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| As many of you have read recently, Wilbur’s Land Stewardship efforts have increased over the past few years. Two years ago we held a mini-stewardship summit, where we invited potential partners like iNaturalist, Point Blue, Tuleyome, and many skilled and knowledgeable individuals to help plot out a stewardship plan. Various projects started from this gathering, and with this special issue of the Wilbur Newsletter we wanted to summarize some activities and explicitly outline ways for you to better enjoy and contribute to the Wilbur Nature Preserve.
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| | Beavers to Restore the Sulphur Creek Watershed
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| The central tenet to Wilbur land stewardship is all about water management. The past two years, we have spent the wet seasons working on soil hydration, constructing Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) in various tributaries to Sulphur Creek, including approximately 20 Beaver Dam Analogs constructed since 2023. We have already seen less soil erosion from last winter and increased water retention resulting in regreening the valleys of some of the tributaries.
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| | | Perennial Pepperweed, Yellow Star Thistle, and Teasle, oh my! This is a major challenge for Wilbur and other land stewards in this bioregion. Learning from our neighbors in Capay Valley, we contracted with Perennial Grazing to bring a flock of sheep to Wilbur to help us with fuel reduction and invasive species management. This began in 2022 with about 200 sheep for 3 weeks. This was so successful that last year we had 750 sheep for 2 weeks and this July, they will be back for the third time – everyone loves the sheep!
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| | Expansion of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
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| The majority of the land surrounding the Wilbur Nature Preserve is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service. In 2015, President Obama created the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument connecting 330,000 acres. Tuleyome is a nonprofit conservation organization that is Wilbur’s partner for the Nature Preserve, with support from Art to Acres, an artist-run, non-profit environmental initiative, collaborated on multi-year effort to expand the monument by 14,000 acres to come to the border of Wilbur Nature Preserve to the Molok Luyuk ridge. This expansion honors Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples through the protection of this sacred California landscape and its historically and biologically important features - these are eloquently highlighted in President Biden’s announcement. A very special thanks to both Tuleyome and Art for Acres on this success!.
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| Alliance with Other Land Stewardship Projects
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| | Our approach toward land stewardship affects everything we do with hospitality and community activities at Wilbur Hot Springs and the Wilbur Wildlife Preserve. We are constantly learning and striving toward right relationship across all the human and non-human stakeholders. Wilbur has been invited to be part of a learning community of land projects to share learnings as well as governance and operating frameworks. Under the patronage of Ma Earth (check out their amazing podcasts) this community of land stewards focused on regenerative projects are assembled to share learnings and explore the usage of web3 technology for governance with the Ma Earth Grants Round 1 process run via Gitlab. Follow this link for more information and to contribute to this quadratic funding round. |
| | | We’ve dedicated full-time staff to continue to drive this effort, and we’ll also be converting a large portion of the steel building to serve as our stewardship hub, envisioning demonstration areas around the Fountain of Life Geyser where we employ techniques like water catchment, native species propagation, composting and more.
Many of our friends and guests have asked how they can become involved. An easy way is to add your name to our work-trade list for stewardship events. These days are full of good manual work, camaraderie and closeness to the land. There’s always time for a leisurely soak afterwards! Last but not least, the simplest way to participate is to visit Wilbur and take part in the experience of the nature preserve with a hike, a bike ride or an easy stroll. Wilbur offers access to dozens of miles of trails for our guests’ enjoyment. We encourage you to use the iNaturlaist app to catalog the many species you will come across. Please join us in celebrating this opportunity to have a positive effect on the Sulphur Creek watershed through Wilbur’s Land Stewardship efforts.
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| Select Single Night Stays Available We are re-opening select one-night stays Sunday through Thursday in June, July, and August.
Warm Weather is Coming With the upcoming change in weather, please keep in mind that indoor accommodations do not have air conditioning. There are fans in all the rooms. Be sure to reserve a stay soon if you want to experience the Wildflowers at Wilbur! Enjoy a dip in the medicinal waters and reserve a healing arts session to top off the perfect spring getaway.
We're Hiring! We are currently looking for enthusiastic individuals to fill a few roles here at Wilbur. Please check out our Open Positions and fill out an application if you are interested in applying. |
| | | 3375 Wilbur Springs Road, Wilbur Springs, CA 95987-9709 - 530-777-2306
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