Traversing the Bridgeport Valley floor on the western edge of 417 square mile Bodie Hills lies the 185-acre Bodie Hills Preserve, fronting the tourist’s made famous Highway 395, 8 miles east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This Preserve is in one of the most biodiverse areas in the Great Basin, encompassing healthy pinyon-juniper woodlands, sage scrub, and a wetland meadow. Known to many Californians for its namesake Bodie Hills Ghost Town State Park, the Bodie Hills have fifteen different ecological systems that support a wide range of flora and fauna including antelope, sage grouse, and mink. The Bodie Hills Preserve, with its meeting lodge, will be The Wildlands Conservancy stepping stone into greater protection of the public lands in the Bodie Hills. The Wildlands Conservancy is targeting an acquisition that will join the Preserve via a trailhead off Highway 395 to the 18,000-acre Bodie Mountain Wilderness Study Area.
This Preserve will be another Wildlands “bully pulpit” for greater protection and conservation management of the Bodie Hills. The Wildlands Conservancy will partner with other organizations, businesses, and individuals to designate the Bodie, Bodie Mountain, and Mt. Biedeman Wilderness Study Areas into congressionally designated wilderness areas.
