This is the type of work that should be occurring for the Parkway, and in the original vision it was included and a nonprofit was established whose mission was land acquisition but was changed to clean-up once County Parks ran into funding difficulty.
As we see from the Donner action, the work takes public and private help.
Our policy suggestion is to have a nonprofit, contracting with a hoped for future Joint Powers Authority (now being duscussed) with governance authority for the Parkway, (the JPA composed of the communities adjacent to the Parkway and the County) who would have the dual purpose of daily management and the building of a financial endowment to be used for supplemental maintenance funding and additional land acquisition to increase the Parkway’s footprint.
Land purchase enlarges Donner state park
Price was a 'bargain' for the state, trust director says
By Barbara Barte Osborn - Bee Correspondent
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, March 9, 2007
Donner Memorial State Park grew by 300 acres Wednesday when the state bought six parcels from local and national land trusts.
The acquisitions will further buffer the popular recreation area from development planned near the park and Coldstream Valley, said Perry Norris, executive director of the Truckee Donner Land Trust.
"It will expand recreational opportunities, preserve wildlife habitat and help protect Donner Lake and the Truckee River watershed," Norris said.
The value of the land -- formerly privately owned -- is roughly $1 million, Norris said, adding that "it was a bargain sale to the state for $425,000."
"More public land ownership is a good thing," Don Michaely, a landscape architect with California State Parks' Sierra District, said of the purchase.
"The land now comes under the protection and management of the state park system," he said. "This will help protect natural plant and animal habitats and cultural and recreational resources."
The parcels are in two sections directly west of the original park, which has more than tripled in size through such conveyances over the past 20 years.
