Donner Summit Don’t get rid of that SAVE DONNER SUMMIT sticker quite yet! Turns out we’ve still got some work to do to permanently protect the 2,900-acre Royal Gorge property. We kicked inappropriate development proposals off the mountain, and our land trust allies made a fair offer to purchase the property. But the bank – [...]

    Great News for Donner Summit It’s a big day on Donner Summit – and not just because of all the fresh snow.   Today is the “Call for Offers Date” for the 3,000 acre Royal Gorge property.  Bids are due by 5:00 p.m.  And our partners at Truckee Donner Land Trust and Trust [...]

Donner Summit For Sale Court-appointed receiver Douglas Wilson Companies is actively marketing the 2,904-acre Royal Gorge property – at an asking price of $24 million.  As you can see from the flyer below and at: Royal Gorge for Sale, they’re asking $24 million in cash; purchase would include cross-country facilities and related holdings.   So [...]

  HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM SIERRA WATCH!  

The current edition of Truckee’s Moonshine Ink includes a great update on how we’re turning the threat of development on Donner Summit into a great opportunity for conservation:  http://moonshineink.com/articles.php/91/2468 Thanks for making it all possible. Van Norden Meadows is the source of the South Fork of the Yuba River and is habitat for many plants [...]

ROYAL GORGE GIVEN 90 DAYS TO PAY OFF $16 MILLION LOAN First American Title Company filed a Notice of Default on the Royal Gorge property on Donner Summit June 23, 2011. According to the notice, filed in both Nevada County and Placer County, Royal Gorge property owners owe Armed Forces Bank of Irvine (successor to [...]

We’d love to report that summer is in full swing, but forecasts actually call for snow in the high country this week.  Rain, snow, or shine, Sierra Watch keeps plugging away on our strategic work to turn development threats into conservation opportunities. Here’s a brief look at what’s new on Donner Summit, in Martis Valley, [...]

Yesterday our friends at Truckee Donner Land Trust announced more great news for Martis Valley: permanent preservation of the 122-acre property known as Martis Creek Estates. Your support of Sierra Watch made the purchase possible. Along Highway 267 just across and downhill from Northstar, the property may be relatively small in its acreage — but [...]

Most of our work focuses on the Tahoe-Truckee Region and our ongoing commitments to Martis Valley and Donner Summit. But it’s important to remember what’s at stake on Dyer Mountain: the biggest development proposal in the Northern Sierra – proposed for 7,000 pristine acres in the upper reaches of the Feather River watershed. Last week [...]

To wildlife biologists who track him and take his picture with motion-sensor cameras, he’s “Buddy”. To the rest of us, he’s the Wolverine of Donner Summit, a remarkable reminder of what’s at stake in the Northern Sierra. Wolverines were thought extinct from the Sierra – something we had already lost to development and loss of [...]