Cal­i­for­nia

 

• About 20%  (20.7 mil­lion acres) of California’s total acreage (102 mil­lion acres) is national forest.

• Of those 20.7 mil­lion acres of national for­est lands, about 4.4 mil­lion acres, (21 per­cent) are inven­to­ried roadless areas.

• National For­est road­less areas in Cal­i­for­nia pro­vide some of the finest back­coun­try hunt­ing and fish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in the state, and are strong­holds for native trout and salmon.  Such areas include the head­wa­ters of the Truc­kee and Lit­tle Truc­kee Rivers, the Pacific Val­ley area, the upper Kern and Kings rivers (down­stream of Wilder­ness bound­aries), and much of the B, X, and D deer zones.

• Only 163,000 acres (less than one per­cent) of  national for­est lands in Cal­i­for­nia are rec­om­mended for new wilder­ness designation.

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Spot­light on Meiss Meadows

Few places remain wild and pris­tine enough to pro­duce clear, clean, cold water and sus­tain wild trout, deer and an abun­dance of other wildlife—the Meiss Mead­ows road­less area is one such a place.  Strad­dling the Sierra crest atop Car­son Pass, just south of iconic Lake Tahoe, Meiss Mead­ows offers excep­tional hunt­ing and fish­ing, as well as hik­ing, back­pack­ing, horse rid­ing, moun­tain bik­ing and other out­door recreation.

Up Close

The 31,100-acre Meiss Mead­ows road­less area on the Lake Tahoe Basin Man­age­ment Unit, Eldo­rado and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests makes up the head­wa­ters of the Upper Truc­kee River, the pri­mary source of clean water flow­ing into Lake Tahoe, and pro­vides prime habi­tat for the Lahon­tan cut­throat trout – listed as threat­ened under the fed­eral Endan­gered Species Act.

“The Meiss Mead­ows road­less area and the Upper Truc­kee River are crit­i­cal to the recov­ery and con­ser­va­tion of Lahon­tan cut­throat trout in Cal­i­for­nia,” says Roger Bloom, Senior Fish­eries Biol­o­gist for the Cal­i­for­nia Depart­ment of Fish and Game. “Pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing the habi­tat in these areas is para­mount to the sur­vival and future of this unique Cal­i­for­nia native trout.”

Pro­tec­tions

There are no per­ma­nent pro­tec­tions in place to pre­vent off-road vehi­cle use, min­ing or other activ­i­ties that could dimin­ish the habi­tat. That is why Trout Unlim­ited of Cal­i­for­nia is lead­ing a grass­roots effort, sup­ported by hunters, anglers and local busi­ness own­ers, to seek cer­tain des­ig­na­tions and man­age­ment objec­tives that bet­ter pro­tect and enhance the excep­tional habi­tat found in Meiss Mead­ows to keep it just as it is today – a great place to hunt and fish.

For more infor­ma­tion on Meiss Mead­ows, down­load the road­less report:

Cal­i­for­nia Caples/Meiss Road­less Report

Con­tacts: