SIERRASCAPES
The Newsletter of the Eastern Sierra Land Trust
A Natural Paradise
www.eslt.org
Fall 2013
Binoculars on the Range
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he leaves outside my window are turning from verdant green to multiple shades of gold and rust – the trees themselves seem to be glowing with their last bit of energy before turning quiet for the winter months. Soon our Round Valley mule deer herd will be traveling from their summer home to winter feeding grounds. Approximately 2,500 deer migrate twice a year through the narrow corridor between the cliffs of Wheeler Ridge and the deep canyon of Lower Rock Creek Gorge, along the way facing mountain lions, cars, and an increasing human presence. In 2000, a group of landowners in the growing community of Swall Meadows realized they were building their homes in the middle of the mule deer’s throughway. These forward-thinking landowners took steps to put their land in conservation easements to protect this critical habitat – and the Eastern Sierra Land Trust was born. Because of the vision of these original landowners and the dedicated work of staff and Board members since, over 7,500 acres of critically important land has been protected for perpetuity. So dream boldly and act confidently. The Eastern Sierra deserves nothing less than our best efforts. Please support ESLT: help preserve our multi-generational family ranches, our brilliantly clear waters, and the safe havens of our wildlife with your special year-end gift. Together, I know we can make a difference. In perpetuity. For forever. From ESLT to you – happy holidays! ■ Kay Ogden, ESLT Executive Director
The bi-state population of greater sage-grouse depends on irrigated grazing pastures and the nutrients they provide to raise their young in the late summer months. Photo © Tatiana Gettelman, www.wildlensinc.org.
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ere in the Eastern Sierra, ranching and farming represent major components of our local economy. Preserving our agricultural future is a worthy objective in itself, but interestingly a collaborative study recently published by the Department of Interior titled “The State of the Birds 2013 Report on Private Lands”, confirms that carefully-managed agricultural lands offer many benefits for a variety of native bird species too. In our region, the bi-state population of greater sage-grouse is of particular conservation concern. Currently being considered for endangered species status under federal law, this ground nesting bird is particularly dependent on pastures where irrigation and sustainable grazing provide essential late summer habitat for raising their young. Sought-after by California’s dairy industry because of its high protein content, alfalfa produced at elevation in our region also presents more than economic benefits alone: these farms offer vital bird habitats. This field crop provides an ideal hunting ground for raptors like the Swainson’s hawk, a state species of special concern. These majestic birds of prey come to the Eastern Sierra to breed, often choosing to occupy trees planted on farms for their nest sites. California ranks second in loss of agricultural land in the nation. As we strive to preserve our region’s rural lands, it is vital to remember how important these working farms and ranches are to sustaining both our communities and our wildlife. It is our role to work with landowners who see this key enterprise as a part of not only the present, but the legacy of our region as well. In the process of sustaining a healthy food supply, supporting a regional economy, and preserving key pieces of our region’s history for the future, it is a true win-win that we are simultaneously doing something good for the birds as well. 1
ON THE WILD SIDE
The Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep
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onsidered by many to be some of the most elite mountaineers, the Sierra Nevada Bighorn sheep constitute an important part of the Sierra Nevada landscape. The species’ agility, strength, and ability to thrive in harsh alpine terrain have been admired for over a century. It is estimated that before 1850, over 1,000 bighorn inhabited the Sierra Nevada, extending from One of our region’s most iconic species, the Sierra Nevada Bighorn sheep is making a comeback Sonora pass to areas south of Mt. Whitney. after coming dangerously close to extinction. In the 1850’s, the population of the Sierra Nevada bighorn began a significant decline. Predation, unregulated hunting and fatal pneumonia spread by domestic sheep to the bighorn, all became factors resulting in the devastation of entire herds.With barely 100 left in the entire range in 1995, it became evident that endangered species status was necessary if the bighorn was to recover. In 2000, the Sierra Nevada Bighorn sheep became the first species to be listed under the Endangered Species Act in the 21st century. Following the emergency listing, land management agencies began collaborating to design and implement recovery efforts. This work has succeeded in increasing the bighorn population to over 500 in 2013. One less popular outcome of these efforts has been limiting the extent of domestic sheep grazing, an historically and economically important land use in our region. ESLT is proud to be working on a current conservation project that seeks to preserve Sinnamon Meadows, a 1,240-acre agricultural property currently grazed by cattle and historically grazed by sheep. This property will continue to support our agricultural economy while also providing habitat for the Mt. Warren bighorn sheep herd and critical late-summer brood rearing habitat for the bi-state greater sage grouse.
