Efforts to save a meadow in Kern County along the Pacific Crest Trail have proven successful. FM89's Ezra David Romero reports.
"When people are hiking in the area it's a great place for people to stop and fill up your water bottles." - Liz Bergeron
Landers Meadow in the Piute Mountains east of Bakersfield is home to 78 bird species, black bears, mountain lions and mule deer.
The 245 acre wet meadow was put on the market late last year. The seller gave the Pacific Crest Trail Association an early option to buy.
“There’s about a half a mile of the trail that runs right past this property," says Liz Bergeron CEO of the Pacific Crest Trail Association.
"When people are hiking in the area it’s a great place for people to stop and fill up your water bottles.”
With the help of matching grants from private funders and online donations from the public the association met their goal of $550,000 by August 1. That pays for the land and other fees associated with it.
“This property is surrounded on three sides by the Sequoia National Forest," says Bergeron. "Our ultimate goal is to transfer this property to the Forest Service when the timing is right.”
If the association sells the land they hope to use the money to preserve other pieces of land along the Pacific Crest Trail.
The acquisition is supposed go through sometime this month.
