BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL
“Hailey Hot Springs Ranch is steeped in the history of the Wood River Valley. Once the site of the famed Hailey Hot Springs Hotel, this land has long been a special place for our community. Today, preserving Hailey Hot Springs Ranch offers a unique opportunity to expand upon the success of the Wood River Land Trust’s 486-acre Hailey Greenway. This effort would create nearly 3,000 acres of contiguous public open space stretching from Colorado Gulch to Democrat Gulch, with connections to thousands of acres of public lands beyond.” (https://www.woodriverlandtrust.org/land-conservation/hailey-hot-springs-ranch)
Enter Wood River Land Trust (WRLT)
Our most locally esteemed nonprofit, well-known for protecting some of our most valuable and irreplaceable assets, is purchasing the entire Hailey Hot Springs Ranch for just that—protection and preservation. Science and materialism like to believe they can recreate anything at any scale with “just a bit more time” and, of course, budget (and materials)! Meanwhile, we have functioning, and brilliant to the point of absurdly intelligently designed systems that keep our habitat functioning and our systems running. Does the nature behind it all run the show?
The water keeps the microbes, which keep the baby fish, which keep the fish, which keep the bears, and decay makes plants and here we are. The entire thing motorizes a method of obtaining clean water that came from where—the sky? Runoff from the mountain? A table underground? We protect this, as there are only so many.
Do we need a new housing development in west Hailey bordering on Bellevue? Good question. The housing crisis has been the boogieman of the Valley since at least COVID-19. Do you want to see subdivisions and apartment buildings asphalted over, shave the land, put up disposable buildings on the land where cattle graze and nature does what it does? It can be tough for some. We all want fair housing, affordable, legit, but will it be that? To what degree does the damage from asphalting this strip of natural habitat affect us down the road?
If only we had a widespread understanding of what that means. Stripping to the dirt an entire secion of land filled with beneficial flora/fauna/microbials of every type: fish, fowl, fawn, fairies, we’re not just dipslacing them but literally destroying them. Done.
Wood River Valley Cares
“Our community has been stepping up in big ways, with many making their largest-ever gifts to a local nonprofit. This demonstrates just how deeply our community values this initiative and its long-term benefits for our community. We’re now in the home stretch. We have until Dec. 31, 2025, to raise the remaining $3 million to make this acquisition a reality. This is our chance to permanently protect this cherished landscape, safeguarding its beauty, ecological value, and recreational opportunities for generations to come.” Amy Trujillo, the WRLT executive director, has a birds’s-eye view of who, what and how the community here is and operates. (https://www.woodriverlandtrust.org/land-conservation/hailey-hot-springs-ranch#:~:text=Our%20community%20has%20been,for%20generations%20to%20come)
You have the moment now to donate. WRLT has been quite successful in keeping the natural beauty that lets us live here with stress-free lives and lifestyles.
$16 million to preserve life for millennia? Absolutely.
The goal of the WRLT is to raise $16 million by Dec. 31, 2025, to secure the property and maintain its ecological integrity.
Donate here: https://www.woodriverlandtrust.org/ways-to-give
You can find much more information and elucidation on aspects of the evolving situation online at: https://www.woodriverlandtrust.org/land-conservation/hailey-hot-springs-ranch
Remember that water must come from somewhere. Moose and deer must live somewhere when you’re wanting your tags. This comes from conservation, which most hunters know already; in fact, it’s taxed in their rifles and gear. They know, we know. Let’s know and at least consider whether it’s better to kill and maim an entire ecosystem of plants and animals to build apartments for human temporary settlement or keep this area a lane of delicious life coursing toward our central mountains.
