Nonprofits Protecting and Preserving Public Lands
By Lindsay Boeger
As people across the country rally around protecting and preserving public lands, we at Spur are aware of the essential but often overlooked work that many local organizations do in service of that mission. We are proud to support their efforts to promote outdoor access, preserve natural habitats, and make recreation possible in this wondrous place where we live and play.
Private philanthropy plays a significant role in this work, and we are pleased to highlight several organizations that have all received funding from Spur’s Community Impact Fund in recent years, and whose efforts enable us all to be better stewards of the land and responsible recreationists.
Bridging Critical Gaps in Public Land Stewardship
The Sawtooth Society preserves, protects, and enhances one of our region’s most treasured landscapes, the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA). When drastic federal funding cuts at the US Forest Service decimated the SNRA workforce earlier this year, this small, scrappy organization mobilized a highly skilled, five-person hybrid trail crew – including former Forest Service employees – to conduct critical trail maintenance. The team clears high-priority trails, fixes drainage issues, delivers supplies via mule train to other volunteers working in the backcountry, and performs heavy restoration work where entire trail systems need rebuilding (as in the Wapiti Fire burn area). Executive Director Kathryn Grohusky and her team are doubling the crew’s size to meet this urgent need and address a multi-year, deferred-maintenance backlog.
“The generosity we’ve experienced from local donors and Spur has been instrumental to our ability to marshal the trail crew and take the lead on fire mitigation efforts in our wild backyard,” Grohusky notes. “We are proud to work at local, regional, and national levels to protect this unique recreational gem.”
The Sawtooth Society has also assumed an oversight role in the Sawtooth Valley Wildland Fire Collaborative to create and implement complex mitigation plans for catastrophic wildfires. They publish time-intensive, critical daily updates during fire season and are dedicated to identifying risks, improving structure protection, and enhancing wildfire education for the public.
A Trail Maintenance Powerhouse
The Wood River Trails Coalition (WRTC) focuses on maintenance and construction projects on more than 400 miles of trails in the US Forest Service-Ketchum Ranger District (KRD). Because federal funding and hiring constraints have made it difficult for the Ranger District to fully staff trail crews each year, the WRTC operates a hybrid trail crew in collaboration with the KRD to keep boots on the ground.
“We hire the crew members, and the KRD manages their day-to-day operations,” says Sara Gress, WRTC executive director. “The result of this partnership is a fully staffed professional trail crew that maintains trails for the community.”
Over the years, the WRTC has evolved from a grassroots effort into a million-dollar operation, embarking on efforts to build new trails, upgrade trail bridges, improve trail design and maintainability, and give well-loved trails much-needed facelifts. Last year, they completed the first phase of a major long-term trail sustainability and habit restoration project in Greenhorn by relocating trail segments out of sensitive riparian areas and upgrading infrastructure. Much of their efforts are based on a monitoring system they created in 2021 to better understand trail use levels and traffic patterns.
Building Climate Resilience Through Local Action
In the Wood River Valley, The Nature Conservancy in Idaho has a long history of successful land and water conservation, despite increasing challenges driven by climate change, population growth, and a legacy of poor land and water management. Last year, they completed a successful restoration effort at Stalker Creek as part of their ambitious conservation initiatives designed to build climate resilience and safeguard Idaho’s iconic landscapes.
“This project restored 1.1 miles of stream habitat, created nearly 30 new spawning pools, and encouraged the return of hundreds of juvenile fish and river otters to a revitalized ecosystem,” says Melissa Masucci, the Nature Conservancy in Idaho’s development director. “Pressure on Idaho’s lands, waters, and communities is growing exponentially, but we are committed to conserving lands and waters in central Idaho and building future generations of conservation leaders through environmental education.”
Spreading “Pawsitivity” and Cultivating a Healthy Environment
Pick Up for the Planet is one of the Environmental Resource Center’s signature programs. Erica Exline, who is known around town as the Poop Fairy, manages pet waste bins at 16 trailheads, providing an easy way for people to dispose of dog waste before or after a hike. This year, she has already removed nearly 8,500 pounds of dog waste and trash from bins and off trails, keeping these toxins out of the watershed. Exline has also dispensed 44,200 biodegradable waste bags, thus helping to keep microplastics out of the environment.
“We know that dog waste is toxic to the environment, especially around the river,” Exline says. “I pour my heart and soul into this program because nature is a place of healing for me. I love doing my part to help keep the trails clear and enable others to do the same.”
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At Spur, we recognize the powerful impact of generosity in the Wood River Valley. We’re proud to direct philanthropy toward these organizations and the other nonprofits doing vital work to preserve what makes this community so special, including:
Polaski Users Group, and more.
We encourage you to visit their websites to learn about specific initiatives in more detail and are grateful for your partnership in our efforts to support them.