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The Wildlands Conservancy B e h o l d
t h e
B e a u t y
David Clendenen
Winter - Wind Wolves Preserve 4
The Wildlands Conservancy Our Motto
Behold the Beauty
Our Mission To Preserve The Beauty And Biodiversity Of The Earth And To Provide Programs So That Children May Know The Wonder And Joy Of Nature Our Philosophy There lies a transcendence amid deep forests, pastoral meadows, remote beaches and solitary deserts that the world’s great art, music and literature have attempted to capture. Indeed this is why the great poets, prophets and redeemers of humanity sought the wilderness. Wherever there is a place of great beauty and biodiversity, inspired people have been given the eyes to see that beauty, the mind to understand the importance of biodiversity, and the passion to act upon its preservation. The Wildlands Conservancy is but another face of people, past and present, who have devoted their lives to preserving timeless enclaves of nature. By preserving wild lands though reverent stewardship, by opening our preserves to the public at no cost, and through our children’s programs, we trust people will be inspired by the songs of birds, the music of streams, the whispering pines, and voices more eloquent than our own.
Our Success The Wildlands Conservancy privately funded the largest conservation land acquisition gifted to the American people in U.S. history. TWC owns and operates California’s largest nonprofit preserve system and is California’s leader in providing free outdoor education programs to children. COVER Mt. San Gorgonio seen from Mission Creek Preserve. Pending Sand to Snow National Monument legislation, based on TWC’s 70,000-acre privately funded acquisition, would elevate the protection of this 134,000-acre ecosystem.
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DAN YORK
Wild Flower Trail - Wind Wolves Preserve 6
We woULD love to hear from you... If you are inspired by the following pages, please remember that The Wildlands Conservancy’s preserves, programs and operations are 100 percent funded by private donations, bequests and revenues.
Contact Information Executive Offices The Wildlands Conservancy 39611 Oak Glen Road, Building 12 Oak Glen, CA 92399 (909) 797-8507 info@twc-ca.org www.WildlandsConservancy.org
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JACK THOMPSON
Great blue heron - Whitewater Preserve 8
You are our wings... A heartfelt thank you to The Wildlands Conservancy’s donors. Much has been accomplished!
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JACK THOMPSON
Children’s Trail - Oak Glen Preserve 10
LEADING CALIFORNIA’S LAND-BASED CONSERVATION Since incorporating in 1995, The Wildlands Conservancy has continued to promote its model of land-based conservation through expanding our preserve system. That system now includes the West Coast’s largest nonprofit preserve at Wind Wolves, California’s largest nonprofit wilderness at Pioneertown Mountains Preserve, and California’s longest stretch of nonprofit-owned coastline at Sounding Seas Dunes and Eel River Estuary Preserves. What is most remarkable is that these preserves are being purchased and restored with private donations, and opened for free passive recreation with national park quality facilities. Over the past 15 years, there has been a growing demand for conservation organizations to become land stewards and for more individuals to become citizen conservationists, docents and restoration volunteers. The restoration challenges facing California’s landscapes far exceed the financial and human resources of government to adequately address them. The Wildlands Conservancy’s overarching goal is to call people back to the beauty, wonder and inspiration of the natural world, and to encourage people to be participants in saving our magnificent landscapes and restoring California’s rich biological diversity. Ultimately, saving land means educating and instilling a love for nature in the next generation. The boundaries we place around our state and national parks and wilderness areas are not automatically sacred and inviolate to the next generation. It is the value system of our culture that gives land designations meaning and prevents all land use decisions to subordinate to utilization, profit and expediency. This is why The Wildlands Conservancy is California’s nonprofit leader in providing free outdoor education programs to almost one million children to date. It is through these programs, and reverent stewardship of preserves visited by almost half a million people a year, that we foster a love and respect for life in all its magnificent forms.
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David Clendenen
Spring! - Wind Wolves Preserve 12
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Beaches and Estuaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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FORESTS AND MEADOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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DESERTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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OAK WOODLANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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RIVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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CHAPARRAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 OUTDOOR EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
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dan york
Sounding Seas Dunes Preserve 14
REFLE C T IONS
BEACHES AND ESTUARIES
BEACHES AND ESTUARIES
There is something about the sand, the sea and the sun that places us in good spirits and makes us feel forever young. We timed it just right when our staff took the Ferndale Bed and Breakfast owners and Chamber of Commerce members on a tour of our Eel River Estuary and Sounding Seas Dunes Preserves. Driving through the Eel River Estuary Preserve we saw dozens of snowy egrets, great egrets, and great blue herons in the lush sloughs and marshes. Mallards, green-wing teal and gadwalls flew from the open water. Night herons rousted in a clump of skeletal trees. Dozens of dunlins flashed white as they turned in perfect symmetry before landing in a tidal mud flat. River otters left their telltale swirls by the banks of the sloughs. A month earlier the sky was replete with the geometric flights of thousands of Aleutian geese. At Sounding Seas Dunes Preserve shoes were naturally peeled off. It felt good to have the sifted white dune sand under our feet and the crashing of waves echoing in our ears. We crested the dunes and witnessed an unforgettable sight: Thousands of silver smelt were flopping in the sand like flashing bangles. Hundreds of ring-billed gulls and a dozen brown pelicans were devouring the smelt with delight as they stood clear of the seven feasting harbor seals. Then we took in the big picture: undulating sand dunes, layers of waves, vast kelp beds, and the great blue Pacific reflecting a million setting suns in an immense collage of ripples.
