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 – essentially the defaulted property-owner’s creditor – turned the offer down.

This may be disappointing, but it’s certainly not defeat. We remain confident in our progress in pushing the property towards a conservation future.

Now Sierra Watch needs to continue to deter speculative developers from making their own offer, we need to raise money for the eventual purchase and protection of the property, and we need to continue to generate – and demonstrate – overwhelming support for conservation of arguably the most important property in the American West. In short, we still need to SAVE DONNER SUMMIT!

Kialey DeRock atop Donner Peak (pictured)

Martis Valley Update

Meanwhile, we’re happy to report another addition to our Martis Valley conservation map: The Truckee Donner Land Trust announced purchase of a small parcel between Waddle Ranch Preserve and the property formerly known as Martis Creek Estates.

Some of the funding for the purchase came from The Martis Fund, a collaborative effort of Sierra Watch, Mountain Area Preservation Foundation (MAPF), and DMB/Highlands Group.

Martis Valley (pictured)

Preservation of the property is another example of the ongoing success of the Truckee Donner Land Trust, it’s another opportunity to add some green – permanently protected land – to our Martis Valley Conservation map, and it’s another step towards our bold vision of conservation of all Martis lands east of Highway 267, from the sage valley floor to the forested rim of the Tahoe Basin.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about our work – or to order another ‘Save Donner Summit’ bumper sticker, please don’t hesitate to call me directly at (530) 265-2849 ext.200.

And, of course, we’ll keep you posted.

Tom Mooers
Executive Director

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 what does this mean to our ongoing effort to permanently protect Donner Summit?
 
The good news is that it’s more proof we have succeeded in turning back the 2007 development proposal to remake Donner into a series of sprawling subdivisions.
 
The bad news is that the property is still being marketed at a speculative development price – only substantial subdivisions would pay off a $24 million purchase price.
 
The challenge to Sierra Watch is clear: to continue to point out the overwhelming obstacles to massive development on the property and to build more support for its permanent protection.
 
If you have any questions or comments about our work on Donner Summit, please don’t hesitate to call our Field Director, Peter Van Zant, at (530) 265-2849 ext.201.
 
And, as always, we’ll keep you posted.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM SIERRA WATCH!

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 and animals, notably birds. Half of the meadow is owned by Royal Gorge, and conservationists
and environmentalists say the meadow would be the gem of any conservation purchase of the ski area.
Photo by David Bunker/Moonshine Ink

Royal Opportunity

A Royal Gorge default could lead to conservation

By David Bunker/Moonshine Ink
August Print Edition
Published: August 15, 2011
Royal Gorge’s long silence was broken in June by a bank bombshell — developers who once planned nearly 1,000 homes on 3,000 acres surrounding the continent’s largest cross-country ski area had defaulted on a $17.6 million loan on the property.

Like the lapping of a development wave that surged and receded across the Sierra Nevada, Royal Gorge’s financial woes were the latest example of a low tide that has devastated developments with debt and depreciation, and opened the doors for land conservation. Royal Gorge’s default follows the bankruptcies of East West Partners, the Ritz-Carlton, and Dyer Mountain, a proposed Sierra Nevada ski resort, golf course, and housing development near Mt. Lassen. Like Dyer Mountain, conservation groups hope that the Donner Summit development’s deteriorating financial situation will allow the property to be permanently protected as open space.

Royal Gorge has clearly become a top target for regional conservation groups, who find themselves with an ever-expanding list of conservation opportunities spurred by a real estate meltdown, but are simultaneously facing scarcer funding as federal and state conservation money dries up.

“It’s an extremely target-rich environment out there [for conservation groups],” said Tom Mooers, executive director of Sierra Watch, an environmental group that has opposed Royal Gorge’s development plans. “There is a lot of property out there to buy, but there is less money to raise, so it is a little bit of a catch 22.”

The Truckee Donner Land Trust and the Truckee Tahoe Airport District recently purchased 122 acres in the Martis Valley after the developer foreclosed on the property formerly known as Martis Creek Estates. Projects like Dyer Mountain stand bankrupt, dead in the water, and possibly open for a future conservation deal.

While Royal Gorge’s future is uncertain, and a loan default does not mean that a future foreclosure is certain, the real estate recession seems to be erasing any development hope for the 3,000 acres of Donner Summit land already saddled with water, sewer, and road restrictions.

