alignment with our 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, this additional capacity will help us achieve our goal of strategically conserving a total of 100,000 acres over the next three years. With this increased capacity we will be better positioned to meet and support the future environmental and agricultural needs of this community.

As we plan for the future of our community with the goal to more than triple our total conservation acreage over the next three years, we would like to thank you for helping make this possible. We have many goals for the upcoming year, including an exciting plan to protect an additional seven properties! These lands are integral in creating a community focused on local agriculture, open lands for recreation, healthy ecosystems, clean air and water, and a vibrant local economy.  Please recognize that none of this would be possible if it weren’t for your support! 

We are better prepared to meet the conservation needs of northern California because of your help. As we work together to protect natural habitats and diverse ecosystems threatened by development, we are so grateful for our community of dedicated supporters who rise to meet that ever-growing challenge year after year. 

From all of us at the Shasta Land Trust, thank you for protecting the land you love.

Best, 


Paul Vienneau

Executive Director

Thank You for Attending our 20th Annual Wildways Kickoff!

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We would like to thank our wonderful community of sponsors, volunteers, and guests who helped make this year’s sold out Wildways Kickoff our best Kickoff to-date! As our largest event of the year, we had so much fun listening to the lively music of Honeybee, sharing in your auction excitement, and watching the adventurous young environmentalists in attendance play on the Daniell Beaver Banks Preserve. We thoroughly enjoyed bringing our community together to support the Shasta Land Trust’s mission to conserve local land.

Be sure to join us in our remaining 2022 Wildways event series! We are excited to get outside with you in one of our 15 Wildways events, featuring a variety of new outdoor adventures and unique experiences. Our Wildways series of fundraising events is a uniquely enjoyable way to contribute to the preservation of significant lands in far northern California, while taking part in some of the most fun and interesting outings in the North State. All events have a direct focus on conservation and support a great cause!

The Wildways Kickoff and event series would not be possible without our amazing volunteers who donate their time, energy, and expertise to support our organization’s mission!

Thank you to our Auction Sponsors:

Mount Shasta Resort, Prather Ranch, Campbell, Clark & Vienneau, The Enjoy Store, Burnsini Vineyards, Shasta Rock Club, Backcountry Press, Mt. Shasta Ski Park, Lake Shasta Caverns, From the Hearth, Headwaters Adventure Company, Clear Creek Soap Co, Treats Natural Pet Marketplace, Randy and Debbie Memeo, Jim & Mary Rickert, Nancy Briggs, Holly Yashi, True Ride, Boheme Salon & Spa

Thank you to our Wildways Sponsors:

The McConnell Foundation, Raley’s, Campbell, Clark & Vienneau, Pace Engineering, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Vestra, Welch Enterprises Inc., Sierra Pacific Foundation, Moonstone Bistro, Prather Ranch Meat Co., Stantec, D. H. Scott & Company, Burnsini Vineyards, Cornerstone Community Bank, Gregg Werner, & Susan Whitaker.

Click on the gallery below to view highlights from the 2022 Wildways Kickoff:

Tickets for the 2022 Wildways season are available now!

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Guided Nature Hikes, Outdoor Movie Nights & More...

We are excited to get outside with you in our 2022 Wildways event series! Join us at one of our 15 Wildways events, featuring a variety of new outdoor adventures and unique experiences. Whether it's an exclusive guided nature tour of our protected lands, a kayak tour on Fall River Lake, or a multi-course dinner on the preserve, we love connecting people to the beautiful landscapes of our North State.

Our Wildways series of fundraising events is a uniquely enjoyable way to contribute to the preservation of significant lands in far northern California, while taking part in some of the most fun and interesting outings in the North State. All events have a direct focus on conservation and support a great cause!

The Wildways program would not be possible without our generous hosts, volunteers, sponsors, and many supporters who attend. We are incredibly thankful to be joined by some of the most knowledgeable ecologists, biologists, ranchers, and environmental experts and enthusiasts in our local region. Hosted by volunteers, all proceeds from ticket sales support Shasta Land Trust’s mission to conserve local land. 

Check out our Wildways events page and get your tickets today! We hope to see you at one or more of these exciting events!

2022 Wildways Auction is Live!

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2022 Wildways Silent Auction is Live!

Support local land conservation and have a chance to win some amazing auction items and experiences in our annual Wildways Silent Auction. Get early access on our online auction site for a chance to bid on this year's incredible items featuring outdoor adventures, exclusive culinary experiences, curated gift baskets, and more! Outdoor enthusiasts, fun-lovers, and foodies will enjoy bidding on auction items such as a golf retreat at Mt. Shasta Golf Resort, a locally made case of wine from Burnsini Vineyards, rock climbing passes at Shasta Rock Club, and a farm-to-table dinner at Daniell Beaver Banks Preserve! 