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David Clendenen
Tidal marsh - Eel River Estuary Preserve 16
EEL RIVER ESTUARY PRESERVE The southern estuary of the Eel River in Humboldt County contains a diverse array of habitats and a grand arena of life. This 1,300-acre property includes tidal wetlands, a fresh water marsh, sand dunes, grass lands, beach frontage and a spectacular half-moon bay on the Eel River. Wildlife includes river otters, harbor seals, tundra swans, bald eagles, egrets, herons, salmon and steelhead trout. The grasslands on the property are a winter refuge for tens of thousands of Aleutian geese. These magnificent migrating geese were once headed toward extinction when the fur industry introduced foxes which preyed upon them on the Aleutian Islands. The practice has since ceased, aiding the geese’s recovery. The southern estuary was identified in 1974 as the California Department of Fish and Game’s top acquisition priority for the Eel River. The Wildlands Conservancy bought the property in 2008 and is prepared for the challenge of spending a decade on waterway and wetlands restoration. A parking area has been developed near a restored barn off Russ Lane. Once Coastal Commission permits are approved, hikers and bicyclers will be able to disperse on wildlife viewing trails that lead to remote beach access.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES This property is The Wildlands Conservancy’s “bully pulpit” for salmon recovery throughout the Eel River’s 3,200-square-mile watershed. The Eel River was once widely known as one of the best salmon fisheries in North America. Conservation agencies recognize the estuary’s elaborate waterways as being vital for salmon recovery. These waterways are currently blocked by non-fishfriendly tide gates. Planned installation of fish-friendly tide gates will allow young salmon a refuge to carry over for a year before heading out to sea, greatly increasing survivability.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES Visitor opportunities will include wildlife viewing while hiking and biking to our adjacent Sounding Seas Dunes Reserve. Canoeing and kayaking opportunities are currently being planned also. 17
David Clendenen
Endangered Humboldt Bay owl’s clover 18
Peek-a-boo 19
David Clendenen
David Clendenen
Sounding Seas Dunes Preserve 20
Irving and Jean Stone
SOUNDING SEAS DUNES PRESERVE In 2009, The Wildlands Conservancy purchased two-and-a-half miles of ocean frontage and sand dunes that are situated between the beaches at the Eel River Estuary Preserve. This was accomplished through a bequest from the Irving and Jean Stone Trust. Sounding Seas Beach appears to be endless as far as the eye can see. Here, one can imagine what explorers and Native Americans experienced in the early days of California. The solitary beach preserve includes important gravel bed habitat for the snowy plover, a federally endangered species with only 2,000 birds surviving.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES Prior to The Wildlands Conservancy’s acquisition, the sand dune ecosystem on this property had been extensively damaged by off-road vehicle activities that destroyed habitat of the federally endangered beach layia, Layia carnosa. Researchers also documented a snowy plover fatality caused by off-road vehicles. Vigilant posting and patrolling by TWC rangers has stopped off-road activity in the dunes and the destruction of resources on this magnificent preserve.
Eel River Estuary Preserve and Sounding Seas Dunes Preserve are the longest stretch of nonprofit-owned coastline in California.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES Visitor opportunities include wildlife viewing of harbor seals and shore birds, surfing, surf fishing, whale watching in season, and sauntering along a remote stretch of California coastline. Sounding Seas Beach and sand dunes may be reached by hiking north from Centerville Beach County Park at the end of Centerville Road west of Ferndale, California.
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David Clendenen
California sea lion 22
David Clendenen
Endangered snowy plover 23
David Clendenen
Wind Wolves Preserve 24
REFLE C T IONS
Mountains and valleys
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS
Where the valleys are flat and inviting, they become cultivated with crops, houses and industry. When The Wildlands Conservancy protects mountains, we try to extend our landscape protection onto adjacent valleys when possible. Mountains and valleys complement each other: one is form, one is formless. One is paint, one is canvas. They are connected hydrologically, biologically and aesthetically. Saving mountains is often inevitable. Saving valleys is preventing the inevitable. The Wildlands Conservancy has funded the purchase of hundreds of square miles of vast valleys such as the Sleeping Beauty, the Sheephole, and the Fenner and Ward Valleys in the Mojave Desert. From these valleys rise dozens of desert ranges that often appear as apparitions of islands in the mirages of desert sands. One climbs a wilderness peak to see a view that is seemingly endless. If it were not for TWC’s leadership in defending the Mojave Desert, the view from dozens of desert wilderness ranges would be a sea of decimated ecosystems sacrificed for solar facilities. TWC led the international debate to place industrialized solar on rooftops and previously disturbed lands, rather than sacrifice pristine public lands. At our Pioneertown Mountains Preserve we were able to purchase and protect half of the Pioneertown Valley. At Wind Wolves we reached out and protected the largest remnant of the southern San Joaquin Valley. This valley remnant is replete with federally endangered species named after the geographic areas impacted by agriculture and urbanization: the Buena Vista Lake shrew, the Bakersfield cactus, the San Joaquin kit fox, the San Joaquin ground squirrel and the valley blunt-nose leopard lizard. Let us not repeat this scenario in the Owens Valley.
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David Clendenen
From valley to rolling hills to mountains 26
WIND WOLVES PRESERVE The Wind Wolves Preserve is in an ecologically unique region where the Transverse Ranges, Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, western Mojave Desert and San Joaquin Valley influences converge. Due to elevation ranges from 640 to 6,005 feet, the preserve has an impressive array of landforms and habitats that serve as a critical landscape linkage and wildlife corridor between the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada. Tule elk were reintroduced to Wind Wolves Preserve, the southern-most extension of their historic range. The elk herd has grown to more than 300 elk, and the California Department of Fish and Game estimates the preserve can support up to 2,500 elk. Currently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are placing still-born calves on the preserve for the California condors, which can be seen regularly. When the elk herd reaches 2,000, some elk will die weekly of attrition, aiding the condors to become free living once more. On the San Joaquin Valley floor, the preserve is a 30-square-mile veritable sea of grasslands with remnant stands of saltbush. These grasslands are home to the endangered San Joaquin kit fox and blunt-nosed leopard lizard as well as one of the largest stands of the endangered Bakersfield cactus. The preserve’s main wetland is home to the Buena Vista Lake ornate shrew—one of the most endangered mammals in the United States. Rolling grasslands rise from the valley floor, transitioning into classic California blue oak and valley oak savanna with extensive riparian wetlands. The oak savanna ascends into juniper and pinyon forests that vault into stands of ponderosa pine and big cone spruce.
At 90,000 acres, Wind Wolves is the West Coast’s largest nonprofit preserve.
The preserve includes the entire San Emidio Land Grant, once owned by John C. Fremont. Wind Wolves’ rich cultural history includes some of the most noteworthy Native American rock art in North America.
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CONSERVATION OUTCOMES An important conservation outcome of The Wildlands Conservancy’s ownership has been TWC’s influence on preserving the neighboring Tejon Ranch. When a national land trust struck a deal to save 100,000 acres of Tejon Ranch, leaving the remaining 170,000 up for grabs, TWC started the Tejon Ranch Working Group with representatives from 10 environmental organizations. We brought in development experts and investment analysts who showed how clustering density on 30,000 acres could affect the conservation of 240,000 acres with better shareholder certainty. A version of the TWC proposal was implemented by Tejon Ranch with the backing of the environmental community. The Conservancy’s restoration of hundreds of acres of wetlands has recruited over 5,000 nesting pairs of the imperiled tri-colored blackbird. Fourteen years of monthly volunteer work parties have removed invasive tamarisk from over 30 miles of year-round stream channels. Volunteers have also made miles of boundary fencing antelope friendly. Hundreds of valley oaks have been successfully grown from acorns at our on-site nursery, which is permitted to grow and transplant the endangered Bakersfield cactus. The preserve also hosts symposiums with agencies and major landowners to address the regional challenges of invasive species.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES Visitor opportunities include an improved campground, group campground, picnic areas with shade structures, outdoor education programs, hiking, mountain biking, participating in staff-led wildflower and wildlife hikes, and limited shuttle bus tours.
