The Work of Forever: American River Conservancy Protects, Land, Water, and Community

Elena DeLacy: [00:00:00] Not only are we doing direct programs to schools and individual families and people who come out on hikes with us, but we're also out there doing water quality monitoring, which is this little blend of stewardship, right? Taking care of the land, but also it's a part of a community participatory science program that is educating people about their watershed.

Jeff Holden: Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Our purpose and passion are simple to highlight the incredible nonprofits that make our communities stronger. Each episode is a chance for these organizations to tell their story in their words, sharing not just what they do, but why it matters. To the people they serve, to their supporters, [00:01:00] and to all of us who believe in the power of community.

Through podcasting, we hope to amplify their voices, inspire connection, and give them one more tool to impact the hearts of donors, partners, and neighbors alike. This work is made possible through the generous support of our incredible partners, CAPTRUST offering fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations, Western Health Advantage, a local not-for-profit health plan that believes healthcare is more than coverage.

It's about caring core executive leadership and comprehensive support services. They work in it so you can work on it. And Five Star Bank, a local trusted advisor to community nonprofits for over 25 years. In this episode, I'm talking with Elena Delacey and Marshall Gorham of the American River Conservancy.

To explore what it really means to protect land, not just for [00:02:00] today, but forever. We get into the scale of their work, over 31,000 acres preserved, and the responsibility that comes with it from forest restoration and wildfire prevention to safeguarding the rivers and watersheds that so many of our communities depend on.

What stood out to me in this conversation is that the conversation doesn't stop when the land is acquired. In many ways, that's just the beginning. Nothing is a quick turn project. This is a conversation about stewardship, about legacy, about the critical role local organizations play in protecting the places we often take for granted.

If you care about the future of our environment, if you want to understand Land Conservancy a little better, you'll appreciate this conversation. Elena Delacy and Marshall Gorham, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. 

Elena DeLacy: Thank you, Jeff. Nice to meet you. [00:03:00] Nice to be here. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah, thanks for having us. 

Jeff Holden: 31,000 acres, land acquisition, ecological forestry, and forest restoration, and so much more we're going to get into.

But before we get there, would you please explain what a Land Conservancy is? I'm gonna bet that many of the people listening don't know. They don't understand. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah, I can take a shout at that and Marshall can fill in the gaps. But a Land Trust or a Land Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that works with willing sellers of land to protect.

Any number of resources. So it could be biological resources, cultural resources, agricultural resources for public benefit. And we do that through a number of ways. So we can acquire fee title land, we can acquire conservation easements, we can accept, do donations of both. But the real focus is preserving [00:04:00] land forever for public benefit.

Marshall Groham: Yeah, and I think to just kind of add into that, I like to think of conservancies as sort of this like conservation land protection middleman a little bit. Mm-hmm. And so, as Elena had mentioned, we are a nonprofit and yet we work extensively with local, state, federal government agencies that have missions to protect land and.

Provide access to land and educate people about the importance of, of conservation and, and stewardship. And a lot of times, those org, those government organizations, right, they have a hard time of getting that work on the ground. Right? They are, they're inherently, they're government agencies, right? They don't know the people.

They don't, they don't live with the people. They aren't, they don't actually represent, you know, aren't directly representative of these different areas. And so, right. So for American River Conservancy, we, we work largely in, in El Dorado County, upper American and upper Sumers River watersheds. [00:05:00] And we, everyone who works at a RC, we live, we recreate, we love living where we live.

And so, right. We are kind of an extension. We like to, I'm not gonna claim we're an extension of everyone, but we, but we somewhat are and we are able to tap into those government agencies. We get grants to support all of these efforts. And this overall mission, as Elena alluded to, of conservation, of caring for land stewardship and educating people as to why that's.

Critical part of our lives. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and I'm smiling as you're explaining the fact that you all recreate there, you live there, you use the environment the way it was meant to be used because your website's, one of the few websites, when I look at all your staff, they all look like they're in the environment of what they're protecting.

You know, somebody's backpacking, somebody's on a mountain bike, somebody's climbing a, a trail. And obviously in many other cases with some of the nonprofits we work with, that couldn't be the case. Sure. They, they certainly wouldn't wanna be in this situation, but yours is [00:06:00] all integrated. Mm-hmm. And, you know, it's like, okay, yeah.

Everybody's living it. Mm-hmm. They really are concerned about what's happening in that space. 

Marshall Groham: No posers, 

Jeff Holden: no. Right. Let me, let me take this a step further in the detail of what you do, because you did mention it just a little bit in terms of. Conservation versus land stewardship. What is the difference? How do they vary?

Elena DeLacy: Yeah, so conservation really is a broader term for how we protect land and conservation. I think of it more as an umbrella term that can include stewardship, right? So conservation, a lot of times in land trust circles can mean the acquisition part of protecting land, which is, you know, working with a landowner, raising the funds, doing the due diligence to acquire a piece of property.

But the conservation piece doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop with the acquisition because land trusts and land [00:07:00] conservation organizations are the only sector in the nonprofit world that promises to do something forever, and that's where the stewardship piece comes in. So stewardship really does mean we have an obligation, sometimes illegal obligation.

Sometimes a moral obligation to take care of this land forever, to whatever that means. Whether it's creating public access for trails, whether it's restoring a certain type of habitat back to its original state, or it's, it's doing ecological force management to make sure that we're creating a more resilient ecosystem.

Especially in areas where there might be houses or residential areas nearby, we wanna make sure that we're being good stewards of the land, that we're being good neighbors. And so it's that stewardship piece really is the hard work of forever. Mm-hmm. When we talk about land trusts, it's key, 

Marshall Groham: uh, key stress, hard work.

Elena DeLacy: It's the gritty work, 

Marshall Groham: literally. It's literally patching fences and [00:08:00] repairing eroded roads and Right. Picking up trash. 