Bidding on silent auction items begins April 3rd at 9:00 AM. Join us at our 20th Annual Wildways Kickoff event on Sunday, April 10th for mobile and in-person bidding, a delicious BBQ dinner, wine and craft beer, live music, and auction excitement! We will announce the winning bids at 7:30 PM on the night of our Wildways Kickoff event. 

We would like to thank our amazing community of local businesses and sponsors who contributed to this year's auction items. All auction proceeds support Shasta Land Trust’s mission to conserve local land.

2022 Wildways Kickoff: Tickets On Sale NOW!

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2022 Wildways Kickoff Event Details:

Sunday April 10th | 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Shasta Land Trust | 5170 Bechelli Ln, Redding CA, 96002
Ticket Pricing | $55 Adult & $15 Kid ages 5-15
Tickets Available Starting Today, March 10th, 2022

Join us for a Sunday evening at Daniell Beaver Banks Preserve and play your part in supporting local land conservation! Shasta Land Trust is so excited to launch its 2022 Wildways season with the 20th Annual Kickoff Event. Over the past two decades, the success of the Wildways program has helped our organization permanently protect over 26,000 acres of working agricultural lands, watersheds, wildlife habitat, recreational zones, cultural sites, and scenic beauty in our community.

We are especially excited to host you all in-person this year at our beautiful office space. Guests will enjoy a delicious BBQ dinner prepared by O'Dell Craft Barbeque paired with craft beer and local wine. Live music will be provided by the wonderful jazz-americana group Honeybee, creating a perfect setting for guests of all ages to dance or simply relax and enjoy!

Attendees will also have access to purchase tickets to the 15 amazing Wildways events planned for the remainder of 2022. What’s more, Kickoff will be your last opportunity to place bids on unique silent auction items, with winning bids announced at Kickoff at 7:30pm. Auction item bidding opens April 3rd on our website.

Highlights
Live music from Honeybee
Barbecue from Odell Craft Barbecue
Craft beer & local wine
Silent auction Opportunities to learn about our conservation work here at Shasta Land Trust
And much more!

SLT Staff Expansion: Hiring two new positions!

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Are you an energetic person who enjoys working with people and contributing to the greater good?  Shasta Land Trust is a successful, growing nonprofit organization seeking a Development and Communications Coordinator (Full-time) and an Administrative Assistant (Part-time).  As a local land conservation organization, we’ve officially protected just over 26,000 acres of working agricultural ranches, blue oak woodlands, fly fishing habitat, and recreational open space in the North State since 1998. With the recent development of a new Strategic Plan and an ever growing portfolio of projects, there has never been a better time to join us!

If you’re interested in applying to either of the open positions, please follow the link below.

Shasta Land Trust Career Opportunities

Update as of 3/10/2022: We have finished hiring for these two positions. We thank you for your interest and encourage you to check back in periodically for new openings!

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

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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.

GrizzlyCorps Stories from the Field

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Land acknowledgement: I recognize that all burning and learning during this week of training in the Klamath Mountains occurred on unceded Karuk land. The Karuk people brought good fire to these mountains for thousands of years prior to colonization. Despite over a century of intense fire suppression efforts by the U.S. government, the Karuk people continue to use fire for both land stewardship and cultural practices today. It is the Karuk people’s intimate knowledge of this land and what the land is asking of us now in the face of climate change that must be honored and uplifted as a guiding light for land management in the Klamath Mountains.

I have spent nearly all 25 years of my life in California under the ever increasing threat of unprecedented wildfire. For much of this time, I understood any fires larger than small beach bonfires as exclusively just that: threats. This misconception was largely the result of my public school education nested within a settler colonial culture of attempted erasure of indigenous culture and national pursuit of misguided fire suppression dating back to the early 1900s. As a child and young adult, I had no idea how integral fire is to the land’s wellbeing and culture of so many.

My own understanding of fire has thankfully come to shift over recent years. At the same time, I’ve become more aware of the tide turning on a larger scale, albeit slowly, as much of what Smokey the Bear embodies has come under sharp criticism and controlled fire is being returned to lands that desperately need it. My week of burning in the Klamath Mountains was a tangible and powerful shred of insight into what fire can do for and mean to those wielding it.

A group of other two other GrizzlyCorps fellows and McConnell Foundation employees at the starting line of their pack test. Notice they are wearing 45 lb vests!