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David Clendenen
San Emidio Canyon 29
David Clendenen
Solar-powered Administrative Center 30
David Clendenen
Flume Creek Campground 31
DAN YORK
Chumash rock art 32
David Clendenen
Shade structure 33
David Clendenen
The big boys - tule elk‌ 34
‌mule deer 35
David Clendenen
DAN YORK
Half of California’s free living condors forage Wind Wolves Preserve 36
David Clendenen
Sunset - valley oaks 37
JACK THOMPSON
Mountains of the moon - Pioneertown Mountains Preserve 38
PIONEERTOWN MOUNTAINS PRESERVE The 25,500-acre Pioneertown Mountains Preserve descends from the high piney 7,800-foot ridges into the Pioneertown Valley. The small community of Pioneertown is surrounded by conservancy-owned volcanic mesas, the Sawtooth Mountains, and preserve lands leading to the San Bernardino National Forest. The preserve has year-round riparian corridors in Pipes Canyon and Little Morongo Canyons. It is an important landscape linkage between Joshua Tree National Park, San Bernardino National Forest, and the Big Horn Mountains Bureau of Land Management Wilderness. In 2006, the vast majority of the Joshua trees, pinyon pines and junipers at Pioneertown Mountains Preserve were killed in a 70,000-acre lightning-caused fire of unprecedented magnitude. Today, much of the preserve is going through natural vegetation succession. Some scientists predict that fire succession and climate change will favor scrub oak and Joshua tree plant communities that may replace the pinyon forests. The fire laid bare the region’s rich geological backbone.
The Preserve’s 20,000-acre Pipes Canyon Wilderness is the largest nonprofit
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES
wilderness in California.
Pioneertown Mountains Preserve has long been The Wildlands Conservancy’s pulpit for preserving the Mojave Desert. Many major conservation issues have been led by TWC’s desert staff, who are currently leading the debate to properly site renewable energy on degraded lands, rather than pristine public lands in the heart of the Mojave. TWC desert staff has also led the debate on siting transmission lines on existing corridors rather than despoiling hundreds of miles of pristine desert landscapes.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES The preserve is open daily from dawn to dusk for hiking the region’s diverse geology. Visitor facilities include trailhead parking, a kiosk, a shade ramada and restrooms. 39
april Sall
Solar-powered Ranger Station 40
DAVID MYERS
Sawtooth Mountains 41
JACK THOMPSON
Sand to Snow National Monument Proposal 42
SAND TO SNOW NATIONAL MONUMENT PROPOSAL The 134,000-acre Sand to Snow National Monument proposal rises from the Sonoran Desert floor up to Southern California’s tallest alpine peak, Mount San Gorgonio at 11,503 feet. National Monument status would elevate the protection of one of California’s most diverse landscapes as well as protect wildlife corridors between the San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains and Joshua Tree National Park. It includes the headwaters of Southern California’s longest river, the Santa Ana River, as well as the headwaters of the Whitewater River. The monument would create a consolidated vision for a remarkable landscape owned by multiple federal and state agencies and nonprofit organizations. This region’s rich ecology is known as a laboratory of evolution where mountain, coastal and desert species hybridize. The Sand to Snow National Monument may stake a claim to being North America’s most diverse protected area. It includes alpine peaks, conifer forests, pinyon forests, Joshua tree woodlands, mountain rivers, desert wetlands, chaparral, and Mojave and Sonoran Desert landscapes. The Wildlands Conservancy privately acquired 70,000 acres in this region to create preserves and to enhance federal landscape linkages and protection. Monument status would increase tourism and promote the region’s four season recreational venues. The monument legislation enjoys broad community support and would not change existing recreational uses, but would protect lands from future exploitation. The monument would enhance public-private partnership, and abuts five TWC Sand to Snow Preserves from which the proposal was named. These preserves offer free public access as well as free picnicking and camping.
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stephen ingram
Owens Valley 44
OWENS VALLEY Since 2001, The Wildlands Conservancy has advocated for the establishment of permanent conservation of approximately 320,000 acres of magnificent land owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) in the Owens Valley. Preservation of the LADWP lands in perpetuity would protect an entire region of eastern California. This includes the 100-mile-long Owens Valley, which lies between the Sierra Nevada and the Inyo and White mountains. The terrain varies from sage-covered valley with volcanic tablelands to mountain meadows and forests, including over 20,000 acres of lakes and wetlands. The land is a recreation and vacation paradise for camping, sightseeing, hiking, picnicking, fishing, hunting, boating and a respite from urban life. Surrounded by LADWP lands, the small, pleasant communities of Big Pine, Independence, Lone Pine, Bishop and Lee Vining cater to tourism along Highway 395. Driving through the valley, one imagines the way California looked 100 years ago while looking at the dramatic views that delighted John Muir and Ansel Adams. With the rapid increase in tourism and significant loss of California wild lands due to population growth, it is now a crucial time to protect the valley’s future. In the past, pressure to generate funds has led L.A. city officials to propose sale of LADWP property.
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David Clendenen
Bluff Lake Reserve 46
REFLE C T IONS
FORESTS AND MEADOWS
FORESTS AND MEADOWS
One is always struck by the bright, sunlit hues of the high country: the grape-soda-colored lupine and larkspur, the violet checkerbloom, scarlet columbines, and the lemon lilies that leap with color from the meadows. Hovering above these radiant flowers are Hilda blue, painted lady, orange sulfur, and yellow and black dogface butterflies that perpetually dance from flower to flower. A sudden gale transitions the placid silver of Bluff Lake to rich, wavy hues of blue. These vibrant colors are set to music by the songs of chickadees and the cry of the Clark’s nutcracker. At Bluff Lake it is easy to imagine being in the High Sierra or the Colorado Rockies. The lake, laced with ferns, is surrounded by deep forests that invite skyward glances at noble old lodgepole and Jeffrey pines. The waves of wind that sift the pines encourage one to listen to this mountain jewel’s sermon to the soul. Your wishes for this world and your hopes for humanity are well-guarded in this mountain solitude. Bluff Lake’s wind songs on a lazy summer day are an invitation to sit on rock by the lake and simply be.
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Bluff Lake
48 David Clendenen
BLUFF LAKE RESERVE Located at 7,600 feet, Bluff Lake Reserve has towering pines, a 20-acre lake, a meadow, and majestic outcrops of quartz monzonite. The reserve includes Southern California’s finest intact mountain marsh and meadow complex that contains the federally threatened Bear Valley bluegrass (Poa atropurpurea), the federally endangered Big Bear checkerbloom (Sidalcea pedata) and California dandelion (Taraxacum californicum). Botanically the meadow is remarkable with 16 species of sedges (Carex), eight species of wire grass (Juncus) and 14 species of native grasses. Mature forests of lodgepole pine, Jeffrey pine, and white fir surround the meadow. You may recognize the scenery as the location of the original Disney movie “The Parent Trap,” and “Dr. Dolittle 2.”
