176 Home Street
P.O. Box 755, Bishop, CA 93515

Telephone: 760-873-4554
Facsimile: 760-873-9277
Email: info@eslt.org

©Eastern Sierra Land Trust
2001-2008

Programs

To fulfill our mission of protecting vital lands in the Eastern Sierra, we commit our time and resources to four programs: Working Farms and Ranches, Wildlife and Plant Communities, the Mono Basin, and the Mono/Los Angeles Watershed Program. Through continued member support and successful fundraising, we plan to expand our efforts to additional critical habitat and important Eastern Sierra landscapes.

To learn about lands protected by landowners under these programs, click here. To learn about the benefits of conserving lands, click here.

Working Farms and Ranches Program

The working farms and ranches of the Eastern Sierra are scenic, historic, and a vital part of our economy and rural character. Our Working Farms and Ranches Program helps ranchers and farmers to sustain financially viable agricultural operations on their land, against rising pressures to subdivide. In places like the Montgomery Creek Ranch and Benton Hot Springs Valley, we are helping landowners to set up voluntary land protection agreements that permanently protect family farms and ranches.

In this way, landowners retain title and management of their property, while designating how their land may be used now and in the future. For example, landowners may want to protect their land’s current agricultural use in perpetuity by prohibiting any subdivision or land use that would compromise those protected qualities, while retaining all other property rights. Landowners also may benefit from significant tax advantages currently and for future generations.

This program is made possible through the support of the California Farmland Conservancy Program.

Wildlife and Plant Communities Program

As our population grows, the wildlife of the Eastern Sierra can be crowded out of migration corridors, wetlands, and breeding grounds. Rare plants can be impacted by development, fire, or noxious weed invasion. From mule deer to songbirds to the Inyo County star-tulip, our Wildlife and Plant Communities Program is working to maintain the viability of our region’s wild inhabitants, through public education and land protection agreements.

Property owners are protecting their wildlife habitat today in places like Swall Meadows, where several landowners have helped protect the critical migration corridor for the Round Valley mule deer herd, and Big Hot Springs Ranch near Bridgeport, where owners have preserved important habitat along the scenic Highway 395 corridor. If you’re a landowner who would like to conserve Eastern Sierra wildlife and plants on your property, we can help.

Read our new Living with Wildlife Brochure.

Mono Basin Program

Mono Lake and the Mono Basin are seen by many as the crown jewel of the Eastern Sierra. This inland sea is a special place, not only for its unique natural appeal, but also for its benefit to the local economy. Our Mono Basin Program seeks to balance these environmental and community values, by offering local landowners a way to protect the agricultural and wildlife values that they treasure. There is so much more to be done to protect the scenic, rural Mono Basin we know and love today.

Mono/Los Angeles Watershed Program

In 1906, the City of Los Angeles acquired rights to Eastern Sierra watersheds. One hundred years later, our challenge is to protect open spaces for agriculture, fish and wildlife, and recreation in those watersheds forever. The Mono/Los Angeles Legacy Program seeks to permanently protect most of the land owned by the City of Los Angeles in Mono County from development and subdivision, while maintaining these lands’ outstanding scenic, agricultural, educational, and recreational opportunities.

To learn more about these ESLT programs, contact us.