Together for Luckiamute Meadows

WITH YOUR SUPPORT, WE'RE ON OUR WAY TO OUR GOAL! 

For the Love of the Land, the Kids, and the Community

 “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” --Aldo Leopold

The Kings Valley Community Trust has the opportunity of a lifetime to purchase Luckiamute Meadows, a 155-acre nature and agricultural preserve in the heart of our rural community.  

Please take a few moments to watch our video and see the beauty of this special place and why it is so important to keep it open for generations to come.

Luckiamute Meadows is right next door to our rural school--Kings Valley Charter School--and our community hall. The Trust owns both the school property and the community hall.

With your support, Luckiamute Meadows will become a community-owned preserve, where our community and our rural school will work together to care for, respect, and learn from the land.  We will treat this land like a community to which we belong.

A Labor of Love

The story of Luckiamute Meadows started 20 years ago when Cliff and Gay Hall bought 155 acres of overgrazed farmland. They had a vision not to farm it but to restore.  So the restoration work began to turn Luckiamute Meadows into the wildlife haven it is today.

 Over those 20 years the Halls have generously shared Luckiamute Meadows with their neighbors and as an outdoor classroom for Kings Valley Charter School, which is right next door, and other area schools.

Now the Halls are ready to retire from their "labor of love," and have offered to sell their beloved land to Kings Valley Community Trust to ensure it stays open to the school, other area schools, and the community.

Community Building Through Conservation

The Trust’s acquisition of Luckiamute Meadows will open tremendous opportunities to connect our community to the land, while connecting with each other.  

Together we will  carry out the continuing restoration, conservation, and maintenance.  We will come together to plant native trees and shrubs, improve habitat, maintain trails, remove invasive plants, and host interpretive and bird-watching walks.  

And generation after generation will be able to walk the trails along the meadows, creeks, and river and enjoy the natural beauty of this special place.

Community Building Through Education

The Trust's acquisition of Luckiamute Meadows will ensure that Kings Valley Charter School can continue to use Luckiamute Meadows as an outdoor classroom for environmental, natural resources, and agricultural education, and for outdoor recreation. And the school will invite other area schools for nature-based educational events. 

Community Building Through Partnerships

The Trust, our community, and our school will continue the partnerships with the many conservation groups involved in the continuing restoration of Luckiamute Meadows, including:

• Greenbelt Land Trust, which holds conservation easements on this land so it can never be developed
• Luckiamute Watershed Council
• Benton Soil & Water Conservation District

Leaving a Place Better than You Found It

When the Halls bought this property 20 years ago, it was overgrazed farmland with bare eroded banks along the creeks and river.  But they had a plan to leave this place better than they found it.

So they set to work on a restoration plan with the help of neighbors and many conservation partners, both government and nonprofit. Over time and with much hard work, that partnership: 

• planted 70,000 native trees and shrubs
• restored three seasonal ponds for wintering birds
• eradicated invasive plants in the riparian areas
• improved the natural flow of the creek for fish habitat
• created miles of trails and so much more

Today Luckiamute Meadows is a wildlife haven of oak savannas, riparian areas, meadows, and productive agricultural fields. A place where birds and fish thrive and elk roam.  

The restoration of Luckiamute Meadows has been a labor of love for the land, the kids, and the community. 

A Community Asset We Can't Lose

If Luckiamute Meadows were to be sold to a new private landowner rather than to the Trust, that new owner could easily decide to end any public access and put up "No Trespassing Signs."  Our community access would be gone, we could not longer walk the trails, the kids would lose their 155-acre outdoor classroom, and our dream to be community stewards would end.

"Together for Luckiamute Meadows": Our Capital Campaign

To purchase Luckiamute Meadows, the Trust has started the "Together for Luckiamute Meadows" capital campaign to raise the $400,000 we need to purchase this land and make it a community-owned preserve.  We are kicking off our capital campaign by joining in the "A Community Thrives" fundraising challenge. 

Please donate today!