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES After acquiring this preserve in 2000, TWC drained the lake to kill non-native catfish in order to restore the native aquatic systems that had been decimated by artificially stocked lakes in Southern California. In summer the lake now takes on a richer shade of blue from tens of thousands of damsel flies hovering on the water. Western toads, their pollywogs uneaten by fish, are sometimes seen in masses four inches deep numbering in the thousands. TWC also restored the meadow, removing buildings and horse fencing. Children were taught the difference between the native and non-native dandelion, and helped remove the non-native invasive that was hybridizing with the native federally endangered dandelion.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES There are no amenities at this reserve except a trail around the lake that offers rare opportunities to observe high country song birds and wild flowers. This trail connects to the Champion Lodgepole Pine Trail on adjacent Forest Service property.
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staff
Historic cabin 50
staff
Winter 51
STEPHEN JOSEPH
Jenner Headlands Preserve is north of the Russian River and the quaint community of Jenner by the Sea 52
JENNER HEADLANDS PRESERVE Jenner Headlands is a spectacular 5,630-acre mosaic of redwood and Douglas-fir forests, oak woodland, chaparral and coastal prairie overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The preserve adjoins Pacific Coast Highway for 2.5 miles adjacent to Sonoma Coast State Park, just north of the Russian River Estuary. Many rare and endangered species inhabit the property including the northern spotted owl, peregrine falcon and red tree vole. Deer, bobcat, coyote, mountain lion and steelhead trout are also found on the property. This 2009 acquisition was a result of the dedicated four-year effort by the Sonoma Land Trust and the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. Five other funding sources include the California Coastal Conservancy, the California Wildlife Conservation Board, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Forest Legacy Program. The Wildlands Conservancy loaned and guaranteed loans totaling $10.6 million to ensure this acquisition when funding was threatened. It is the single largest conservation land acquisition in Sonoma County history. Sonoma Land Trust is transferring the fee title of the property to The Wildlands Conservancy to manage as a preserve governed by consensus management decisions between TWC and Sonoma Land Trust.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES
Jenner Headlands is the single largest conservation acquisition in Sonoma County history.
Sonoma Land Trust and The Wildlands Conservancy worked closely in developing a resource management plan to restore the coastal prairie and to aid the recovery of old growth redwood forests from decades of logging. Restoration of logging roads and restoring clear running streams will aid the recovery of the endangered Coho salmon.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES During the recreational planning process, public access is limited to ranger-led hikes by TWC rangers and Sonoma Land Trust staff. A coastal trailhead parking lot and picnic area are in the permitting process. 53
Forest 54 David Clendenen
DAVID CLENDENEN
Forest understory 55
David Clendenen
Coastal prairie - Russian River 56
DAVID CLENDENEN
Serpentine rocks - coastal prairie 57
MARIANNE SHUSTER
San Bernardino Mountains - Bearpaw Reserve 58
SAVE THE SAINTS Metropolitan Southern California is ringed by three national forests: the Cleveland, Angeles and San Bernardino, which are among the most popular recreational lands in America. Each forest is composed of a mountain range named after saints: the Santa Ana, San Gabriel and the San Bernardino Mountains – hence the Saints. These mountains include some of the most threatened biological areas on Earth. Private lands within our National Forests need to be protected before they are lost to urbanization. Loss of private inholdings, along with urban edge encroachment in the forest foothills, threatens to curtail historic public access and seriously erode the unique wild land values that these National Forests so richly provide. Since these are among the most popular public lands in America, they represent the highest and best possible investment of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. By securing these prized forests for current and future public benefit, three national treasures shall remain intact for countless millions of visitors to enjoy. The Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests are the unsung heroes of America’s popular public lands. They are the “Yosemite” and “Yellowstone” for the average citizen of Southern California, unsurpassed oases of four-season recreational adventure where the great outdoors is only an hour or two away. The Wildlands Conservancy has been the leader in purchasing forest inholdings with private monies. TWC owns and manages thousands of acres of lands rich in biodiversity in the Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests.
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DAVID MYERS
Devil’s playground - Mission Creek Preserve 60
REFLE C T IONS
DESERTS
DESERTS
One of The Wildlands Conservancy’s most important desert acquisitions was rescuing a “devil’s playground” from an approved specific plan development. A devil’s playground is a term used by pioneers for a landscape that is robustly defended by cactus. When we toured the Mission Creek devil’s playground we witnessed a rare wonderland of cactus: eightfoot-tall barrel cactus, several ten-foot-plus cholla cactus, pencil cactus, hedgehog cactus, beavertail cactus... cactus everywhere. This 700-acre acquisition did not make it through the era of cactus collecting by accident. It was religiously defended by a desert artist who maintained a gate across the road into the property (even though it wasn’t his property) in order to deter cactus thieves. The artist was carrying out a tradition of his father who was a doctor and loved the spiny patients. This cactus garden was the last remnant of the larger Painted Hills Devil’s Playground that followed the north side of Highway 62 above Desert Hot Springs. It was the rampant pillaging of these cactus gardens along Highway 62 that led Pasadena socialite, Minerva Hoyt, to fight for the designation of Joshua Tree National Monument. Joshua Tree National Park Association honored The Wildlands Conservancy with the Minerva Hoyt Award as part of a succession of people who continue to defend the desert.
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april sall
Mission Creek Preserve 62
MISSION CREEK PRESERVE Located in a transition zone between the Sonoran and Mojave deserts, the 4,760-acre Mission Creek Preserve has a rich species composition with flora and fauna representing both deserts. Visitors are surprised to discover the center of the preserve is a lush wetland with a backdrop of eroded painted hills and Mount San Gorgonio looming in the background. The wetlands are important habitat for the endangered Bell’s vireo and Southwest willow flycatcher. It is a great place to spot colorful summer tanagers and vermillion flycatchers. The preserve hosts deer, bear, big horn sheep and mountain lions, and has spectacular displays of spring wildflowers in wet years. The trail system leads onto the Pacific Crest Trail, which is two miles from the Stone House Group Campground.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES Acquisition of the Mission Creek properties eliminated two approved resort developments. The largest included a 300-room hotel, golf course and 1,200 homes.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES At the trailhead, visitors will find an information kiosk and four historic rock cabins that have been converted to shade structures. Restrooms are two miles up the trail at the Stone House picnic area and group campground. The preserve is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Permission to drive in beyond the trailhead to the Stone House Group Campground is required at least one week in advance.