Elena DeLacy: So, you know, you're a homeowner and many people who are listening, maybe landowners, maybe they own an acre or maybe they own 10 acres. Imagine owning 15,000 acres and how much work that takes.

And no, we're not going out and visiting every single square foot of land every year. But there's a lot of things that happen. There's a lot of miles of fencing to be repaired, or, you know, signage that goes down, or roads that need to be fixed when there's a big storm. So I. It's a big responsibility and we take that pretty seriously.

Jeff Holden: And you didn't mention even the, the fire prevention elements of it all. Yeah. Which you are certainly in a fire prone area, which requires a lot of maintenance, I'm sure. And 

Elena DeLacy: yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Work just to mitigate the possibility. 

Elena DeLacy: Yes, absolutely. We, since about 2014, 2015, the King fire was one of the first kind of mega [00:09:00] fires.

And that happened right in our backyard, in the Upper American River Watershed and the South Work American River and the Rubicon Watershed. And so we saw that the impacts of the King Fire and we immediately started putting our heads together with partners. We had been working on a project to acquire 10,000 acres at the headwaters of the Middle Fork American River.

This is actually in Placer County, and we call it the American River Headwaters. Mm-hmm. Great name, but just adjacent to French Meadows Reservoir. Major water source for Placer County, also right next to Granite Chief Wilderness. And so our, our plan was to acquire this 10,000 acre private end holding from, it was a logging company that had previously owned it and managed it.

And our goal was to create, to create a bigger wild wilderness area there. Mm-hmm. And we also thought we need to manage these lands. They've been [00:10:00] managed poorly for the last few decades. We can do better. And so we worked with a group of partners called the French Meadows Partnership to not only. Manage those 10,000 acres, but expand the footprint of the project to include total of 26,000 acres where we would do ecological forest management.

That means mastication coming in and doing hand thinning with crews, but then also reintroducing fire to the landscape. Because what happened at the, with the king fire was that fire in some areas burned so hot and so severe that we had landslides and then we had sediment going into the rivers and then eventually into the reservoirs that are providing water for our communities that are hydropower facilities for our communities.

And that's huge. That's a huge impact. Mm-hmm. Um, for us in billions probably of dollars throughout the state in repairs and dredging reservoirs and, you know, so you have to get in front of [00:11:00] the problem. And so that's, that's what the French Meadows or American River Headwaters Project was. Was set out to do and now we're 11 years on and we've completed our first, our first wave of forest management and we'll have to do much more.

It never ends. Trees keep growing, right? Yes. 

Marshall Groham: Thankfully. Thankfully and, and unfortunately, yes. Right. You know, it depends on the context. 

Elena DeLacy: We love trees, but there were just too many up there. It's a legacy of forest management practices that favored taking the larger older trees, some clear cutting as well as exclusion of fire in those landscapes, which as we all know now was a mistake.

Mm-hmm. And so it's 150 years of forest management practices. It's not gonna be solved in 10 years. Right. We have a lot to learn still as a society and as a community on how we can better manage those forests. 

Jeff Holden: You just clearly described something that is, I think, [00:12:00] so valuable for everybody to understand is.

It's a cascade of everything. So if in fact that fire hits, then you have the soil erosion, you get rain, all of it flows into the river. The river takes it into the reservoir. The reservoir is feeding electrical output, something gets clogged. It needs to be dred. I mean, just what a catastrophic situation it is.

East or beyond just what we see as the burned timber. It's so much more, I, I didn't follow it all the way through. Yeah. To think, oh, all these pieces happen every step along the way. And it's not even to mention the wildlife. 

Elena DeLacy: Right. 

Jeff Holden: You know, and what happens there versus, you know, the, you know, the ability for them to move and or perish.

Yeah. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. 

Marshall Groham: And I think what's hard with that is we are just individuals sitting here and these are things happening on scales that are like. So inconceivable. And unless you work, unless you directly work in it, right. Every day is for your life. And so [00:13:00] it's, that's one of the most inherent challenges to the work we do, is how do you make that feel visceral?

Uh, how do you, how do you portray, how do you get these, these messages across, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It is, this is all the foundation of, of where, of where we live, but it's so much bigger than, than all of us. 

Jeff Holden: Right. And it is hard in the valley. If we don't see it, we don't necessarily understand it. It just happened.

Marshall Groham: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: But you are in it. 

Marshall Groham: Yep. 

Jeff Holden: And when you start talking thousands of acres and tens of thousands of acres and even hundreds 

Marshall Groham: of thousands 

Jeff Holden: of acres and even, right? Mm-hmm. It's, we're, we're into miles. Yeah. In terms of what that looks like. So that was very helpful. How about programs and projects and education, because that's the other part of what you do.

Where do you see the majority of. Let's say awareness and emphasis from the communities at large. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah, no, that's, that's a really great question and I think it's one of the things that makes us [00:14:00] unique as a land trust is that we do have a very robust education program. We, we like to say that our programs touch over 2000 people in every year, but I think it's, that's direct impacts, right?

Like our education and outreach probably affects or benefits more than that because we're doing, not only are we doing direct programs to schools and individual families and people who come out on hikes with us, but we're also out there doing water quality monitoring, which is this little blend of stewardship, right?

Taking care of the land, but also it's a part of a community. Participatory science program that is educating people about their watershed. And so, you know, this, this particular program that I'm talking about on the Snus River, which is one of the two rivers that we focus on, is really [00:15:00] about establishing community and establishing.

A sense of ownership and this ethic of stewardship in the watershed. And if people are involved in taking water samples and, and measuring the alkalinity or measuring the pH of the water that is in their backyard or the water that comes out of their faucet, they're gonna have this feeling of, oh, I care about that.

It's this connection. And that is how you build a community that cares about the environment, cares about nature because, and not only that, but realizes that we are an inherent part of nature. Mm-hmm. We're not separate from it. And so that's really what we're trying to do with our education programs is instill that environmental literacy in people so that they can.