“Even before the market collapsed, we always thought the highest value in real estate prices [for Royal Gorge] was conservation,” said Mooers. “The true speculative value in terms of real estate development is limited.”

Royal Gorge’s genesis
The story of Royal Gorge is one of the ski industry’s most elusive and rarely told tales. In a way, it is a microcosm of the evolution of the entire Western U.S. ski industry — in which ski resorts were founded by visionary mountain men but eventually bought up by housing developers or commercial conglomerates.

John Slouber, a Grass Valley native turned European ski racer and mountain guide, founded the resort in 1971 after traveling through Scandanavia and seeing Nordic resorts that featured spacious lodges and multiple warming huts.

Slouber is said to have chosen Donner Summit as the location for his cross-country ski resort after stumbling upon an old hunting lodge on Donner Summit.

Slouber did not have deep pockets to finance the enormous cross-country resort he envisioned, so Royal Gorge opened modestly with only four trails covering 10 kilometers. A total of 230 skiers were reported to have visited Royal Gorge in its first year of operation. But Royal Gorge’s initial size was only the first fleeting form of the resort.

Early on, Slouber teamed up with Donner Summit landowners Rancho Monterey, and the resort expanded onto thousands of acres of land stretching from Van Norden Meadows near Sugar Bowl to the flanks of the precipitous gorge of the North Fork of the American River.

Soon Royal Gorge was widely recognized as the largest ski resort on the continent. But Slouber was not done with his expansion plans. He dreamed up ambitious development plans for Royal Gorge — the boldest of which was the Olympic Park he intended to build near Serene Lakes.

The Olympic Village was to be a multi-sport winter playground in the center of Royal Gorge, complete with luge runs, ice skating rinks, ski jumps, a biathlon stadium, five lodges, two ski lifts, and 510 “condotel” rooms.

The Olympic Park idea was scuttled by the tanking economy of the early 1990s, according to longtime Donner Summit resident Bill Oudegeest. But soon Slouber proposed another development idea: a new lodge and 18 housing units near Van Norden Meadows. The Van Norden proposal was fiercely opposed by many Donner Summit residents, and never made it much farther than county planners’ desks.

New owners
Then, in 2005, the resort changed hands. Multiple sources say that new owners Todd and Mark Foster, of the Foster City development family, and Burlingame developer Kirk Syme learned about the property by picking up a Wall Street Journal and seeing a small ad selling a large cross-country ski resort and 3,000 acres on Donner Summit.

With Tahoe, Truckee, and Donner Summit real estate prices reaching their apex, the Foster and Syme partnership agreed to a reported $35 million price tag for the resort. And although the Bay Area developers initially kept mum on their plans, it was clear that a large-scale housing project proposal was only a matter of time.

As “Save Donner Summit” stickers began popping up on vehicles across the region, the new owners of Royal Gorge put forward their plans for approximately 900 homes in three blocks of development surrounding Serene Lakes — Wilderness Camp, Ski Camp, and Lake Camp.

“They were completely surrounding Serene Lakes, except for one side,” said Bill Oudegeest, who has lived on Donner Summit for more than 30 years.

The informal plans galvanized opposition across nearly the entire Donner Summit community.

“I think it was something that was too big and too different for the area up here to go too far,” said Karen Heald, a board member of the Serene Lakes Property Owners Association.

Despite the ambitious plans, three of the most basic elements needed for a successful project were still in question — water, sewer, and road access. Wells regularly draw little water on the summit because of the area’s porous fractured granite, and a dredging plan to increase the depth of Serene Lakes was wildly unpopular.

Sewer was perhaps an even bigger hurdle. Wade Freedle, president of the Sierra Lakes County Water District, which oversees water and sewer services in the area, said the proposed Royal Gorge development would have needed to pay approximately $10 million to buy capacity in Donner Summit’s expanded sewage facility.

Finally, road access to the planned development became a major obstacle. The single road that connects Serene Lakes to Old Highway 40 is narrow and crosses a railroad track. The single access created a potential disasterous bottleneck should a wildfire require a hurried evacuation or, in a worst-case scenario, a train block the road.

Because of the South Yuba River, the railroad, and the expansive Lake Van Norden, a second road into the project would have come only with an enormous price tag.