Member Spotlight: Rick Kattelmann Eastern Sierra Land Trust is fortunate to work with a great team of active volunteers, both locals and visitors. Rick Kattelmann is one member who has devoted tireless energy to ESLT, volunteering as a Board member for nearly a dozen years. Rick is a mostly-retired hydrologist who specializes in watershed management and snow hydrology. He was the principal hydrologist for the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project and has authored more than one hundred scientific and technical papers. Starting with backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada during his boyhood, he has pursued photography as a hobby for more than 40 years. A camera and tripod accompany Rick on most 2
EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST works with willing landowners to preserve vital lands in the Eastern Sierra region for their scenic, agricultural, natural, recreational, historical, and watershed values. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Tony Taylor, President Sid Tyler, Vice President Bob Gardner, Treasurer Will Richmond, Secretary Bill Bramlette Jan Hunewill Marie Patrick ADVISORS Geoff McQuilkin Dave Doonan George Milovich Steve Frisch Ruth Norris Nate Greenberg Duke Ostendorf Rusty Gregory Pete Pumphrey Linda Hess Doug Ross Sandy Hogan Terry Gooch Ross Byng Hunt Orrin Sage Stephen Ingram Tim Sanford Rick Kattelmann Brian Stange Ruth MacFarlane Ann Wong STAFF Kay Ogden, Executive Director Aaron Johnson, Lands Director Lesley Bruns, Outreach and Development Director Marguerite Burkham, Membership and Communications Coordinator Karen Ferrell-Ingram, Project Manager EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST www.eslt.org Phone (760) 873-4554 • Fax (760) 873-9277
of his hikes and travels, just in case some beautiful scene appears. Over the years, he has provided ESLT with many exceptional photographic images, such as the one included on page five of the newsletter! As an ESLT founding Board member, Rick spent countless hours working on early organizational planning and policies, supported various conservation projects, and handled many administrative chores. He even donated his trusty Subaru to ESLT, which we use to transport staff, volunteers, and materials to our preserved lands! Recently, as a member of our Art Committee, Rick helped organize and staff our Art for Conservation 2013 booth at the Labor Day Festival of the Arts in Mammoth Lakes. In Rick’s words: “I’ve been glad to be able to help the Land Trust support private landowners with their conservation goals. Working with the great staff, board, and volunteers of ESLT for the past twelve years has been a wonderful experience.” Committed individuals like Rick help ESLT grow and thrive – thank you, Rick, for your contributions!
Thank You! Land & Legacy Sponsors
LANDS & LEGACY 2013: A CELEBRATION OF PRESERVED LANDS
While touring the breathtaking vistas, lush meadows, and varied topography of Sinnamon Meadows, event attendees had the opportunity to see firsthand the land they are helping preserve.
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he cornerstone of ESLT’s busy event season this past summer was our Lands & Legacy Celebration, an annual benefit to bring our community together in support of preserving vital lands in the Eastern Sierra. Held August 2nd & 3rd, this year’s event was a resounding success. On Friday evening, our guests enjoyed a private reception preceding the Mammoth Lakes Music Festival’s final performance, “Ciao Tutti,” featuring the Felici Piano Trio. ESLT’s Lands Director, Aaron, and Elise, our AmeriCorps Member, led a walking tour the following morning of the meadows below Dunderberg peak at one of our current conservation projects, Sinnamon Meadows. The celebrations concluded Saturday night with our event’s chief component, our Lands & Legacy Benefit Dinner. Our keynote speaker, Rand Wentworth, gave a personal Inspirational and fun, the dinner was highlighted by a reflection on the role rural land fabulous silent auction and the heartfelt, motivating trusts play in supporting local and encouraging remarks made by our keynote speaker, President of the economies sustainable community growth within our magnificent landscapes. Land Trust Alliance, Rand Wentworth.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Lands & Legacy Celebration and helped make it such a special weekend. In particular, our sincere thanks go to Rusty Gregory and Mammoth Mountain for hosting our Benefit Dinner. We would also like to express our thanks to our supporting board members. Tony and Sherryl Taylor sponsored the concert reception, as well as a table at the benefit dinner; Sid and Betsey Tyler sponsored the walking tour at Sinnamon Meadows; and Bob and Karen Gardner sponsored a table at the benefit dinner. Thanks also go to Sandra D. Domizio of Green Fox Events & Guest Services for her help creating a wonderful ambiance, and to Nancy and Skip Burke for their generous contributions. We would also like to recognize our event sponsors, Jane and David Richardson, and Chris Lizza of Mono Market. Thank you all for helping to make our Lands & Legacy Celebration a success!
