STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Roland Wolfram stared out at the Big Wood River as it danced beneath the Red Cliffs south of Ketchum.

“We’re all here in the valley because we love the land, the river,” he said, turning back to supporters of the Wood River Land Trust picnicking on Ranney Draper’s lawn. “So, I can’t think of a more perfect place to have this event to thank our supporters.”

In fact, the Wood River Land Trust was formed 30 years ago to keep picturesque scenes like that from being erased by development. And those who have participated in the work, known as members of the Richard Carr Society, were thanked with a salmon barbecue.

“I came here in 1971 and camped in this very spot—there was nothing around here then,” said Teri Bolivar. “It’s through the Land Trust we’ve been able to preserve so many of these spaces.”

The Land Trust launched with a donation of Boxcar Bend from The Nature Conservancy. Since, it has created such places as the Hailey Greenway, Howard Preserve, the Draper/Wood and Colorado Gulch preserves and the Simon Bauer Preserve.

“Not a day goes by that I’m not touched by what the Wood River Land Trust has done, and for that I’m eternally grateful to them for protecting our mountains, our wild spaces, our and connecting wild spaces,” said Trent Jones.

Jones added that the Land Trust is dedicating the boardwalk at Draper Preserve to Scott Boettger, who retired this summer after 27 years at the helm of the Land Trust.

“We are about keeping this place special, and my greatest hope is we can protect these places…not just for our children but for generations to come.”

Boettger noted that the Land Trust has seen a huge increase in the use of the preserves—some would even say they’re being loved to death. He recounted that Ranney Draper, for whom the Draper Preserve was named, was one of the Land Trust’s first supporters.

“People were saying, ‘We don’t need natural space—we have national forests,’ ” he said. “Ranney partnered with the Land Trust on numerous projects--he and Priscilla were lead sponsors for the Draper Preserve.”

Jennifer Miller Herzog, the interim CEO for the Land Trust Alliance, was pressed into addressing the group after outgoing CEO Andrew Bowman came down with the flu. Coming from Washington, D.C., where the Alliance represents nearly 950 member land trusts and conservancies, she said she was bowled over by the beauty of the Wood River Valley and the dedication of the Land Trust supporters and volunteers who count themselves among 6.3 million supporters and 230,000 volunteers nationwide.

“We stopped at Howard Preserve, walked to the river and smelled the sweet cottonwood,” she said. “We watched Moms with their children, dog walkers…it’s easy to see that the Wood River Land Trust provides  amazing access for the community.”

Herzog said she grew up a military kid so she has a tendency to collect special places in her heart.

”You are part of something bigger and you’re contributing,” she told the crowd, adding that the Alliance has conserved 61 million areas, larger than the National Park System. “The need for conservation has never been more important. You see a living landscape laboratory that you rarely see elsewhere.”

Amy Trujillo, the Land Trust’s new executive director noted that there were people attending the event who founded the Land Trust 30 years ago, and there were people who just found the Land Trust.

“What we have in common is a belief that our home here in Idaho is worth protecting,” she said, “And working together we can do that.”

BY THE NUMBERS:

30 years of the Wood River Land Trust

28,000 acres of land protected

41 conservation easements

13,171 acres protected with conservation easements

96 landowners partnering with the Trust to protect land

12,718 acres protected and then transferred to a conservation partner

16 public nature preserves

1,880 acres owned as public preserves

584 observations of animal species of special status on conservation easements and preserves

28 acres of pollinator habitat planted on the edges of agricultural land to increase biodiversity and habitat

1.15 miles of the Big Wood River restored

10 miles of riparian and wet meadow stream habitat restored for sage grouse, big game and other animals and birds

22 acres of floodplain reconnected

4,000 feet of side channels opened, providing critical spawning and rearing habitat for trout

10,000 cubic yards of rip rap removed along the Big Wood River to restore natural systems

20,000 aquatic bugs collected and identified in the annual macroinvertebrate monitoring program

12 engineered log jams installed for fish cover and habitat