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$2.5 million needed for Waddle; are you in?

Jamie Bate

Perry Norris and just about everyone else in Truckee-Tahoe who values open space has five months to raise $2.5 million.That sum will allow the Truckee Donner Land Trust, of which Norris is the executive director, and the Trust for Public Land to close on the $23.5-million deal for the 1,462-acre Waddle Ranch in Martis Valley.Huge would be an understatement when describing the last week as far as the efforts to acquire Waddle Ranch go. Norris & Co. received crucial, and better yet final, sign-offs on $16.5 million. We were hoping we were going to get it, Norris said, but you never know until you get it.Ten million dollars came from Placer County on Tuesday and on Thursday the State Wildlife Conservation Board OK’d $6.5 million. Add that to the $2 million from the Truckee Tahoe Airport District, $2 million from the state’s Sierra Nevada Cascade Grant Program and $500,000 from the Morgan Family Foundation and those who are weary of development in Martis Valley but haven’t chipped in monetarily now have five months to pull together the $2.5 million balance.But the acquisition of Waddle Ranch, which could have seen another thousand homes built on it, is more than just wildlife habitat and a place to hike, bike and ski; It’s a blueprint for how development and conservation can strike something of a balance.Truckee is the epicenter for growth in the Sierra right now, Norris said, and how we balance building with what people love the mountains for is being watched by those with the money both public and private sector that can help keep open space open.An important part of Waddle Ranch is that you have county, state, environmental groups and developers working in a collaborative spirit to protect this land, Norris said. That can be a model up and down the Sierra.But before that model is perfected, a few more million dollars is needed by Oct. 31 to ensure 1,400 acres of open space in perpetuity. So if you moved to the mountains for the quality of life and havent done much more than slap a Keep Tahoe Blue or Save Martis Valley bumpersticker on your car, heres your chance to do a little more. Go to tdlandtrust.org to find out what you can do. Jamie Bate is the editor of the Sierra Sun. Reach him at jbate@sierrasun.com.


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