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APRIL SALL
Badlands - Mission Creek Preserve 64
APRIL SALL
Swallowtail on bladder sage 65
APRIL SALL
Solar-powered Stonehouse Group Campground 66
JACK THOMPSON
Black bear in sugar bush 67
DAVID MYERS
Stepladder Wilderness - TWC funded acquisition of over 210,000 acres in 20 Federal Wilderness Areas 68
CALIFORNIA DESERT LAND ACQUISITION In 1864, Congress gave the railroad every other section of public land in a 50-mile swath along what are now Interstate 40 and Route 66 to encourage our nation’s western expansion. SF Pacific Properties placed billboards reading “For Sale for Development” across the California desert on these former railroad lands between Barstow and Needles. SF Pacific Properties’ California holdings represented some of the most pristine and scenic desert lands in the world including cinder cones, lava flows, spectacular ranges of rocks, flowing sand dunes, vast valleys and intriguing cactus gardens. Private sale of these lands would have severely impacted biological and aesthetic integrity and recreational access for more than 4 million acres of public lands due to the checker-boarded configuration of the lands owned by SF Pacific Properties. In July 1999, The Wildlands Conservancy acquired an option on 437,000 acres by negotiating an $18 million discount with the parent company of SF Pacific Properties, Catellus Development Corporation. Thanks to the support of TWC donors, the U.S. Department of the Interior acquired 405,206 acres with $30 million in private monies gifted by TWC and TWC’s Wildlands Endowment Fund (WEF), and $15 million in Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) monies. In 2002-2003, TWC and WEF funded the acquisition of an additional 155,583 acres of Catellus lands. In 2004, TWC funded the remaining 7,103 acres of Catellus lands. TWC purchased and donated an additional 20,000 acres of Catellus lands located throughout the desert to the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management. This acquisition included funding: 85,000 acres of private inholdings in the Mojave National Preserve, more than 20,000 acres in Joshua Tree National Park, over 210,000 acres in 20 Bureau of Land Management wilderness areas, and hundreds of thousands of acres of important habitat. TWC also funded two land exchanges that netted an additional 45,886 acres of conservation lands to the Bureau of Land Management. This acquisition represents the largest landscape connectivity and wildlife corridor completed with nonprofit funds in North America.
At more than 587,000 acres, The Wildlands Conservancy’s Catellus acquisition is the largest nonprofit land acquisition donated to the American people in U.S. history.
Thanks to the support of our donors, this vast reach of the Mojave Desert will always be open to hikers, campers and sightseers, and remain a place of beauty, solitude and inspiration for all time to come.
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JACK THOMPSON
Sleeping Beauty Valley - TWC funded acquisition of over 50 square-miles to preserve the last intact valley in west Mojave Desert 70
STAFF
TWC funded acquistion of 300,000 acres of desert tortoise habitat 71
DAVID MYERS
Amboy crater and lava flow 72
JACK THOMPSON
TWC funded acquisition of over 100,000 acres of bighorn sheep habitat 73
jack thompson
Mojave River - Afton Canyon 74
Mojave Trails National Monument Proposal The Mojave Trails National Monument would preserve 941,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in California’s most beloved desert, and protect a major landscape linkage between Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve. The Mojave Desert is one of North America’s most unique landscapes and is home to desert tortoises and bighorn sheep. National Monument status would protect the existing uses of these lands for outdoor recreation, a national scenic highway, exploring outstanding geology, and wildlife corridors between national parks and congressionally declared wilderness areas. The existing uses are recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the State of California, San Bernardino County, neighboring cities, and environmental and recreational user groups. These uses are the result of decades of planning and public participation. The Wildlands Conservancy donated $45 million to the U.S. Department of the Interior to acquire, connect and protect these lands. The Mojave Trails National Monument would ratify this protection. A vast array of national treasures would be bundled into the Mojave Trails National Monument. These treasures include: • A portion of California’s largest cactus garden; • Pisgah Lava Flow – the most researched area in North America for the effects of volcanism on evolution; • Amboy Crater – a National Natural Landmark; • Sleeping Beauty Valley – the last intact valley representing the West Mojave plant associations; • Cady Mountains – one of the best areas in the Mojave to see bighorn sheep; • Afton Canyon – the Mojave River flows year-round amid colorful canyon walls; • Marble Mountains Fossil Beds – site of 550-million-year-old fossils of trilobites, which were among the first animals on Earth with eyes and skeletons; • Wildlife and recreational corridors that connect two national parks and 13 wilderness areas – a refuge for campers and explorers, bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and fringe-toed lizards.
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david myers
Cadiz Summit - Route 66 76
david myers
The Mother Road
The monument would preserve the most pristine, undeveloped remaining stretch of historic Route 66, the Mother Road, which is arguably the most famous highway in America – perhaps in the world. Created in 1926 as part of the nation’s first system of federal highways, Route 66 became popular as the shortest, best-weather route across the country. Linking Chicago to Santa Monica, it helped transform America into the automobile-oriented society it is today. Through literature (John Steinbeck), film, television and song, it became an international icon. In 2008, the World Monuments Fund designated Route 66, along with such World Heritage Sites as Machu Picchu and Shanghai, as a threatened resource on their “Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.” The March 2009 Smithsonian Magazine recognizes Route 66 as one of the “15 Must-See Endangered Cultural Treasures.” 77
david myers
Apple and Oaks - Oak Glen Preserve 78
REFLE C T IONS
OAK WOODLANDS
OAK WOODLANDS
Each day I walk my old yellow Labrador retriever from our executive offices at TWC’s Oak Glen Preserve to the inviting shade of the grand old black oaks in Oak Knoll Park. Some days my dog, Sierra, prances with the children piling and jumping into the golden autumn leaves. Some days I greet gatherings of young adults planning a wedding under the majestic oaks. Some days I quietly pass inspired souls writing poems or playing a flute in the shaded hollow. And some days I smile inwardly as I honor the flowers and ashes left at the base of these old monarchs. Oak Glen Preserve is where young people come to fall in love and old people come to reminisce. These old oaks have been the tapestry of the lives of generations of people who have come to Los Rios Rancho for a family outing, to picnic and to pick apples. The apple orchards, bordered by oak woodlands, create a bucolic setting reminiscent of an old Currier and Ives engraving where the rows of apple trees look like they have been placed by an engraver’s pen rather than a farmer’s hand. Many Wildlands preserves are an ode to oak trees. Wind Wolves has tens of thousands of acres of classic California blue oak and valley oak savanna. Mariposa and Jenner Headlands Preserves have canyons choked with coast live oaks. Spy Rock Preserve has Oregon oaks worthy of pausing in awe. Interior live oaks, canyon oaks and scrub oaks are found at four of our Sand to Snow preserves. TWC staff recently recorded the largest oak tree in the United States in a watershed protected by our Oak Glen Preserve. This champion tree measures over 41 feet in circumfrence. Californians love their stately oaks. Sit under an old elephant-limbed oak and it becomes a companion through time — if you give it time.
