Picture a California version of "big sky" country. Large cattle ranches with their vast grasslands and blue oak woodlands offer a home to the state's largest migratory herd of deer. Basalt-capped mesas surround the rolling panorama and are cut by clear-water creeks that harbor many native fish. This is the Lassen Foothills - 900,000 acres stretching from Lassen Peak to the Sacramento River - one of the largest unfragmented and most biologically diverse landscapes in California.
Location
North-central California, about halfway between Redding and Chico, just east of Interstate 5. Map
What to See: Plants
Vast blue oak savannas and woodlands range up to an elevation of 3,000 feet. Native wildflowers and grasses grow among the oaks on the savanna, replaced by manzanita, redbud and coffeeberry shrubs in the higher woodlands. Buckbrush patches provide food for deer, and each fall the oaks' acorn crop is a staple for California's largest migratory deer herd, which winters in the foothills. Grasslands stretching from the western foothills to the flood plain of the Sacramento River are dotted with vernal pools. These springtime oases support several types of very rare plants and endemic fairy shrimp and tadpole shrimp, an important food source for migrating waterfowl.
What to See: Animals
Mill and Deer creeks support a genetically-distinct race of spring-run Chinook salmon. Battle Creek is the only creek that can support all four runs of Chinook salmon (winter, spring, fall and late fall). Rare native amphibians, such as the foothill yellow-legged frog and the California newt, still live in the project area creeks. The riparian forest alongside the creeks provides habitat for many species - from northwestern pond turtles to neotropical migratory songbirds, such as yellow-breasted chats, that stop and nest in the woods.
Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The Conservancy's goal in the Lassen Foothills is to work with private landowners, local organizations, and the community to ensure the sustainability and economic viability of private land uses and the ongoing health of the area's plants and animals. The Lassen Foothills were also the homeland of Ishi and the Yahi and Yana Native Americans. Much of Ishi country has remained protected in this century because large private cattle ranches have not yet been sold and subdivided, as they have in much of the California foothills. Yet development looms. The area lies in the shadow of rural subdivisions called "ranchettes" and urban sprawl from nearby valley cities - threats that divide and degrade native wildlife habitat.
What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The Nature Conservancy's Lassen Foothills Project was launched in 1997. By then the Conservancy had already purchased 2,000 acres to create the Vina Plains Preserve and had been managing the 37,540-acre Gray Davis Dye Creek Preserve for 10 years. By late 2002 the Lassen Foothills Project had safeguarded an additional 58,000 acres of grasslands, oak woodlands, and streamside forests, mainly by purchasing conservation easements. Among our partners in the Lassen Foothills are the Battle Creek Watershed Conservancy, Deer Creek Watershed Conservancy, Mill Creek Conservancy, Partners in Education, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, California Department of Fish and Game and Wildlife Conservation Board, CALFED, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and PG&E.
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