Reflections on a Year of Service

With the beginning of December, and AmeriCorps graduation drawing near, I am starting to realize that my twelve months, 1700 hours of service, are drawing to a close. As I prepare to pass the torch to the next AmeriCorps member coming in January, I look back on all I’ve experienced. What a great year, and I’d like to thank everyone in the community who welcomed me so warmly, and helped make this year the perfect experience that it has been. From growing a sunflower garden, organizing events like the Living with Wildlife Festival, to updating our website and sending out newsletters, it has been a year of outreach, community, education, and fun.

Jungle of Sunflowers in ESLT Garden planted by local elementary students.

I am excited to stay in Bishop, with it’s mountain vistas and wide open skies, I’m not quite ready to leave yet. I have accepted a part time position with ESLT, staying on as Outreach Coordinator, continuing to assist the ESLT team in furthering our mission of helping landowners to preserve the Eastern Sierra’s rural lands.

Serena

GPS workshop a success!

Last Saturday 14 interested folks came out to our Crowley Hilltop Preserve to learn about working with Global Positioning Systems (GPS). This fun group had signed up for the workshop to become more familiar with their own receivers or learn more before getting one of their own. The group included people who had never touched a GPS before to those who use them regularly for work, and even a couple who is using theirs to travel the world, all wanting to learn a little bit more about this technology and have a good day out on the land.

Lets start with the basics...the Earth is round right?

The workshop kicked off with a review of the theory behind the GPS including coordinate systems, satellites, maps and more. The remainder of the program was designed to get people using their units successfully on their own to locate and navigate to locations using maps and coordinates. In the end, the participants managed to navigate through a GPS course in rough terrain ending with a special treat while overlooking views of Crowley Lake and the Benton Range beyond.

Getting to know a Garmin

Based on the great feedback we go from participants, we have been thinking about more workshops in the future, anyone interested? What would you like to learn how to do? Map & Compass? Landscape Photography? Quilting with Natural Dyes?

Aaron

What good is a land trust without members?

It’s like a garden without any plants, a beehive without any bees, or a crystal-clear stream absent of any fish.  Without our members, this important work of preserving land in the Eastern Sierra would not be happening.  With the support of our more than 600 members and their families, ESLT has been able to preserve over 6,000 acres of scenic, rural and wildlife-rich lands.

Can you imagine a stream with no fish?  Well, neither can we imagine ESLT without our members.  As we approach the holiday season, we would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to all our members for the vital support you offer and for making our mission successful.  Currently, there are over 8,000 acres in-the-works to be preserved so there is still much to do.

Our end-of-year letters have just gone out in the mail, highlighting what we have done and what we are working to accomplish.  It also includes another chance to support ESLT and enjoy a beautiful gift in the process.  Please watch for it if you are members.  If you are not a member, we could always use more fish in our stream so jump on in and join us!

Heather

Fall Colors and Mt. Tom, Photo By Stephen Ingram

What’s Happening at ESLT: Top Ten Things You May Not Know

1.  We discovered an imperiled and beautiful butterfly on one of our preserved properties this summer, confirmed by local naturalist, Derham Giuliani.

2.  Our first financial audit (voluntary) report card: No significant deficiencies, just a few procedural improvements recommended.  ESLT has brought over $5 million into our communities in our organizational lifetime!

3.  All our important records are now in a new fireproof file cabinet in a safe location offsite.

4.  We’re actively working on 12 land conservation projects stretching from Owens Lake to Sonora Junction, and actively tracking another 20 or so.  These projects encompass over 8000 acres.

5.  ESLT staff continues to keep smiling and working tirelessly to keep the Eastern Sierra beautiful despite two furlough days per month and cutbacks on some benefits.

6. ESLT Advisory Board member, Rusty Gregory of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, graciously offered to host another fun celebration for ESLT in 2010.  Many more exciting events are on the calendar.

7.  ESLT has a wonderful team of volunteers doing everything from processing mailings to maintaining lands files to donating artwork to governing the organization.  Our thank-you dinner for volunteers is scheduled for Dec. 7 on one of our easements.  Invitations are in the mail.

8.  S. David Freeman, who first proposed permanently preserving all the Los Angeles lands in the Eastern Sierra back before ESLT was born, is back on the job as acting LADWP General Manager, and he continues to be a man with a big, bright vision.  Can there truly be the proverbial win-win solution?

9. Green thumbs abound among the ESLT staff – three staffers just got accepted into the first-ever Master Gardener’s Program in Bishop!

10.  Several board and staff members developed a taste for good Portland beer, huckleberries, and Oregon salmon at the Land Trust Alliance Rally last month and lived to tell about it.

Karen

Conservation projects in the works: Bridgeport Valley.

GPS Field Workshop

Saturday, November 14th, 10am to 2pm

Spend the day with ESLT Stewardship Coordinator, Aaron Johnson, learning about the basics of Global Positioning System (GPS) use while exploring the stunning terrain of ESLT’s Crowley Hilltop Preserve. This excursion will include an introduction to basic GPS use, a cross-country geography walk using map and GPS, and a discussion of how these technologies benefit the monitoring program at ESLT.

Please bring your gps unit, extra batteries, hat, water, and lunch. Dress for variable weather. ESLT will provide drinks and snacks.

To reserve your space and for more information, please contact info@eslt.org or call 760-873-4554.
Suggested Donation: $10 ESLT Members and students; $15 non-members.

View from top of Crowley Hilltop Preserve. Photo by Stephen Ingram.

