Where: Senior Citizen's Hall

Host: Shasta Land Trust

Join Shasta Land Trust for our biggest fundraiser of the year! Enjoy dinner featuring Prather Ranch sliders, a no-host bar with local wine and beer selections, and live music courtesy of Pat Karch’s Jazz Quartet. Bid on paintings, photographs, wood craft items, and more in the silent auction, pick up some raffle tickets for a chance to win one of several gift baskets donated by local businesses, and take advantage of your first chance to purchase tickets to our popular Wildways series of events.

All proceeds support Shasta Land Trust’s mission of preserving significant lands in far northern California. Tickets go on sale at 9:00 AM on Monday, February 4, at the Shasta Land Trust office. Call 241-7886 or visit www.shastalandtrust.org. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: The Wilderness Land Trust
(970)963-1725

Part of Mokelumne Wilderness Conserved

CARBONDALE, CO-- As we bush-wacked our way into the Mokelumne Wilderness early in summer 2009, The Wilderness Land Trust staff and our dedicated land appraiser searched for an elusive trail to lead us to the Raymond Creek private inholding.  We spotted a furry baby black bear scaling a towering Sugar Pine straight ahead.  As we snapped a quick photo, the urgent, loud grunts of a mother bear, unseen but definitely heard, chased us away to return another day.  Later that summer, we finally did make it to the Raymond Creek property, purchased it, and now are proud to announce that The Wilderness Land Trust recently transferred the 20-acre private inholding to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest for permanent protection as a part of the Mokelumne Wilderness.  The Mokelumne Wilderness is located in California, south of Lake Tahoe and the town of Markeleeville, between Highways 88 and 89 in the Humboldt-Toiyabe and El Dorado National Forests.

Permanent protection as wilderness of one of the few remaining private inholding properties in the Mokelumne Wilderness prevents future incompatible private uses at the top of the Carson River watershed in a pristine alpine environment.  The property is located along Raymond Creek, at the very top of the watershed. The Carson River travels 184 miles to provide a lifeline for people, wildlife and agriculture in the Mokelumne Wilderness, the Hope Valley, and Carson City.

Wildlife common to the area include bears (and their cubs), eagles, picas and grouse.  The Carson River Basin also supports towering pines, valleys with pastoral meadows and meandering creeks.  The views from the property include rugged rock formations and some of the tallest peaks in the area.

“Hiking to this property, surrounded by stunning views, we encountered sage grouse, a mother bear with its cub, and a beautiful mountain meadow complete with a meandering stream, fed by Raymond Creek,” said Aimee Rutledge, California Program Manager.  “We are proud to work with the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest to permanently protect this property and its precious resources as part of the surrounding Mokelumne Wilderness.”
The US Forest Service, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest manages the section of the Mokelumne Wilderness containing the Raymond Creek Property. 

“This acquisition is truly a gift to the American people.  We are thrilled about the inclusion of this property into the National Forest as this will provide both the local residents of Alpine County, as well as the general public, with expanded opportunity to explore this unique and pristine wilderness area.  The work The Wilderness Land Trust did to secure this property and donate it to the Forest Service is greatly appreciated",” said Jeanne Higgins, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Supervisor.

Mokelumne Wilderness

The United States Congress designated the Mokelumne Wilderness in 1964 and it now has a total of approximately 99,181 acres, to which the 20-acre Raymond Creek property was added when The Trust donated the property to the Forest Service.

The Mokelumne and Carson Rivers bisect remote mountainous terrain where elevations range from about 4,000 feet to 10,000 feet near Round Top Peak.   Shallow valleys hide many small lakes.  The river canyons are extremely rugged, but glaciers have smoothed much of the area, leaving well-placed trails relatively easy to hike.  In spring and summer, meadows boast a riot of wildflower color.  A prolific trail system includes 20 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, as well as other regional trail systems, providing many opportunities for recreation and solitude.

For more on the Trusts work visit our website www.wildernesslandtrust.org.

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Contact: Russ Shay
Director of Public Policy
202-638-4725, ext. 305 | rshay@lta.org

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Voluntary conservation of private land received a boost yesterday when President Obama mentioned the work of land trusts in his remarks introducing the landmark America’s Great Outdoors Report at a reception in the East Room of the White House. The collective voice of land trusts was reflected in the report, which proposes to extend the enhanced tax incentive for conservation easement donations beyond 2011, fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and focus a portion of LWCF on innovative projects that support urban parks, community green spaces and large-scale land conservation.