ESLT Farewells
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his fall, we are bidding farewell to two dedicated women whose exuberance and devotion to ESLT has inspired us all. Heather DeBethizy, who worked as our Membership Coordinator in 2007, left the ESLT Board of Directors earlier this summer after leading our Outreach and Education Committee for a little over a year. Though she has since moved to Montana, Heather’s lifelong passion for the Eastern Sierra will continue to motivate us to action. An avid backpacker, cyclist, and skier, Heather brought vigor and insight to our board. Though sorry to see her go, we have no doubt she will be a true asset to her new community
ESLT is also saddened to say goodbye to Elise Robinette, our 2013 half-term AmeriCorps member. Growing up in the beautiful heart of Appalachia, Elise has brought to the Eastern Sierra an affinity for the wilderness and a commitment to preserve this special place. Though her service term only allowed her to join us for six months, she took the lead on important community events like GardenFest and Birds in the Classroom, and worked tirelessly to restore habitat and native plant species on some of our easements. Her sunny smile and positive attitude have left lasting impressions in our office, and will be sorely missed. 3
GARDEN ANNUALS
A wonderful collection of annual events organized by our AmeriCorps Member takes place every year right here in Bishop at the ESLT garden!
This past May, GardenFest presented a wonderful opportunity for the Bishop community to welcome spring by gathering in the garden. Attendees swapped gardening tips and success stories, shared seeds, learned about worm composting, and purchased plants offered by several local nurseries and organizations.
ESLT has been partnering with Bishop Elementary to show our local third graders about plant life and give them the opportunity for hands-on discovery. Now in its fifth year, our Sunflower Garden Project is a fun way for our community’s youth to learn about life in the garden!
With a theme of “local conservation newsmakers,” our 2013 Brown Bag Lunch Series offered our community the free monthly opportunity to take lunch out on our patio and learn about hot conservation issues from local experts. Topics this season included archaeological finds in the Owens Valley, aquifer modeling in the Amargosa, and the effects of climate change on the Eastern Sierra.
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That’s a SNAP! Serving as a Sierra Nevada Americorps Partnership Member By Elise Robinette During my six-month term as ESLT’s Education Coordinator and AmeriCorps Member, I’ve worked on many exciting projects hoping to engage community members through education, outreach, stewardship, and volunteer opportunities. One of ESLT’s educational programs is the Sunflower Garden Project. Each year, we partner with Bishop Elementary third grade classes to connect students to natural science with a hands-on outdoor experience. Over the course of several months, students learned about topics like composting and Elise worked with volunteer Tim Bartley at the plant growth cycle, and planted and the Benton Hot Springs Ranch Conservation documented the growth of their very own Easement to remove aggressive bulrush from sunflowers. Our office garden exploded the Benton Ponds. with the sunflower’s vibrant, towering blooms – only seedlings a few months earlier – and the third-graders enthusiastically supervised their progress. During the summer, we shifted gears and focused on fieldwork. In addition to visiting easements for ongoing monitoring and stewardship, we organized volunteers to work with us on several restoration projects. Together, we battled against persistent, invasive weeds such as the bull thistle at Benton Hot Springs Ranch Conservation Easement and knapweed in Swall Meadows. Along with our frequent monitoring, these restoration efforts help ensure that native flora will flourish, strengthening the natural habitats of our many resident species. My service term concluded with the Great Sierra River Cleanup, a Sierra-wide volunteer effort to keep the rivers and streams of the region free of trash. A hardworking group of ESLT friends removed garbage from the Owens Valley waterways. Thanks to all the volunteers I worked with this year – our fun and productive efforts really paid off!
Spreading the Word in Southern California At ESLT, we are always looking for new ways to connect with our supporters and spread the news of our work to those who love the Eastern Sierra but might not know about our organization. One way we do this is through “house parties” hosted by friends away from our home base in Inyo & Mono counties. We feel very grateful towards two gracious and generous couples who hosted house parties for ESLT in Southern California in August: thanks to Elaine & Doug Muchmore and Wendy & Fred Salter for being such good friends of ESLT and for spreading your love of the Eastern Sierra & ESLT in your communities! If you are interested in hosting a house party for ESLT in your neighborhood, please contact Lesley or Kay at the ESLT office.
