Wonders October 2016

Placer Land Trust protects park for youth, families, future – Christian Valley Park

Placer Land Trust (PLT) and its partners are very  pleased to announce the permanent protection of Christian Valley Park, a 16-acre recreation property east of Auburn.

The land was donated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to the Auburn Are Recreation District (ARD) in June. Simultaneously, a conservation easement was granted to PLT to guarantee the park is protected forever.

“Christian Valley Park is a very popular park,” said ARD Administrator Kahl Muscott. “The easy access, multi-use sports field and the oak woodlands together offer a beautiful setting for family and community recreation, including Little League baseball and youth soccer.”

ARD has been running recreation activities at the park since 2001 through a lease with PG&E. According to Muscott, ARD’s ownership of the park now saves ARD $1,800 per year in lease payments and gives ARD the ability to plan for the long term, rather than year-to-year.

To ensure this property remains protected for the public forever, PLT agreed to hold a perpetual conservation easement on the property. The conservation easement permanently prohibits subdivision, development and other land uses that interfere with the property’s beneficial public values.

“Our job is to ensure that the property is kept open and accessible not only for the public today, but for future generations as well,” said Placer Land Trust Executive Director Jeff Darlington at a July 7 dedication event at the park.

“The conservation easement permanently protects Christian Valley Park and the benefits this land provides the public – scenic open space, natural habitat, and a wide range of public use – from family picnics to organized youth sports.”

Funding for the perpetual monitoring and enforcement of the conservation easement was provided by a grant from the Pacific Forest and Watershed Stewardship Council, along with pooled contributions from Placer Land Trust’s members.

“We’re pleased to support ARD and PLT in their efforts to protect and enhance this property and improve the lives of young Californians through connections with the outdoors,” said Art Baggett, Stewardship Council Board President.

For PLT, this project is the first of many projects where we will be working with PG&E and the Stewardship Council. As part of a land conservation commitment stemming from a 2003 bankruptcy settlement, PG&E is working with land trusts, the Stewardship Council, and other partners to permanently protect 140,000 acres of resource and recreation land in Northern California, including over 6,200 acres in Placer County to be protected by PLT.

“In partnership with the many organizations that make up the Stewardship Council, PG&E is pleased to permanently protect the natural resources and beauty of the Christian Valley parcel and the watershed lands associated with our hydroelectric system for the benefit of current and future generations,” said Mike Schonherr of PG&E’s land conservation commitment department.

Christian Valley Park can be visited by the public anytime. For questions about sports and other organized recreational activities at the park, contact ARD at (530) 885-8461.

Planning for Growth!

In case you haven’t heard, we’ve had quite a few changes going on at the land trust!

First, in October 2015, our office moved to a larger space in the building next door. We are still on Blocker Drive in Auburn, but our office is now in the middle building above the café. Our staff had to adjust from working in a very open office environment to “cubicle land,” which was quite a change. But after almost a year, staff are getting used to it.

In May, we bid farewell to longtime staff member Jessica Daugherty, who served as our Assistant Director. She took a position with the Stewardship Council as their Director of Land Conservation. To fill her spot, and to account for the growth we’re experiencing, we’ll be bringing on two upper level management positions – an Operations Director who should be starting in early November and a Conservation Director position which we will be looking to fill sometime this winter. Also to be added is a new part-time Administrative Assistant, and a part-time Stewardship Assistant.

When you work in a small office environment such as ours, it’s important to make sure the new hires are a good fit with our current team to keep the flow and momentum going. Our hiring process often takes longer so we can make sure to find the best fit for our team. Look for an announcement about our new staff soon!

Earlier this year we also said goodbye to two members of our Board of Directors – stepping down were Treasurer Larry Menth and long-time Board member Larry Welch. Larry Menth took an employment position requiring extensive travel and Larry Welch is the new Board President at the Placer Community Foundation. We thank them both for their tremendous service to our Board and hope that they might return in the future. In the meantime, we are seeking new members from the community to serve on the PLT Board.

We continue to stay very busy with a dozen active conservation projects today, and 20+ projects currently on the “waiting list.” We’re working with PG&E on protectin over 6,200 acres, working with Placer County on potential projects for the future Placer County Conservation Plan, working with developers on mitigation properties, and still looking out for vernal pool grasslands as well as protecting watershed land along the American and Bear River corridors.

