A Note from our Director

 

Together, we made it our best year yet for wildlife & land conservation!

In August, Sageland Collaborative’s team of volunteer community scientists and partner biologists counted over half a million shorebirds across Great Salt Lake. This was our biggest count to date and truly cemented Utah’s importance to our hemisphere’s shorebird populations.

A few of us celebrated the successful counts with a swim in Great Salt Lake. The briny waters were coated with slicks of brine flies as they fed on algae. In pursuit of those flies were hundreds of thousands of Wilson’s Phalaropes. To our delight, the phalaropes seemed content to share a float with us. We marveled that these birds, weighing as much a piece of toast, would soon be traveling thousands of miles to reach their winter homes in the Southern Hemisphere. That night, I messaged our colleagues in Argentina to let them know that we were sending their Wilson’s Phalaropes back south happy and fat on Great Salt Lake brine flies.

Our beloved wildlife — shorebirds, mule deer, boreal toads, and bumble bees — allow us to connect with each other across the hemisphere and in our own neighborhoods.

Thank you for your generous support and all you have done for wildlife.

During a time when politics are as polarized and divisive as ever, it can feel like we can’t make progress. Yet as we enter 2025, we are doubling down on our approach to conservation. We collaborate, we find common ground, we share in the wins, and we find joy. It is critical that we continue to find creative ways to leverage private and public funding. We forecast shifts in federal funding and your contributions are more important than ever to conserve Western wildlife and landscapes.

This year, together with our community, we:

  • Built over 600 beaver dam analogs to heal 9.5 miles of degraded streams, increasing habitat for a diversity of wildlife and holding precious water on the landscape; 

  • Logged 10,000 pollinator observations that will lead to improved habitat; 

  • Created habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators at three sites across Utah with 1,000 pollinator-friendly seedlings;

  • and so much more!

Wildlife, and the people who are dedicated to saving them, depend on Sageland Collaborative. The need for the opportunities we provide to have a positive impact grows each year. We want to provide the tools for landowners so they can live with beaver, instead of responding to a clogged culvert with a lethal trap. We want to bring in more people who have been historically excluded from conservation so we can better solve complex problems. We want to grow more milkweed on the landscape so monarch butterflies don’t go extinct.

We have work to do and we need all of you.

In 2024, the Sageland Collaborative team welcomed three new staff to meet the needs for our wildlife and community. Dr. Austin Green is working to remove barriers for migrating wildlife like pronghorn. Emm Clark is connecting conservation at Great Salt Lake with partners across the hemisphere to conserve the bird species that unite us. Frances Ngo is ensuring that our Sageland community — who are the heart of our work — have opportunities to get involved in science and conservation.

We are also proud to engage the next generation of young professionals in conservation through hands-on volunteer opportunities and paid internships. This year, our interns monitored the success of our restoration sites, engaged volunteers in pollinator conservation, provided translation services, and uplifted our work through their enthusiasm.

Your support allows our community to grow and benefits our wildlife and the habitats they rely on.

It has been an honor to serve the community that cares so deeply for our wildlife and land. With your gift, in 2025 we will continue working towards our ambitious goals: more streams will have improved water quality and habitat for fish and wildlife; more beaver will be on the landscape to do their hard work for watersheds; more monarch butterflies will have a chance at finishing their journey to Mexico; and Wilson’s Phalaropes will continue to find a home at Great Salt Lake. We will do all this as we have done before — through collaborations, common ground, sharing wins, and finding joy.

Your generous contributions make wildlife conservation possible. Will you donate today to sustain this work?

Donations of any size allow us to continue working towards a future in which the people, wildlife, and ecosystems of the West thrive.

Thank you for loving wildlife, lands, and the West!

With gratitude,

Janice Gardner

Executive Director & Ecologist

P.S. We’ve got big goals for wildlife conservation in 2025! Please consider becoming a monthly donor today. Your monthly gift allows us to make the greatest impact and do more for our wildlife and land!

 
Sierra Hastings