DECADES OF ONGOING CONSERVATION
Tahoe’s Martis Valley is where we got our start – and where Sierra Watch continues to build a lasting record of conservation success.
Sierra Watch Executive Director, Tom Mooers, with former Field Director, Peter Van Zant
It began in December of 2000, when a small group of Sierra residents and local homeowners learned about impending plans to fill Martis Valley with upscale subdvisions, pavement, and malls.
They founded Sierra Watch to spell out a happier ending.
It’s a story we’ve been living every day, ever since. So far we have secured permanent protection for more than 5,000 acres of priority Martis Valley land and built a collaborative consensus for a better blueprint for the Tahoe-Truckee Region. But our work in Martis Valley is far from done.
With its beautiful scenery, abundant wildlife, and public trails, Martis Valley exemplifies what we love about the Tahoe-Truckee Region and the entire Sierra Nevada.
More than twenty years ago, its sage meadows, rolling forests, and rocky ridgelines were under threat.
In 2000, landowners and speculators proposed massive development throughout Martis Valley – new development would have carved up and subdivided both sides of Highway 267 and built more than 6,000 units between Truckee and Brockway Summit on the rim of the Tahoe Basin.
People said we were crazy to try and stop it. But Sierra Watch spearheaded a grassroots campaign to Save Martis Valley. We built a team of planning experts, recruited a core of committed donors, and achieved what was then considered impossible: turning back “inevitable” development proposals.
And we shifted the debate towards our positive vision for the Valley – a blueprint that includes less than half of the proposed units and permanent limits on how much can be built.
Rainbow over Martis Valley
We secured an important piece of the Martis Valley puzzle in 2007, when Waddle Ranch was permanently protected as open space. First, we stopped development of Waddle Ranch – it was approved as the site for a golf course, shopping mall, and hundreds of housing units. Then, we worked with local organizations and landowners to create The Martis Fund (www.martisfund.org), which supported the purchase of the land.
Now, Sierra Watch is working with our allies to secure a conservation outcome for the Sierra Pacific Industries property in Martis Valley, straddling Highway 267 from Martis Peak to Northstar and spilling into the Tahoe Basin.
Developers had previously pursued a series of schemes for the property, including the proposed Martis Valley West project – a gated development with new roads, commercial malls, and 760 vacation homes in a “very high fire hazard zone.”
Working with our conservation allies, Sierra Watch has stopped each successive development threat. Now we’re focused on a collaborative effort to secure permanent conservation of the entire property – the last piece of our Martis Valley conservation puzzle.
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