The next couple of years should be very exciting! We’re currently wrapping up a new Strategic Plan to guide us through this growth.

As we embrace growth, at the end of the day we retain a distinct focus on our mission: working with willing landowners and conservation partners to permanently protect natural and agricultural lands in Placer County for future generations.

Thank you for helping us in our mission!

Join us Thursday Oct. 20 for our Annual Placer Conservator Award Dinner

Please join us on Thursday, October 20th from 6:00-9:00pm, at The Ridge Golf Club and Events Center in Auburn to celebrate Placer Land Trust’s 25th anniversary, and to honor Loren Clark with the 2016 Placer Conservator Award!

Every year, we recognize exceptional members of the community who support the mission of PLT and contribute to the quality of life in Placer County.

We are excited to recognize Loren for his long list of accomplishments – he has been involved with land conservation longer than PLT has even existed! Loren was the Deputy Director of Community Development Resource Agency (CDRA) for Placer County before recently retiring from a 30-year planning career. He managed the Placer Legacy program which began back in 1998 when the Board of Supervisors voted on an Open Space plan, and now includes over 15 projects to date. He also spearheaded the proposed Placer County Conservation Plan (PCCP) aimed at protecting more open space within the County. Like PLT’s work, these County programs work only with willing landowners.

Loren’s impact was so great that Sierra Business Council is also presenting him with their Sierra Vision Lifetime Achievement Award on the same night at this event.

In addition to presenting Loren with our Placer Conservator award, we will also be honoring a few well-deserving volunteers for their service to our organization.

Our 2016 Volunteer of the Year Award will be presented to Cindy Whitson. Cindy began volunteering with us in August 2013 and helps in our office and at tabling events. She is a great Ambassador for PLT, and will take on any task – no matter how challenging.

Our 2016 Land Steward of the Year Award goes to the Burgeson Family – Adrian, Dayna, and Evan. This Newcastle family began volunteering with us last year and they’ve helped with a wide variety of projects and on several of our preserves. They’ve planted trees, done trail work, tabled for us, and helped with event set-up, just to name a few.

And for only the second time in PLT history, we are presenting an Outstanding Youth Award, which will be given to Juliana Meadows-Yaw. In case you haven’t heard, 10 year old Juliana has become a burrowing owl hero. She’s an advocate for this Species of Special Concern, telling everyone she knows about their challenges, and has raised money and helped build new artificial burrows at our Swainsons Preserve.

It should also be noted that all of our awardees are also PLT members, meaning they don’t just give of their time (which is amazing enough), but they also donate to help support a cause they truly believe in!

We will be sharing more about all of these well deserving members of the community at the event, so be sure to purchase your tickets! This is Placer Land Trust’s biggest community event of the year and we hope you’ll join us in this celebration of 25 years of land conservation!

The event is a great way to meet and spend time with like-minded people in our community, enjoy a great dinner and drinks, and give back to a cause you care deeply about. Everyone will have a chance to support our Natural Wonders Forever Fund through our fund-a-need auction, and you’ll also have a chance to win a wonderful raffle item or live auction package. Proceeds will go right back into the community in the form of protected, restored and enhanced landscapes and natural playgrounds for all in Placer County to enjoy. This fun event will be hosted by KVIE’s Rob Stewart, Host and Executive Producer of Rob on the Road.

For tickets or more information see placerlandtrust.org or contact us at 530-887-9222.

Oest Ranch Phase 4 protected!

Placer Land Trust is pleased to announce that an additional 77 acres of one of Placer County’s oldest cattle ranches has been permanently protected.

PLT worked with the Oest Family of Auburn to voluntarily place an agricultural conservation easement on the portion of Oest Ranch near Highway 49 and Lone Star Road, permanently prohibiting subdivision, development, and harmful land uses.

“Through local partnerships like between PLT and the Oest family, voluntary land conservation is becoming a new American tradition,” said Executive Director Jeff Darlington. “Working with land trusts is a way for our nation’s farms and ranches to stay productive, and it keeps local communities, environments and economies healthy and sustainable.”

The 947-acre Oest Ranch spans two watersheds and two highways and has been in continuous agricultural production by the family since their pioneer ancestors came to Placer County in the 1850s for the Gold Rush. Today Oest Ranch is primarily a cattle ranch, but also produces PlacerGROWN honey through a partnership with Miller Honey Farms.

