BEAR YUBA LAND TRUST

BYLT's mission guides the organization to protect the natural world and create opportunities for access to nature through trail connectivity and education. Nature is defined as the phenomena of the physical world including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. Climate resilience has emerged as one of the most important goals to strive for in the work that is accomplished by BYLT. Resilience is the response of nature to a change or disturbance where the landscape or species maintains its essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation. BYLT has placed significant emphasis on Strategic Focus Areas within the Bear and Yuba River Watersheds, based on the idea that protecting and restoring the most resilient lands will provide multiple benefits to our ecosystems and communities. The extended conservation benefits will further enhance those goals. Land protection and management are inextricably linked. The primary goal of BYLT is to protect these critical spaces and also to defend them to ensure conservation remains relevant well into the future.

Some of the strategies the organization is implementing to achieve the mission of protecting and defending the working and natural lands of the Bear and Yuba River Watersheds and empowering healthy, resilient communities through nature access and education include, but are not limited to:
* Advocacy of smart growth and community resilience
* Increase acquisition of trail easements to protect and expand public access to trails and open space
* Encouraging outdoor recreation opportunities
* Target land surrounding currently protected areas for landscape scale conservation
* Identify priority landscapes for protection and work with local community on management goals
* Protect important farmland
* Reinforce BYLT outdoor recreation leadership through advocacy and awareness

BYLT is capable of meeting the goals of the mission through a "people first" management approach. This approach celebrates the diverse backgrounds, talents and experiences of the people who make up the internal workings of the organization including staff, volunteers, and board and committee members.

Additionally, BYLT is focused on securing sustainable funding sources to ensure that the organization is viable well into the future, so the organization can perform its mission for the benefit of the entire community. Organizational development is a planned effort to improve an organization through effective use of resources by aligning strategy, leadership, functions, systems, processes, culture and structure toward accomplishing goals.

So far, the organization has conserved over 15,000 acres of land and maintains over 45 miles of trails within the Bear and Yuba River Watersheds. Conserved land protects working ranches, farms, and forests, ecologically significant areas and open space preserves. Conserving these areas ensures wildlife corridors remain intact, the landscape and community is more resilient to the effects of climate change, and open space is enjoyed by all through sustainable recreation activities. The future of the organization is bright and BYLT will continue to protect land and build and maintain trails for the benefit of all, forever.