Vision Campaign for a Healthy Watershed
Our Goal
We’re on a campaign to conserve 120,000 acres of Feather River headwaters and globally unique wetlands, meadows, and forests for current and future generations.
120,000 acres
to be conserved for public benefit
Conservation easements
will protect headwaters and habitats forever
100,000+ acres
protected to date
Impact and progress
In 2017, FRLT kicked off an ambitious Vision Campaign to conserve a total of 120,000 acres of important watershed lands within 5 years.
These 120,000 acres include:
- Working family ranches and farms in Sierra Valley and Indian Valley, protecting crucial wetlands and biodiversity
- Important Maidu homelands and headwater lands owned by Pacific Gas & Electric in the North Fork Feather River/Almanor Basin region
By 2017, FRLT had helped conserve 47,240 acres of ecologically and culturally important lands. We were presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity to conserve nearly 75,000 more acres primarily through conservation easements.
Since kicking off the campaign, together we have conserved seventeen more special properties for the benefit of current and future generations, bringing our current total to over 100,000 acres.
Vision Campaign conservation successes to date include:
- PG&E headwaters lands including Lake Almanor, (29,057 acres) Bucks Lake (2,164 acres), Butt Valley Reservoir (2,472 acres) and Mountain Meadows Reservoir (7,050 acres) and its biodiverse wetlands
- The Home Ranch (2,477 acres) owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, protecting a significant portion of the second largest montane meadow in the Sierra Nevada
- A historic transfer of five PG&E-owned watershed lands back to Mountain Maidu ownership, including the 2,325-acre Tásmam Koyóm (Humbug Valley)
- The 8-acre Mountain Meadows Gateway Preserve with walking access to Mountain Meadows Reservoir from the town of Westwood
- A 50-acre addition to FRLT’s Sierra Valley Preserve, which protects critical wetlands and provides an appropriate site for future visitor facilities
- Eight working family farms and ranches in Sierra Valley and Indian Valley, including the region’s only certified organic farm, Sierra Valley Farms
Propelled by support from FRLT members, conservation partners, and visionary landowners, we are on track to meet our goal and permanently protect 120,000 acres of important lands and headwaters for public benefit.
Photo by Andrew Wright/Lighthawkphoto
Photo by Betty Bishop
Photo by Andrew Wright/Lighthawkphoto
Next steps to meet our goal
Our Land Protection team is currently working on multiple active conservation transactions with private landowners that are on track to be completed in 2024. These include forest and headwater lands in the Lake Almanor Basin and ecologically rich family ranches in Indian Valley and Sierra Valley.
You can help us reach our goal to permanently conserve these vital headwaters, habitats and Native homelands. Now, more than ever, we need your support to care for these lands long into the future, and to nurture people’s connection and sense of stewardship for the land. Please make a gift to the Feather River Land Trust today. Thank you.
Now, more than ever, we need your support
Join our Vision Campaign and protect 120,000 acres of headwaters and habitats
Caring for and connecting people to conserved lands
The Vision Campaign includes a 5-year plan to strategically scale up the land trust’s staffing and organizational capacity to monitor, care for, and connect people to these lands and waters in perpetuity.
Preserves owned by FRLT
Our work is more than conserving land; it’s also about conserving and restoring people’s relationship to land. FRLT owns and manages five natural preserves across the watershed. We purchased these lands to ensure community access to beloved places and conserve their unique wildlife habitats and cultural resources. The 2020 Vision ensures that we can care for these lands for public benefit long into the future.
Lands protected by conservation easements
The majority of conserved lands will remain in private ownership, and will continue to be managed as working lands by the landowners. FRLT will hold conservation easements to protect their cultural and ecological resources and to prevent subdivision and unbeneficial land use changes. As the conservation easement holder, FRLT meets with the landowners annually about management plans and potential impacts on resources, and monitors each property to ensure that the terms of the conservation easement are being upheld. Each conservation easement includes an endowment to fund FRLT’s monitoring in perpetuity.
