Whitewater Preserve

The Wildlands Conservancy’s Whitewater Preserve is nestled near the southeast border of the San Gorgonio Wilderness, and is part of the Conservancy’s 33,000 acre Sand to Snow Preserve System. The 2,851 acres that make up Whitewater Preserve are comprised of two major acquisitions:

• 1,280 acres which were subdivided into 40 acre lots that were being aggres¬sively marketed at the time of the Conservancy’s purchase. After the Conservancy purchased the land, the subdivision’s road system was removed and the land re¬stored to preserve the integrity of the wilderness.

• The 291 acres that were previously known as the Whitewater Trout Farm were purchased at a substantial discount through a partnership with Friends of the Desert Mountains and the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy in 2006. The Wildlands Conservancy demolished 19 abandoned structures in Whitewater Can¬yon along with a number of diseased non-native elm trees. These impacted lands have been restored with native sycamores, cottonwoods, ash, narrow-leaved wil¬lows and native shrubs. The historic lodge of the former trout farm has been restored and is now used as a visitor facil¬ity and ranger station.

Whitewater Canyon begins on the southeastern slopes of Mount San Gorgonio, the highest point in southern California. Rain and snowfall in the high mountains produce the year round Whitewater River, whose channel eventually reaches the Salton Sea.

THINGS YOU MAY SEE:
Rich riparian habitat hosts the endangered Southwest willow flycatcher and Bell's vireo and provides the opportunity to see migrating summer tanagers and vermilion flycatchers. You may even spot a dragonfly hovering over the ponds and a Side-blotched lizard scurrying across a rock. The canyon provides homes for Bighorn sheep, deer, bobcat and bear and is an important wildlife corridor between the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.