Become a Member with this Matching Opportunity

Any new membership in 2012 will be matched dollar for dollar up to $25,000 by a grant from the Morgan Family Foundation. Your partnership is important to us. Please join now to take advantage of this opportunity to double the impact of your giving.

New Projects

Royal Gorge
Royal Gorge, comprising 3,000 acres on Donner Summit, was recently slated for the development of 950 new residential units but is now in default of a $16.7 million loan. The Land Trust’s Board has directed staff to work in partnership with The Trust for Public Land and other stakeholders to pursue a fee title acquisition of the property. For the Land Trust, this is a Number 1 priority. For more than 20 years, the Land Trust has tried to protect all or parts of the Royal Gorge property, especially Van Norden Meadow. We now have our best shot in a generation to protect all of Royal Gorge’s remarkable meadows, peaks, forests, streams, and lakes.

Photo: Anne Chadwick

Webber Lake
The Land Trust has been in discussions with a conservation-minded landowner of a biologically and historically important property north of Truckee. We are now under contract to purchase the property, protecting it forever. Webber Lake has been a private fishing camp and destination for over 100 years. This natural lake is the headwaters of the Little Truckee River watershed.

Lacey Meadows, arguably the most biologically important of any project the Land Trust has pursued, comprises an astonishing 1,500-acre meadow system south of and above Webber Lake. The meadow and riparian system here has been identified by the USFS as an important tributary targeted for stream restoration for fisheries habitat improvement and flood attenuation downstream. The Meadows and uplands have been identified by The Nature Conservancy as a "Portfolio Site" because of the critical habitat they provide for a number of species.

The capital campaign is on for the Land Trust and our partner, The Trust for Public Land, to raise the funds to purchase this outstanding property and to open it up for public access for the first time! The property will be open upon closing and plans are in the works for new trails.

Photo: Janet Zipser Zipkin.