Protecting Land on the West's Outstanding Rivers

With backing from GlobalGiving donors, Western Rivers Conservancy is permanently protecting land along outstanding rivers across the western United States. Your gift supports the core costs of purchasing and conserving land for the benefit of fish, wildlife and people. Your contribution is dedicated to such efforts as preserving salmon and wildlife habitat, and creating new hiking trails, boating access and recreational opportunities.

Thanks to your support, Western Rivers Conservancy has:

• Protected a special stretch of California’s Sacramento River and opened it to all

• Built on our previous success in Colorado’s South Platte basin and protected 120 acres on Michigan Creek

California’s Sacramento River:

In Northern California, Western Rivers Conservancy successfully conserved nearly a mile of the Sacramento River, protecting precious stands of cottonwoods, valley oaks and sycamores—forests like those of centuries past that are now rare along the river. The project was a partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, which now stewards the 288-acre Jelly’s Ferry property that WRC conveyed to the agency in December 2024. The property sits between the towns of Redding and Red Bluff, just upstream from the Jelly’s Ferry Bridge.

Conservation of the Jelly’s Ferry parcel will allow the BLM to restore riparian and side-channel habitats that will benefit Chinook salmon, green sturgeon, winter steelhead and Pacific lamprey, all imperiled fish that once thrived in the Sacramento. Western monarch butterflies, which rely on the abundant milkweed found on the property, as well as black-tailed deer, ringtail cat, Swainson’s hawk, yellow-billed cuckoo and other wildlife, all stand to benefit from our efforts.

The project is also a big gain for people. With the property now under BLM management, the agency plans to open significant new recreational access to this stretch of the river, which is part of a larger area that is extremely popular among anglers, equestrians, hunters, hikers, boaters and others. The Jelly’s Ferry parcel lies adjacent to the Oak Slough Trailhead and is surrounded by the 20,000-acre Sacramento River Bend Area, both managed by the BLM. The agency is now working on a management plan that will prioritize habitat restoration on the property while preparing it for public access.

The Jelly’s Ferry parcel lies within a 56-mile river corridor of largely intact habitat between Redding and Red Bluff and will play an important role in broader recovery efforts for anadromous fish in the Sacramento River. The BLM has already conducted extensive off-channel habitat restoration just north of the property, including rehabilitation of a large historic slough and other habitats throughout the floodplain. Restoring this historically vibrant latticework of water and plants that were part of these old-growth forests will help reconnect vital ecological linkages for everything from juvenile fish and neotropical songbirds to pollinators and black-tailed deer from the East Tehama Deer Herd.

The biggest beneficiary of this effort, though, is the Sacramento River itself. The longest and largest river in California, the Sacramento flows nearly 400 miles from Mount Shasta to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay. The lower river especially has been dramatically altered by human activity—except for this rare stretch. It remains the only reach of the river below Shasta Dam that persists in a relatively natural condition, much as the river was long ago. WRC’s efforts at Jelly’s Ferry protect a critical stretch of this part of the Sacramento and will help ensure the area remains a haven for fish, wildlife and people for generations.

Colorado’s Michigan Creek:

On Colorado’s Front Range, just upstream from Tarryall Reservoir in South Park, Western Rivers Conservancy has protected a superb stretch of Michigan Creek, a principal tributary of Tarryall Creek and the South Platte River. This is our second project in the South Platte Basin, where in March 2024 we conserved five miles of the iconic trout stream Tarryall Creek by creating the Collard Ranch State Wildlife Area with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Michigan Creek flows into Tarryall Creek just a few miles downstream of the new state wildlife area and is a small but productive fishing stream in its own right. The 120-acre property we conserved lies along a quarter mile of Michigan Creek on a stretch defined by dramatic outcroppings of granite that tower over the winding stream. Above these cliffs, grassy uplands provide forage for deer and elk migrating between the low mountains of the Lost Creek Wilderness to the east and the wintering grounds of South Park’s open grasslands.

The Michigan Creek property was donated to WRC in 2023 by a lifelong conservationist who wanted to see this special place protected. In late 2024, we placed a conservation easement on the property with Colorado Open Lands, permanently conserving a crucial stretch of the creek. In early 2025, we conveyed the lands to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Thanks to this generous donation and our partnership with CPW and COL, the property’s fish and wildlife habitat will remain intact, and new public access for anglers, hunters and wildlife viewers has been permanently secured. Much of Michigan Creek flows through private land, so moving this property into public hands provides people the rare opportunity to explore a lesser-known South Park gem just over an hour’s drive from Denver.

Combined with our efforts at Collard Ranch, WRC has now created more than five miles of recreational access on two key tributaries to the South Platte. Most importantly, we have protected 1,980 acres of prime habitat for Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer, pronghorn and other charismatic wildlife in an area that provides some of the Front Range’s best and most beloved access to the great outdoors.

Conclusion

The Sacramento River and Michigan Creek projects are just some of our recent projects. WRC currently has nearly 30 active projects in seven states. With the support of GlobalGiving donors, Western Rivers Conservancy is expanding our efforts to protect riverlands for fish, wildlife and people.

We love to hear from our supporters. Please contact Anne Tattam at 503-241-0151, ext. 219 (or atattam@westernrivers.org) for further information. Thank you.

• Western Rivers Conservancy: Project Photos (PDF)