When people ask what their donations support, the short answer is always “local private lands conservation.” But what the heck does that really mean? It means that our doors are staying open, we’re available to work with interested landowners on projects, steward our already completed conservation easements & take advantage of various outreach opportunities. Still sound a little vague? With Idaho Gives Day coming up tomorrow (you can pre-schedule your donation here!), we figured what better time to give you an up close look at what a your dollars in action mean & what the implementation of private lands conservation really looks like. No two days are ever alike here at LRLT, so how about a glimpse of our week thus far?
Monday: While the three of us (Kristin, Breann & Charli) work on every single project that comes through the door in one fashion or another, currently we’re each responsible for & immersed in different projects. Kristin spent the day working on our longest running conservation easement project to date, reviewing due diligence reports, tying up loose ends with the project funder, chatting with the landowner & preparing a presentation for a workshop later in the week. Breann, on the other hand, got to spend a day in the field near Leadore checking to see if the irrigation water has made it far enough to start a dye test that will hopefully answer the questions about where/if this particular water percolates up someplace else in the valley. Proper financial management is a huge priority for LRLT & that meant that Charli spent the day gathering & sending documents to our auditors, answering questions from project funders & trying to tie up loose ends before being gone most of Tuesday.
Tuesday: Tuesday started extra early for Charli as she crawled in the truck at 6:15 a.m. to drive to Challis to judge the preliminary round of the Idaho State Envirothon competition. After judging four rounds of presentations from high school students around the state & a quick lunch, she drove back to Salmon & spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on emails.
Wednesday: The first Wednesday of the month always means meetings for Kristin & Breann & today it’s the Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Technical Team. They’ll both spend the morning in the meeting before Kristin loads up to drive to Boise where she’ll give a presentation as part of a continuing education course for attorneys and real estate professionals. Once the meetings are over, Breann will head to Leadore again to check on the status of the irrigation water flows. The particular diversion we’re interested in is turned on very slowly, so it’s taking a while for the water to make it to where it needs to be for the dye study. It’s an office day for Charli & she’ll spend the day working some more on the audit, promoting Idaho Gives Day & starting on promotional materials for our 10th anniversary Working Lands Celebration!
Integrated Range Management Field Trip