A historic deal will return over 10,000 acres of former ranch land in the northern Sierra Nevada to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, state officials announced.
California’s Wildlife Conservation Board recently approved a $5.5 million grant to assist the Wášiw-šiw Land Trust in purchasing 10,274 acres near the town of Loyalton, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Friday. The property, formerly Loyalton Ranch, is about 50 miles north of Lake Tahoe and 20 miles north of Reno.
The vast acreage is surrounded by public land, stretching near Highway 395 and the Nevada state line to the east and the Sierra Valley to the west. Its thriving alpine habitat is home to animals like pronghorn, mule deer, mountain lions and gray wolves, and also features pine, juniper and aspen forests, according to a news release published by the Wášiw-šiw Land Trust on Thursday…