As if these hurdles were not insurmountable enough, the housing market began its dramatic nosedive as Royal Gorge development plans were circulating. The housing plans that looked enticingly lucrative in 2005, when Foster and Syme bought the property, suddenly seemed a lot less viable. And it was then that Royal Gorge developers fell silent. Rumors of a split between Foster and Syme circulated the summit, and many assumed that Syme was the last standing partner in the deal.
“After the crash of the market, that was the last you ever heard,” said Heald.

Conservation value
Oudegeest knows well the wealth of history and habitat that Royal Gorge represents. A longtime Donner Summit historian and avid hiker, he knows the stories embedded on Donner Summit — from Native American petroglyphs to aircraft signal towers.

“This is iconic. It is the jewel of the Sierra. There is nothing like this anywhere,” he said standing at the edge of Van Norden Meadows, where the South Yuba River tumbles over the crumbling remnants of the Lake Van Norden dam.

Van Norden Meadows is the chief conservation target in the Royal Gorge property. Owned half by Sugar Bowl and half by Royal Gorge, the enormous oval of wetlands is majestic, providing a home for a wide range of animals, chiefly birds.
“I think Van Norden Meadows is the location on the summit that everyone can agree should have no development,” said Heald.

Jennifer Montgomery, a Donner Summit resident who was elected to the Placer County Board of Supervisors in the middle of the Royal Gorge development debate, said she hopes the Royal Gorge property is bought by conservation groups.

“I think this is truly an opportunity for the conservation groups to step up and make an offer,” said Montgomery. “Even people who might not identify themselves as conservationists will identify with this land because of its historical importance.”
The Truckee Donner Land Trust would be the logical buyer of Royal Gorge if it were to sell to a conservation group. Perry Norris, the land trust’s executive director, said his organization is preparing in case the property becomes available.

“We want to be in a position, should the bank foreclose, to have the funding in place to pick up the pieces,” said Norris.
But foreclosure is far from certain. Syme could be using the default to renegotiate his loan agreement with the bank. He could potentially file for bankruptcy, which would complicate any foreclosure process. Or he could pay off the loan, continue with development plans, or hold onto the property. A property owner has 90 days following a notice of default to respond, said Mooers.

Another concern for Donner Summit residents is the future of Royal Gorge, a large piece of the Summit’s business community. Donner Summit residents and conservationists agree that any deal to preserve Royal Gorge’s land must also ensure the continued operation of the cross-country ski resort.

Whatever Syme’s next move is, one thing is certain — a group of dedicated environmental groups and Donner Summit residents are more committed than ever to opposing Royal Gorge’s development. And many of the complications of a Royal Gorge plan are still blocking the project from moving forward.

“None of the problems that existed on that property have gone away, but a lot of the value has,” said Montgomery.

Conservation after the Crash
Despite cash-strapped conservation funds, today might be the heyday of land conservation in the Sierra Nevada.

Prime development property across the Sierra Nevada, once the centerpiece of a booming building bubble, is now available to conservation groups at cut-rate prices. In fact, for many parcels like Royal Gorge or Dyer Mountain, conservation groups may represent one of the only buyers in a market were most housing projects no longer pencil out.

The opportunities, combined with severe funding cuts in state and federal funding, have pushed conservation groups to find more creative partnerships and private fundraising to take advantage of the opportunities. The Northern Sierra Partnership, a collaboration between conservation groups and private donors across the Northern Sierra, is hoping to raise $100 million for conservation initiatives in a region fragmented by a checkerboard land ownership dating back to the transcontinental railroad.

The conservation work that the Truckee Donner Land Trust and others are doing in the face of a struggling economy will be appreciated for decades to come.

“Ten, 20, 30 years from now we will look back at the rock bottom prices we were able to secure land for and be proud of what we were able to accomplish,” said Tom Mooers, executive director of Sierra Watch.

For more information give us a call: (530) 265-2849.

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 Bank Midwest) an outstanding balance of $16,743,442.91.

If the balance is not paid within 90 days from the date of the notice, creditors can sell the property.

“A development proposal for Donner Summit never made any sense – economically or otherwise,” said Tom Mooers of Sierra Watch.  “Now we turn our attention to a conservation resolution that permanently protects one of the truly iconic regions of the Sierra Nevada.”