Mr. Obama said that “at a time when America’s open spaces are controlled by a patchwork of groups, from government to land trusts to private citizens, it’s clear that conservation in the 21st century is going to take more than what we can do here in Washington…Meeting the new test of environmental stewardship means finding the best ideas at the grassroots level, it means helping states, communities and nonprofits protect their own resources, and it means figuring out how the federal government can be a better partner in those efforts.”

The report draws inspiration from hundreds of land trust participants at America’s Great Outdoors listening sessions around the country. “I am proud of the nation’s 1,700 land trusts for pioneering the voluntary conservation incentives and locally driven partnerships embraced in this report,” Land Trust Alliance President Rand Wentworth said. “This initiative will significantly reorient federal conservation efforts to emphasize working lands and to embrace local governments and land trusts as effective partners in conserving the places that give meaning to our lives.”

The report’s vision statement describes a future in which “Rural lands—our working farms, ranches and forests—are conserved and restored through local partnerships.” The president’s  Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request makes a down payment on that vision by providing $200 million for the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program and $900 million for the LWCF, some of which “will be competitively awarded to address priorities and leverage resources for urban parks and public-private conservation projects.”

In communities across America, nonprofit land trusts are working with private landowners to keep farm, ranch and forest lands in productive use, create community parks and open space, protect important fish and wildlife habitat, and conserve our scenic and historic heritage.  With the help of more than 100,000 volunteers and 2 million members, land trusts have conserved more than 37 million acres, including more than 12 million acres protected by voluntary conservation agreements with private landowners.

About the Land Trust Alliance

The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation group that works on behalf of America’s 1,700 land trusts to save the places people love by strengthening land conservation throughout America. The Alliance works to increase the pace and quality of conservation by advocating favorable tax policies, training land trusts in best practices and working to ensure the permanence of conservation in the face of continuing threats.

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Download a printable PDF (100KB).

Leading off in 1998, Dan Pike of Colorado Open Lands requested that Jessica Jay research options for Colorado Open Lands' individual and collective easement defense, which culminated in the seminal article: Land Trust Risk Management of Legal Defense and Enforcement of Conservation Easements: Potential Solutions, published in 1999.

The Bay Area Open Space Council sponsored Darla Guenzler, now the Executive Director of the California Council of Land Trusts, to undertake research on collective defense resulting in publication of Creating Collective Defense Resources in 2002, and



The Heart of the Rockies land trusts, led by Paul Sihler (left) and then Mike Whitfield (middle), retained Montana attorney Andy Dana (right) to analyze the conservation defense insurance idea.  

Credit is also due to former Alliance staff members Liz Bell, now with the Wilburforce Foundation, and John Bernstein, now with the Northern Sierra Partnership, for helping move the insurance effort onto the national stage.

Land trust leaders have talked about some form of collective defense for over twenty years, but it wasn’t until 2000 that viable national solutions appeared from the western efforts.  We owe these visionary leaders and thinkers a huge ‘thank you’.

It is inspiring to see 454 land trusts, so far, from 47 states join together to uphold conservation permanence.  Almost 70% of the conservation easements in America are committed to the proposed conservation defense insurance program with the exception of the easements held by the 10 largest self-insured land trusts. That collective action is a formidable defense to the numerous and increasing challenges to conservation.

Funders are impressed with this commitment and having even more land trusts join will make raising the necessary $4 million dollars to capitalize the program possible.  So if your land trust is looking at committing to the proposed program, you still have time to join your colleagues across the country.

Questions?  Need help talking with your board about this idea?  Call or write to:
Leslie Ratley-Beach
Conservation Defense Director
Land Trust Alliance
44 Deerfield Drive
Montpelier, VT  05602
802-262-6051 phone and fax
lrbeach@lta.org

Photo Credits
Dan Pike/Photo by Cecelia Thomas
Jessica Jay/Photo by Travis Clark
Darla Guenzler/Photo by Jean Cotton
Paul Sihler/Photo courtesy of Paul Sihler
Michael Whitfield/ Photo by Kisa Koenig Photography
Andy Dana/Photo courtesy of Andy Dana
John Bernstein/Photo courtesy of Northern Sierra Partnership
Liz Bell/Photo by Tim Greyhavens