A Retrospective: 30 Years at the Truckee Donner Land Trust

Frog Lake and Frog Lake Cliff under a blanket of snow. Photo by Jim Easterbrook.

The story goes like this: it’s 1990, and a couple attorneys, a neurologist, a county supervisor, a software engineer and a retired oil executive huddle around a kitchen table on Donner Lake’s west shore, scratching their heads. They’re trying to figure out how to prevent a timber harvest, which would turn the historic Emigrant Trail in Coldstream Canyon into a skid path for dragging logs. Everyone gathered is a die-hard hiker, and treasures the outdoors and Truckee’s rough-and-tumble history.'

This unlikely group went on to raise $150,000 to acquire 80 acres in Emigrant Canyon behind Schallenberger Ridge — the Truckee Donner Land Trust had just made its first acquisition!

In the following 30 years, the Truckee Donner Land Trust’s preserved acres have grown from those first 80 acres to roughly 40,000.

Started as an all-volunteer organization, the Land Trust hired its first two part-time employees in the mid-90s: Roz Lorenzato as its first Executive Director, and Perry Norris, our current Executive Director then brought on to assist with fundraising and communications. At this point, the Land Trust accepted a 34-acre donation near Donner Lake that would become a part of Donner Memorial State Park, and began an ambitious project to ring Donner Lake with the Donner Lake Rim Trail.

Other small acquisitions and little-known projects followed — including purchasing timber rights next to a wetland to protect carnivorous plants and recording a conservation easement on Jackass Ridge donated by Stefanie Olivieri. The year 2000 marked the Land Trust’s biggest and most important acquisition to date: Schallenberger Ridge. Founding board member Dan Wendin successfully wooed the Trust for Public Land into assisting in the acquisition of the 2,200-acre ridge that forms the southern backdrop of Donner Lake.

The Trust for Public Land knew where to find state funding from the Wildlife Conservation Board in the form of Prop 117 funding — which leads to a shout-out to California voters. Props 117, 40, 50, 84 and 68 provided critical state-wide funding for conservation — some-thing without which the Land Trust’s work would be impossible. That Schallenberger Ridge acquisition changed the Land Trust overnight — adding to the young organization’s credibility in creating long-term partnerships with like-minded organizations, state funders, agencies and donors.

TDLT carried that momentum into the Truckee River Project in 2002, partnering with The Nature Conservancy to acquire 3,200 acres of open space and secure conservation easements in riparian areas on the north side of Interstate 80 between Floriston and the Nevada border. Then County Supervisor Ted Owens literally saved the deal by accelerating a parcel boundary line adjustment from six months to a matter of weeks. The Land Trust and its partner The Nature Conservancy later conveyed the property to California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Between 2000 and 2007, the Land Trust aggressively pursued new acquisitions including Johnson Canyon, Grey Creek and McIver Hill, allowing for the creation of the new Truckee campus for Sierra College.

Staffing grew to accommodate the growing responsibilities, including Nancy Delumyea, Kris Norris, Jeff Cutler, Tanya Africa, Kellie Wright, Sara Taddo Jones, Dale Lawerence, Stan Wingate, Susan Shefflield, Dale Lawerence, and Carol Harrington.

Work began in 2005 on what is still the Land Trust’s most pricey acquisition: Waddle Ranch. Owned by one of the wealthiest families in America — the Pritzker family of Chicago — this Martis Valley property had a proposed 1,315-unit resort development on the table. The sellers showed up with no fewer than three attorneys and said,“We’re serious about development, you better be serious about buying.”

The Pritzkers were, however, kind and patient as The Trust for Public Land and the Land Trust scrambled to come up with the $23,500,000 purchase price — closing the deal in February 2007.

Success begets success, and soon sellers were seeking out the Land Trust. Shortly after Waddle Ranch, TDLT set its sights on two remarkable places we never thought attainable: Donner Summit Canyon and Webber Lake.