(Royal Gorge Property in Purple)

In 2005, would-be developers bought the nearly 3,000-acre Royal Gorge property on Donner Summit, including the existing Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort, the upper reaches of the American River Canyon, and the headwaters of the Yuba River.

Two years later, they released an initial development proposal that would have carved the Summit landscape into a series of sprawling development projects – extending from the edge of Sugar Bowl and over the crest of the Sierra.  In order to service the new subdivisions, developers proposed to remake Donner Summit with new roads through local forests, new dams in Sierra headwaters, and 200 acres of sewage ‘spray fields’.

Sierra Watch worked with local allies to build support for an alternative vision to permanently protect the irreplaceable values of the Royal Gorge property and Donner the Summit.

Default and subsequent sale may provide the opportunity to make their vision a reality.  According to Mooers, “It’s our job to make sure that, if the property does indeed change hands, it moves away from speculative development and into permanent conservation.”

For more information give us a call: (530) 265-2849.

Here’s a brief look at what’s new on Donner Summit, in Martis Valley, and along the Bear River.

Donner Summit
Last week we got some good news about everybody’s favorite subject: sewage.

Donner Summit Public Utilities District (DSPUD) is upgrading and expanding its sewage treatment plant in Soda Springs – in the headwaters of the South Yuba River.

For months, Sierra Watch has been working to ensure that the new sewage plant doesn’t make a familiar mistake: increasing treatment capacity to facilitate – and even subsidize – new subdivisions like those proposed for Royal Gorge.

Last week, DSPUD finished collecting requests from property owners, and – here’s the good news – no landowners requested new capacity for major new development.

So DSPUD can proceed with its planned upgrade.  And we can be confident that their new treatment plant will protect water quality – without encouraging major new subdivisions.

The news by no means signals an end to our work to defend Donner.  But it indicates ongoing progress in our shared effort to permanently protect one of the great threatened landscapes of the American West.

MartisValley
Ten years ago, impending development proposals raised big questions about the future of Martis Valley.  Ever since, Sierra Watch has been working to shape land-use decision making into a cohesive vision for responsible development and permanent conservation.

Now the Army Corps of Engineers is raising a new question: What is the future of Martis Dam – and Martis Creek Reservoir?  The lake, in between the Truckee Airport and Waddle Ranch Preserve, is a prominent feature of the Martis Valley landscape.  But, because the dam is failing – and built along an earthquake fault, it poses a catastrophic threat to Reno, downstream in the Truckee River watershed.

Later this year, the Corps will release a range of proposals of how to diminish the risk of dam failure, including removing the dam and restoring the meadows of Martis Valley.  Sierra Watch is working with local allies and regional experts to ensure that, whatever answer the Corps pursues, it furthers our shared commitment to – and ongoing investment in – the irreplaceable resources of the Tahoe-Truckee Region.

Bear River
As we look into the possibility of removing an old dam in Martis Valley, we’re working to prevent a new one proposed for the Bear River.

Running between the Yuba and American River watersheds, the Bear River tumbles from the granite peaks of Emigrant Gap, through the remote reaches of the California foothills, and into the Great Central Valley.

Historically, it’s one of the great markers of the Emigrant Trail; the crossing at Garden Bar was the last Sierra river crossing on the journey west.  In recent years, the Garden Bar Region – in the canyons below Highway 49 – lies at the heart of a collaborative investment in permanent protection of working ranches and thriving wildlands.

But those resources are at risk of a massive new dam that would block the river, flood the Bear River Canyon, and wheel water south – as far as San Bernadino, 470 miles away.

Sometime this summer, we expect proponents to release a ‘Preliminary Report’ on the proposal.  Just like we’ve done in Martis, on Donner, and beyond, Sierra Watch is organizing an effective, strategic effort to stand up for Sierra resources and, in this case, stop the proposal before it really begins.

For more on any of our conservation campaigns – or to order a brand new “Save The Bear River” bumper sticker, give us a call: (530) 265-2849.

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 it’s rich in natural value, including a mile of the Middle Fork of Martis Creek and a beautiful high mountain meadow.

Its location is important, too — adjacent to other protected property and part of our long-term goal to protect each and every acre on the Waddle Preserve side of Highway 267.

Preservation of Martis Creek Estates was never inevitable; it had been zoned for as many as 250 housing units.  According to the Land Trust, a would-be developer lost the property in foreclosure.  The Land Trust was able to purchase it for $2.6 million, well below its appraised value.

