Year End Sierra Challenge Grant

As we announced in our last email blast and our recent newsletter, the Land Trust is in the very preliminary stages of pursuing the acquisition of Royal Gorge, 3,000 acres on Donner Summit. This is a huge and vitally important project that will take an unprecedented fundraising effort from all of us that love the Sierra. At the same time, we are fundraising to close a $500,000 gap on the acquisition of Webber Lake and Lacey Meadows. Over 2,000 of the property’s 3,000 acres is exquisite and pristine sub-alpine meadows.

Our partners at the Northern Sierra Partnership (NSP) and Jim and Becky Morgan just made our task a little easier. The Northern Sierra Partnership just announced a year-end Sierra Challenge. For any gift of $10,000 or more to an NSP partner for an NSP endorsed project (which Royal Gorge and Webber Lake are) they will match that gift dollar for dollar, 50% going directly to the project, 50% to the pooled fund (which also can be allocated to either project.)

The Land Trust needs to receive pledges by January 31st and the gift by March 31st.

If you are thinking of making a substantial gift to either of these great projects now is the time. Contact Kellie, 530-582-4711 to make your pledge!

Download the Sierra Challenge Form

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.