Five years ago we signed our first conservation agreement for 40 acres along Mossy Creek. At the time it felt ambitious. The point was simple: a raccoon we have spent six weeks and a thousand dollars healing needs somewhere safe to go, with den trees, water, and no road for half a mile.
Riverbend East is a 30-acre parcel leased from the Riverbend Land Trust in 2025, on the far side of the burn scar from the 2024 fire. Saturday's planting covered the last unrestored section: eleven acres of former pasture that will become oak and alder understory. The Valley Conservancy supplied the stock, Mossy Creek Hardware supplied the stakes and tree tubes, and volunteers supplied the sore backs.
Where the 103 acres are
| Corridor | Partner | Acres | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mossy Creek | Valley Conservancy, two land trusts | 59 | 2021 |
| Alder Flats | Valley Conservancy | 14 | 2025 |
| Riverbend East | Riverbend Land Trust | 30 | 2025 |
| Total | 103 |
What it changes for the animals
In 2025, 88% of our releases went to one of the three corridors, up from 61% in 2023. Camera monitoring is easier when release sites are in a handful of places we know well, and we see the difference in the data: raccoons released into the corridors are recorded denning within a week more often than those released elsewhere.
We are not building a preserve. We are building the places a raccoon would choose anyway, and then keeping the roads out of them. Jordan Lee, Valley Conservancy and Foggy Valley board member
What is next
Sixty insulated den boxes go up across all three corridors on November 14, funded by the Winter Den Fund. After that, the habitat program's 2027 goal is maintenance, not acreage: tube removal, invasive control, and the first full survey of den-tree use at Mossy Creek since 2022.