Since these trainings aren’t widely known, I want to describe them briefly here. TREX programs are platforms for two things: the exchange of knowledge on prescribed and cultural burning and physical implementation of burning practices. And so follows the acronym(esque) term TR-EX, short for training exchange. All TREX participants partaking in fire activities must hold firefighter Red Cards, so they complete the same training as does any wildland firefighter. This training includes over 40 hours of online courses in wildland fire suppression and the Incident Command System. The final steps to earning a Red Card are finishing a physical pack test, which entails walking three miles in under 45 minutes carrying 45 lbs, and successfully deploying a ‘fire shelter’, a reflective aluminum covering that is intended to shield the body from fire in emergency situations. Throughout the month of October I completed the online training, and from November 8th through 12th this Fall, I joined the final Klamath TREX cohort of the 2021 for five full days of ‘good burning’.

We met Day 1 at the Klamath Siskiyou Art Center in Happy Camp, CA for a cold morning of introductions and briefings. Being that Klamath TREX is an interagency cooperative including the Mid Klamath Watershed Council (MKWC), the National Forest Service, the Karuk Tribe, privately contracted burn crews, and many others, this lengthy welcome had most of us both smiling and shivering by the end. After completing the pack test and shelter deployment, I was cleared for fire activities and only still needed my Nomex, heat and flame resistant clothing that nearly all firefighting gear is made of. I was loaned a shirt and pants designed for a stereotypical 6-foot male firefighter, both of which were laughably oversized for my 5’0’’ female frame. I was nevertheless very grateful for them.

Morning briefing at National Forest Service office in Happy Camp, CA.

On Days 2 through 5 our big group settled into a routine. We met every morning at the Art Center for coffee and a hearty breakfast and together walked over to the Forest Service Headquarters for a daily briefing. Everyday we were warned that conditions at the burn sites, referred to as ‘burn units’, were dangerously steep and slick due to high relative humidity and recent precipitation. This year, a devastatingly hot and dry summer with the McCash Fire coming very close to the town of Happy Camp was followed by roughly 12 inches of rain to the area we were burning. Day after day of slipping up and down mountainsides attempting to light piles of soggy forest material reaffirmed these safety warnings were justified. 

Following the morning briefing we loaded into cars and caravanned up a windy mountain road about 40 minutes south. This drive always had me shaking my head in awe at the sweeping views of fog gently blanketing the tree-lined slopes and crevices of the valley. As soon as we arrived at the units we quickly unloaded, geared up, and reviewed the day’s plan in our six-person burn crews. 

Sabrina, GrizzlyCorps Fellow, attempting to light a burn pile with a drip torch.

Each day our crew was tasked with either ‘lighting’ or ‘chunking’. Lighters set fire to 4-5 foot piles with drip torches and propane torches. Chunking crews retraced the steps of lighters with tools in hand, shoveling all debris that had not yet been consumed onto the hottest parts of the fire. Heat did not easily spread throughout the rain soaked piles, making chunkers essential for sufficient fuel consumption. While the novelty of carrying a flame thrower never really wore off, I was equally invested in throwing old logs and broken tree limbs into the flames.

During our hours of burning, I couldn’t follow normal indicators of time passing. The fog and smoke created a thick layer between us and the sun, so we couldn’t track its movement across the sky. Instead, growing fatigue in my body and the light sloshing of almost empty fuel canisters tipped me off to the hours that passed. Despite this hazy chronology, certain moments and sensations are clear in my memory. I remember breaking for lunch on a particularly steep slope, seated against a ponderosa pine as ash rained down and smoke infused my PB&J. I remember squatting down to stick my torch into the base of a massive burn pile and rolling backwards down the steep slope when gravity won out against my own body weight and the 20 lb propane tank strapped to my back. I remember slipping countless times down into soft leaf litter, each time finding a new mushroom or plant to later identify. I remember static-laden radio communication filtering through the snapping and crackling of burning piles. I remember the sweet scent of burning incense cedar mixing with the tobacco smoke of firefighters resting nearby.

Smoke filling the air as fuels are consumed by the fires.

I hope to bring this burning experience back to our work here at Shasta Land Trust. At one of the Land Trust’s recently closed easements, there is a prescribed burn scheduled for late Spring 2022 once fuels have hit their burn window sweet spot: dry enough to catch fire but not to the point of creating unintended wildfire. Beyond this opportunity, I hope to incorporate burning practices into land management plans for future protected properties. And, I hope to be involved in prescribed fire projects down the road within my own communities.

A view of the burn unit from the road.

Maybe counterintuitively, much of my learning during TREX is better framed as unlearning. All of the lighting techniques and burning strategies and weather updates and critical radio communication shared with me throughout the week further unraveled my understanding of fire as a straightforward tool for land management. Prescribed fire is an intricate dance between many climatic, ecological, and human factors that I have only begun to understand superficially. The exchange of tired smiles and laughter that carried up and down the mountainside and mutual interest in and respect for the forest as we burned piles dissolved my misconception of prescribed fire as a uniform, rather unemotional practice and replaced it with a fuller picture of what it can be, at least in this very specific region of far Northern California: the physical, mental, and emotional toil of bringing fire back to the land by individuals with deep respect for both fire and the forest.

