In The News
January 17, 2025

Celebrating a Historic Win of our Grassroots Grantee!

Dear Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment Community,

We are thrilled to share outstanding news that highlights the incredible impact of grassroots efforts in preserving our natural heritage. After nearly three decades of dedication and collaboration, the Medicine Lake Highlands are now permanently protected as the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument!

In partnership with the Pit River Nation, the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, and the Stanford Law Clinic, the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center—one of our longstanding Grassroots Fund grantees and 2010 Anthony Prize Winner—has been instrumental in safeguarding this culturally significant, geologically unique landscape from industrial development that threatened this vital source of California’s water supply.

On January 14th, President Joe Biden designated the Sáttítla Highlands as a National Monument under the Antiquities Act, protecting 224,000 acres of ecologically valuable and sacred land on the Modoc, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath national forests in northern California.

 

The Medicine Lake Highlands, with lava fields in the foreground and Mount Shasta in the background, now protected as the Sáttítla Highlands. Photo credit: Bob Wick.

The Medicine Lake Highlands, with lava fields in the foreground and Mount Shasta in the background, now protected as the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument. (USDA Forest Service photo courtesy of Bob Wick.)

Nestled 30 miles from Mount Shasta, the Sáttítla Highlands – meaning “obsidian place” in the Ajumawi language – are among California’s most diverse volcanic fields, showcasing breathtaking landscapes that include glass-like obsidian, towering forests, and pristine lakes. The Medicine Lake Volcano, located within Modoc Forest in the new monument, is one of the two largest volcanoes in the Cascades Volcanic Arc and covers an expanse roughly 10 times that of Mount St. Helens, Washington. The underlying Medicine Lake aquifer is an extraordinary water resource. It is the headwaters of two major rivers, the source of California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, and provides high quality water for wildlife, tens of millions of people as far as the San Francisco Bay, and agriculture in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.

 

Obsidian formations, the source of the name Sáttítla, dot the volcanic fields that cover the highlands. Photo courtesy of Protect Sáttítla Campaign.

As Michelle Berditschevsky, Program Director at the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, expressed, “It’s deeply meaningful to us… We, along with many others in the region and beyond, are profoundly grateful to the Biden Administration for recognizing the sacred cultural significance of these lands and for safeguarding the region’s rich ecological, scientific, and historical heritage.”

Significantly, this designation ensures that the monument will be co-managed with the Pit River Tribal Nation, integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into land stewardship. At least 85 plant species found in Sáttítla are used by Indigenous peoples for healing, medicine, food, tools, building materials and ceremonial objects and are considered to have powerful medicinal and ceremonial uses. As Chairperson Yatch Bamford of the Pit River Nation eloquently stated, “Sáttítla Highlands National Monument is a victory not just for Tribal Nations but for every American who understands the value of clean water and healthy lands.”

Since 2003, Rose Foundation has supported Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center’s efforts to protect the Sáttítla Highlands through our grassroots grantmaking funds. We are deeply honored by their partnership and proud of their achievement. This momentous victory underscores the vital importance of investing in grassroots initiatives and illustrates the profound and lasting impacts that come from resourcing small and emerging grassroots groups.

By providing essential resources to community activists, our grassroots grantmaking acts as a catalyst for change, ensuring organizations like Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center can thrive and make lasting impacts.

Thank you for joining us to champion initiatives like these. Together with your support, we are creating change that resonates throughout our communities and beyond.

Warm regards,

Aurora Heying, Grassroots Program Officer
Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment

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