2025 Feather River conservation successes

As we step into a new year, we’re inspired by what our community accomplished together in 2025. Your partnership continues to protect and strengthen the Feather River Watershed we all cherish.

Conserve: Protecting priority lands and waters

Since 2000, together with you and our conservation partners, we have helped protect over 100,000 acres of ecologically important lands to benefit water, wildlife, and people for generations to come. 

Through unique partnerships, two exciting land conservation projects moved forward in 2025:

• Partnering with the new Wášiw-šiw Land Trust, supporting their historic effort to purchase and conserve over 10,000 acres of Washoe homelands. We are near the finish line, stay tuned for good news soon!
• Protected 1,025 acres of incredible forest, meadow, and wildlife habitat, and transferred the land to outdoor education camp Sierra Nevada Journeys, expanding access for youth in nature. Read the conservation story.

Your support allows us to continue to make progress on a number of important conservation projects behind the scenes, and we can’t wait to share with you once they are finalized.  

Care for: stewarding lands for water, wildlife, and community

Our Stewardship team was hard at work in 2025 monitoring, maintaining, and restoring the places we love.  

• Monitoring conservation easements on 29 properties to ensure the conservation values of these lands are upheld
• Keeping FRLT’s five nature preserves visitor-ready and outdoor classrooms ready for students requires stewardship throughout the seasons
• Installing a cumulative 8,000+ feet of pipe for both irrigation and livestock water at the Heart K Ranch to enable more efficient water management, support revegetation efforts, and better managing the riparian habitats along Indian Creek
• Hosting a seasonal stewardship intern who supported land management across the watershed and improved our practices for tackling invasive knapweed at Olsen Barn Meadow. Thank you, Willa!

Connect: restoring relationship to land and place 

In December, we celebrated one year of opening and operating the Sierra Valley Preserve Nature Center after 20 years in the making! We are proud to reflect on all of the incredible programs you supported and took part in during 2025:

• Hosted over 50 unique events, from children’s art programs to educational botany and ecology talks, Indigenous foods workshops to birding walks, nature-themed art shows to musical concerts. We are excited to continue offering a variety of events for all ages and interests in 2026.
• Hosted 32 field trips for students of all grades—from Kindergarten to college, from Plumas and Sierra counties and Truckee/Tahoe.

The Sierra Valley Preserve Nature Center would not be able to operate without our fantastic team of volunteers, who contributed over 1,000 hours to the Nature Center in 2025. To all of our dedicated docents, field trip and special event volunteers, THANK YOU! We truly could not do this without you.

Across the watershed, Learning Landscapes, FRLT’s outdoor education partnership with local schools continued to connect 2,500+ students to nature at outdoor classrooms within a 10-minute walk of their school.

Beyond the watershed, Conservation Director Shelton Douthit helped launch a new two-year professional development program in partnership with the CA Council of Land Trusts. The Land Protection Academy is designed to build the next generation of land protection leaders at land trusts across California, de-mystifying the complicated process of conservation transactions.

Looking ahead to 2026

With your support, we are excited to conserve, care for, and connect people to the special lands of the Feather River region in 2026, including: 

• Conserve more important meadows, habitats, and watersways throughout the Feather River Watershed
• Kick off public access improvements at Olsen Barn Meadow
• Host the California Naturalist certification program at the Sierra Valley Preserve
• Offer year-round events, educational programs, and volunteer opportunities at the Sierra Valley Preserve + Nature Center

None of this would have been possible without you, our community of supporters, partners, and visionary landowners. Because of you, we’ve conserved over 100,000 acres, protecting some of Sierra Nevada’s most ecologically important and climate-resilient landscapes. Thank you!