About $1.3 million in projects for expansion of the Deer Creek Tribute Trail in Nevada City has received funding from the California Natural Resources Agency, Sierra Foothills Report has learned.
An official announcement is expected on November 28, Clark Blanchard, associate director of communications for the California Resources Agency in Sacramento, told me. “These projects have been awarded. It is public information. The plan is for a big rollout of all the awards on November 28.”
(We have a good relationship with staff members in the Brown administration — both for Sierra Foodhills Report and our magazine, Sierra FoodWineArt — both promoted at SacBee.com. Sierra Foothills Report had the “scoop” on John Laird being named Resources Secretary in 2010).
The projects submitted by Sierra Fund on behalf of Nevada City (for Phase II) is a coup for the city and its Tribute Trail, which starts in downtown Nevada City and explores the area above, beside and through Deer Creek.
This summer Nevada County Arts was awarded a $25,000 matching grant from the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., to support an art exhibit that celebrates the history, culture and ecology of the Tribute Trail, as reported in the current issue of our magazine, Sierra FoodWineArt and its companion website, SierraCulture.com.
This ART-onSite/Tribute Trail project highlights the new generation of artists (along with chefs, farmers and winemakers) who are re-settling the region. They are adding new energy while honoring the region’s rich history. (This topic is a “special report” in our current issue).
Now the Tribute Trail is getting another boost with the money from the California Natural Resources Agency’s “River Parkways Program.” The agency first funded the Tribute Trail in 2005.
NEW PROJECTS
The projects that survived the winnowing process are:
•Building the Nisenan Tribute Bridge across Deer Creek just downstream from the city on the city’s “environs” property. The Nisenan are receiving more honors with the recent Nisenan Heritage Day at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City.
•Acquisition of land on the city’s border now owned by the Gallelli family to be transferred to the city for recreation and open space.
“The Resources Agency recently travelled to Nevada City to get a tour of these projects,” according to a August 30 memo to Nevada City Council from Sierra Fund Chief Executive Elizabeth “Izzy” Martin. (Martin declined comment for this story).
“They met with project proponents including folks from Nevada City, The Sierra Fund, American Rivers, Nevada City Rancheria and Bear Yuba Land Trust, and toured the parcel to be acquired and the location of the bridge site.”
The Nevada City Council also wrote letters of support for the project.
The group worked hard to bring the cost of the parcel acquisition and bridge building down in order to make it possible for the Resources Agency to fund both projects. The two came to a total price-tag of $1.3 million.
Since 2010, The Sierra Fund has served as fiscal sponsor and project coordinator of the Deer Creek Tribute Trail project.
Phase I of the project, now complete, has provided Nevada City with miles of new trail, a new pedestrian footbridge, and over 100 acres of restored vegetation in the Deer Creek Watershed.
Funded in 2005 by the California Resources Agency with Proposition 50 bond funds, the project is a unique collaborative effort of local organizations including: Sierra Streams Institute, the City of Nevada City, the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, the Natural Heritage Institute, the Bureau of Land Management, Yuba Bear Land Trust, Greater Champion Neighborhood Association and the Chinese Quarter Society and Save Our Historic Canals.
This post is being promoted at SacBee.com.
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Congratulations to the team in western Nevada County who are making these fabulous projects happen. They are an incredible asset for local economic development.
Lets also celebrate the work going on in other areas of the County.
In the last 18 months the Northern Sierra Partnership (Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, Truckee-Donner land Trust, Feather River Land Trust and Sierra Business Council) have closed or contracted the sale on 5 properties, including Independence Lake now open for recreation for the first time in 60 years for $ 13 million, a purchase and sale contract at Royal Gorge which will lead to the ski area being kept open for $12 million, and 3 other projects in Nevada County which will drive local economies.
Bottom line is that while other areas of the economy are still relatively stagnant, the tourism-recreation-arts-culture-agriculture link is alive, well and growing in leaps and bounds.
Well said Steve. We’re thrilled.
How do the Nisenan fit into this picture?
http://www.nevadacityrancheria.org/
Douglas… the Nisenan members have been involved from the start and they have been a VERY valuable and key member of the group working on this effort. Tribe members were part of the grant requests from the start and they attended and presented information about the Nisenan and their relationship to this area during the State tour of the proposed projects. The Nisenan group has done much to make all this possible and they deserve much thanks for their efforts.
I had a good discussion with the Bee editors this afternoon about how well the Brown administration works with bloggers (though it helps to be a journalist/blogger with Sacramento “sources”). It shows how social media is reshaping communications. We’re still behind the times in the foothills when it comes to “innovation” or accepting something new.
Check this one out:
http://www.facebook.com/SutterBrown
6,642 “likes” no less!
Steve,
Great, just felt they should be getting credit for sure, since the other native but not to here group was getting credit.
