We’re happy to announce that Southern Cross Preserve has been transferred to US Forest Service ownership, where it will join the rest of the Tahoe National Forest! This beautiful preserve is located on the North Fork American River. The public Euchre Bar Trail runs through the property and provides excellent views of the river.
If you look at a map of the Tahoe National Forest, you’ll notice that it looks like a “checkerboard” of public and private property. This unusual pattern has its roots in 19th-century federal land policy and the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad north of Lake Tahoe. In short, the US government surveyed and divided these forest lands into square parcels. Some of these were granted to railway companies to construct railroads, and were later bought and sold for private use . (You can read more about the history of the “checkerboard” here.)
The resulting patchwork quilt of public and private lands can create challenges for land management and public recreation. By purchasing private lands within the “checkerboard” and transferring them to the USFS, we can help expand the Tahoe National Forest and fill in the gaps.
“This project was especially cool because it’s a great model — we work with the landowner to secure a complex land deal, then transfer it to public ownership,” says Placer Land Trust Conservation Director Lynnette Batt. “It adds more land to the Tahoe National Forest, which is a popular and important landscape in the Sierra. And importantly, selling land to the USFS allows us to cover our costs and to ‘pay it forward’ to our future land protection projects. We are grateful to the USFS for being great partners.”
USFS purchased the property from Placer Land Trust at fair market value; proceeds from the sale will go toward long-term stewardship for Placer Land Trust-owned properties on the North Fork, and to help protect more land on this scenic section of the American River. Placer Land Trust members helped fund the original purchase of the Southern Cross property through the 2017 Placer Conservator “Fund-a-Need” auction, together with a grant from a private foundation, the Emigrant Trails Greenway Trust, and a 50% bargain sale/ partial donation from the landowner. These generous donations will now be “paid forward,” helping us protect and steward even more land!
Now the Southern Cross property, with its historic gold mine and the Euchre Bar Trail, will officially be public land and protected as part of the Tahoe National Forest — forever. We hope to do more transfer projects to help fill in the “checkerboard” in future!
