In the Spring of 2006, the Truckee Donner Land Trust and its steadfast partner, The Trust for Public Land, closed on 2,000 acres surrounding Independence Lake and 640 acres in the North Fork of the American River drainage that includes parts of Snow Mountain. This is the final phase of a project totaling nearly 4,000 acres. Other previously acquired properties include 1,400 acres in the Truckee River Watershed.

The acquisitions total over $5 million, with funding coming from the Proposition 40 River Parkway grants, administered by the State Resources Agency and Preserving Wild California, a program of Resources Legacy Foundation Fund.

The Independence Lake and Snow Mountain properties will eventually be conveyed to the USFS; the State of California will eventually hold title to The Truckee River Watershed parcels.

All of the properties are a part of the larger “Sierra Nevada Checkerboard.” This is a mosaic spanning several thousand acres of land in public and private ownership, resembling, of course, a checkerboard. This ownership pattern dates back to the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. As an incentive to build this dangerous and expensive railroad, the federal government offered to grant the railroad companies every other square mile of land along the route, reserving the rest to become National Forest. If left unprotected, these private parcels of forest land will be converted to rural sprawl over the next 10 to 20 years, increasing congestion, decimating wildlife, and complicating fire management in the Sierra.