Then talk to their neighbors, talk to their family and and say, oh, I went out to the river last week. I saw an otter. It's so cool. Did you even know that was in our backyard? And it's [00:16:00] just this, this excitement and this connection. I think that we inspire 

Jeff Holden: all of those things are so important and the engagement for the community, the people who not necessarily aware.

Mm-hmm. It's so close. Is 30 minutes up the road if you're coming from Sacramento to Yeah. To just head East to really experience all these things that are so critical to the infrastructure of existence. Mm-hmm. That we take for granted. Yeah. Tell me about where most of your time is spent. I mean, I can imagine just what you've just said, it could be forever just rolling fence.

I mean, there's so much out there. Or cleaning forests and, and trimming and pruning and planting and cutting. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. I think for us as an organization, and Marshall can maybe speak to his position a little bit more, but looking at us as a whole, as an organization, if just purely looking at the numbers, I'm thinking of [00:17:00] our annual report from 2024.

Mm-hmm. About. 60 to 70% of our expenses were on stewardship, on land stewardship. So taking care of that land, whether it's doing forest management or getting out there and fixing fences, or mowing star thistle, or doing water quality monitoring, right? There's any number of activities that stewardship encompasses.

We also have to monitor and set foot on each one of our properties at least once a year, and so that takes a lot of staff time as well. So on a whole, most of our energy expenses are going towards that, that care, that long-term care in perpetuity of the land, but the remainder of it is on land acquisition, and then there's education programs, and then there's just the overall running of an organization, right, like that.

That is a part of what we do, and every single nonprofit organization [00:18:00] has. Admin. 

Jeff Holden: Yes, please give us unrestricted funds. 

Elena DeLacy: We gotta keep the lights on, we gotta pay property taxes, we have to pay our insurance. You know, so those things are also a part of what we do. But I would say overall, vast majority of our time and resources are going towards stewardship.

Marshall Groham: Yeah, I think just, it's fun. I Elena's sort of alluding to the admin and you know, I think both of us would like to think that, you know, our days were spent just frolicking through fields and you know, looking for ring-tailed cats and, and stuff. Right. But unfortunately, yes, we are behind, we're probably both behind a computer far more than we wish we were.

But I do think it's, it's, we as an organization, right? We are connected to the land. So I do think it's so interesting, like the seasonality of work as well. Mm-hmm. And so I'm just thinking of, you know, our other staff, you know, with stewardship, right? We've had this meadow restoration project that's up in the, in the headwaters of the Kasama River, right?

So from. June through August, our [00:19:00] stewardship staff are pretty much just up there doing meadow restoration. Right now through the winter time, we've, we've alluded to the, a lot of fuels re fuel reduction work. We've done our, our fuel restoration, our forest restoration team has been burning thousands of piles, minimize, burn off to minimize all, everything that's been compiled out there, because that, this is the time to do that.

Right. There's a very tight window to do that. And then I just think of like our education staff, for instance, right? We're in peak school season, right? So we've got field trips, and then come summertime, there'll be nature, nature camp, and then there'll be out every day for summertime, you know, cooking in the sun, hanging out by the river with kids, you know, slapping on sunscreen every day on themselves and, and everyone else.

So yeah, there's, I think. If you were to, I can't speak on behalf of everyone with our staff, but there's a fun little bit of, there's more dynamics I think to, to the work which make it interesting 

Jeff Holden: and I'm so glad you did that because I think people can get caught up in the conservancy part of it. Oh, it's just a land acquisition thing and they just manage this property.

They don't really [00:20:00] understand that there's. An actively engaged element 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Of the population that's up there enjoying it and experiencing and using it too. Yeah. To the degree that they can and it's available and you have everything up there. Yeah. You know, every trail you can think of and, and parks and recreation areas and waterways and.

Cycling and off-roading and kayaking and mm-hmm. River rafting. Yeah. You just, it just everything the outdoors is all about, especially when you think of Northern California. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah, 

Jeff Holden: absolutely. That's, it's all there. What about collaboration? You touched on it a little bit. 

Scott Thomas: Hmm. 

Jeff Holden: And you are the master collaborator because you have to touch and work with so many different entities.

Yeah. You've got government entities and state and federal and private landowners as, as collaborators. 'cause you have to work with them. Mm-hmm. And then you're working with nonprofits who are bringing children up from the, you know, from the various surrounding cities. Mm-hmm. Tell me a little bit about what that looks like for you.

Marshall Groham: Yeah, so you're right. We sort of, uh, [00:21:00] conservation, stewardship, education, right. It's hilarious. We have these like massive pillars of our organization and they in, in, in their own sense or their own departments, but within each one of those departments is like one or two people. Sure. Right. And it's just amazing than the different partnerships that come along with each one of those emphases.

And so I will just say, you know, in, in my line of work. First and foremost, as a conservancy, as a land trust, protecting land, we only work with willing landowners. And so the foundation of those 31,000 acres that we've protected over our 36 years of existence, it all falls back on landowners within El Dorado County who have been interested, willing, and right, dedicated to seeing their land protected.

Right. Kind of there. There, there is that altruistic element of, I own this land and I, it's bigger than just me. I want it to contribute to something bigger. Sure. So that's [00:22:00] without willing sellers, without willing landowners, there is no, a conservancy cannot exist. That's the front end of it. And then the back end of it is, it would be great if all of those willing landowners were prepared to donate all of their land, but that's just not the reality of the world we live in.

So we have to go find funding for all of these. And essentially it's all grant funded projects. 

Jeff Holden: And by funding you mean so that you can purchase the land from the landowner, correct. To continue to build a contiguous Yes. Geographic area. 

Marshall Groham: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And so then that is tied to, I will say in El Dorado, you know, as a relatively rural county, we, we don't have a lot of local resources to support projects that most of our projects are on the scale of millions of dollars to, to buy and protect land.

