Hot of the press - ESLT Spring 2010 Newsletter. Read it here >> The ESLT Garden Makes Community Connections What can a garden space offer? It offers a place for birds, wildlife and pollinators to feed and live. It offers a place for gardeners to grow delicious food. It offers an attractive place for community members to host meetings and gather. It offers a place of learning for local youth to discover …continue reading
Trees are budding, birds are returning and filling the air with their melodies, plants are starting to green up, and color is popping up from bulbs in gardens. Spring is being ushered into the Eastern Sierra as the ‚Äòofficial' first day approaches! Here, at ESLT, we are anticipating a great season with lots of activity in our garden and on the land. We'll kick it off with a Garden Fest …continue reading
In this new blog feature we will profile a selection of our conservation projects for our members and interested readers. Big Hot Springs Conservation Easement This 75-acre easement in the Bridgeport Valley was donated to ESLT in December 2005 and protects wildlife habitat and scenic views from adjacent U.S. Highway 395 (in fact many of you have likely driven past this property) and nearby BLM public lands. The property sits to the …continue reading
For the past summer and fall, ESLT has been cultivating our new garden. We harvested a variety of beautiful tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers and other veggies. We saw birds feasting and bees happily buzzing. The garden provided a wonderful space for cultivating delicious fresh foods for us humans and nourishing birds, bees and butterflies. And now, despite the chill in the air and the arrival of winter, the garden still continues to …continue reading
What fun it is to take a closer look at the bees, butterflies, and birds who are working hard in our flower gardens and flowering native plants! In the ESLT garden, we are enjoying watching the gangs of bees on our sunflower garden - lots of native species but what are they? Check out this website to join the pollinator craze: http://www.greatsunflower.org/ Steve, a nature photographer I know well, is …continue reading
With summer in full swing, our garden at the ESLT office is almost like a jungle. Every morning the sunflowers greet me with their flowers just peaking over the top of our wooden fence. The tomatoes went crazy, growing larger than I could have imagined, and are just now starting to produce bright juicy red tomatoes. Hummingbirds visit our hummingbird feeder, birds and other insects stop in for a drink …continue reading
On May 16, 2009, locals and visitors gathered at the Benton Hot Springs Ranch conservation easement, just outside of Benton, to have a morning adventure of birding and botanizing. Led by Claus Engelhardt of the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society, Stephen Ingram of the California Native Plant Society, Karen Ferrell-Ingram of the ESLT, and Bill Bramlette, landowner, the morning was full of natural history tidbits. Bill shared his four- generation perspective …continue reading
The 5th annual statewide Land Trust Conference will be hosted by the California Council of Land Trusts this year in Sacramento on February 24-25. A few of us here at the ESLT will be journeying over the Sierra Nevada to attend two days of dynamic lectures with special emphasis on issues facing land trusts during the present financial climate. Karen, our Executive Director, will be attending "Land Trust Accreditation from …continue reading
Sometimes it feels difficult to reconcile my interests in the outdoors and natural history with my more 'techie' interests. Though I most undoubtedly would rather spend my spare time strolling through the hills than squinting into the blue light of the computer, the truth is that I also really enjoy working with the new tools that technology provides. Some tools are more complex while others are quite user friendly. In my professional …continue reading
More than one hundred people joined the Eastern Sierra Land Trust this past Saturday (5/10) to celebrate the completion of a spectacular 900 acre conservation easement on the Benton Hot Springs Ranch in northeastern Mono County off SR 120. Press Release [PDF]