In late July, The Wildlands Conservancy’s design team set out to learn how we could create additional opportunities for visitors to experience a connection, especially with the water of Bluff Lake, as most of the immediate shoreline is closed to the public to protect habitat. To balance access with habitat protection, we focused on an area with existing impacts from social trails and storm damage. The “Lago Tranquilo” trail was born from that brainstorming session.

Have you ever sat before a waterfall, quieted your thoughts, and simply watched it closely? Or sat beside a stream, looking carefully at the water rippling past you? Or stood at the ocean’s edge and witnessed the waves heroically crashing—or softly lapping—at the ends of the land? Or watched silently as the winds were made visible across a pond’s surface? Or looked up in the sky and surrendered to a rainfall, drenching your face and clothes? These moments are opportunities to experience water-blessed beauty. When we are open to them, these visits with Nature can be great nourishment to our minds, or powerful teachers to our spirits—often both.

RELAX IN THE EASTERN SIERRAS

Thanks to the generous support of a donor, there is a parking lot and river-side trail at Aspen Glen Reserve in Mono County. The property provides fishing access to a mile of the West Walker River from the new parking lot on the south side of Larson Lane, a half mile east of Highway 395.

The Wildlands Conservancy (TWC) uses an almost forgotten word within our core tenets for managing our preserves: "Imparadise!" To "imparadise the earth" is "to make into paradise," "to enrapture," or "to transport into another state." Although this may sound like Don Quixote tilting his lance at windmills, it’s really about people like yourself employing their minds and muscles to beautify the world around them.

One of the first steps TWC employs after acquiring a new preserve is to remove all the offenses to the eye, restoring the landscape back to its natural Beauty.

Every person who visits the outdoors has stories to tell about time spent with family, seeking adventures in the mountains, or watching the skies change color at sunset. For those who have enjoyed the benefits of wild places and the beauty of wide-open vistas only to later watch them become fragmented with development, the urge to protect the natural world can become all consuming. While it’s easy and enjoyable to appreciate the natural beauty of places as a visitor to them, when one becomes engaged in the public dialogue about their future, conflict is almost inevitable.

TO SOME A CONTEMPLATION, TO SOME A MEDITATION

Spring is in the air, signaling warmer temperatures and the perfect time to plant natives for a late spring bloom.

Native plants are an important resource for pollinators like bees and butterflies.

Not sure what native plants will work in your garden...or even a pot on your patio? Check out some of the native plant resources to learn more.

Friends, we all know the compassion in helping our children save a weather-beaten monarch butterfly or rescuing an abandoned dog or cat. We do these acts of kindness simply because it’s in our hearts to do.

Devastating, unnatural, human caused fires, severely impacted three of The Wildlands Conservancy’s Sand to Snow Preserves over the past weeks.

Up the canyon creek that descends from the rocky face of Wilshire Peak above Oak Glen, beyond a series of abrupt and unscalable waterfalls, there lives a fellowship of ancient canyon oaks. Among these grows one tree, officially measured and recognized as the largest specimen of all oak species.

At the time of this writing, many of us are stunned at the fact that wildfire effects have touched most people living in the western United States. As many of you may know, some of The Wildlands Conservancy’s Southern California preserves have not escaped this fire season unscathed.

In the early morning hours of September 9th, sight became sound in the Bearpaw Reserve. The El Dorado Fire had crept down from the ridge and was slowly burning through the understory, working its way to within feet of us before being shoveled over or watered down. Occasional flare-ups lit the sky and a persistent tawny glow illuminated our work.

The wildfires consuming California this summer are not only devastating the unique Beauty of the state, they are also releasing record amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, contributing to further climate disruption.

How can you help offset the damaging effects of these wildfires?