And so we have to go out to state, mostly state agencies, so Wildlife Conservation Board, natural Resources Agency, department of Conservation, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, these are kind of the big [00:23:00] ones that we get funding from. I will just go ahead and throw out, we've secured a little over a hundred million dollars in our existence for just for acquisitions.

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. 

Marshall Groham: And half of that has come from the Wildlife Conservation Board, just to give you kind of a 

Jeff Holden: Sure. 

Marshall Groham: A landscape there. And so that is who we work with. And again, not mutually exclusive. Have to have both. Otherwise at least that conservation arm of of a RC. Doesn't exist. 

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. And in terms of the stewardship side and the education side of things, our collaborators are a lot of state agencies that are again, providing that funding, but also it spans the spectrum of local government.

So the county all the way up to federal government. We're working right now with US Fish and Wildlife Service, and they've provided some grant funding through their partners program to do some habitat enhancement and habitat restoration projects. We receive funding from the Natural Resources [00:24:00] Conservation Service NRCS, which is a federal agency to, to enhance working landscapes.

And we're working with our local NRCS office on a project right now. So, yeah. And 

Jeff Holden: I'm gonna ask you on the acronyms. RCS and nrc. 

Elena DeLacy: SN Rrc S. So Natural Resources Conservation Service. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Elena DeLacy: I know there's so many. 

Jeff Holden: You don't know the nrcs, you don't know? No, no, no. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah, there's local schools. We have. In El Dorado County, I don't know how many local school districts we have, but we have a lot of smaller school districts that are like one or two schools.

Sure. Rural, very rural. But we have relationships. We've established relationships with some of those schools and teachers to get students out on the land and participate in some of these activities that we're doing. We collaborate with other nonprofits, so we collaborate with Placer Land Trust, who operates mostly in Placer County.

You know, they hold a conservation easement on one of the lands that we own because we had to form a partnership so we could get the funding. [00:25:00] I alluded to French Meadows, a project that we did up there that is a, a collaborative of several organizations and agencies, including the Nature Conservancy, Placer County, Placer County Water Agency, Tahoe National Forest, Sierra, Nevada Conservancy, and uc, Merced.

We're all coming together to steward this landscape and also. Some organizations have more better resources and technical expertise in some areas than do others. You know, American River Conservancy is a private landowner and so we are able to get funding for our side of the project much easier and faster than, say, the Forest Service.

They have a lot of more hoops to jump through. Mm-hmm. But like Placer County Water Agency has a great media team and you know, so they can come out on our site tours and film and take photos. And so we work together as a [00:26:00] collaborative and work to our strengths. And that's what I think really helps everybody to be successful.

And you know, that's just one example of one project where every single project that we work on. It's not just us, it's US plus WCB or the Private Landowner 

Marshall Groham: Wildlife Conservation 

Elena DeLacy: Board. Wildlife Conservation Board. Thank you. Yeah. We'll, we'll spell out the acronyms next time. Yeah. And also, I just wanted to to mention that our board of directors and our local community is a huge part of that collaboration.

We couldn't do what we do without our volunteers, our board, our communities of supporters. Last year alone, I think about 40% of our revenue came from the community. So individual supporters, 

Jeff Holden: significant, 

Elena DeLacy: pretty significant. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. I'm gonna get that to get to that in just a second. Yeah. But since we're on this collaborative, turning to [00:27:00] opportunity, turning to progress, you've been working on something that we talked about earlier.

For years and years and years, because you'd have to acquire the funding. Mm-hmm. Go purchase, acquire the funding. Go purchase. But I think it's close to coming to a close and I, I, I want you to share that. Yeah. Because I know that has, I think short term, I mean, a year's, a long term for me, it's like, oh my gosh.

And I look at developers. These guys are buying property for 25 years from now. Mm-hmm. Yes. I cannot fathom that patience. And that's what this experience has been too. So why don't you share that, because I know it's a, it's a big project for you. Sure. It's been going on for a long time. And you can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. Well, I'll kind of 

Marshall Groham: just a, just a 

Jeff Holden: peep, we can, ugh. 

Marshall Groham: Just to hold 

Jeff Holden: through the shoebox for like looking the, the eclipse, right? 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. Just enough for us to not, to not have us, uh, curl up in a ball and cry at night. I, I'm kidding. I'm being over dramatic. 

Elena DeLacy: It takes persistence for sure. And lots and lots of patience.

And [00:28:00] I'll kind of set the stage and maybe Marshall can take it from there, but. Really, it's, so you're, you're alluding to El Dorado Ranch? Mm-hmm. Which is one of our kind of legacy projects that we've been working on really since 2011. And our previous executive director, Alan Ergot, was really instrumental in creating these relations, building these relationships, and kind of setting the stage for what we are now carrying on.

And so our goal has been to acquire this 7,000 acre ranch. We call it El Dorado Ranch. It's been called other things over the years. But essentially this whole entire ranch was at one point scheduled or slated to be developed into residential houses. So can you imagine 7,000 acres houses, probably not a subdivision like you would imagine, but, but more like ranchettes and lots of roads and wells.

Developed wells for water. Lots of [00:29:00] community members. This was the early nineties. They opposed it. They didn't want it to happen. They eventually were able to stop the development through a series of lawsuits and, but the county had already had approved it. If it weren't for these community members, that development would've gone through the.

Fast forward a decade or two, another developer 

Jeff Holden: for me, that is an eternity. That's not a fast forward, but I understand. But when we're talking forests 

Elena DeLacy: Yes. 

Jeff Holden: How long we're talking in perpetuity Go in perpetuity, correct. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. And keep in mind, this is on the Cassem River. Mm-hmm. So the Kassem River is the last Undammed River on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.

So ecologically, it's a very important watershed. There's still wild salmon that run in that river. This is also a huge swath of blue oak woodland that has been, it's been rangeland essentially for over 150 years. Before that, it was inhabited by the Nisan people. Meoc people. Mm-hmm. And so this landscape is, is [00:30:00] gorgeous.