I had skimmed the article, and missed the references, and instead got stuck on: “Funded in 2005 by the California Resources Agency with Proposition 50 bond funds, the project is a unique collaborative effort of local organizations including: Sierra Streams Institute, the City of Nevada City, the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, the Natural Heritage Institute, the Bureau of Land Management, Yuba Bear Land Trust, Greater Champion Neighborhood Association and the Chinese Quarter Society and Save Our Historic Canals.”
Doug,
As the post states, there’s going to be a “Nisenan Tribute Bridge” in Phase II. This will be the second foot-bridge for the project (see the video of the first one that I added). “The proposed Nisenan Bridge and trails network links two sides of a neighborhood now divided by a creek, completing a look trail that will bring new opportunities for public recreation on public land,” as the memo I linked to states. Also watch a video of the board meeting (there’s a link for that too) where we learn that the Nisenan Bridge is going to be a suspension bridge that is carried down to the creek in small pieces (instead of using a crane, as with the first bridge). Bridge-building is a marvel of engineering.
Mr. Keachie,
Thanks for that bit of muckraking, you are correct, the Nisenan were originally excluded from the TT project. It took some educating and activism on the part of CHIRP (that’s me) and the NCR to assert their rightful heritage in Nevada County.
There was quite a bandwagon, loaded with local business people, non-profits and governmental agencies, heading for the cliff, until the Nevada County Historical Society took a closer look at the two tribal groups and concluded, by a preponderance of evidence that the Nisenan are the true heirs to these lands. They issued a well researched report which apparently the Nevada County Board of Supervisors have not read or understood. That means our BOS is most likely in violation of Federal statutes with regard to tribal matters in their county, because they are allowing their endorsement of the Taylorsville Rancheria to stand, rather than admit their mistake.
Why did so many go in the wrong direction for so long? Ignorance and lack of historical education in Nevada County for one. Another reason may be that my opinion piece, “Let Us Not Forget the Nisenan”, recently published by the Union’s new editor Brian Hamilton, was written over three years ago, but never saw the light of day. The previous editor refused to print it, nor would he give me a reason why.
I tried to bring news of the Nisenan years ago to KMVR, where I had been a frequent guest on “Dreamwalk”. On that show, which defines itself as the last word in tribal matters in these parts, I was denied a microphone and told to leave the station. I appealed to the management of KVMR and was summarily dismissed, I tried to contact the KVMR board and was intercepted my KVMR management and told I could not see them.
Tell me, without the support of the local government and media, what were the Nisenan to do to get the word out?
Understand that once the Tsi-Akim PR got rolling it became a juggernaut and darned near impossible to reverse. I saw the Nisenan being overrun and decided to help them. Since that time I have been treated to an unvarnished view of Nevada County’s socio-political underbelly, not pretty. Too many folks who leapt before they looked, and are now hip deep in a sticky situation and would like the truth to go away, but it won’t.
All that said, I am a proponent of what I like to call, “No Indian Left Behind”. The Tsi Akim got a raw deal, like many tribes across the nation. I get it because my people are from Greenville and Susanville, our tribe’s Summer and Winter homes. Greenville isn’t being recognized today because it was never a rancheria (nice word for reservation), it was an Indian boarding school and although it has a substantial population of Indian people, it doesn’t qualify for Federal trust. Nor does the Tsi Akim from what I have read. Their Taylorsville Rancheria was understandably abandoned during the great depression of the 1930′s. When the Government went around shutting down rancherias in the 1960′s, as they did here in Nevada County with the NCR, they never went looking for any of the Taylorsville Indians. That’s not due diligence, and it isn’t fair to the Genesee Valley Indians, which is how I know the “Tsi Akim”, a name they adopted about 12 years ago when they incorporated. It is a valid name and the Tsi Akim have a valid complaint against the Federal Government. But they ought to understand that trying to claim the lands of a tiny Southern tribe that just happens to be situated in an area of greater “cash flow”, is not right. How can the leadership of the Tsi Akim demand apologies and land bases from a county that rightfully belongs to another tribe? Perhaps we have learned too much from our conquerers.
Think about the last decade and all the folks who have partnered with the Plumas County tribe while ignoring the Nisenan. Lots of lost opportunity there. And what happens should the Great White Father eventually smile upon the Nevada City Rancheria? It’s a long shot, but it’s rightfully their shot to take. If that happens they will go from being the “wallflower”, to being the “Belle of the ball”. Or maybe “Little Red Hen” might be a better analogy for the NCR, everyone is going to want a slice of their bread.
If I could, I would tell the Tsi Akim and their supporters to begin again. Taylorsville and Greenville happen to be situated in gloriously unspoiled high mountain valleys. There is plenty of opportunity up there to create something prosperous that the tribe can be proud of. Mrs. Martin, a major supporter of the Tsi Akim told me herself that she is now working with them in Taylorsville, and that’s good. But understand that if they attempt to do anything or build anything ugly up there, just to rake in money and power, without regard to the other tribes in their area, they will have another fight on their hands.