Okanogan Land Trust

Education and outreach programs:okanogan Land Trust continued its educational programming and outreach-related program work. We held the 7th year of our okaknowledgy educational presentations, featuring speakers from a variety of natural and social history fields of knowledge. We also hosted the 10th annual field day for the oden road fire study for ecology students from Okanogan high school, recruiting several new instructors and initiation the process of updating the study curriculum. Interest and attendance for these programs remain strong. We also held our long-running fundraiser, the ponderosa event, in person after two years of missed or virtual events. The event was successful and well-received.

Conservation and stewardship:okanogan Land Trust continued its work to conserve and steward Land and water resources. We made substanial progress on six conservation easement projects; four are funded in part by the Washington state recreation and conservation office, one in part by the national resources conservation service. We also worked with the methow beaver project on two projects funded by the Washington state department of ecology which, when completed, will result in conservation easements and ecological restoration on two properties with significant riparian habitat. In total these six projects represent over 4,000 acres of agricultural Land, wildlife habitat and priority streams.

Working for wildlife/big conservation:okanogan Land Trust wrapped up its participation in a multi-year initiative involving several partner organizations called working for wildlife (wfw), which is funded by the national fish and wildlife foundation (nfwf) and ended in december 2022. Several conservation projects initiated and funded under this partnership are still being completed. Based on the success of w4w, olt continued to lead efforts among the partners to seek new funding to support the continuation of this work, first under a grant from the leiter family foundation called big conservation, and then through an application to the america the beautiful challenge grant from nfwf.