EIN 82-0474191

Wood River Land Trust (WRLT)

IRS 501(c) type
501(c)(3)
Num. employees
18
City
Hailey
State
Year formed
1994
Most recent tax filings
2022-03-01
Description
Wood River Land Trust protects and restores land, water, and wildlife habitat in the Wood River Valley and its surrounding areas.
Total revenues
$10,841,480
2022
Total expenses
$2,084,038
2022
Total assets
$29,176,745
2022
Num. employees
18
2022

Program areas at WRLT

Land acquisition/protection warm springs preserve the protection of warm springs ranch in ketchum has been a priority for wrlt for decades. Warm springs ranch is the last significant open space within the city of ketchum and has been used by the community informally as an off-leash dog park and nature area. This fiscal year, wrlt contributed to the city of ketchum's successful campaign to acquire the property to forever be maintained as a public park. Wrlt will work with the city of ketchum to create additional amenities to enhance recreational amenities within the park, and restore 1 mile of warm springs creek as it flows through the property. Regional planning efforts in response to the rapid growth and change in the Wood River valley, wrlt embarked on a new initiative to elevate the need for regional planning across jurisdictions. Bullion street acquisition wrlt purchased a 15-acre property on bullion st, contiguous with the hailey greenway. Per the restrictions of the gift, approximately 8 acres of the site will be held for conservation purposes and incorporated into the hailey greenway (securing public access to the greenway from bullion street and protecting mature cottonwood forest and riparian habitat), and up to 7 acres that are adjacent to city services will be made available for workforce housing. This project will be a demonstration of how to implement smart growth practices, and how we can provide for critical workforce housing inventory where it's most appropriate, while also protecting important natural resources. Simons/bauer preserve last year, wrlt purchased 118 acres of Land in croy canyon from the simons/bauer family. This acquisition protected the mouth of croy canyon and 1 mile of croy creek as it feeds into the big Wood River. It protects important habitat for migrating wildlife, as well as wetlands and Land that have been recognized as important for providing ecological resilience to climate change. In fy 2021-22, wrlt worked with the city of hailey to engage the community in a master planning process for the croy canyon corridor, which includes property owned by the city of hailey as well as the simons/bauer preserve. This process resulted in the identification of goals for the corridor, and eventually to the city entering into an agreement to sell a conservation easement over their property to wrlt to be managed consistently with the simons/bauer preserve. This initiated the preserve croy canyon campaign, which started in fy 2021-22 and will be completed in fy 2022-23. Queens crown wrlt initiated the purchase of the queens crown property, a 281-acre property with significant habitat connectivity for big game, upland birds, and greater sage-grouse, and an opportunity to expand public access to surrounding lands owned by the bureau of lands management. The acquisition will be completed in fy 2022-23. Pioneers alliance wrlt staff's collaborative work with the pioneers alliance has brought together ranchers and property owners to protect approximately 90,000 acres in the pioneer mountains-craters of the moon landscape through the natural resources conservation service's agricultural lands easement program. In 2021-22, wrlt continued to work with private landowners in this landscape to restore habitat burned in the sharps fire. Wrlt also continued to collect information on greater sage-grouse populations and worked with landowners to restore habitat on conserved lands. Strategic conservation planning in 2021-22, wrlt continued our work to update our strategic conservation plan to incorporate the latest climate science and knowledge on ecological resilience into our prioritization models.
Land stewardship staff monitored all 43 of the Wood River Land Trust conservation easements, totaling 13,149 acres to ensure compliance with individual easement restrictions/language and to note any changes in the property. All monitoring data, such as photo points, were reported and entered into the permanent record. Wrlt continued to manage and steward our 16 fee simple properties located in and adjacent to the Wood River valley. These preserves are maintained in their natural state and/or restored to a healthy landscape. Stewardship staff addresses such ongoing problems as noxious weeds, trash, unwanted vehicle use, erosion and trail upkeep. Wrlt also installed irrigation and fruit trees to create a community orchard at the Colorado gulch preserve this fiscal year, and installed improvements around the popular bow bridge in the draper preserve to restore areas around the bridge that were experiencing erosion and being damaged by users and install attractive fencing and new plantings to discourage off-trail activity in the area. Wrlt also supported the university of Idaho's rinker rock creek ranch by partnering on projects to remove dilapidated barbed wire fencing and replacing it with electric let-down fencing that allows for better wildlife movement through the ranch. Southern Idaho Land Trust in fy 21-22, wrlt provided contract monitoring services to the southern Idaho Land Trust to monitor their conservation easements held in the magic valley area.
River health & restoration in fy 21-22, wrlt continued the design and planning for River restoration projects north of ketchum (sun peak/hulen meadows project), within the hailey greenway (heagle park side channel restoration, and Colorado gulch stream restoration project and bridge project), and in bellevue (lower howard preserve project). Conceptual designs were contracted and permits, approvals, and construction funding were pursued this fiscal year. Construction of the bellevue project was completed this fiscal year, with a second phase planned for fy 22-23, along with the Colorado gulch restoration project. Wrlt also contracted for design on a dam fish passage project that will open up approximately 20 miles of fish spawning habitat. Wrlt and partners will continue working through design and permitting for this project in fy 22-23. Wrlt continued working with the city of hailey, blaine county, and the flood control district 9 to move the restoration of lions park at the hailey greenway forward. The goal of this multi-year project is to restore floodplain connectivity and function and mitigate flooding that occurs in communities downstream because of degraded River function. Wrlt also began a robust monitoring program to fill gaps in monitoring data for the big Wood River basin: installing data sensors at multiple points along the big Wood River to collect real-time temperature data to monitor and report on River conditions; and beginning a multi-year macroinvertebrate trend monitoring program. Wood River water collaborative together with our partners at trout unlimited and the nature conservancy, Wood River Land Trust continues to help facilitate the Wood River water collaborative (wrwc). There are 75 partners in the collaborative representing diverse interests including: senior and junior water users, agriculture, groundwater districts, municipalities, state legislators, the Idaho department of water resources, the Idaho water resource board, county and state agencies and other non-profits. The objective of the wrwc is to ensure sustainable water use for farming and ranching; to preserve safe, clean drinking water to meet the needs of the Wood River watersheds; and to conserve riparian and River habitat for fish and wildlife that rely on the big Wood River, silver creek, little Wood River and their tributaries.
Community engagement/other a community that enjoys and loves the Land will work to protect it. Research shows the best way to get people to care about the Land and our environment is to encourage meaningful experiences in nature. We bring people to the Land and educate the community's youth on conservation through programs like wrlt's student conservation council, hosting field trips at our preserves for k-12 students, and hosting volunteer work parties to improve our preserves. Activities this year included partnering with the ymca on summer field trips with their kids' camps, the environmental resource center's kids programming, and others. Wrlt also piloted a citizen science bird monitoring program in partnership with the cornell lab of ornithology, and hosted volunteer work parties in wrlt's pollinator meadow and community orchard at Colorado gulch, and in quigley canyon to remove old barbed wire fencing to prevent wildlife collisions and entanglements with fencing.

