Hanning Flat Preserve: Location-Kern River Valley
NOTE: REED TOLEFSON, MANAGER OF THE KERN AUDUBON PRESERVE IN WELDON WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN MAKING THIS PURCHASE POSSIBLE. HE HAS BEEN A PRESENTER TO KAS MANY TIMES. (Source of article: Kern Valley Sun)
Residents who want to experience the 3,800-acre Hanning Flat preserve should keep an eye out on the Kern River Valley Heritage Foundation’s Facebook page to find out when the next “Hike Hanning Flat” date is set.
The Heritage Foundation remains in the planning stages on how to administer Hanning Flat, Bruce Vegter, president of its board of directors, told the Kern Valley Sun.
In June 2020, the Trust for Public Land donated the property to the Heritage Foundation.
“We’re going to do our planning stages now, are not going to rush into anything quickly,” he said. “Like I said, we’ve got our grazing plan developed. “They have some habitat enhancement ideas with burrowing owls and are exploring funding opportunities. It’s a relatively small project to manage while working with partners to progress on other wildlife enhancement plans at Hot Springs Valley Wetlands Preserve, Brown Flat and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Canebrake Ecological Reserve.
Trails will be developed as part of the enhancements, he said. “But we’re not going to really go out there and develop with a shovel to try to make a trail that would resemble something that you might find at Yosemite or anything like that. It’ll just be wilderness trail,” Vegter said.
They will try to enhance paths to some milling sites and where natural springs have water coming out of the ground.Vegter also said that there are more than 30 bird species in just a two-hour limited walking tour.
Golden Eagles are among the nesting birds. Last year they discovered a pair of Great Northern Harriers nesting on the ground. “We have three-colored winged blackbirds, a species of special concerns, which are nesting on our Preserve. So we let them finish their fledglings before we let the cattle come off,” he said.
Some open houses have been held. Within a few months, the Heritage Foundation will schedule an open house once a month on a weekend day, with an announcement on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/KRVHF.
“People can come out and explore and explore for the day,” he said. The all-volunteer group needs more boots on the ground, helping it with Hanning Flat and other lands it maintains.
For information about volunteering and to make a donation, visit the Heritage Foundation’s website at www.krvhf.org.