It's beautiful. So fast forward 20 years, the development had got gotten squashed by the community. Another developer comes along and purchases the land, and Angela Opolis is the developer that we're working with now to purchase the property. And so we've been working with him and his group for just over 12 years really to acquire the 7,000 acres in phases.

And so far we have acquired the first four phases, so just over 4,000 acres we currently hold in fee, so we acquired it outright. And we are now working on the last two phases, which phase five A and five B is the represents about 3000 acres. So I'll let Marshall talk a little bit about that and kind of what the next steps are.

Marshall Groham: Yeah, so we're pushing right now to complete that five A acquisition by the end of the year. The powers that B will let us do that, ideally five B [00:31:00] within the next two to three years or so. And then the goal from there is to transfer this entire property over to California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

CDFW, yes, to be managed as a part of their state wildlife area system, which is over a million acres across the state. To be open for public recreation and, but we, but kind of the, the, that initial deal back 12 years ago was we had to acquire the whole thing before we could, before we could establish that.

And in addition to that, we also needed a RC has another one of our responsibilities is to, to develop the public access infrastructure for it. And so while we are securing the millions and millions of dollars to purchase the land, we're also securing additional funds to build a parking lot and a trailhead and a trail so that public can actually get out there and see a sweeping view of the Casda River and the Sierra Sierra Foothill Blue Oak Woodland region.

And, you know, and when we talk about partners, you know, kind of coming, coming back to that, [00:32:00] this is fun, you know. Partnership is the funding component of it. So Wildlife Conservation Board, Cal Fire, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, natural Resources Agency, some funds from Mel Dorado County, and then for the public access component of it, those same powers that be as well as Impact 100 of Greater Sacramento, who very graciously donated an, an additional a hundred thousand dollars to that project to, to help develop it and, you know, have that really important community element.

Jeff Holden: And not to minimize the way that you just phrase that 

Marshall Groham: Uhhuh, 

Jeff Holden: you actually had to earn that. 

Marshall Groham: This is, that's true. 

Jeff Holden: And that, that was, that was a competitive process Yes. That you went through. It was a vetting process. It was a, you know, whittling down or weaning down to the most worthy. Nonprofits of which for that particular category, you were successful last year.

Congratulations on that. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I mean, a hundred thousand dollars is significant 

Marshall Groham: Absolutely. 

Jeff Holden: When it's unrestricted. 

Marshall Groham: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Right. That, that grant in particular is really great. 'cause it does, it sort of allows us to fill in the [00:33:00] gaps and it's a bit more adaptive.

And it, and I actually, and I appreciate you bringing up the point in terms of having to earn it as well, because I should say, I, I, right. I alluded to earlier, we're sort of a, this middleman of like getting grants and implementing projects, but every single one of those grants that we secure it, it is a competitive process.

We are competing with other similarly missioned, land trusts and mm-hmm. Uh, conservation organizations. Some of them far more resourced than we are, some of them less. And we've, we have to write grant applications and it is competitive and we do everything we can to dev to develop the best projects we possibly can.

In the area where we work, but then there is that, there's that point where you have to submit the application and, and it is a little bit to the whim of, of others. Mm-hmm. Uh, and you just, you know, you hold your breath and hope you did the best job you could. Or, or you, you know, you did the best job you could.

Yeah. Um, but sometimes it is out of our control and that is definitely a challenge for us. Again, kind of working in a rural [00:34:00] area. We just, we have to go to those state and federal sources 'cause we just don't have as much available to us at, at a local level. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and I'm proud to say we're involved with that organization as well, so we see the benefit of those awards each year and, and what they mean.

This is a great segue to funding. We'll be back to learn more about some current projects with Elena Delacey and Marshall Gorham from the American River Conservancy, following these brief messages from the great businesses that see the value in supporting this program. 

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It's a partner in your purpose. Explore your options today@westernhealth.com. Western Health Advantage, healthcare with Heart designed for those who give back. Let's talk about how you are funded, and you mentioned a little bit early, Elena, the the significance and where it comes from. Let's talk just a little bit more about how you get the money to, for example, purchase these pieces of property.

Elena DeLacy: Yeah, it is a competitive process. There is finite dollars at the state level and the federal level for land acquisition as 

Jeff Holden: more finite today than they've been. 

Elena DeLacy: Yes, absolute. We are, I think. [00:38:00] Very, I, I'm grateful that we're in California where we do have a well developed system of. Grant funding opportunities in place and bond measures that have been passed by the voters of California to provide funding for watershed conservation, for land conservation, for oak woodland conservation.

So we are very grateful for that. And so writing grants is just a small part of the actual process. It's also about developing relationships with the grantors and the funding agencies. So that means being in the room when they're talking about their strategic plan and what their goals are going to be for the, the next 10 years.

As, as agencies, it's, it's being, just staying up to date on how bond measures are going, or how proposed bond measures might be passed. It's also getting people out on the land, so our funders, wildlife Conservation [00:39:00] Boards, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, natural Resources Agency, these are, they're all staffed by people.

And sometimes these people, you know, live in Sacramento or they live in our region. So it's great to get them out on the land because, you know, as you know, being out there is no. There's nothing better than being out on a ranch with freshly leafed out blue oak trees and wildflowers. You just a picture doesn't do it justice.

Right? Mm-hmm. So it's, it's a lot of that. It's a lot of just building relationships. It's also about building relationships with our community and our community of supporters. So I said, you know, over in 2025, just over $600,000 of our income was from private community members, 

Jeff Holden: which is so great to hear.

Elena DeLacy: It's wonderful. We could not do what we do without that. And, and a lot of that funding is largely unrestricted. So we're able to use that in [00:40:00] areas that is most important for us. And a lot of the grant funding that we get, actually all of the grant funding we get from these various agencies is restricted.