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EVAN WELSH
Red Wing Pond 80
OAK GLEN PRESERVE The Wildlands Conservancy’s administrative headquarters is at the Oak Glen Preserve. Situated at 5,024 feet, the preserve is adjacent to the steep escarpments of Yucaipa Ridge in the San Bernardino National Forest. The 2,189-acre preserve includes prominent peaks purchased by the Conservancy to prevent exploitation of private lands within the National Forest, and to promote the expansion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness. These peaks include Wilshire Peak (8,707 feet) and Galena Peak (9,324 feet), an important lambing ground for bighorn sheep. Habitats encountered on the main trail include ponds, streams, wetlands, oak and pine forests, chaparral and willow woodland. The Conservancy headquarters is at 106-year-old Los Rios Rancho, Southern California’s largest historic apple ranch. Each year, more than 300,000 visitors make the scenic drive to Los Rios to pick apples, picnic, hike, participate in environmental programs, and enjoy homemade apple pie. The Conservancy has entered a long-term lease with third and fourth generation Oak Glen Apple growers to operate the orchards, packing shed and bakery. The lessee, Riley’s Frontier Events, celebrates working the land and log cabin living, and hosts a country music venue.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES In referring to the largest apple ranch in Oak Glen, the Apple Growers Association has a saying: “So goes Los Rios, so goes Oak Glen!” The Wildlands Conservancy rescued Los Rios Rancho when it was surrendered to a banker who marketed the ranch for residential subdivision. TWC rescued Oak Glen a second time when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power planned to condemn and shave off scenic peaks for 200-foot-tall, 500kv transmission towers. LADWP abandoned the project after TWC organized Oak Glen visitors to send over 50,000 postcards, letters and emails in protest.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES At Oak Glen, The Wildlands Conservancy offers free outdoor education programs in which over 95,000 school children have participated. Visitor opportunities include Oak Knoll and Blue Sky Picnic Areas, and hiking trails that are open daily from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. A group campground is available by advance reservations.
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david myers
The Wildlands Oak - Largest oak in the United States 82
David clendenen
Wetlands Boardwalk 83
david myers
Wilshire Peak 84
david myers
Oracle Oaks 1917 craftsman lodge - site of environmental roundtables 85
DAVID CLENDENEN
Black bear in black oak - Bearpaw Reserve 86
BEARPAW RESERVE Bearpaw Reserve is 600 acres of steep, spectacular mountains with a seasonal 110-foot waterfall. Vegetation includes incense cedars, ponderosa and coulter pine, chaparral, and oracle oaks—a rare hybrid between black oaks and interior live oaks. The secluded north facing slopes have the secretive, rarely seen flying squirrels and southern spotted owls. Due to access challenges, the reserve is primarily used for environmental programs. For the last 10 years, The Wildlands Conservancy has provided free use of the Wilshire Peak Lodge at Bearpaw Reserve for youth programs and environmental organization retreats. TWC developed a group campground on the property for its family camping program, which teaches urban families the fundamentals of camping.
CONSERVATION Outcomes The donation of Bearpaw Reserve to TWC has prevented road building to pristine wild areas supported by the conservation community for the expansion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness. The donation of this property also prevented plans for a recreational vehicle resort in Mill Creek Canyon.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES Special parking arrangements are made for group hikes and peak baggers seeking to climb Galena Peak (9324 feet), Wilshire Peak (8700 feet), and Birch Mountain (7826 feet). The Wildlands Conservancy purchased these three peaks to prevent road building to private inholdings within the San Bernardino National Forest.
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Bobcat 88 evan welsh
STAFF
Mountain lion captured on trail camera 89
STAFF
Whitewater River - Whitewater Preserve 90
REFLE C T IONS
RIVERS
RIVERS
The channeled and tamed rivers of urban areas are a sad sight indeed. It is regrettable to see rivers factored out of people’s daily lives as a source of inspiration. In the beginning, we were all commanded by our own nature to visit water daily to drink and to cleanse. It was more than a command to visit a drinking fountain. In gathering water into our hands in a tranquil pool we are drawn into reflection. Our lives are charged with vitality by exposure to waves and waterfalls. Repressions are exhumed when listening to the voices of a river all night long. Water is not just 75 percent of our planet’s surface and 67 percent of our bodies; it is a large part of our inspiration as well. Perhaps we have not profited so much as we have lost by relying on piped water: It does not water the soul. In 1998, The Wildlands Conservancy started a “Santa Ana River Renaissance” to bring back the relevance of a channeled and deflated river into urban lives. The response and leadership by elected officials in three counties and 10 cities have been remarkable. By 2014 the 110-mile-long Santa Ana River Trail and Parkway will stretch from the San Bernardino Mountains to Huntington Beach. How we treat our rivers says a lot about how we treat ourselves, individually and collectively as a society. On every urban river we are conducting an experiment. In time, we find, we are conducting this experiment upon ourselves.
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jack thompson
Whitewater River 92
WHITEWATER PRESERVE Whitewater Preserve is 2,851 acres surrounded by the Bureau of Land Management’s San Gorgonio Wilderness, and includes the year-round Whitewater River. Rich riparian habitat hosts the endangered Southwest willow flycatcher and Bell’s vireo, and provides opportunity to see migrating summer tanagers and vermilion flycatchers. The canyon has a robust population of bighorn sheep, deer and bear, and is an important wildlife corridor between the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains. The Conservancy purchased an additional 3,200 acres in the Whitewater corridor that were donated to the Bureau of Land Management. These donated lands include sand dunes that are home to the endangered fringe-toed lizard at Windy Point, which lies at the confluence of the Whitewater and San Gorgonio Rivers.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES The Wildlands Conservancy’s acquisitions included 1,280 acres that had been subdivided into 40-acre parcels deep inside the San Gorgonio Wilderness. Roads to the subdivision have been removed and the integrity of the wilderness has been restored. The Conservancy also purchased the 40,032-acre BLM range allotment as a means to retire all cattle grazing in the Whitewater Watershed. Over the past 10 years, the Whitewater River has transformed from black water cattle wallows to crystal clear waters. Other restoration efforts involved removing 19 neglected houses and commercial structures at the old trout farm along with diseased non-native elm trees. These impacted lands have been restored with native sycamores, cottonwoods, flowering ash, alders, narrow-leaved willows, native shrubs and substantial wetlands. Legislation is pending to make the Whitewater River a National Wild and Scenic River.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES The Whitewater Trout Farm’s historic building has been transformed into a visitor facility and ranger station. Other visitor facilities include individual and group picnic areas, as well as campgrounds that are overshadowed by steep vertical cliffs where bighorn sheep are often spotted. A trailhead leads to the Pacific Crest Trail and paver paths around the ponds provide easy strolls for the elderly. Fishing is limited to organized catch-and-release programs for children in which all equipment is provided.
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FRAZIER HANEY
Big horn sheep 94
DAVID CLENDENEN
Solar-powered Ranger Station 95
Before 96 FRAZIER HANEY
After 97
JACK THOMPSON
Dan York
Eel River - Spyrock Reserve 98
SPYROCK RESERVE Spyrock Reserve is 5,832 acres with five miles of frontage on the National Wild and Scenic Eel River. Spyrock draws its name from the 540-foot conical rock towering over the river on the reserve’s west shore. The habitat is a mosaic of white oak, live oak, maple and bay laurel woodlands, grasslands, clustered stands of fir, dramatic rock outcroppings and year-round creeks. The reserve’s abundant wildlife includes deer, bears, mountain lions and bobcats. Bald eagles, osprey, and Pacific pond turtles occur along the river. Anadromous fish species include Chinook and Coho salmon as well as steelhead trout. Spyrock is the first acquisition of The Wildlands Conservancy’s Eel River Emerald Necklace which envisions a system of preserve stretching 110 miles from Spyrock Reserve to our Eel River Estuary Preserve, each spaced within a day’s kayak trip apart.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES The Wildlands Conservancy purchased this property to pre-empt the ever-increasing residential conversion of wild lands and to help protect the 75 mammal species and over 400 bird species found in the watershed. Over 90 percent of the Eel River’s main stem is unprotected private property. TWC’s land-based conservation will bring a strong voice for protecting this National Wild and Scenic treasure.
