Protected Places

The Keystone Nature Preserve occupies 163 acres where the river transitions out of its wild canyon headwaters and rolls into the more gentle lowlands. Keystone’s slopes are prominent when viewed from both the Elk River and Elk River Road. The property is adjacent to an Inventoried Roadless Area in Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest that connects to the Grassy Knob & Copper Salmon Wilderness areas.
Each year during fishing season, thousands of locals and visitors drift by Keystone and enjoy the view of its mature forest. Whether hiking, camping, fishing or sightseeing, everyone who heads up the river enjoys the view of Keystone’s unbroken forest.
Keystone was WRLT’s first purchase helping us establish and maintain the sense of how special our designated Wild & Scenic Elk River truly is for all to appreciate nature at its finest.

The Camp Myrtlewood conservation easement protects the forests and streams while providing a showcase for sustainable forestry practices and environmental education.
Camp Myrtlewood is located in Bridge, just outside of Myrtle Point, and encompasses 160 acres of forests, streams and meadows - the kind of place where you can bathe in the glory of nature.
Owned by the Church of the Brethren, Camp Myrtlewood serves as a summer camp and retreat center. More than 2000 visitors come every year. The Camp staff and other professionals work closely with Wild Rivers Land Trust to ensure the connection between healthy forests and healthy people is available forever.

This 160-acre conservation easement was donated to WRLT by private landowners in 2019. Perched at 2800 feet above the Rogue River and adjacent to important botanical areas on federal land, the property contains forest, meadow and rocky buttes. The streams on the property feed tributaries of the lower Rogue River.

This coastal preserve was transferred from the Nature Conservancy to Wild Rivers Land Trust in 2020. The roughly 100-acre preserve contains a Sitka Spruce and Grand Fir forest as well as rare plants on the coastal bluffs that front the Pacific Ocean. The property is a collection of three conservation easements and a parcel of donated land south of Nesika Beach. It advances our goal of providing connectivity from the “summit to seastacks” in our service area. It is a great example of how good partnerships and being an accredited land trust is important for advancing conservation work on the South Coast.

Donated by a local resident, this 40-acre easement of forest and wetlands, contains a diverse forest of almost every type of tree that grows in our area. Perched at over 2,000 feet in elevation, Frog Lake provides habitat for waterfowl like wood ducks, bufflehead, egrets and herons and aquatic species including rough-skinned newts and several species of frogs. The headwater stream on the property feeds into Indian Creek, a tributary to the Lower Rogue River that is important for salmon and steelhead.
The property is bordered by a several hundred acre stand of old-growth forest owned by the Bureau of Land Management which has been set aside as a Late Successional Reserve, and the forest at Raven Ridge will add to this block of old growth forest as it matures.

On the shores of Coos Bay, this small 2.5-acre property was donated to WRLT in 2019 by the South Coast Land Conservancy. The Land Trust is enhancing the wetland and riparian habitats on the property by supplementing native vegetation with plantings and eliminating introduced species.
Wild Rivers Land Trust is pleased to provide a conservation pathway for this small, critical property.

Wild Rivers Land Trust purchased the 217-acre property to protect it from logging and the resulting fragmentation of wildlife habitat on the Elk River. The goal was to manage the land in a way similar to the adjacent National Forest, helping to promote old-growth forests and protecting fish and wildlife in a wild and untouched area.

Located within the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest on Elk River is a lush forest with abundant wildlife. Small, cool headwater streams from the property feed into the most productive steelhead tributary on the Elk River Watershed.
The forest is recovering from being harvested when it was privately owned. WRLT’s acquisition of the property has helped to reduce fragmentation of a significant stretch of mature forest which will eventually become old growth, while protecting downstream habitat for steelhead and coho salmon.
In November 2019, the Purple Mountain property became part of the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest with funding from the federal Land & Water Conservation Fund. The property and surrounding public lands provides public access for recreational use while being managed as a late successional forest.