I do want to clarify that my reflections until now have centered the prescribed burning aspect of TREX. Although the Karuk Tribe’s cultural burning practices were not at the focus of the training, there were bits of this knowledge shared throughout the week. One member of the Karuk Tribe leading our crew explained how tossing glowing hot coals onto the base of hazel trees spurs new growth. The soft, but durable new limbs can then be harvested and used for basketry by Karuk basketweavers. This practice, he explained, is thousands of years old.   

Several leaders of TREX including two Karuk burn crew leads and two individuals from Mid Klamath Watershed Council talking on a ridge.

As a white, nonindigenous woman questioning what, if anything, I might do with knowledge like this and how I might respectfully move forward with the use of fire for land stewardship, TREX gave me the beginnings of an answer. The Karuk burn crew was present and participatory each day of training. The white leadership opened and closed the week with acknowledgements of the Karuk’s ancestral sovereignty over burning practices. The history of colonization within the Klamath Mountains was addressed and condemned. Several white leaders voiced their trauma associated with unprecedented wildfire and contextualized it within the U.S. government’s century-old forest mismanagement and grossly punitive treatment of native peoples who continued to bring fire to the land. One supervisor in particular, his delivery both earnest and deferent, told us about the Karuk burning practice for basketry, a piece of knowledge he had learned through years of forestry work alongside the Karuk Tribe. In essence, this week showed me what it can look like to be an ally to true stewards of ‘good fire’. 

My deepest gratitude to all coordinators and participants of Klamath TREX.

Conservation with a Big Impact!

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Local land protection plays a vital role in providing for healthier and more sustainable communities and thanks to our dedicated and generous donors we are excited to announce the protection of Ross Ranch. Protecting these lands requires hard work, dedication, focus, and time from many people and organizations. Owned by the McConnell Foundation, Ross Ranch has been a project three years in the making. Funded by the Department of Conservation’s Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) Program, this 860-acre ranch will forever be protected from the threat of residential development and results in a multitude of wide-reaching benefits for the environment, local economy, and community. The SALC program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities. 

Ross Ranch presents a mixed landscape of blue oak woodlands, annual grasslands, wetlands, and riparian corridors. Located just north of Shasta College and south of Bear Mountain, red-tailed hawks soar above the landscape and deer, coyotes, jackrabbits, and quail, among other species, live and thrive there. An important piece of the Stillwater Creek Watershed and serving as a green belt separating our urban areas, this ranch is important to protect because of its biodiversity and agricultural use, now and into the future.

Over the past several years, grants such as the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Healthy Soils Program allowed the ranch to be utilized as a carbon sequestration demonstration site. With close proximity to Shasta College, an educational opportunity emerged for local college students to learn how adapting agricultural practices can increase productivity of a working ranch. A Carbon Farm Plan in partnership with Point Blue Conservation Science was created with the goal to increase soil carbon and soil water-holding capacity, increase rangeland vegetation functional groups and decrease non-native invasive species, increase wildlife habitat, and extend the length of the grazing season. Public trails with interpretive signage will be strategically placed throughout the northern portion of the property in the coming years.

The cattle that graze on the pastures on Ross Ranch are part of the Prather Ranch premium dry-aged natural beef operations. Prather Ranch, instrumental in creating the first organic certification program for beef products, and one of the first beef producers to become Certified Humane Raised and Handled, raises 100 head of cattle during the winter and spring months on the property. A third generation bee keeper also utilizes the property for the production of locally sold honey. 

Protection of Ross Ranch will ensure the conservation of many sensitive natural communities which support several special status species including vernal pool shrimp, Shasta salamander, valley elderberry longhorn beetle, and foothill yellow-legged frog. The ranch provides nesting and foraging habitat for over 65 species of birds, including a long-term pair of nesting State endangered Bald Eagles and two California species of special concern: the Grasshopper Sparrow and the Yellow Warbler. Approximately 2.25 miles of East and West Stillwater Creeks provides salmon spawning habitat and juvenile Chinook rearing habitat during good rainfall years. Regenerative agricultural practices being utilized help to improve soil health and ensure the ranch is serving as a rainfall catchment for the watershed; increasing natural water storage and prolonging surface water flow in the creek.

We want to thank the Department of Conservation, California Climate Investments, the McConnell Foundation, and all our generous donors who supported this project from start to finish. The protection of Ross Ranch is a wonderful accomplishment that shows great things can happen when people work together towards a common goal.