Photo: Dry Lake at Waddle Ranch in Fall 2006.

Waddle Ranch is directly east of the popular Martis Creek Lake National Recreation Area. Privately owned since the 1850s, it had been used for grazing cattle and harvesting timber. It remains the most biologically diverse property in the Martis Valley, providing habitat for deer, mountain lion, black bear, and bobcat, as well as for countless species of waterfowl and other birds.

Waddle Ranch had zoning entitlement for up to 1,200 homes. “If we had not succeeded, another resort subdivision in the Martis Valley was inevitable,” said the Land Trust’s Land Committee Chair, David Brown. “The loss of this resource and the impacts from its development on the Valley, North Lake Tahoe and Truckee would have been simply dreadful.”

But instead the Land Trust staff is now drawing up plans to ready Waddle Ranch for the public to enjoy. The Land Trust expects significant year-round public use. Within days of the announcement that Waddle Ranch was open to the public, hundreds of hikers and mountain bikers visited the property.

Working with rangers from Martis Creek Lake National Recreation Area, the Land Trust will be investing in new trails, expanded parking, signage and rest rooms with composting toilets. Additionally, the Land Trust will be maintaining existing trails, working on keeping the forest healthy and reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

The Land Trust is committed to being an exemplary steward of Waddle Ranch. Within a week of acquiring the property, the Land Trust had already removed excessive fuel load from 300 forested acres.

Management of Dry Lake as a recreational fishery will also be explored. While closed to fishing by the public for the last half-century, there are rumors of large trout in the lake.

“Our vision is to create seamless and contiguous open space with the Martis Creek Lake National Recreation Area,” said Land Conservation Director Sara Taddo.

Waddle Ranch can be accessed from SR 267 or by crossing the dam at Martis Creek Reservoir. (See map.) The property already has a user-friendly trail system for hiking, running and mountain biking.

Future plans call for a new trail to run east from Martis Creek Reservoir Road to the main trail and service road that traverses Waddle Ranch from SR 267 to Dry Lake. (This trail is actually part of the old Shaffer Sawmill Road.) It passes through meadows and forest for approximately 2.5 miles before ending just east of Dry Lake.

Once the Waddle Ranch management plan is complete, the property will be conveyed to the Truckee Tahoe Airport District. The Land Trust will then hold a conservation easement on the property that prohibits forever any development, including expansion of the airport, at Waddle Ranch.

Funds used for the acquisition came from multiple public and private sources. Placer County contributed $10 million from open space mitigation fees. This is the largest investment Placer County has ever made in conservation; a huge debt of gratitude is owed to its Board of Supervisors and staff. The Wildlife Conservation Board added $6.5 million for the property’s habitat values. The Sierra Nevada Cascade Grant Program administered by the State Resources Agency contributed $2 million and Truckee Tahoe Airport District increased their initial contribution of $2 million to $3 million, imperative to completing the transaction. The balance came from private individuals and foundations. (See the donor list on pages six and seven.)

Additional key partners included the Mountain Area Preservation Foundation, Sierra Watch, East West Partners, DMB Highlands and Timilick at Tahoe.

• Waddle Ranch is comprised of 1,462-acres in the Martis Valley east of Truckee. It is the gateway to the Mt. Rose Wilderness Area and the transition zone from the Sierra Nevada to the Carson Range.

• Waddle Ranch is located adjacent to and east of the Martis Creek Lake National Recreation Area, a federal Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) 2,000-acre wildlife refuge.

• Waddle Ranch is contiguous to a habitat corridor that extends south from Waddle Ranch to Sawtooth Ridge, further west into Martis Valley, and east to the Juniper Creek watershed and the Truckee River Canyon. This area is part of a larger 20,000-acre wildlife corridor that extends to the Gray Creek watershed at the stateline, and up to the Mount Rose Wilderness Area in the Carson Range.

• Martis Valley is the largest montane meadow and functional wetland in the eastern Sierra Nevada between the Mono Lake basin and the Sierra Valley. It supplies a major aquifer for fresh water resources and provides water resources for wildlife habitat.

• Waddle Ranch is winter range for the Loyalton Truckee mule deer herd that migrates to the Martis Valley for forage and habitat.

• Waddle Ranch includes the lower reaches of East Martis Creek, a wild tributary to the Martis Watershed at Martis Creek Lake and a popular fishery near Truckee.

• Waddle Ranch contains the misnamed Dry Lake. This 50-acre lake is a migration destination to a host of waterfowl and migrating bird species including bald eagles, sandhill cranes, mallards, loons, and many other duck species. These birds can be seen at Dry Lake in the spring, summer, and fall.

• The forested half of Waddle Ranch is a mature and healthy stand of Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine with stands of old growth sugar pines at the highest elevations. The mature stands of pine afford viable habitat for rare mammal and bird species including pine marten, Sierra Nevada red fox, black bear, northern goshawk, and great gray owl.

• Waddle Ranch is a scenic view-shed enjoyed by 4.5 million travelers on Highway 267 annually (Cal-Trans, 2004.)

July 2007 - A huge swath of the Truckee River Canyon west of Reno will be forever protected under a pact arranged by the Nature Conservancy and the Truckee Donner Land Trust. 3,350 acres of rugged, forested terrain and seven miles of riverfront between Floriston and the Nevada state line.

May 2007 - $2.5 Million Needed for Waddle; Are You In? Perry Norris — and just about everyone else in Truckee-Tahoe who values open space — has five months to raise $2.5 million.

May 2007 - Placer County voted Tuesday to contribute $10 million to the purchase of Waddle Ranch, a 1,462-acre parcel of land in the Martis Valley.

March 2007 - Land Trust agrees to pay $23.5 million to preserve Waddle Ranch in Martis Valley.

March 2007 - The Trust for Public Land and Truckee Donner Land Trust add 300 acres to Donner Memorial State Park Expansion.

January 2007 - Land Trust receives $1 million from East West Partners to protect open space in Martis Valley.

December 2006 - The Truckee Donner Land Trust finalizes purchase of 280 acres in Negro Canyon, near Donner Summit.

December 2006 - Placer County Board of Supervisors agreed to work with the Truckee Donner Land Trust and the Trust for Public Land to preserve 1,500 acres in Martis Valley from residential development.

November 2006 - Truckee Donner Land Trust and the Truckee River Watershed Council are overjoyed at receiving $2 million in state funds to restore Perazzo Meadows.

November 2006 - The Truckee Donner Land Trust has high hopes for the restoration of Cutthroat Trout populations in the Gray Creek canyon property they own/manage along the Truckee River Corridor.

November 2006 - The Truckee Tahoe Airport District and the Truckee Donner Land Trust shook hands on a $2 million agreement that will assist the Land Trust in acquiring 1,500 acres in Martis Valley.

November 2006 - A $2 million state grant awarded to Truckee River Watershed Council provides a much-needed boost toward the conservation of Perazzo Meadows, which includes nearly 1,000 acres of land northwest of Truckee.

October 2006 - The Truckee Donner Land Trust is a Sierra Nevada-Cascade Conservation Grant Program recipient of nearly $2.1 million for the Waddle Ranch acquisition and is also earmarked to receive $650,000 for a purchase in the Upper Gregory Creek-Negro Canyon area.

March 2006 - The Truckee Donner Land Trust announced the purchase of a conservation easement on McIver Hill from Sierra College, site of the College's new Truckee/Tahoe campus. The easement allows for public access and a network of trails linking downtown to Highway 89.