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.

Rocks and craters and local foods

Saturday, August 22nd, dawned cloudy and overcast. 22 geology enthusiasts gathered just south of Round Valley, to hear professor emeritus of geology, Terry Wright, shed some light on the rocks. The first topic, geology of the Owens and Deep Springs Valleys. Terry had just recently completed a diagram showing this, a cross-section that captures the geology from the Sierra Nevada to the White Mountains.

Terry Wright points out key geologic features of the Owens Valley to tour participants.

Our tour continued north, stopping at Crowley Lake to observe the Long Valley Caldera, and to discuss the magma chamber below our feet. We continued to the Mono Basin, stopping to observe the Aeolian Buttes, and then continued on to the Panum Crater. There we hiked up into the rocks, for a closer view of the boudinage formation.

Tour participants get up close with the rock at the Panum Crater

We ended our tour with a lunch of local foods at a private residence along DeChambeau Creek. Tour participants were greeted by ESLT staff in a shady cottonwood grove as they walked up. On the menu was a Nicoise Salad, with Eastern Sierra Alpers Trout, a couscous dish with local squash, tomatoes, and onions, a garden salad with lettuce from Dennis Oakeshott and cucumbers and tomatoes from ESLT staff gardens, goat cheese from Simis Ranch, and fresh baguettes from the Great Basin Bakery, and a peach cobbler with fresh peaches from Apple Hill Ranch. Wine was donated from Pete Watercott and from the Sonoma Wine Company. Thank you to Simis Ranch for their donation of vegetables, and to Anything Goes Catering and Inyo Council for the Arts for their support.     

The wine and cheese display under the cottonwoods. Photo courtesy of Stephen Ingram

Particpants enjoy their local foods lunch while Karen briefly thanks everyone for coming.

Eastern Sierra Geology Tour

A view of Mono Lake, photograph by Stephen Ingram

Come experience this unique opportunity to learn about the fascinating variety of our local geology, and get served a lunch of local foods! Geoglogist Terry Wright will spend the morning, guiding us through geologic history, from the Long Valley Caldera to the Mono Basin. We’ll end with a stop in an aspen grove overlooking Mono Lake, with a lunch of local Eastern Sierra foods.

The menu:

Nicoise Salad with Eastern Sierra Alpers Trout

Garden Vegetable Couscous Dish

Mixed Green Spring Salad

Home-made Goat Cheese on Bread

Peach Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream

Visit our website for more information on the geology, meeting locations, and other trip logistics.

Call today to reserve your spot! 760-873-4554. $60 for members, $75 for non-members.

Terry Wright interpreting geology at Panum Crater. Photo from Terry Wright.

Pollinators in our midst

What fun it is to take a closer look at the bees, butterflies, and birds who are working hard in our flower gardens and flowering native plants!

In the ESLT garden, we are enjoying watching the gangs of bees on our sunflower garden – lots of native species but what are they?

Check out this website to join the pollinator craze: http://www.greatsunflower.org/

Steve, a nature photographer I know well, is great at capturing close-up and beautiful views of these amazing creatures.

Karen