This 77-acre project was the fourth phase of a multi-phase project to ultimately protect the entire 947-acre ranch. So far 622 acres have been protected since the partnership between the Oests and PLT began in 2007.

“The Oest Ranch and the Oest family embody those things in Placer County’s agricultural history that are important to honor and protect,” said Jennifer Montgomery, Placer County Supervisor. “I applaud the Oests for their continued commitment to open space.”

The agricultural conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement attached to the deed of the property that permanently ensures the property will remain open space viable for agricultural production, while keeping the land privately held and managed by the Oest family.

“This ranch was built by my great-great-grandfather and continued by a lot of hard work down through the generations,” said Loren Oest, the fifth generation of his family to work this land. “We love the land, and we worked with PLT because we want to see our family’s ranching legacy continue for future generations.”

The protection of this property provides multiple public benefits in addition to protecting our local agricultural land base and economy.

Livestock grazing keeps invasive species down which benefits native species, and grazing reduces fuel loads that can lead to wildfire. Conservation of rangelands benefits soil quality, water quality, and carbon sequestration.

The oak woodlands contain critical habitat for a wide diversity of foothill plant and animal life, and the property provides a scenic open space buffer for the City of Auburn along Highway 49.

Funding for the agricultural conservation easement acquisition and long-term stewardship was provided to PLT by its members as well as the State Wildlife Conservation Board, Placer County, and Emigrant Trails Greenway Trust.  The Oest family also contributed financially to the project.

May 3 BIG Day of Giving Update

On May 3, 2016, Placer Land Trust and 570 other nonprofits rallied together to kick off the Sacramento region’s 3rd annual BIG Day of Giving. By the end of this 24-hour online giving event, $7.1 million was raised for our 4-region nonprofit community!

PLT was in awe of the level of support we received on the BIG Day, even with all the technical issues that happened that day.

Regardless of the issues that happened in just 36 hours, over 300 supporters gave to PLT (including 65 new members), totaling more than $117,000. When you add in the $29,000 in matching funds and cash prizes we earned, plus the incentive funds offered by the Community Foundations, our grand total was $146,453! This impressive response from our supporters gave PLT the distinguished honor of taking SECOND PLACE out of all 570 non-profits for the most money raised. PLT came in FIRST PLACE out of over 90 other Placer County non-profits!

On this already exciting day we also had a BIG Day of Giving/Farewell Bash for Assistant Director Jessica Daugherty. She asked everyone to support PLT on the BIG Day of Giving as part of her going away. We had a great party at Out of Bounds Brewery in Rocklin.

Aside from the money raised, the BIG Day of Giving was an opportunity to be part of something HUGE for our region. We developed great relationships with the Placer Community Foundation and the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, who both did an amazing job providing leadership and guidance leading up to and during the BIG Days of Giving in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

The BIG Day of Giving also gave our Board members and staff the platform to tell our community the “Placer Land Trust story” and the chance to walk the talk, so to speak—100% of all our Board and staff members made contributions to PLT on the BIG Day!

BIG thanks go out to our three top donors in 2016: Emigrant Trails Greenway Trust, Andy & Shana Laursen, and Daryl & Sue Oest.

Their gifts helped to shine the spotlight on Placer Land Trust and inspired others to give. But it was the hundreds of gifts of all sizes, from both long-time and new members alike, that made this day a success. And we promise to give it back to you ten-fold in the form of beautiful permanently protected landscapes, and increased opportunities for all to get out and enjoy our treasured natural playgrounds!

To those of you who supported us on the BIG Day …THANK YOU!!

Burrowing Owls & artificial burrow designs

Over the past several years we’ve been experimenting with numerous designs for making artificial nests to help increase the Burrowing Owl population on our Swainsons Grassland Preserve and Doty Ravine Preserve, both in the Lincoln area. We’ve had some successful and some not-so-successful trials. We’ve learned a lot along the way which has helped to improve our designs.

Land Manager Justin Wages first saw Burrowing owls at our Swainsons Preserve in 2007 when he was a PLT volunteer. But we know these cute little owls have been there longer than that. Cattle grazer and long-time resident Greg Lawley said he’s seen the owls for about the past 30 years.

