Reflecting on an Extraordinary Year of Conservation

Mount Democrat in the Mosquito Range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains is one of the state’s beloved “Fourteeners,” which are mountain peaks above 14,000 feet. This year The Conservation Fund purchased nearly 300 acres on Mount Democrat, which resolved its trail closure issues and protected the critical headwaters of the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers.  We subsequently transferred the property to the Pike-San Isabel National Forests, securing it as public lands for conservation and recreational access, thanks to funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, Park County and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative.

Summitting Fourteeners is a popular recreational activity in Colorado. This newly protected property includes the Kite Lake Trailhead that leads to all the DeCaLiBron peaks (Mounts Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln and Bross), land along the Mount Democrat trail and the Mount Democrat summit itself. Our own Colorado project manager Kelly Ingebritson summed up our collective sentiments when she said, “Buying this majestic peak is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a model for how conservation can solve America’s recreational access issues and benefit local communities.”

We partnered with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to acquire 20,505 acres of forestlands in southwest Washington state that will bring climate-smart forestry, habitat protection and community revenue to the region. Known as Deep River Woods, the property is the State of Washington’s largest land purchase in more than a decade and is adjacent to lands already owned and managed by DNR for sustainable forest management and habitat protection.

This forest supports important habitat for a variety of species, including endangered birds and native salmon. These lands also are essential to the local timber industry and the forests will be sustainably managed for both economic and climate benefits.

In California, the Hoopa Valley Tribe reclaimed 10,395 acres of their ancestral land in the Tribe’s largest reacquisition of land since the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation was established in 1864. The newly regained land on the reservation’s western border includes the headwaters of Pine Creek, which flows into the Klamath River and is a spawning stream for sacred salmon. The land also provides gathering sites for food, plant and wildlife species that hold great importance in the Tribe’s culture.

The Conservation Fund was honored to work with a broad coalition of supporting organizations and the Tribe to rightfully return the management, conservation and use of the Hupa Mountain property for the benefit of the Hoopa people, the land and wildlife. We look forward to seeing this land thrive in the Tribe’s hands, through potential plans to expand wildlife habitat, protect and restore salmon streams and build regional climate resilience.