Pictured - Martis Creek Estates Meadow

“The folks that held the note were happy just to cut their losses,” said David Brown, Chair of the Land Trust’s Lands Committee that oversees all acquisitions.

The Land Trust succeeded in pulling together a unique and collaborative partnership to fund the purchase.

The Truckee Tahoe Airport District contributed $1.8 million to the purchase and now holds a conservation easement on the property.

Sierra Watch partnered with Mountain Area Preservation Foundation to establish another key source of funding: our 2005 agreement with Northstar and Trimont.

That agreement created a 1/2% transfer fee on all new residential property sales and re-sales of new development properties at Northstar.  The Land Trust is applying proceeds from that transfer fee to the purchase of the property.

It’s a great example of how our visionary work and collaborative agreements over the past ten years are creating conservation success today.

Martis Valley Accomplishments (click to enlarge)

And it’s another opportunity to update our Martis Valley Accomplishments Map – coloring another parcel with the deep green of permanent protection.

So, next time you pull out of Northstar and head down Highway 267, look to your right for the next mile and know that the incredible scenery is protected.  Forever.

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 Sierra Watch and our allies took the next step in our legal defense of Dyer Mountain – another example of how Sierra Watch turns a development threat into a conservation opportunity.

SIERRA CONSERVATIONISTS APPEAL
DYER MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT DECISION

TAX DEBT AND BANCTRUPTCIES
DOG TROUBLED RESORT

Sacramento, Calif. – A coalition of Sierra conservationists filed an appeal Friday April 1 to overturn approvals of the troubled Dyer Mountain development proposal.

“Today’s action is the next step in our long-term commitment to defend Dyer Mountain from the biggest development proposal in the Northern Sierra,” said Steve Robinson of Lassen County-based Mountain Meadows Conservancy.

Mountain Meadows, Dyer Mountain Project Area, and Mount Lassen

As the project faces more legal troubles, the clock is also ticking on its mounting tax debt.  Dyer Mountain landowners owe Lassen County more than $1.7 million – and counting – in back taxes.

Would-be developer Dyer Mountain Associates (DMA) began pursuing a resort project in Lassen County in 1999, proposing a vague plan for 4,000 new homes, three golf courses, and a ski resort on 7,000 acres of undeveloped forest and meadow.

Opponents called the project “The Poster Child of Irresponsible Planning” due to its lack of infrastructure and its remote, rural location.

Primary access to the property is down a dirt road and across a one-lane bridge over the Hamilton Branch of the Feather River.

One-lane Bridge Over Hamilton Branch of Feather River

Out of scale with its rural surroundings, the project would increase the population of Lassen County by a staggering 116%.

Conservationists quickly countered with a long-term campaign to protect the property – highlighting its remote forests, bald eagle habitat, high Sierra meadows, and Native American cultural resources.

“Dyer Mountain is where we decide the most basic question facing the Sierra Nevada,” said Tom Mooers of Sierra Watch. “Do we want to subdivide and pave our last great places with misguided development schemes – or protect our natural legacy for future generations?”

Developers had promised to open by November 2007, but the project became mired in bankruptcy, foreclosure, and debt. The ownership group has been subject to at least five lawsuits and two scathing court orders.

In 2008, landowners filed for bankruptcy, and lenders subsequently foreclosed on the property. Ownership passed through the Cayman Islands, and the property eventually landed in the hands of Dyer Management LLC of Delaware.

As the tax bill mounted, the Lassen County Board of Supervisors asked for a written plan for repayment back in 2009. In 2010, the new landowners bluntly replied that they had no such plan, writing that “Dyer Management intends to bring the county current with respect to outstanding property taxes as such point in time in which new financing becomes available at reasonable commercial terms.”

Even if the landowner is unwilling to provide a timetable for repayment, the tax debt clock is ticking. In 2013, Lassen County can assume control – and sell – the property itself.

Meanwhile, the project sailed through the planning and environmental review process. After Lassen County signed off on a development plan in September 2007, Sierra Club and Sierra Watch joined Mountain Meadows Conservancy in suing to overturn approvals of the project.

After a bankruptcy-related stay on any court action, their case against Dyer Mountain resumed in 2010. In a decision dated December 30, 2010, Lassen County Superior Court denied the conservationists’ request and upheld Lassen County’s 2007 approvals.