Grants made by WRLT

GranteeGrant descriptionAmount
Spur Community FoundationWarm Springs Ranch$500,000

Who funds Wood River Land Trust (WRLT)

Grants from foundations and other nonprofits
GrantmakerDescriptionAmount
American Endowment FoundationEnvironmental$125,000
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundFor Grant Recipient's Exempt Purposes$104,325
Vanguard Charitable Endowment ProgramFor Recipient's Exempt Purpose$57,500
...and 43 more grants received totalling $846,528

Personnel at WRLT

NameTitleCompensation
Scott BoettgerExecutive Director$122,285
Justin HellmannDirector of Operations
Courtney JelacoDevelopment Director
Liz PedersenAnnual Fund Manager
David AndersonProgram Manager / Assistant Secretary$0
...and 6 more key personnel

Financials for WRLT

RevenuesFYE 03/2022
Total grants, contributions, etc.$10,504,285
Program services$0
Investment income and dividends$110,446
Tax-exempt bond proceeds$0
Royalty revenue$0
Net rental income$18,203
Net gain from sale of non-inventory assets$213,144
Net income from fundraising events$-5,513
Net income from gaming activities$0
Net income from sales of inventory$0
Miscellaneous revenues$915
Total revenues$10,841,480

Form 990s for WRLT

Fiscal year endingDate received by IRSFormPDF link
2022-032023-02-14990View PDF
2020-032021-04-12990View PDF
2019-032020-11-13990View PDF
2018-032019-03-15990View PDF
2016-032016-12-08990View PDF
...and 6 more Form 990s

Organizations like WRLT

OrganizationLocationRevenue
Conserving CarolinaHendersonville, NC$15,794,430
Summit Land ConservancyPark City, UT$4,445,147
The Access FundBoulder, CO$3,851,037
Open Space Institute Land Trust (OSI)New York, NY$44,215,127
New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF)Littleton, MA$4,485,673
American Farmland Trust (AFT)Washington, DC$36,734,548
Appalachian Trail ConservancyHarpers Ferry, WV$14,528,575
The Piedmont Environmental CouncilWarrenton, VA$6,128,085
Mohonk PreserveGardiner, NY$5,297,527
Adirondack Land TrustKeene, NY$4,399,471
Data update history
June 19, 2023
Posted financials
Added Form 990 for fiscal year 2022
June 16, 2023
Updated personnel
Identified 2 new personnel
June 12, 2023
Used new vendors
Identified 1 new vendor, including
May 18, 2023
Updated personnel
Identified 2 new personnel
May 7, 2023
Received grants
Identified 2 new grant, including a grant for $20,834 from Idaho Community Foundation (ICF)
Nonprofit Types
Social advocacy organizationsEnvironmental organizationsCharities
Issues
Land and water conservationEnvironment
Characteristics
Political advocacyConservation easementFundraising eventsNational levelReceives government fundingEndowed supportTax deductible donations
General information
Address
119 E Bullion St
Hailey, ID 83333
County
Blaine County, ID
Website URL
woodriverlandtrust.org/ 
Phone
(208) 788-3947
Facebook page
woodriver.landtrust 
Twitter profile
@wrlt 
IRS details
EIN
82-0474191
Fiscal year end
March
Taxreturn type
Form 990
Year formed
1994
Eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions (Pub 78)
Yes
Categorization
NTEE code, primary
C34: Land Resources Conservation
NAICS code, primary
813312: Environment, Conservation, and Wildlife Organizations
Parent/child status
Independent
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