If you aren’t familiar with them, Burrowing owls are quite different from other owls. The Burrowing Owl Conservation Network describes them as “small owls that live in dry, open areas where grasslands, rangelands, agricultural lands, deserts and scrublands are found. These small owls are less than 12 inches tall, have long legs and a short tail, are mostly brown with numerous white or tan spots, and have white eyebrows just above bright yellow eyes. As their name implies, burrowing owls actually make their homes underground. ”

They eat mostly insects, such as grasshoppers and beetles, but will also dine on voles and other small rodents. They have been known to put cow dung near their burrows which attracts dung beetles, a favorite delicacy. But the cow dung may also serve another purpose in aiding to mask their scent to confuse predators. They like to nest in open fields and grasslands, and generally stay away from riparian and wooded areas where they are more likely to become something’s prey. They need plenty of forage and nesting areas in safe locations. In general, Burrowing owls in our area pick a spot to spend the winter, but leave in the spring to find a nesting location. Our Swainsons Preserve is a little unique in that there is a resident pair who is there year round. On Doty Ravine Preserve, just a few miles away, the owls only stay during the winter.

When ready, the baby owls leave the nest to find more burrows. Being social creatures, they often don’t travel far. PLT is adding more burrows in an effort to keep them on our preserves by attempting to form colonies to increase their population.

The idea for installing artificial nests is due to the limitations of ground squirrel holes (which is what Burrowing owls often use for the nest). Squirrels usually won’t go into open fields to dig holes because it puts them at higher risk to become someone’s dinner. The squirrel holes on our Swainsons and Doty Preserves are found along fence lines and corrals where the squirrels have a little more protection from predators. But this isn’t conducive to the owls, who would prefer to be out in the open, so we focus on the middle of the field to expand the habitat.

We made four different attempts at building the artificial nests. To read about the different designs that we tried and how they worked out (or didn’t work out!), as well as which one worked the best for the Burrowing Owls please visit our website placerlandtrust.org/blog.

We’d like to thank Pamela Flick with Defenders of Wildlife and Scott Artis with Burrowing Owl Conservation Network for being the catalysts that got us starting using artificial nests. Without their help early on, we may not have gotten this far.

We also want to give a big thanks to Auburn resident Dennis Cavallo, who has been a major contributor to this program. Dennis has volunteered countless hours over the past several years monitoring the nests to see if they’re being used, taking pictures and video which he sends us, providing support to keep things moving along and donating funding for the project.

Special thanks to 10-year old Juliana Meadows-Yaw for learning about burrowing owls and becoming an advocate, for holding bake sales to raise money to install a new nest, and for bringing her friends along to help with the project.

We have also recently picked up some great sponsors for this program: Gladding, McBean in Lincoln, Side Hill Citrus in Lincoln, Placer County, and Teichert Materials.

Great Sierra River Cleanup

In case you haven’t heard, once a year we are involved with the State’s largest volunteer cleanup effort. We were pleased to participate in the annual Great Sierra River Cleanup on Sept. 17th. This was our 7th year hosting a cleanup to help keep our waterways free of trash and debris. This family-friendly event was open to anyone!

As in prior years, we cleaned up trash along the Miner’s Ravine trail in Roseville. This year, over 80 volunteers (including 30 kids!) joined us cleaning up an estimated 800 pounds of trash along this popular trail. We had 2 Brownie Troops, students from Blue Oaks elementary, NCL, and Hewlett Packard Enterprises employees, as well as other individuals. City of Roseville Council member Bonnie Gore came and gave a nice speech, and Brittany Covich from Sierra Nevada Conservancy was on hand.

After the cleanup, volunteers enjoyed lunch courtesy of local business sponsors.

The Great Sierra River Cleanup is coordinated by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and is the premier volunteer event focused on removing trash and restoring the health of waterways throughout the Sierra Nevada Region. Every year it is held in conjunction with California Coastal Cleanup Day.

Thank you to everyone who came out and help clean up Miners Ravine Trail!

Placer Land Trust Staff Out-and-About

PLT staff enjoys summer vacation as much as anyone. Over the summer, Sarah and her mom Mary took Sarah’s kids Destiny, Alan and Corey to Legoland and Santa Cruz.  Janet and her husband John enjoyed a trip to Utah where they hiked around Zion National Park!