Five miles of the Eel River borders Spyrock Reserve.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES Spyrock is in reserve status. Unlike TWC preserves, it has limited public improvements, and access is limited to kayak camping and fishing on gravel bars along the river.
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DAVID CLENDENEN
Rock outcropping 100
fraizer haney
Spyrock - Eel River 101
DAVID MYERS
Bike path - Santa Ana River Trail and Parkway 102
SANTA ANA RIVER TRAIL AND PARKWAY Cities throughout America are re-establishing a connection to their sometimes channeled and often dewatered urban rivers. In 1998, The Wildlands Conservancy started promoting a Santa Ana River Renaissance, reviving the vision of a continuous 110-mile trail from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Although constant urban growth and encroachment have diminished the breadth and flow of the river, through time, countless individuals and dedicated groups continued to advance the river trail. The Santa Ana River Renaissance enlarged the tri-county trail concept into a tri-county natural habitat and open space parkway project. The Santa Ana River passes through the urban core of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Via the bike path, the adjoining national forests, state, county and municipal parks and the Pacific Ocean are becoming readily accessible to urban residents, bringing nature into the lives of urban youth. The Wildlands Conservancy has spent tens of millions of dollars in this watershed for habitat acquisition, visitor facilities, outdoor education, trail planning and construction, fostering a strong partnership with the three counties and 10 municipalities. TWC gave grants to most of these cities to create a vision document for the river. In 2006, elected officials from the cities and counties formalized this relationship by forming the Santa Ana River Trail and Parkway Policy Advisory Committee with The Wildlands Conservancy as a voting member. Working together, the Policy Advisory Committee was able to earmark $45 million out of voter-approved Proposition 84 funds to the three county park departments for the Santa Ana River Trail and Parkway. The missing links in the trail and parkway are now slated to be completed by 2014.
The Santa Ana River Trail and Parkway is one of Southern California’s most successful recreation and conservation collaborations.
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dana rochat
Mariposa Reserve 104
REFLE C T IONS
CHAPARRAL
CHAPARRAL
My brothers and I grew up catching lizards and snakes, and making forts in the chaparral and coastal sage scrub of North Orange County. When I was in college and my younger brother was in high school, we would do whatever it took to spend our summers hiking and fishing in the High Sierra. We would work at boat docks and in the pumice mines outside Lee Vining. After our first full summer in Eastern Sierra we returned to Orange County and decided to go for an all-day hike through the chaparral in Chino Hills. We were welcomed back to the hills by a male California quail calling on an old wood post in a thicket of aromatic chaparral. As we admired the colorful bundle of feathers, we agreed that we hadn’t seen a bird as beautiful in the High Sierra. Like so many Southern Californians, chaparral was our home. It was where we grew up and witnessed wonders, and we decided to form a group to preserve Chino Hills as a state park. As part of our effort to create Chino Hills State Park, we nominated the Brea foothills for a Fish and Wildlife Service Unique Ecosystems Program grant. The scientist ranked our proposal low because of “the ubiquitous nature of chaparral.” Twenty years later that same chaparral and coastal sage scrub complex was identified as one of the 20 global hotspots of extinction because of the rapid growth in Orange County. The lesson: Every face of nature is unique and important, and is worthy of our admiration, consideration and respect.
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David clendenen
Mariposa lily - Mariposa Reserve 106
MARIPOSA RESERVE The 800-acre Mariposa Reserve is a habitat reserve surrounded by the Cleveland National Forest. It represents the best grassland and sycamore savanna in the north end of the forest. Important habitats include chaparral, coastal sage scrub, valley needlegrass, sycamore riparian woodland, coast live oak riparian forests, and rock cliffs and outcroppings. The reserve is important to many imperiled birds and is often traveled by mountain lions. There are abundant displays of spring wildflowers dominated by mariposa lilies, blur-eyed grass and owl’s clover. Bedrock mortars, found in the preserve’s rock outcroppings, are a grand place to sit on a boulder and look at a vast vista, contemplating the Native Americans who ground the live oak acorns into flour in times past.
CONSERVATION OUTCOMES The acquisition of this property was going to be abandoned by another land trust when the surrounding Cleveland National Forest rejected taking title to the property. The Forest Service rejected a proposed conservation easement prohibiting activities such as mining, logging, hunting, grazing and off-roading. TWC, appreciative of the goals of the conservation easement, stepped in and took fee title of the property to prevent the abandonment of this funded acquisition.
VISITOR OPPORTUNITIES The reserve’s old fire road is open daily from sunrise to sunset for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding via a trailhead at the end of Black Star Canyon Road.
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DAVID MYERS
Removed freeway underpass - Coal Canyon 108
COAL CANYON WILDLIFE CORRIDOR Preservation of the Whittier-Puente-Chino Hills ecosystem was a long-standing project of The Wildlands Conservancy. Sitting at the juncture of Southern California’s four most populous counties, this hillside ecosystem remains surprisingly intact and is an integral part of the southwest eco-region. As an epicenter of extinction, it often ranks in the top four U.S. regions at risk for species loss and one of 20 “hot spots” of extinction in the world. This region contains a great diversity of vegetation types, vertebrate species and endemic species. To sustain ecological health over the long term, Chino Hills State Park and Cleveland National Forest were connected via Coal Canyon wildlife corridor. Connected by an underpass off the Riverside Freeway in eastern Orange County, two undeveloped but expensive privately owned parcels were the last viable wildlife linkage between the protected lands in the 40,000acre Puente-Chino Hills and the 472,000 acres of the Cleveland National Forest in the Santa Ana Mountains. Under the coordination of a TWC consultant, an array of local, state and federal elected officials, state agency personnel, scientists and citizen groups have worked to gather funding to purchase the two parcels. Having identified, lobbied for and secured 12 different funding sources, the larger and more threatened of the parcels was added to Chino Hills State Park in October 2000. Contributions included a $3 million donation from TWC to California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Coal Canyon became the first major freeway offramp and underpass in state history to be abandoned by Caltrans for a wildlife corridor.