Donner Summit Canyon, at the west end of Donner Lake, was owned by Frank “Bucky” Cadjew — a born-and-raised Truckee local and one of the few folks who can say he actually spent the night in the old Truckee Jail on Jibboom Street — but that’s another story. The Dutch Flat Wagon Road, Old Highway 40’s predecessor, runs through the property, making it an important part of the region’s history. Stories of Frank running off “trespassers” with a shotgun are not untrue.

That daunting reputation made this transaction no small feat — one conversation went like this: “Frank, we’re trying to make you a rich man,” to which he replied, “I am already rich, you got-ta-do better than that!” In the end, however, working with Frank was a real pleasure.

The canyon was conveyed to Donner Memorial State Park, which the Land Trust has tripled in size. At about the same time, the Land Trust received an email inquiring if it might be interested in 3,000 acres north of Truckee. Staff instantly recognized the land in question: Webber Lake and Lacey meadows, 3,000 acres of “God’s perfection,” as the sellers described it.

The Webber Lake and Lacey Meadows campaign was remarkable and seemingly unlikely, because the sellers, Clifton and Barbara Johnson, did not have a particularly high opinion of tree-hugging environmental organizations. Though Clif repeatedly reminded the Land Trust that he “was an environmentalist before it was even a word,” he was rumored to have hung up on inquiries from the Nature Conservancy several times. The land had been in the Johnson family since the 1870s.

After a year of meeting in the Johnson’s kitchen, Clif and Barbara entrusted the Land Trust to steward Webber Lake and Lacey meadows in perpetuity — declining much more lucrative offers to ensure this truly magical place would “stay just as it is.”

Today, their legacy lives on, and any management decision is guided by the question, “what would Clif and Barbara do?”

The excitement over Webber Lake was quickly overshadowed by a campaign to “Save Donner Summit,” and in 2012, the Land Trust purchased Royal Gorge, 3,000 acres of open space on short sale from a bank in Kansas City for $11.75 million. But bucks and acres hardly tell the story: over the course of a six-month-long grassroots fundraising frenzy, the Land Trust, working with The Trust for Public Land and the Northern Sierra Partnership, raised the money. This success is largely thanks to the homeowners in Sugar Bowl and Serene Lakes (thank you Rob Kautz, Cliff Busby and Ken Hall). During this harried time, staff drew inspiration from Winston Churchill: “Play the game for more than you can afford to lose ... only then will you learn the game.”

The Northern Sierra Partnership is the brainchild of Jim Morgan, a highly regarded CEO from the Silicon Valley, and his wife, Becky Morgan, a longtime California State Senator. Besides TDLT, Jim and Becky’s family foundation was supporting the Feather River Land Trust, the Sierra Business Council, The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. With development pressure rising and more land coming on the market than ever before, Jim and Becky believed a new strategy was needed to accelerate conservation and brought together the five organizations to attract new allies and resources. The Northern Sierra Partnership has been a booster rocket for conservation in throughout the region.

As the acreage numbers went up, so too did the importance and many challenges of managing the land for both conservation and public enjoyment. A campground, access to trails, lakes and skiing all added up on the public access side, while critical forestry work, an inherited illegal dam and watershed restoration projects all took significant time and money to get right, ensuring the ongoing health of our lands. Fast forward to 2016. The Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy, again working within the Northern Sierra Partnership, acquired what was referred to by national publications as the “secret garden of the Sierra,” Lower Carpenter Valley. Despite only being eight miles from downtown Truckee as the crow flies, very few knew about or visited the pristine and ecologically rich valley prior to the Land Trust’s acquisition. Since 2017, the valley has only been accessible via docent-led hikes to protect its fragile ecology — but this summer, the gates will swing open, allowing unrestricted public access to this Truckee gem.

Which Brings Us to Present Day

Looking forward at the next 30 years, the Land Trust still has plenty of work to do. Joining the multi-thousand acre projects TDLT is known for, smaller projects like Truckee Springs open a new chapter for the organization. Looking at our Sierra Checkerboard map, it’s easy to see so much more opportunity for conservation, building a larger and larger contiguous landscape preserving critical habitat, wildlife migration corridors, and endless opportunities for recreation. The future looks bright for the Truckee Donner Land Trust, and our work is nowhere near finished.