Two more wildlife refuges may be added to that acreage total. Cheryl Belcher, executive director of the Nevada County Land Trust, said the preserves were close to being created at the end of last year. County officials are discussing an open-space district, said Mark Tomich, county planning director. Planners will research the feasibility of the county owning open land and plan to report their findings to the Board of Supervisors in the spring, he said. Deadman's Flat, a scrubby area in the south county, also may find its way into the county's open-space bank, Belcher said.
Trails remain a pursuit of county officials and the land trust.
The land trust plans to build a trail roughly along an old railroad that ran between Nevada City and Colfax. The nonprofit organization raised thousands of dollars to build a trail for hikers, cyclists, equestrians and wheelchair users in an area where the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad ran from 1875 to 1943. Nevada County Land Trust members thought the old railroad would be a natural place to develop a trail for nonmotorized traffic, Belcher said. The land trust has four noncontiguous easements recorded for a total of a mile. Let us hear from you.