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:

• Preserved a Five Mile Stretch of Tarryall Creek, a Prized Colorado Fly Water, forever

• Added Prime Salmon Habitat and Key Stands of Old-Growth to Washington’s Willapa National Wildlife Refuge

Colorado’s Tarryall Creek:

The South Platte River is the biological and scenic centerpiece of South Park, one of three major high-altitude basins within the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies. One of the river’s principal tributaries is Tarryall Creek, which flows from the 13,823 foot Mount Silverheels and is renowned for its excellent brown and rainbow trout fishing.

Roughly 10 miles northeast of the town of Fairplay, Tarryall Creek flows through the 1,860-acre Collard Ranch, which sits immediately off Highway 285. For five miles, the stream meanders through the ranch’s open grasslands in beautiful horseshoe bends, with 360-degree views of the Lost Park Wilderness, the Kenosha Mountains and the Mosquito Range. With its sweeping vistas, open meadows and a storybook stream at the heart of the property, the ranch is without a doubt one of the ecological, scenic and recreational gems of the South Park basin.

In March, Western Rivers Conservancy permanently conserved Collard Ranch, and every inch of the creek running through it, in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Great Outdoors Colorado.

Collard Ranch is part of a major migration corridor for thousands of Rocky Mountain elk, which use the property as their primary route from the high peaks of the Rockies to lower elevation grasslands during their annual migration into and across South Park. Mule deer and pronghorn frequently move through the area as well.

Beavers, which were nearly eradicated from most of Colorado’s valley floors, are another special feature of Collard Ranch. Several beaver ponds are found along this stretch of Tarryall Creek, adding to the complexity of the stream’s habitat and the importance of the ranch to waterfowl and other migratory birds.

Another common visitor to Tarryall Creek comes in the human form, specifically fly anglers who chase the nonnative rainbow and brown trout that make this stream a beloved destination for so many. The stretch that flows through Collard Ranch holds exceptional fly water.

When Collard Ranch was listed for sale, WRC jumped at the opportunity to conserve the property and negotiated a purchase agreement with the land owner. WRC bought the ranch in early December 2023 and held it while working to secure funding from Great Outdoors Colorado’s Centennial Program and the Colorado Habitat Stamp. In March 2024, WRC permanently conserved the ranch when we conveyed it to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Now in the hands of CPW, Collard Ranch will soon be open to the public, offering new fishing and hunting access along all five miles of Tarryall Creek. State ownership will also establish more uniform resource management for fish and wildlife along the creek, given the property’s adjacency to Cline Ranch State Wildlife Area and other conservation lands. For the fish, beavers, elk and other animals of South Park—including the two-legged fly rod-toting type—this is a tremendous conservation achievement.

Washington’s Bear River and Willapa Bay:

Washington’s Willapa Bay is the second largest estuary on the West Coast. Protected from the pounding storms of the Pacific by the fingerlike Long Beach Peninsula, it is a world of salt marshes and tidal mudflats, coastal dunes and beaches, grasslands, wetlands and stands of old-growth forest. Although the bay is expansive, it is relatively shallow, and half of its water is drained and returned by the tides every day. The place teems with life. Salmon, steelhead, sea-run cutthroat and Pacific lamprey come and go with the seasons, and more than 200 species of birds have been documented across the bay.

Much of Willapa Bay is protected within the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, which was created in 1937 and includes some of the best habitat for the area’s incredible fish and wildlife. It’s also home to a trove of recreation opportunities, including paddling, birding, hiking, hunting and wildlife watching. This winter, WRC was able to add the remarkable 2,366-acre Willapa Coastal Forest property to the refuge, permanently protecting three miles of the Bear River, along with a network of smaller streams and critical stands of old-growth forest.

Our efforts to conserve the Willapa Coastal Forest started in 2020, when we first recognized the vital importance of this property and began negotiations to purchase it from Forest Investment Associates. We spent the next three years working to secure funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Washington state Salmon Recovery Funding Board.

This January, with funding in place, WRC purchased the property and conveyed it to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for protection within the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. This is an exciting achievement, building on the refuge’s recent restoration efforts in the estuary, where juvenile salmon rear in tidal habitat after emerging. The Bear River provides excellent spawning habitat for chum salmon, coho, fall Chinook, winter steelhead, coastal cutthroat trout and Pacific lamprey. from and leaving their upstream spawning beds. Protecting river habitat upstream is the perfect complement to that work downstream. We’ve also expanded the refuge and positioned the USFWS to improve recreational access in an area that was hard to reach.

Most of all, this is a win for this unique property and the Bear River itself. The Willapa Coastal Forest is a special place, densely covered in ferns and trees, where moss dampens sound and it’s green in every direction. In fall, as the maple trees drop their leaves, wild salmon can be seen swimming up the small Bear River, hiding in pools and digging redds to lay their eggs. Three miles of this critical freshwater habitat are now protected, ensuring that the emerging young salmon will have a better shot at moving downstream to the recently restored estuary at the mouth of the Bear. There, they will build muscle and mass before heading out to the Pacific on the outgoing tides.

Conclusion

The Collard Ranch and Bear River projects are just some of our recent projects. WRC currently has over 25 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)