Garden Greenway Native Plant Installation and Volunteer Shout-out!

Steve Suttel, volunteer extraordinaire with one of the several bird houses he built and gifted to SLT

This year, the SLT garden is filled with native plants that were donated by Union Pacific Railroad in Fall of 2023 when a restoration project of theirs was delayed, leaving the restoration crew to find a home for the plants. SLT and Union Pacific coordinated with the Winnemum Wintu tribal liaison to accept the plants for SLT and the Tribe. We are working together to make sure the plants find good homes as quickly as possible. Volunteer steward Steve Suttel drafted a native plant installation map for the Garden Greenway, a compliment to our planned Sisson Meadow pollinator plant installation occurring in 2024 (visit Conservation Corner for more about Sisson Meadow restoration work in progress). If you take a walk on the trails near the SLT office, you may notice cleared areas with plants that have a small blue tag. These are the new native plants installed by Steve.  Staff are keeping track of which native plants have gone into the ground at the Garden Greenway, which ones are slated to go to Sisson Meadow pollinator installations, and which will be used for the Tribe’s projects. Our collective aim is to get the plants in the ground! Thank you to Union Pacific for the plant donations and Steve Suttel for your donated time, expertise, and additional plans to steward the local land around the SLT office!

Native plants installed along garden greenway paths by Steve Suttel.

Union Pacific Railroad and SLT staff. UP donated 700 native plants to the Winnemum Wintu Tribe and SLT for restoration projects.

In Memory of Dennis McFall

Long-time SLT volunteer, Dennis McFall passed away December 23, 2023. Dennis was a Sisson Meadow steward champion! He envisioned installing stone etching rocks in the meadow. If you’d like to support this mission in Dennis’ honor, you can make a contribution online, in person or by mail. Please include a note “In memory of Dennis.” Click here to donate online.

Advocating Local Work in Partnership

Staff from SLT, Shasta Land Trust, and Northern CA Regional Land Trust

SLT values the opportunity to exchange ideas, information, and experiences with partners. A few highlights of SLT’s partnership opportunities from 2024 include:
  • Shasta Land Trust – Regional Outreach Meeting. SLT staff headed south to Redding where we met up with the Shasta Land Trust and Northern CA Regional Land Trust from Chico to host our first exchange.   
  • Land Trust Alliance – LTA Advocacy Days. SLT Executive Director, Kathleen Hitt attended LTA Advocacy Days in Washington DC. The mission of the annual Advocacy Days is to provide land trust leaders with advocacy training and facilitate their relationships with key legislators to help build the political influence of the land trust community. The Land Trust Alliance advises Congress on important land trust issues in a way that no one land trust could do by itself — but to truly motivate elected officials, we need them to hear our stories about conserving our nation’s land and waters. Kathleen’s participation at this level is as important as it is truly valuable. Members of Congress must receive a clear message that the land trust community is a powerful coalition — and land conservation is an important national and local issue.
  • California Council of Land Trusts – Kathleen represented Siskiyou Land Trust at this year’s California Council of Land Trusts conference, the 1st in-person get-together after a five year hiatus due to COVID.
  • Shasta Valley Resource Conservation District – in partnership with Jefferson Resource Company, SVRCD is partnered with Siskiyou Land Trust to implement fuels reduction at Wherrit Demonstration Forest. Read more about the project here: Spring 2024 Conservation Corner
  • Mt Shasta Rotary – SLT Board President, Wendy Whitson presented to the rotary to share about how truly unique Siskiyou County is and how much land has been provided with care through SLT’S efforts.
  • Karuk Tribal Council – Board officers reached out to Karuk Tribal Council members to share at their December council meeting to express Siskiyou Land Trust’s intention and interest in continuing to build relationships and find a project to work together on, such as the Wherrit demonstration forest. SLT Board President, Treasurer, and Secretary joined councilmembers for lunch after the morning session at the Yreka tribal council chambers. Reaching out to tribal leadership and building relationships in SLT’s service area is a priority, and we are so glad to be taking the steps to bring this intention forward!
  • Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors – Board officers and Executive Director presented to the Board of Supervisors to share SLT’s mission and the importance of conserving land in our county.

Wendy Whitson presenting to Mt Shasta Rotary

CCLT Conference in Sacramento