Today, the conservation groups filed their notice to appeal that decision. They’ll assemble their legal arguments in a more detailed brief in the months ahead. Their case will contend that the County’s scant review of the Project violated core principles of state environmental law, dismissing key potential impacts on population growth, traffic, and other issues.

“This project never made any sense – even before the resort real estate market collapsed,” said Steve Robinson of Mountain Meadows Conservancy. “We look forward to getting everyone to the table to come up with a resolution that works for Lassen County and for the land itself.”

Site of Proposed Dyer Mountain Golf Course

Pictured - Buddy the wolverine (Photo courtesy of Neal Wight, Jacob Katz, Mark Elbroch)

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 habitat.  But you can read more about Buddy – and his travels in the upper Yuba Watershed – in the excellent piece by Pulitzer Prize winning Sacramento Bee reporter Tom Knudson here or below.

Granted, conservation and development issues can bog down in zoning designations and sewage capacity and traffic models.  Buddy is a reminder of what’s really important: that the wild heart of the Sierra Nevada is still beating.

The Sacramento Bee
Lone wolverine continues to roam Sierra

Published Sunday February 20, 2011

“Picture a weasel – and most of us can do that, for we have met the little demon of destruction, that small atom of insensate courage. … Multiply that mite by some fifty times and you have the likeness of a wolverine.
Ernest Thompson Seton “Lives of Game Animals, Vol. II,” 1925 – 1927 ”

Pictured - Buddy's Range

He wanders long distances at night, alone.

He curls up under wind-stunted trees at the timberline.

And from a distance, he can hear the rumble of traffic along Interstate 80.

But almost no one has ever seen him.

“He’s gone before you even have a clue he’s there,” said Amanda Shufelberger, a wildlife biologist with Sierra Pacific Industries who has tracked the animal across the Sierra Nevada since 2008. “He does not want to see you.”

Three years after the discovery of a wolverine in the Tahoe National Forest north of Truckee, the elusive creature continues to roam the region, defying expectations, delighting many and stirring calls to find him a mate.

Where he came from is a mystery, although his DNA closely matches that of wolverines in the Sawtooth Range of Idaho. While other wolverines have reportedly been spotted over the years, he is the first confirmed in California since 1922, when a trapper killed one.

“It’s human nature to root for the underdog. This is like the under-wolverine,” said Bill Zielinski, a carnivore specialist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station.

“Here, against all odds, is an animal that has made an amazing trek to be with us in California. Any betting person would not have guessed it would have persisted as long as it has.”

The longer it remains, the more scientists learn. For instance, they know from dozens of motion-sensing cameras that this wolverine loves to travel. It’s been spotted across 216 square miles – that’s more than 100,000 football fields – of rugged terrain from Donner Pass north to the headwaters of the Yuba River along Highway 49.

He is a night owl, too, and not at all camera shy. Of the thousands of photos scientists have captured, most have been snapped at night, some by flash, which does not seem to trouble him. Those images reveal a playful side after the wolverine has wolfed down the pinkish-yellow chunks of raw chicken used to lure him to the camera station.

“He just kind of rolls around on this back like, ‘Oh I’m so full. Thanksgiving dinner!’ ” said Shufelberger.

He is exceedingly clever, as well. Other wild animals simply tug at the bait as it sits inside a wire cage nailed to a tree – but not this wolverine.

He takes the cage itself apart, not by force but with cunning. “He gets into the back where the two seams (of wire) meet and pulls out a couple of horseshoe nails and pulls out the meat gingerly,” said Shufelberger.

The coldest nights, the deepest snows do not deter him. Like wolverines everywhere, he is a powder keg of courage and tenacity, fearing nothing, feeding on carrion, marmots, whatever he can find – and capable of driving much larger black bears and mountain lions from a carcass.

“This is one thing that has really captivated people’s interest and imagination,” said Ann Westling, a public affairs officer for the Tahoe National Forest in Nevada City. “So many people want to know what’s going on with the wolverine. That sense of wildness has been fascinating to folks.”

Highways pose a threat

But other characteristics worry scientists, including the animal’s tendency to venture near roads and people. Last June, it was spotted crossing Highway 49 near Yuba Pass.

