Holiday Greetings Treasure Valley Idahoans!

It’s hard to believe that I’m completing my third year here at the Land Trust. It’s been an exciting journey of learning, humility, excitement, and growth. I’ve shared some wonderful experiences along the way, and our conservation successes are finally coming in! Let’s take a stroll back through the year…

People

While the Land Trust endeavors to conserve the spaces we love, it’s the people we work with, and for, that keeps us grinding out the mission day after day. This year we welcomed our newest Board Member Casi Wyatt! A medical physician and business owner by trade, she was raised on a livestock ranch in Colorado and keeps those roots close to her heart. Welcome aBOARD Casi!! Our existing Treasurer, Ryan Froehlich, moved into our vacant Vice-Presidency office for the year, with Tesh Coles backfilling into our Treasurer office. Collectively they serve as our financial guardians – thank you for what you do!

In April, our staff family grew with the addition of Lacey Clark, our new Operations Assistant. Coming to us fresh with a MPA from BSU, and with previous planning, policy, and land conservation experience, Lacey will manage the organization’s operations while also representing the Land Trust in planning and policy circles. Welcome Lacey!! And finally, Kat Leister has traded her boots for boutonnieres, transitioning into our full-time Development and Communications Coordinator. Feel free to reach out to Kat anytime!!

Community

We committed this year to immerse ourselves in our community and it kept us busy! We began the year by tabling at the Field to Fork event put on by our partners at FARE Idaho. I was fortunate enough to facilitate an outstanding panel discussing agricultural conservation in Idaho. I followed that up by taking the opposite end of the stage and participated in a panel on land conservation at the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation Annual Meeting. Madison and Kat took it digital appearing for their second time on the Zamzows Show podcast with Callie Zamzow where they discussed trends in agricultural loss and how the Land Trust is working to conserve working lands. More recently, Board member, Owyhee County Planner, and livestock producer Mary Huff and I, were both interviewed on the Land and Legacy series of Idaho Matters on Boise State Public Radio.

We also turned our attention west tabling at multiple events at Indian Creek Plaza. Made possible by Board member Janet Johnson (thank you, Janet!), we engaged with all our new Canyon County friends whose communities are perhaps the most heavily influenced by Treasure Valley development. We look forward to making more friends in the communities throughout our service area next year!Make it stand out

We held our second annual Heritage Feast at the Mint Barrel Barn in Nampa. My favorite Land Trust event, we celebrated the farmers and ranchers that we’re working with and highlighted local vendors and tradespeople – and great food! If you missed it last year, be sure to keep up with us to learn where and when we’ll hold this event next year!

Back in Boise, we returned to hallowed ground at Harrison Hollow. Recognizing the community value that this modest open space feature provides, in partnership with Ridge to Rivers, the Land Trust convened a handful of stakeholders, community members and conservation practitioners to informally serve on the Harrison Hollow Working Group. Initially the group gathered to identify the threats and opportunities associated with the Hollow. But that group has now transitioned into an effort that is structuring the Friends of the Hollow (FOTH for short!) – a community-based open partnership of Hollow lovers that will drive stewardship, events, communication, and ultimately love for this system. Keep your eyes peeled early next spring for the unveiling of this new community collaboration!

As it relates to lovers of the Hollow, we partnered with Adventure K9 to put on free recurring trail etiquette field courses for dogs and those that obey them! As one of the most popular trail systems on the Boise Front, and one of the few with year-long off-leash accommodations, we sought to work with the community to maintain canine civility and Hollow good times for all breeds and users. Thank you to those that came out and participated! Look for new programs next year!!

And last, but certainly not least, we held our Annual Dinner at JUMP! And once again a great time was had by all that attended. We raised more money than we ever have before and entertained our biggest audience to date. Scot Oliver provided the musical groove and Kevin Troutt emceed our evening. And our supporters and partners stepped up and provided so many unique and desirable raffle and auction items we could barely fit them all in the program. Thank you to all that made it possible and thank you to those that attended! We look forward to seeing you next year!

Mission

We cannot do what we do without your support. So, it gives me increasing satisfaction each year to present our conservation successes. We began 2025 with Madison Skinner, our Conservation Programs Manager, closing the Land Trust’s FIRST agricultural conservation easement on Peaceful Belly Farm in Caldwell. This will ensure that everyone’s favorite 26 acres of pastoral land will forever be a farm. Thank you PBF for taking that journey with us! But Madison wasn’t done – she was also successful in receiving $2.5 million in Farm Bill funding for 500 acres of agricultural conservation on two farms in Caldwell and Emmett, respectively. And since you can’t keep a good girl down, she just submitted a new Farm Bill application for $1.7 million to conserve a 400-acre ranch in Glenns Ferry! Go get ‘em, Girl!!

Circling back to the people we work for, one of the truest pleasures in our work is meeting the generational farmers and ranchers, many of whom were the original homesteaders of their respective operations. Their family stories are full of humor, love, and history…so much history, in fact, that the Idaho State Historical Society has invited us to participate in their America250 Oral History project. With resources they have provided us, the Land Trust will digitally capture these stories on behalf of ISHS – a different kind of perpetuity than we’re accustomed to pursuing! Thank you ISHS! Look for these stories on our website over the next year!

Moving from the farm to the range, the Land Trust signed a 10-year cooperative agreement with the Idaho Army National Guard to conserve lands around the Orchard Combat Training Center – the next ‘frontier’ of Treasure Valley development. This exciting partnership hit the ground running after the 30k acre Range Fire this year. The Land Trust is currently facilitating $300k in wildfire rehabilitation in the fire scar through the agreement. Be ready for lots of future conservation delivery out of this partnership!

And finally, as the Idaho Foundation for Fish and Wildlife is refocusing their mission, the Land Trust continued our long-standing partnership by agreeing to transfer four of their conservation easements into our portfolio. Collectively totaling more than 500 acres, IFWF’s efforts conserved treasured foothills, forest, and wetlands and the Land Trust aims to continue their legacy of stewardship. And for some frosting on our foothills, Madison was also successful in receiving $10k from IFWF’s grant program to support wildlife conservation associated with the working lands of one of her Farm Bill projects. Thank you IFWF!

Our 2025 Impact: Made Possible because of You!

Infinity and Beyond!

Our 2025 Impact: Made Possible because of You!

Infinity and Beyond!

Honoring Longtime Protections: LTTV Becomes Perpetual Steward of 440 Protected Acres