I’m happy the land trust is working with farmers and ranchers who are already taking good care of their land. We’ve been doing it for years, and do it well, so these easements are a great way to promote local livelihoods while maintaining natural resources. That is a good thing.
—Gary Romano, owner of Sierra Valley Farms, conserved in 2019
If you care about protecting Sierra Valley and the whole Feather River Watershed, don’t put off this decision: Join the Feather River Land Trust today and renew your membership every year. It is the best investment you can make in the long term sustainability of our region.
—Lucy Blake, Sierra Valley landowner and President, Northern Sierra Partnership
Working together to conserve headwater lands
The Vision Campaign includes a 5-year strategic plan to scale up and sustain the land trust’s long-term capacity to conserve and care for these 120,000 acres of lands and headwaters.
Funding and sustaining the 2020 Vision
In 2017-2018, with tremendous support from our members, FRLT raised a $1,000,000 Vision Fund as the catalyst to scale up capacity and sustain fundraising into the future. To meet our goal of conserving a total of 120,000 acres, we are leveraging the Vision Fund against more than $26 million in state, federal, and private grants for land conservation transactions.
Key partners in kicking off the Vision Fund included the Morgan Family Foundation, which put up a matching challenge, the FRLT Board of Directors, which put up the initial private gifts, and countless individual donors and small foundations.
The Vision Fund was the catalyst to start scaling up our capacity, and land conservation projects are now in motion. We still have much work to do and we need you, now more than ever, to sustain us. Help us keep the land trust vital and strong so together we can conserve, care for, and connect people to these lands long into the future.
Please partner with us and contribute to FRLT’s Vision Campaign for a healthy, prosperous watershed.
Help us accomplish our Vision Campaign
You can help conserve, steward, and connect people to these magnificent lands and waters. This is an unprecedented opportunity to make lasting change for our children and grandchildren. Please join us and make your gift today. Thank you.
Join our Vision Circle
Leadership Giving
Leadership gifts of $1,000 or more per year propel our work forward.
Join our Sandhill Circle
Monthly Giving
Monthly giving creates a dependable stream of funds that keeps FRLT vital and strong.
To contribute or learn more, please contact:
Corey Pargee, Development Director, (530) 283-5758 x3, cpargee@frlt.org
Katie Bagby, Donor Relations, (530) 616-8791, kbagby@frlt.org
Connect with us
Sign up for conservation updates and event invites
Explore Conservation Successes
Lake Almanor
Conservation FocusBucks Lake
Conservation FocusSpring Creek Ranch
Conservation FocusMountain Meadows Reservoir
Conservation FocusSierra Valley Farms
Conservation FocusTásmam Koyóm (Humbug Valley)
Conservation FocusDiamond G Ranch
Conservation FocusChurch Ranch
Conservation FocusMountain Meadows Gateway Preserve
Conservation FocusHill Ranch
Conservation FocusPotter 8 Ranch
Conservation FocusPuma Robles Ranch
Conservation FocusGenasci Ranch
Conservation FocusButt Valley Reservoir
Conservation FocusHollitz Ranch
Conservation FocusTrosi Canyon Ranch
Conservation FocusBalderston Ranch
Conservation FocusHarris Ranch
Conservation FocusLoyalton Learning Landscape
Conservation FocusSierra Valley Preserve
Conservation FocusWarner Valley
Conservation FocusMaidu Cemetery
Conservation FocusHome Ranch
Conservation FocusMaidu Wetlands
Conservation FocusMaidu Trail
Conservation FocusMaidu Forest
Conservation FocusOlsen Barn Meadow
Conservation FocusWolf Creek Ranch
Conservation FocusLeonhardt Ranch Learning Landscape
Conservation FocusHeart K Ranch
Conservation FocusPearce Family Ranch
Conservation FocusRogers Key Brand Ranch
Conservation Focus
You Can Count On Us
As a nationally accredited land trust, we are built to last. We leverage your donations with state, federal, and foundation dollars and strategic partnerships to achieve the greatest possible impact for the lands, waters, and people of the Feather River region. You can count on us to make careful and effective use of your support.