So we have to use it for. What we say we're going to use it for, whether it's an acquisition, fair market value, we gotta raise $5 million for this project. Every single dollar of those grants are going towards that, that purchase price. Sometimes these grants don't allow us to bill them for due diligence.

The cost of appraisals, you know, we have to get mineral remoteness surveys and reports. It can be 50 to $60,000 of due diligence and staff costs just to acquire a one piece of property. So we're really reliant on our, our donors and our community of supporters to help us match that funding that we're getting.

And I think we're doing pretty good at matching our community funding for [00:41:00] every dollar of community support. We brought in $14 of grant funding. I'll have to check my mouth on that, but. I think that's pretty, that sounds 

Marshall Groham: about right to 

Elena DeLacy: me. Yeah. Yeah. 

Marshall Groham: Again, I think you we're talking about where, yeah, community matching funds.

Maybe it's 50, $60,000 to get us to the finish line, to purchase a $5 million proj project. I mean, that there's the ratio for you right there, 50,000 to 5 million. Mm-hmm. That's a pretty, that's a pretty solid return on investment. 

Jeff Holden: So given that you have these tranches of money basically that come through, are those pass through so that that 5 million that you have to purchase just really goes through the organization?

It's really not, 

Elena DeLacy: yeah. It, it goes straight into an escrow account, right? 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: It doesn't even 

Marshall Groham: come through our books. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. What is the budget? 

Elena DeLacy: Our budget generally is around $2 million. Last year was, I think around 2.4 million. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Elena DeLacy: Uh, total. But depending on what projects we have, and this is operational, this doesn't include the acquisition 

Jeff Holden: Understood, 

Elena DeLacy: but operational, and that includes our stewardship [00:42:00] projects and all of that.

Jeff Holden: How many people do you employ? 

Elena DeLacy: We have 14 staff. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Elena DeLacy: Some are part-time, some are full-time. 

Jeff Holden: So this is, this is the fun question. You have a, an outdoors person who's so emphatic about nature and wildlife and preservation, conservation, stewardship, that loves what's happening, and, and they go, I want you to have.

Everything I've got, it's a blank check, basically. What would it look like? What would you do with it? 

Elena DeLacy: Oh, that is such a good question. That is literally, we were debating on this about this here, and I think my mind first goes to how can we leverage this? How can we leverage this funding to do more? And one of the things that we as an organization have been really striving towards and it's, it's kind of the stretch goal, is we'd like to create a fund that we can pull from to [00:43:00] ensure that we're going to be able to sustain sustainably manage all these lands and so we can continue to.

Do this land conservation work, do this acquisition work so we can protect all these important areas. So my first thought was, oh, we gotta fund this revolving fund that can keep growing and growing and growing and sustain our organization. So we can do that work forever and maybe set aside a little chunk for opportunities that come along that say somebody wants to sell their land, but they gotta sell it right away.

And we don't have time to wait for the grant funds to come through. Hey, we need that opportunity fund. We can use that and we can put that money to work. The other thing that, that Marshall mentioned was creating this, this protected area along the EMREs River Riparian corridor. Being able to protect that and create a, a trail along the river would be a dream.

I mean, I think that is a vision for [00:44:00] us as an organization to see that happen. That's. You know, that's like one of those 25, 30 year visions. Mm-hmm. When, when we talk about the South Fork American River, which is where American River Conservancy really has its genesis, is in the South Fork. That's the kind of vision that the founders of our organization had, was to see a river corridor protected and with public access with trails, and they did it.

We did it. Mm-hmm. We, we created a network of trails along the south work American River with protected lands, and now hundreds of thousands of people, I'm sure are recreating out there every year, riding their bikes. They're riding horses, they're hiking, they're paragliding, they're kayaking, you know, and so I think we have that experience and we have that, that vision as an organization and being able to transfer that to.

Say the, this Kasem [00:45:00] River is real and I think it can be accomplished, but again, it would take lots of investment and I really hope that someone comes to us someday and says, Hey, I wanna give you my estate and I want you to do whatever you want with it. Because essentially that's what we would do. We, we would make sure that we can continue this work forever and make sure that these visions become reality.

Marshall Groham: I did just want to add, I kind of just talked to both of those two in terms of the fund, to be able to be more adaptable and be able to pivot when opportunities come up. It is important to stress that a RC, we are not the only land trust, and in fact, California alone has over a hundred land trusts. And so that model of having this robust fund to be able to do the work is already a proven model, especially when you look at more resourced areas.

For like the Bay Area, essentially. You know, you have land trusts out there who a property comes up for [00:46:00] sale and they have $3 million to 

Jeff Holden: grab 

Marshall Groham: it mm-hmm. To, to grab it. The ability to be able to do that at the local level is just, you know, that, that's a dream for us. Right. And when you can handle it at that local level, you don't have to go compete at the state or even the federal level for grant funds.

I mean, right. You can kind of form the community, the, you know, the world that you want, so mm-hmm. It's certainly something to aspire to. I mean, and, and I just wanted to, just to get into like the, just the slightest nitty gritty on the, on the trail vision. I just wanted to stress that with ARC's Genesis, it's that South Fork American River Trail.

So for those who are familiar with our region, salmon falls out to the Cronin Ranch, Magnolia Ranch area, that whole stretch of the river. And there's an opportunity to really mirror that on the cosumne, I would say, even to a greater extent, there is a preserve in Sac County that's actually owned and managed by the Sacramento Valley Conservancy.

It's called Deer Creek Hills, and there's a potential to [00:47:00] connect that about 12 miles up river to El Dorado Ranch. And so like that's, 

Jeff Holden: there 

Marshall Groham: we go. Probably more than a lifetime 

Jeff Holden: that that's it. It's there. The vision is there. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. Ka the Kumus River Wildlife area. And I would say, and if that person comes along, if, and you want it, you want us to name it after you?

I, I think, we'll we, we, we will do that. 

Jeff Holden: Naming rights for 

Elena DeLacy: Absolutely. 