National Land Conservation Conference 2009!

Several of us headed up to the gray and rainy Pacific Northwest last week to participate in the National Land Conservation Conference (aka Land Trust Alliance Rally) in Portland, Oregon last week. This event is an opportunity to attend seminars and workshops designed to provide information regarding the best practices for land conservation,  new conservation tools and opportunities, and to provide additional education to land trust staff, board members, and volunteers. It was inspiring to be surrounded by more than 2,000 like minded motivated conservation professionals and volunteers. Land Trusts from across the country (and the world) were present at this event which started on Sunday and concluded on Wednesday.

Oregon Convention Center

We attended seminars and workshops ranging from how organizations are dealing with these difficult economic times,  how to we can create conservation easements that will accommodate for climate change, how to expand our volunteer program, and much more. I spent four days scribbling down notes like I hadn’t since in school and returned to the office excited to start implementing these new ideas and — conserving more land!

It was my first time in what has been voted  ‘the Greenest City in America’ and though I didn’t get to see too much of it (the Conference didn’t leave much time for exploring) it was quite a contrast to our home base here in Bishop. Riding the light rail downtown while being serenaded by a guitar playing stranger, checking out one of the dozens of local brew-pubs, or walking along one of the hundreds of paths crossing the city and being amazed at the number of bicycles (Portland is also known as one of the most bike friendly cities) was exciting and enjoyable — but I have to admit it was also nice to return to our snow rimmed Owens Valley and the sound of the cows in the pasture behind my house rather than the regular rumble of the light rail outside my room.

What keeps you inspired?

Aaron

Help Save the Sierra Nevada!

Your License to Protect the Places You Love.
Submit your paid pledge for this special license plate and you will be protecting and restoring natural habitats, providing open space and improving recreation throughout the region. The sales of the Sierra Nevada License Plate will benefit the Sierra Nevada Conservancy which provides funding for conservation, habitat restoration, recreation, and other important and economically beneficial projects in the Sierra Nevada region, a unique and special place.  The Sierra Nevada Conservancy is a state agency that is providing funding for ESLT projects on the East Walker River and for our conservation outreach efforts. These special plates will be issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles upon receipt of 7,500 paid pledges. Visit ESLT’s website to find out more!

Sierra Nevada License Plate

Blooming Rabbitbrush on ESLT Conservation Easement Tour

At the end of September, ESLT staff set out for the first annual conservation easement tour of the Eastern Sierra. With new fall weather rolling in, we were bundled up but ready for scenic vistas and views of preserved lands. The rabbitbrush was in full bloom, blanketing the Eastern Sierra will a warm yellow glow. As always, it was inspiring to see these lands that will remain forever in perpetuity. As we toured, we marveled at the generosity of our members, who support us as we work to preserve these lands. Below are a few photos of our journey.

Serena

First stop, Montgomery Creek Ranch, organic alfalfa being harvested in the background.

ESLT staff enjoying the sun and lunch on the Yednock conservation easement.

View of Mono Lake from the Yednock conservation easement.

A short walk through the sagebrush on the Big Hot Springs Ranch conservation easement.

The day ended with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from Stephen, and a walk through Swall Meadows, with Mt. Tom looming in the background.

Living with Wildlife Festival – Snakes and Bears oh my!

Saturday, September 26th started out clear and warm, as local families and tourists headed to the Bishop City Park for our 3rd annual Living with Wildlife Festival. Many local wildlife organizations were on hand to answer questions, provide wildlife to hold, and activities for children to complete.

Karma the Red Tailed Hawk made a guest appearance with the Eastern Sierra Wildlife Care.

Eastern Sierra Wildlife Care had a booth with many snakes from around the world, many that children were able to hold. One young lady, who wanted to be a veterinarian, became good friends with one snake.

A young veterinarian in training holding a snake that was probably longer than she was tall.

Children stopped by the ESLT booth, where they completed a maze helping mule deer navigate the perils to their dinner of bitterbrush. Eastern Sierra Watershed project helped children make plaster of paris molds of wildlife tracks. Sierra Ceramic Mural Project taught children how to identify local wildlife and draw them, along with California Deer Association who brought mule deer antlers for people to hold and look at. And then Smokey the Bear arrived, and the crowd went wild.

A visiting cheerleading squad complete the mule deer maze at the ESLT booth.

Children choose which wildlife track they are going to make a plaster mold of with Eastern Sierra Watershed Project.

A group of Smokey the Bear fans pose for a photograph.

With over 250 people attending our 3rd annual Living With Wildlife Festival, all had a fun morning of education and sun. Thanks to our fantastic volunteers making this event a success: Cecilia for hanging flyers, Tom for pre-event set-up, and Rosanne and Karen for running the ESLT booth. I enjoyed every minute of it, and am looking forward to next year’s festival.

~Serena

AmeriCorps is now recruiting!

Apply to become a Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps member!
Do you love the Sierra? Want to help restore and protect the Range of Light?

Apply to become an AmeriCorps member with the Sierra Nevada Alliance, and complete your year of service working with ESLT!

We are looking to fill our Education and Outreach Coordinator AmeriCorps position. Help spread the word, send this link on to anyone you might think would like to spend a year serving in Bishop and working with ESLT to preserve the Eastern Sierra!

Download the AmeriCorps flier and application on our website. Email Mary (mary@eslt.org) with any questions about the AmeriCorps program, or visit the Sierra Nevada Alliance website. Applications are due October 15th.

2009 Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps members gather in Yosemite to begin their year of service.