Conservation Celebration Week is coming! This week is all about celebrating the people who make land conservation in our region possible — Placer Land Trust members, local conservation leaders, and landowners who choose to preserve their land. Together we accomplish so much!
During the week of September 22-28, we will shine a spotlight on the value of protected lands with an online auction, the Placer Conservator Reception, and Party on the Preserve. There will be something for everyone!
We hope you’ll join us at one or both events to help us honor the Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe (CTVCT), the recipient of the 2025 Placer Conservator Award. CTVCT is a California Tribe of (Nisenan) Maidu & Miwok people of the Colfax/Placer County area. They strive for the protection of sacred sites, traditional practices, language preservation, and the overall betterment of their tribal community.
The funds raised during Conservation Celebration Week are critical to our success as an organization, supporting Placer Land Trust’s work of protecting natural and agricultural land, restoring habitat, and enhancing outdoor recreation.
Schedule of Events:
Placer Conservator Reception
Tuesday, September 23
What: An evening of appetizers, drinks, and good company. A short program includes the Placer Conservator Award presentation.
Where: The Flower Farm, Loomis
Party on the Preserve
Saturday, September 27
What: A family-friendly outdoor event on one of our beautiful preserves, featuring optional hikes for kids and adults, activities, games, and live music.
Where: Laursen Bear River Preserve, Auburn
Placer Land Trust is honored to be presenting the 2025 Placer Conservator Award to Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe (CTVCT). CTVCT is a California State recognized Tribe of (Nisenan) Maidu & Miwok people of the Colfax/Placer County area. They strive for the protection of sacred sites, traditional practices, language preservation, and the overall betterment of their tribal community.
In 2022, Placer Land Trust transferred the Yo’ Dok’im Pakan – Gerjuoy North Fork Preserve to the Tribe and their Koy’o Land Conservancy. This preserve sits in the ancestral homelands of CTVCT, and is now stewarded by the Tribe using cultural practices such as prescribed cultural burnings and native plant revitalization. Placer Land Trust is honored to be able to return the land to its original stewards, and to continue our collaborative work together, including our upcoming Owl Creek LandBack and Equitable Access project.
The Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe (CTVCT) is a State recognized tribe located in Placer County, CA. The Tribe is comprised of primarily of Nisenan, Maidu, and Miwok people, and has deep ancestral ties to Placer County and its history.
Before the formal reorganization of the tribe in its current state as “CTVCT,” the Native population was vast and carried a balance and emotional connection to the land, water, plants, and animals. With the thought of never taking more than was needed and giving as much as was being taken.
For CTVCT, much of our ancestral lands slowly became inaccessible, and lands we were given by the government were hard to access and not in an area that was fit for development (this property being known as The Colfax Rancheria). Still, the early tribal people persist and attempt to forge forward.
The Colfax Rancheria, although being allotted to Colfax tribal people, was surrounded by private owned property, and access was from an adjoining county. The property itself was on a hillside and a rough terrain. Still, tribal people inquired about living on the property, with the government deterring them from moving onto the property or offering no help if they attempted to do so.
In 1964, the US Government terminated The Colfax Rancheria, but the tribe in its current form still existed. Tribal people gathered, took care of our accessible lands and tribal cemeteries, and practiced gathering of medicinal plants, hunting, and prayers to the river. The people persisted. The heartbeat of resilience carried on.
For generations, tribal people pushed forward, carrying traditions and connections to the land.
As times changed, work became harder to find and members and families moved to better sustain themselves and their families. But tribal families remained connected.
In late 1999, tribal families reconnected to discuss the formal reorganization of the tribal government of what once was The Colfax Rancheria, and what could be as a restored and recognized tribe. The formal reorganization of The Colfax Rancheria happened in March 2000, with the name now being Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe, to show that even though families had moved and times had changed we are still one.
Since 2000, the tribe has strived for the betterment of its people and preservation of its lands, sacred places, language, and its traditional practices.
In April 2021, in a historic moment, CTVCT made history by receiving a piece of the original Colfax Rancheria property back from a long time donor and supporter of the tribe.
Then in April 2022, the historic moment of the land transfer of Yo’Dok’im Pakan – Gerjuoy North Fork Preserve happened. This land transfer amplified CTVCT’s voice as an unrecognized tribe, and set forth a movement for other tribes – recognized and unrecognized – to come forward and work with their local land trusts for a better future.
Yo’Dok’im Pakan gave the tribe a place to gather and a place of our own to practice traditions with no fear of rejection or trespassing, and to be free to practice openly and freely.
Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe continues to work towards preserving the practices that were handed down through traditional knowledge, finding ways to balance traditional practices in this current world.
Can’t make it to the events? You can still make an investment in the future of Placer County — and have your donation doubled by our Board of Director’s $17,000 matching fund! Donations from this year’s Conservation Celebration Week will help create a LandBack & Equitable Access Fund. This fund will support the acquisition and return of land to a local Tribe and/or projects on existing preserves that create new and perpetual access for Tribes and the general public. We hope you’ll join us in playing a small role in addressing injustices done to our local Tribes in the past with a donation at a level that is meaningful to you.