Jeff Holden: A chunk of the forest is yours. 

Elena DeLacy: And I think it's really important that we as organizations have these bold visions because that is really. That, that imagination, that ability to see the future and what you want is really the first step in making it happen.

And that's the future that we wanna have for our children, for our grandchildren, and for everybody who comes after us, because that's why we're here doing this work. Mm-hmm. Is to create this world that we wanna live in. So it's very rewarding to be able to dream up these things. 

Jeff Holden: And I have to compliment both of you, because when I [00:48:00] asked the question, you viscerally changed.

It was a smile. It was, yeah. Let me share. Yes, sure. We know what we're going to do with it. Oh yeah. That's what people want to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Those bold visions. What is, what does it look like in the future? Yeah. Even though today we may not be able to. Have the means to make it happen. Mm-hmm. But at least we're working towards Yeah.

That goal, that objective that you shared, it's, it's, yeah. It's for the legacy of it. It's, it's really for the better of the environment, you know, our, our children. Mm-hmm. So that we preserve it. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. Yeah. And one thing we, we've touched a little bit on how the. The genesis of El Dorado Ranch was, it was tied to, it was there was a development threat and it is important, we haven't talked too much about the sort of the development trends of the greater Sacramento area.

But when you look at kind of that highway 50 corridor in between Sacramento and El Dorado County, the growth is moving southwards towards the mm-hmm. So, again, we, big vision, we try [00:49:00] and be proactive as much as we can, and we really are kind of at a place where we do need to proactively start. And I would even say, you know, aggressively start protecting, creating a buffer from the threat of development.

'cause it, it will. It. Right? It can. It can only go north and south, basically from where it is right now. So I think that's a just another important part of that vision 

Jeff Holden: and a great point too. I was, the word was coming in my mind too, the buffer. We need to buffer the development opportunity because if it's conservancy, conservancy land mm-hmm.

It stops. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: And that's as far as you can go. And then most people are really excited 'cause they have Yeah. A preserve. Well, 

Marshall Groham: exactly. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. Behind their property. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. It's not some massive sea of suburbia with Correct. That's completely disconnected from the landscape that all those houses have been built on.

Jeff Holden: So we have to come back to reality. What, no, please don't the, no we don't. Let's just as go to the forest and hang out. What does the organization see today as its greatest need? 

Marshall Groham: I'll leave that to the [00:50:00] director. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. I would say our greatest need really is this sustainable funding source for ongoing. Land management, ongoing operations and maintenance of these properties that we're entrusted with.

We currently own 15,000 acres. We will be owning more than that into the future. And so setting us up for success is really my, that's my challenge. That's my stretch goal for the next five to 10 years is creating an endowment, creating a forever fund is what we're calling it. Mm-hmm. And that will enable us as an organization to be solid financially, to be able to take care of these properties, to be able to weather the storms of unreliable funding and be more self-sufficient as an organization.

And I, I think that that is really kind of what my biggest challenge is and our biggest challenge, but it's also an opportunity for the, the organization to grow and to expand [00:51:00] to. Create a larger circle of supporters and that's, that's what it's gonna take 

Jeff Holden: impact when you identify impact. 

Elena DeLacy: Mm-hmm. 

Jeff Holden: Success, successful use of the funding that you get.

Is there a, a, a brief way you could say, just as a, a synopsis of it? 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah, well, I mean impact for us, and we talk about measurable outcomes a lot. Yes. In the nonprofit world is can be measured by acres, acres protected, miles of river protected. That's, those are big ones for us. But I think there's less of a quantitative and more of a qualitative measurement of our success.

And I think that has to do with our communities. How do our communities feel in terms of their connection to place? And when people feel connected to place, I think they have healthier communities. They have their more successful financially, you know, economically. And [00:52:00] so that's a little bit harder to measure that connection to place.

But I think you see it in. Communities that are able to make art communities that are able to recreate on the land communities that have vibrant economic development in their in the region. And I think we're getting to the point where we as an organization are starting to become part of that conversation at our county level.

And people are noticing and realizing that it's not just about extractive and ongoing developments, it's about this kind of feedback loop, this closed loop of. Economy that really, it relies on the environment as the basis. So that's our, our agricultural lands, our working landscapes, the recreational industry is hugely economically impactful for our region.

Sure. In terms of tourism. So those benefits, we're really trying to hone in on what those benefits are of the work that we've been doing for the past [00:53:00] 36 years. And I think we're, we're moving towards that direction and we've been having some exciting conversations with some folks at the county level about how to really boost that, how do we boost our rural economy in ways that aren't extractive, that aren't, that are giving back to the community and individuals.

Jeff Holden: What I can certainly see as your presence becomes more known mm-hmm. 36 years in the scheme of the way that we look at things for legacy 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Is really not that long. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: But now you've got a couple of generations 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Of leadership that are starting to recognize, oh, this is a force. In our community, and as you acquire more property, you become a bigger visual 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah.

Jeff Holden: Piece of the community. You become more impactful. More recognized. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: You know better. Understood. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Marshall Groham: We're a middle-aged parent. Yes. Right now. 

Jeff Holden: Yes. 

Marshall Groham: And as we know, middle, middle-aged parents have, they're really good at doing some things and then they have [00:54:00] limited bandwidth for other things. And 

Jeff Holden: it's about that point in time you look and go, gosh, if I could have done that differently, I would've, 

Marshall Groham: it is, as I say that, I feel feeling very reflective of myself.

Jeff Holden: Yes, yes. Easy to do. So as we look at what you guys do on a regular basis, day to day, you're, you're in an environment that you actually enjoy, but you also carry the stress of concern for it. And it's an operation, it's a business. You still have the liabilities of a business that you have to deal with every day.

Things change. How do you. Escape because for, for somebody like me, it's like I can't wait to get out on a trail or go for a ride or, or paddle down a river. That's my, but you're in it all day long. 

Elena DeLacy: Yes. 

