Forest Service acquires last High Meadows property

Three parcels of land at Lake Tahoe that belonged to a long-time Genoa family have been acquired by the U.S. Forest Service, it was announced on Thursday.

The 487.5 acres in the upper Cold Creek watershed near High Meadows belonged to the Trimmer-Giovacchini family.

The family has owned Ranch No. 1 along Genoa Lane since 1909.

The High Meadows property was originally established by the Trimmer Family in 1929, when cattle were still driven from the Carson Valley over the Carson Range to the family ranch for summer grazing.

These Cold Creek parcels were the last remaining inholdings of what was once 2,276 acres of the High Meadows property.

In 2003, the Forest Service purchased 1,789 of the acres from the Trimmer-Giovacchini families. This latest purchase complements the original High Meadows acquisition and brings the entire High Meadows area under Forest Service management.

In addition to grazing, the property was logged commercially for timber over several years. In 2015, the family retired from their commercial Christmas tree farm that was on the Cold Creek property and made the decision to sell the remaining parcels to the Forest Service.

“This acquisition accomplishes our goal of preserving and protecting the entire upper Cold Creek watershed from development,” said LTBMU Forest Supervisor, Erick Walker. “Our land acquisition program plays a major role in protecting Lake Tahoe. To put the successful program in perspective, of the approximately 155,000 acres now managed by the Forest Service in the Tahoe Basin, only 30,000 acres were originally public land.”

Funding for the purchase came from the Bureau of Land Management under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, which provides federal funds from land sales in Southern Nevada.