-
·
Private Lands Conservation
“Our private lands are the least expensive wildlife refuges available.” — George Shine, Oregon Rancher Public lands comprise around 70 percent of the Intermountain West’s iconic landscapes. However, 70 percent of the region’s wetlands—including important sagebrush mesic habitat—occur on private land. These water-rich areas are frequently associated with irrigated agriculture and often occur on working ranches…
-
·
Conservation Coordinator Fills a Niche in the Bear River Watershed
Even on a map, the Bear River Watershed is a puzzle. The river trickles out of Utah’s high Uinta Mountains into the sagebrush sea of southwestern Wyoming, where it creates lush wet meadows and productive bottomlands for wildlife, livestock, and people alike. As the creek becomes more of a river, it curves back and forth…
-
·
Partnering Up to Conserve a Watershed from the Headwaters Down
Utah’s Bear River Land Conservancy and Idaho’s Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust each faced an issue well-known to conservation organizations around the Intermountain West: too much work to do and too few people to get it done. On top of that, both organizations recognized the need for a position that could circumvent the conservation barriers presented…
-
·
Partnership Shines in Bear River RCPP
An abundance of cold, clean water has drawn people to the banks of the Bear River for millennia. It’s this same cold, clean water that makes the Bear River perfect habitat for native trout like the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout, as well as multiple species of wildlife and migratory birds. This watershed stretches from snowmelt on…
-
·
Conservation Easement Funded in Northeastern California
By Ed Contreras Over the last five years, the IWJV and its partners have been working to enhance and protect wetlands in the Southern Oregon-Northeastern California (SONEC) region. SONEC supports over six million wetland-dependent birds by providing important staging habitat for waterfowl during spring migration. Many large ranches in the remote and vast region have made…
-
·
Leaving a Legacy of Land
By Ed Contreras, IWJV’s Working Wetlands Conservation Delivery Coordinator Protecting private lands that provide significant natural resource or cultural values is often a capstone objective for landowners, managers, and conservationists. It’s a tangible way to demonstrate commitment to conservation and leave a legacy of land which has been enhanced, restored, or managed in some special way. Conservation…
-
·
A Final Puzzle Piece: Completing Montana’s Smith Lake Wetland Complex
A solitary Sandhill crane lifts off the perimeter of a spring-greened wetland with a few indignant calls and flaps southward. A passel of conservation partners watch the bird’s flight from the north end of Smith Lake Waterfowl Production Area and discuss the incredible migratory bird value of this place, and the need to conserve it…
-
·
Bear River Land Conservancy Created for Utah Habitat Conservation
A showy orchid waves lightly in the breeze from its foundation in a wet meadow. White, intricate blooms line its stem. This is a Ute Ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis), a rare plant listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. It occurs in the same type of wet meadow that is important to a host of…
