The New Federal Landscape for Land Trusts
Many of SLT’s conservation projects remain on track despite federal funding uncertainties. Programs like the USDA Farm Bill’s NRCS Ag Land Easement Program and the USFS Land and Water Conservation Fund continue to support our work, with matching funds from state agencies helping to move projects forward, despite some delays.
Of the ten land protection projects SLT is advancing, seven face impacts from federal program pauses or cancellations. This includes four conservation easements protecting 16,000 acres of forest, farmland, and habitat corridors. We’re working closely with partners to adapt and keep these efforts moving.
Yreka phlox blooming in view with Mt Shasta
Three land acquisitions protecting the endangered Yreka Phlox and key stewardship programs face uncertainty due to potential federal funding cuts. The USFWS Section-6 grant and AmeriCorps funding, which will support a second Climate Action Corps fellows’ term at SLT in September, remain in question. While we await federal program funding updates, SLT is identifying alternative funding sources, including private donors and foundations, to ensure this important work continues.
Want to learn more about this inspiring effort and see the rare Yreka Phlox in bloom?
Sign up for a Yreka Phlox Nature Walk – April 24
Locally, SLT’s collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service to use its greenhouse for a large-scale native plant and habitat restoration project was unfortunately canceled due to capacity constraints and uncertainty effecting the Mt. Shasta USFS Ranger District. This is a disappointing setback for a promising partnership, especially as SLT expands its stewardship efforts. Siskiyou Land Trust deeply appreciates our federal partners and recognizes the incredible challenges they are facing. SLT remains optimistic for future collaboration and looks forward to working together when the time is right.
Adding to federal order challenges, SLT’s stewardship partners at USDA NRCS, Shasta Valley RCD, and the Farm Services Agency are losing their office in June due to federal lease cancellations. These partners play a crucial role in the agricultural easement process and climate change response efforts like the Western Mt. Shasta Forest Resiliency project. SLT is staying in close communication about relocation efforts and options to support continuity and our partners in this important work.
Amid the many happenings affecting the fabric of conservation networks and programs across the country and at home, Siskiyou Land Trust’s commitment remains strong. We continue to work with all of our diverse partners to protect and steward these vital landscapes.
Resources to understand the current federal funding landscape have included support from the Land Trust Alliance, who have put together a vast collection of in depth resources about the new federal landscape on their website, our agency project partners, and our elected officials. If you would like to express support for the programs and funding that play a vital role, SLT encourages you to call and write to our elected officials.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) Redding Office:
| Address: | 2885 Churn Creek Road Suite C Redding, CA 96002 |
| Phone: | 530-223-5898 |
Wherrit Forest Fire Resiliency
Siskiyou Land Trust has been engaging in forest health and wildfire resiliency work with the Western Mt. Shasta Forest Resiliency project to steward Wherrit Forest, aiming to build a future where community and nature thrive, united in the mission to care for the land that sustains us all.
This work has been active in partnership with Shasta Valley Resource Conservation District (SVRCD) and Registered Professional Foresters at Jefferson Resources Company (JRC) for the past year and a half. To date, 350 acres of the proposed 467 acres have been managed through a diversity of stewardship methods that include selective timber harvesting, hand and mechanical thinning, removal of dead and dying trees, mastication and chipping. Additional funds have come through the SVRCD grant to complete additional stewardship work that includes mastication, hand thinning, burn piles, and chipping.
A primary goal of the Wherrit Demonstration Forest is to engage with tribal partners for stewardship that includes reintroduction of good fire back into the ecosystem. SLT is in the process of updating its website to provide updated information about forest stewardship activities and goals at the Wherrit Forest.
Photo slideshow of work to date:
Investing in our Future:
Public Notice for Land Trust Accreditation Application
Siskiyou Land Trust has been preparing for third-party Land Trust Alliance (LTA) accreditation for two years and is pleased to announce SLT will be submitting a full application for accreditation in May 2025. Part of the process includes an opportunity for public input about the land trust seeking accreditation. The public comment period is now open related to SLT’s accreditation application.
What is the Land Trust Alliance?
The Land Trust Alliance is a national organization that supports land trusts across the United States through sharing relevant resources, supporting education and professional development of land trust Board and staff, and providing a framework for best practices.
What is the LTA Accreditation Commission?