“It looked like a big, very overgrown, very furry cat with a stocky body, short legs, a short bushy tail and a bit of a smushed-in face,” Diane Bagues of San Leandro, who was attending a San Francisco State birding workshop in the area at the time, wrote in a letter to wolverine scientists. “I am very certain about what I saw.”

In late October, the animal’s tracks were found a half mile from an even more dangerous highway – busy I-80 at Donner Summit – by Mark Elbroch, a doctoral student in wildlife biology at UC Davis and the author of two books on animal tracking.

“I was literally just out for a jaunt,” said Elbroch. “I saw a set of old tracks and blew it off and said, ‘Oh it can’t be. It must be a dog,’ because there were dog and people tracks everywhere.”

Farther from the road, the prints became more distinct. “They were the size of your hand with five toes on each foot,” Elbroch said. “Dogs and cougars have four toes. And there was a C-shaped palm patch. That’s what really sealed it.”

To be sure, he followed the tracks to a clump of trees where the animal had bedded down just a few hours earlier. True to form, it had vanished. But in the snow were 12 chocolate-brown hairs that Elbroch picked up with a Leatherman tool, dropped in a plastic bag and sent to the U.S. Forest Service for DNA tests. The hairs, the agency later discovered, not only were wolverine but from the same male scientists have been tracking since 2008.

“I was thrilled,” said Elbroch, who with two colleagues later captured photos of the animal on the north side of Castle Peak with a motion sensing camera. “To go out on a day hike and hit a wolverine track in the Sierra is like finding the needle in the haystack. It’s absolutely amazing.”

So far, the wolverine apparently has not tried to cross I-80. “I am so nervous for him,” said Shufelberger, who also documented the animal close to the interstate in March 2010.

(The latest photograph of the animal was captured Jan. 17 near Webber Lake, more than 10 miles north of the highway.)

“It’s defied the odds,” said Zielinski, the carnivore scientist. “It shows how capable and nimble this animal is in a place where its habitat overlaps with fairly high human density.”

There is a biological barrier scientists find even more worrisome: Try as they might, they can’t find a female.

“A male and a female would be real exciting,” said Chris Stermer, a wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game who along with other researchers has collected strands of wolverine hair for DNA analysis in recent years.

All were positive for the same male. “If it’s one animal, it’s not a population,” Stermer said. “That’s really what we would like.”

Scientists have traced the animal’s DNA to wolverines in the northern Rockies and believe he may have wandered down solo from Idaho – a journey of more than 500 miles across rivers, deserts, highways and railroads.

Still, they don’t rule out the possibility that a handful of homegrown California wolverines, including females, could be hiding out, undetected, in the remote Sierra backcountry.

“There is that possibility,” said Stermer. “Wolverines are found in extreme, high alpine habitats that are hard to survey. They avoid people, and they are very good at it.”

Last year, Stermer baited a camera site in the Red Cones area outside Mammoth Lakes for months, hoping to photograph a wolverine reportedly spotted there.

“It sounded very credible,” he said. “I got lots of marten but never a wolverine.”

Some back reintroduction

Today, the animal’s ghost-like status is prompting some to call for a dramatic reintroduction effort in which out-of-state wolverines, most likely from Canada or Alaska, would be transplanted into the Sierra, hopefully jump-starting a new population.

“Wolverines are an icon of wilderness,” said David Garcelon, president of the Institute for Wildlife Studies in Arcata, who in December submitted just such a proposal to the state Department of Fish and Game. “That’s something I’d like to bring back.”

Zielinski, the Forest Service scientist, likes the idea. “Yeah, I’d like to see wolverines restored to the Sierra if the circumstances permitted, if the politics were right,” he said.

But others are critical. “That animal is not part of the now-extinct – as far as we know – Sierran population. It’s a long-distance migrant,” said Jim Patton, curator of mammals at the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. “I would just leave it alone.”

Whatever its future, this wolverine – unlike the spotted owl – poses little threat to economic development because it occupies such harsh alpine terrain.

Shufelberger has spent three winters following the wolverine through the Sierra backcountry on skis, snowshoes and snowmobiles, and her fascination with it has grown into admiration, respect, even fondness. She has even given the animal a nickname: Buddy.

“Everyone asks me: ‘When are we getting Buddy a girlfriend? Can I donate money to make this happen?’ ” Shufelberger said. “People really want to bring some females into the state of California.”

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