Jeff Holden: What, what do you do to get away from it? 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. I am behind a desk probably 80% of the time, so I still go out in nature to de-stress.

And part of that is always when I'm going on a hike, it's always to a body of water, whether it's a waterfall or [00:55:00] a creek or a stream, that water is, water's very soothing and mm-hmm. Peaceful. So that's a big part of my routine. I also am a yoga fanatic, so yoga part of my daily practice as well. And I don't know what I would do without that.

Like being able to have that work life balance is very important and I, my goal as the director is to make sure that our staff feels supported in that. And so. I think that's incredibly important because we can't do this work if we're not happy and we're not supported and we perform much better if we're not stressed out all the time.

So that's my little soapbox about stress and work, but it's incredibly important. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah, I think it's just funny. I would assume it would be strange for anyone who works for, who works in conservation that they didn't previously already like being outdoors. Yeah. That's kind of why you get into it in the first place.

Jeff Holden: You certainly would think so, right? 

Marshall Groham: [00:56:00] Yeah. And then you consider yourself so lucky that you get to. Get paid to be outside in some, in some way, or at least support the outdoors in some way. I just think it's, it's just funny for me, I think of all the people I know who work in this, in this career field, and I just find that the interests become, you know, far more niche, right?

So what I just think is like, whereas, you know, right, someone who just has, who works, who does not work in the, in this world, you go on a hike and you might go on a might, you go on one that's more epic. One day you might go up into the high country, right? Or you might go out to Folsom Lake. But for us, we get a little weird, right?

We're like, we're looking for that weird peculiar thing. So you're gonna find us at like a vernal pool preserve, right? Or we're out, we're out in the places that. You need to look a little harder to see the beauty in it. Mm-hmm. But with that, the reason that comes though is because you do work in it all day.

So you have this, this awareness of more that's going [00:57:00] on. And, and then I, I don't know. I just, I feel like you have, you're able to develop a deeper understanding and, and appreciation for the smaller things and mm-hmm. Kind of the more off the wall stuff. So that's where I usually find myself try, you know, trying to hunt down like a, you know, tri-colored blackbird in the middle of the Central Valley, which is not where most people would, they'd go the other way.

Right. They'd go in the hills, uh, to, to go get away. 

Jeff Holden: Or looking in some vernal pool for some little tiny tadpoles Exactly. From gosh knows wind, you know, saying, I don't remember. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. Yeah. Look, clo you gotta 

Jeff Holden: look closer, right? Yeah. What's the best way to learn more about the organization? 

Elena DeLacy: Well, I think the best way to learn more about us is to get involved in one of our programs and come out, come on out on a hike or a tour or one of our workshops that we offer.

If you can't do that, you can sign up for our e-newsletter on our website. You go to our website and scroll all the way to the bottom and you can put your email address in and we'll send you regular emails about what's going on. And of course, if you wanna become a [00:58:00] member, you can do that as well, and you can get a quarterly newsletter mailed out to you.

But there's any number of ways. You can also get to know us really well on social media. Marshall over here posts, a lot of, you can 

Marshall Groham: see me on there, 

Elena DeLacy: our social media content and 

Jeff Holden: looking for that exclusive something in a vernal pool or 

Marshall Groham: there. There you, yeah. Unfortunately, the vernal pools, we don't have vernal pools in our area of influence, but it's, it's looking for the, yeah, looking for the other things.

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. I mean, we just posted a video of a ringtail cat. 

Jeff Holden: Yes, you mentioned that 

Marshall Groham: earlier. 

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. On one of the properties that we're hoping to protect soon. And so yeah, Instagram, Facebook, online, our, our web presence is there, but really there's gotta get out on the land with us. That's the best way. 

Marshall Groham: And I would just stress that.

I think one thing that's really fun about our, our organization is. There are so many ways to get involved, and whether you're a person who you like to be around other people, or you don't like to be around other people at all, like we can find [00:59:00] there's something, there's, there's some way you can help us.

So I, I like that because obviously we don't all get involved in the same way and we don't have the same interests, so. 

Jeff Holden: Sure. 

Marshall Groham: We're we pretty good at finding something? Yeah, we can find something for you, 

Jeff Holden: you know, and the best way to engage. Either a volunteer or a donor or whatever isn't just the superficial, here's something for you, I'll give whatever it may be.

Mm-hmm. It's to have them participate. 

James Beckwith: Oh, 

Jeff Holden: absolutely. Once they participate, now they're a part of your organization. Mm-hmm. Now they want to talk about it and share the experience. And if they have the means, you share the means. But that's so easy to do when you think about the fact that just walk outside.

Elena DeLacy: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: It's there for you. 

Marshall Groham: Literally. One of the responsibilities that we have a land stewards program and your, the way you can give back is to just help us go visit some of our properties mm-hmm. And be extra eyes and ears and let us know when things are going on. 

Jeff Holden: Back to the beginning is the fence up.

Marshall Groham: Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. After, after a storm came through. Absolutely. That's a huge [01:00:00] help to us. Right. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: And we will put the website in the show notes so it's easy for somebody to just Yeah. Grab a link and, and Right. Find out a little bit more. Marshall Elena. Thank you for protecting not just our land, but the legacy.

And you know, this has certainly been one of the more tutorial episodes for, for me as well, because I'm not that versed in conservancy, but what you've shared today demonstrates the need for organizations like yours and what you and your team are doing to protect all this natural land, this natural preserve, the wildlife, everything that comes with it.

I think now we understand a little bit more the significance of it and the value that it represents to our communities, because if it fails, it's much more catastrophic than just a piece of development taking over a piece of land. So for what you do, for what you and your team do in allowing us to be able to enjoy that space up in El Dorado County.

Thank you. 

Elena DeLacy: Oh, you're welcome. It's my pleasure. It's our pleasure. 

Marshall Groham: Yeah. Thanks for having [01:01:00] us. It's been great. 

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