LTA’s accreditation commission was established as an oversight body to ensure land trusts across the country are following best practices for organizational governance, finance, real estate transactions for conservation purposes, and stewardship practices. The commission established a process for land trusts to undergo a thorough audit to ensure best practices are being followed and improvements made to follow best practices where needed.
What does it mean to have Land Trust Alliance Accreditation?
Receiving the seal of approval by the LTA Commission as “accredited” is a way of distinguishing and recognizing land trusts in the U.S. for the quality of their organization and work in protecting land forever. Land trust accreditation is a mark of distinction, showing that a land trust meets high standards for land conservation. Every accredited land trust completes a rigorous review process to demonstrate its fiscal accountability, strong organizational leadership, sound transactions and lasting stewardship of the lands it conserves.
The LTA Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, conducts an extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs. Accreditation is awarded to land trusts meeting the highest national standards for excellence and conservation permanence.
“Land Trusts who listen to the community succeed by being relevant and cultivate a community of conservationists.” ~ Mark Smiley, Land Trust Advisor
The LTA Commission invites public input and accepts signed, written comments on pending applications. Comments must relate to how Siskiyou Land Trust complies with national quality standards. These standards address the ethical and technical operation of a land trust. For the full list of standards see http://www.landtrustaccreditation.org/help-and-resources/indicator-practices.
To learn more about the accreditation program and to submit a comment, visit www.landtrustaccreditation.org, or email your comment to info@landtrustaccreditation.org. Comments may also be faxed or mailed to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, Attn: Public Comments: (fax) 518-587-3183; (mail) 36 Phila Street, Suite 2, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.
Comments on Siskiyou Land Trust’s application will be most useful by June 23, 2025.
Agricultural Conservation Easements 101
Siskiyou Land Trust’s workshop about conservation easements was recorded on March 21. To watch the recording, visit SLT”s YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWPdOvl7B0c
Learn about how conservation easements (CEs) work and how they can benefit your family, your land, and help protect Siskiyou County’s vital landscape. This workshop focuses on agricultural conservation easements (Ag CEs), and provides information about the state and federal programs that support our work (NRCS and CA Dept. Of Conservation). Made possible through a grant from the NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program, the workshop explores the basics of protecting your own slice of heaven.
Siskiyou Land Trust has permanently protected nearly 8,000 acres of agricultural land and its stunning habitats in rural Northern California by working in partnership with seven local ranching families. Our willing landowner partners who step forward to conserve their land and protect it from development are protecting these places for all of us. Ag CEs are a key way the Land Trust is helping to ensure these lands, and the vital resources they hold, remain conserved for future generations.
Conservation Easements (CEs) have become a common tool used by willing landowners and land trusts to help keep land ownership and landscapes intact. From headwater forests to valley floor ranches, conservation easements keep people and places together forever. By preventing fragmentation of forest and ranches, our community is preventing habitat conversion and fragmentation– the leading cause of habitat loss. When several CEs occur in a community, we work together to invest in a sustainable economy and a thriving ecosystem. And when CEs are located adjacent to one another, we leverage all of the positive effects that one CE has on a larger, more effective scale. The collective power of collaboration through CEs supports communities now and long into the future. Landowners and wildlife aren’t the only ones who win—every community member and visitor to Siskiyou’s open spaces, with their awe-inspiring natural beauty and rural character, also benefits. The promise of a conservation easement ensures these places will remain vibrant, living natural spaces forever.
SLT could not do any of this important work without our willing landowner partners and agency funders. As we share at the Ag CE workshop, farmers and ranchers who put CEs on their land balance the need to steward the land for agriculture with supporting fish and wildlife habitat and water resources. Many of our ag CE partners are also working to return water instream, restore rivers and fisheries, return beavers to the watershed, coordinating with tribes to return traditional ecological knowledge to stewardship practices, and return “the good fire” to the landscape. CEs help provide assurance that these investments in watershed restoration and protection hold. A CE that is placed on a forest or ranch today means that the open space that is here now will be there as open space tomorrow – available to tend as forest or agricultural land that provides habitat for deer, elk, salmon, and the multitude of wildlife species that live in this rich biodiverse region. As SLT has grown in capacity, we are better able to meet current opportunities and needs to bring conservation easement projects forward. Together with our partners, we are grateful to be able to do this meaningful work.