CHARITABLE GIFT ACCOUNTS: GIVING MADE EASY
A letter from a long-time ESLT donor
Located west of Crowley Lake, Karen’s Preserve ensures the permanence of vital wildlife habitat and scenic views. Preserving our working and wild lands in the Eastern Sierra has never been easier – enroll in a Charitable Gift Account and watch as your donations make a difference. Photo: © Rick Kattelmann.
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y husband and I have always done our annual charitable giving by writing checks. Even though we get a charitable deduction for our contributions, the funds we donate have already been taxed once. It’s possible to transfer appreciated stock directly to the charity, but we’ve never tried to do it – it always seemed so complicated. We recently learned about a vehicle that makes such transactions easy. It’s called a Charitable Gift Account, and it offers many benefits. Most banking and brokerage companies – such as Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Vanguard, E-Trade, Bank of America, etc. – offer such accounts. Technically, it’s a donor advised fund. We gave our account a name, let’s say for now it’s the ABC Fund. We can make cash deposits to the ABC Fund, or transfer appreciated assets directly from our investment portfolio. Gifts to the ABC Fund are irrevocable, and so deductible at the time we transfer them to that account. The firm manages the funds in this account, which we can allow to accumulate and grow toward an eventual large gift, or we can choose to support organizations now by requesting grants from the Fund to be sent to the charities of our choice.
This is not only for rich people! The minimum contribution to the Giving Account is $5,000, and the minimum amount for each grant to a charity is just $50. Why did we do it? We are in our early 60’s, so it’s advantageous to “ramp up”our giving to the Fund now, while we are still working. In retirement, we’ll be able to support ESLT and our other favorite charities at the same level we do today, drawing down the Fund’s accumulated balance. Also, we’re not ready to make specific bequests to certain charities in our wills. Instead, we plan to leave bequests to the Fund. We’ve made the Fund a family project, adding a representative of the next generation as a trustee. We can update them about our wishes and priorities at any time, without having to make changes in our wills. This opens a lovely opportunity to build a family tradition of philanthropy. The Fund also allows us to send “Gift4Giving” e-gifts, a wonderful vehicle, for example, for memorial gifts, or gifts in honor of a person or occasion. Finally, requesting a donation from the charitable giving account to a specific charity is easy – like online checking. Because it’s a donor advised fund, there is due diligence by the account manager to assure that the recipient is a qualified charity. I would encourage anyone to do this! We wish we’d done it years ago.
Member Milestones We wish a warm welcome to all our new members who joined ESLT during our Spring Membership Drive. The drive was a big success, adding 63 new members to our ranks. Thanks to everyone who helped us grow! ESLT underwent a major transition this year, as Karen Ferrell-Ingram left us as Executive Director and Kay Ogden came on board. Many contributions marked this important landmark. Jeanne & Dennis Oakeshott, Tony & Sherryl Taylor, and Rick Kattelmann & Sally Gaines made special gifts in honor of Karen’s accomplishments. Jack and Jeanne Androvich became new members “in honor of Kay Ogden and Earth Day 2013.” Erica Chapin and Robin Roberts joined ESLT and sent this note: “Congratulations to ESLT and our community for having Kay’s heart and expertise.” Lorraine Masten and Mike Loughman renewed generously with a thanks to Karen and a welcome to Kay. Renee Golling dedicated her new membership to the memory of Leni and Paul Kremp, and Margaret Eissler added this note with her gift: “I’m excited to send the enclosed check in support of ESLT and all the great work you do!” 5
Think of ESLT this Holiday Season
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he Holidays are just around the corner! Avoid the crowds and shop at home – buy from our online shop and ship directly to those on your gift lists. Your presents will serve a dual purpose as they help support our vital Eastern Sierra lands! ESLT Merchandise is available for purchase at www.eslt.org, or by calling our office at (760) 873-4554.
Earlier this year, ESLT partnered with award-winning filmmakers Bristlecone Media to create, "Valleys and Vistas: Preserving the Wild Side of California," a short film that tells the story of our work in the Eastern Sierra. Copies are available for $10 – please contact the ESLT office to purchase yours today!
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