The last critical linkage parcel was acquired in 2001 with the help of a $1.2 million donation by The Wildlands Conservancy’s Wildlands Endowment Fund. In 2004, the Department of Transportation removed Coal Canyon off-ramps from the Riverside Freeway. Today Coal Canyon functions as a river of life dispersing animals and expanding gene pools. The Wildlands Conservancy’s Wildlands Endowment Fund made more than $400,000 in grants to fund the South Coast Wildlands Project to study 14 other important Southern California landscape linkages.
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David clendenen
Four of 975,000 children who have participated in TWC funded programs 110
REFLE C T IONS
OUTDOOR EDUCATION
OUTDOOR EDUCATION
A child comes to our Oak Glen Preserve and sees the first clear running stream in his life and asks, “Is it safe to touch the water in the gutter?” A mother from a Head Start Program is led by our naturalists under tall incense cedars and tells her daughter, “This is a real forest, just like in Winnie the Pooh.” Five urban kids gather around a strange creature and ask what it is and where it lives. Our naturalists tell them it’s a gopher and it lives under ground. They reply, “No way man!” A child looks at the wood ducks and ducklings on Red-Wing Pond. Thrilled with the enthusiasm of our program naturalist, the child says, “This is better than Disneyland.” The naturalist is pleased. Then she remembers we are providing these free programs to underserved schools where 90 percent of the children live at or below poverty level. She asks, “Have you ever been to Disneyland?” The reply is no. To date, The Wildlands Conservancy has provided free in-house outdoor education programs to more than 225,000 underserved urban children. Over the past 15 years we have funded over 750,000 additional children’s programs through other agencies, mostly education departments in urban areas. Our signature program is called, “Behold the Beauty.” This program entails giving children picture frames, and teaching them to look for and frame in the beauty of nature: a soaring hawk, a sunlit peak, the reflection of trees on a pond. “Focus—see the beauty all around you!” Keats said, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” Rachael Carson pondered, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” John Muir rhapsodized, “No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty.” For a day, we bring beauty into the lives of urban children and teach them how to find the beauty within and all around them.
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JACK THOMPSON
Pond study - Oak Glen Preserve 112
Oak Glen Preserve Education Programs Students who attend the schools serviced through our outdoor education programs are often marginalized, and may not easily have the means to leave their urban and often noisy and industrialized areas. Attending our Outdoor Discovery Program is a link to a world beyond their neighborhood. At the Oak Glen Preserve, with four seasons and a variety of habitats including oak woodlands, wetlands, meadows, chaparral and mixed evergreen forests, children can discover the intricacies and interconnectedness of life in their local mountains. During a field trip to the Oak Glen Preserve students are surrounded by the sights, scents and sounds of nature as they experience hands on science based activities. Third through sixth grade students spend a day engaging in physical activity as they traverse the trails, stimulating their mental development through thought provoking science and nature exploration, developing a sense of curiosity and wonder as they discover a world beyond their everyday existence. Topics, including animal adaptations, insect life cycles, food webs and pyramid, geology, water cycle and conservation, habitat preservation, soil cycle and erosion, and the human impact on the environment, are taught in a grade-level specific manner. Education does not stop at childhood, and the Oak Glen Preserve also offers programs to engage the whole family. Through reading, art, trail exploration, campfire, nighttime walks, land stewardship, scout and other family and group programs people of all ages come to the preserve to participate in and enjoy activities and information provided by the outdoor education staff. While visiting the Oak Glen Preserve children and families are able to strengthen their bodies, quiet their minds, and abandon stress as they connect with the natural world and continue to learn and grow.
In 2012, TWC received Sunset magazine’s Environmental Award for Best Education Program.
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STAFF
Teaching in the rain - Wind Wolves Preserve 114
Education Programs at Wind Wolves Preserve For more than 14 years, Wind Wolves Preserve has offered children a magnificent landscape where they can learn about, explore, and observe real life in the natural world happening in real time. More than 140,000 students have participated in these programs. The more diverse a child’s education is, the stronger and more enduring that education will be. With this in mind, we offer a wide selection of programs ranging from preschool through college. Partnerships with University of Central Lancashire in the UK, UCLA, CSUN, Institute of Field Research and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History bring university students from the US and abroad to participate in Archaeological Field Programs, investigating rock art sites and related cultural areas. These students gained valuable academic training while unraveling the fascinating history of the Native Americans who lived here. Partnering with a local middle and high school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program, we host participating STEM students who intern with ecologists and natural scientists, as well as various Kern County science instructors. These programs support school-to-career and post-secondary career opportunities. Our multiday camping programs allow time for students to make lasting connections to the environment that they might not make on a oneday visit.. Our most important work is inviting people outside to introduce them to wild lands, wildlife, research and wonder. At Wind Wolves we enjoy sharing our passion and our work with them, and inspiring people as we have been inspired.
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STAFF
Fording creek - Pioneertown Mountains Preserve 116
DESERT OUTDOOR EDUCATION The Wildlands Conservancy’s three desert preserves protect portions of one of California’s most important and threatened biological systems: watersheds. The rivers and streams that run through Whitewater, Mission Creek and Pioneertown Mountains Preserves provide essential water to aquifers in neighboring deserts. When desert students and families visit the canyons, they are visiting an important source of their drinking water. For all visitors, the canyons offer physical reminders that most of us are dependent on water that begins as snow on high mountain peaks. The dramatic canyons and rivers of the desert preserves make that connection visible and real. Our education programs are designed to deepen this connection by focusing on watershed ecology and conservation, so that these and other watersheds are better understood and protected. Our educational philosophy is simple: Reawaken the senses and natural curiosity, and let the canyons do their magic. They alone can inspire the kind of learning that has no words, yet lasts a lifetime.
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David clendenen
Chocolate lilies - Wind Wolves Preserve 118
CREDITS THE WILDLANDS CONSERVANCY STAFF
Editor-in-chief
Editors
Text
Sara Seburn, Legacy Director Heidi Fron, Chief Legal Officer Kristin Mandolini, Chief Financial Officer David Myers, Executive Director
Outdoor Education text
Sherryl Clendenen, Outdoor Education Director, Wind Wolves Preserve Caroline Conway, Outdoor Education Director, Whitewater and Mission Creek Preserves Marianne Shuster, Outdoor Education Director, Oak Glen Preserve
Photography
David Clendenen, Resource Ecologist Frazier Haney, Preserve Manager, Whitewater Preserve David Myers, Executive Director Dana Rochat, Acquisitions and Project Manager April Sall, Conservation Director Marianne Shuster, Outdoor Education Director, Oak Glen Preserve Jack Thompson, Assistant Preserve Manager, Whitewater Preserve Dan York, Associate Director Evan Welsh, Preserve Manager, Oak Glen Preserve
Front Cover Photo
Back Cover Photo
Jack Thompson David Clendenen
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS
Design
Save the Saints text
Coal Canyon text
Photography
Scott A. McPherson Peter Jorris, San Bernardino Mountains Land Trust Claire Schlotterbeck, Hills for Everyone Stephen Joseph, Stephen Joseph Photography Stephen Ingram, Stephen Ingram Nature Photography
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