Cedar Woods Tree Farm Field Day
History

The earliest human visits to the region may have occurred between 11,000 and 15,000 years ago. The Nisenan inhabited the drainages of the Yuba, Bear and American rivers, and also the lower reaches of the Feather River, extending from the east banks of the Sacramento River to the mid to high elevations of the western flank of the Sierra Nevada. The Washoe tribe historically inhabited the region east of the crest of the Sierra Nevada with peripheral territory extending to the mid-elevations of the west Sierra slope. Both ethnographic groups fully exploited their territories following a semi-sedentary life; residing at one or two established locations during most of the year, but occupying temporary encampments during part of the year to acquire different resources across a range of altitudes and environments.

The foothill-mountain Nisenan relied heavily on acorns, pine nuts, various grass seeds and berries from manzanita and hazelnuts. Deer meat was a primary source of protein. The basic subsistence strategy of the Nisenan was seasonally mobile hunting and gathering. During warmer months, people moved east along the major river canyons to higher elevations to hunt and collect food resources. Nisenan tribelet territory averaged approximately 100 square miles with a population density of five to seven persons per mile.

Nevada County was a major hub of gold mining in the mid-1850s through the 1880s. A mineral survey was requested in 1872 for two tracts totaling nearly 1,500 acres by the Mammoth Blue Gravel Company. An 1873 report described a number of houses on or nearby Chalk Bluff with several thousand acres of largely uncut timber. There were at least two sawmills in the area in the 1870s. By 1880, mining opportunities in the area had been largely curtailed, and earlier sites were inactive with no local residents.

There is little available history during the late 19th and first three-quarters of the 20th Century. In the mid-1970s the mining claim was subdivided into 31 parcels intermixed with industrial and federal ownership.

Stops on the tour include USFS (invited), forest industry (invited, awaiting response) and smaller nonindustrial lands (invited, awaiting response). The area has a long history of logging beginning in the early 1860s. The most common trees in the area are pine, Douglas-fir, white fir, cedar and black oak. More recently, the smaller nonindustrial ownerships have been harvested periodically since at least the late 1930s. Periodic fire has also occurred across the landscape; however, there are no records of fire in the immediate area since 1910.

Field Day Schedule Overview
The tour will begin at the parking area near the junction of Highway 20 and Chalk Bluff Road (approximately the 35-mile post on Highway 20 and just above the 5,000 ft. elevation sign).

9:00am – 9:20am – Registration and Sign Waivers
9:20am – 3:30pm* – Field Day Tour
USFS thinning and fuels management SPI shaded fuel break along Chalk Bluff Road Ownership goals and management/CFIP project - Jesse Brown property (tentative)
*Lunch between 12:00pm – 12:30pm
Overview of NTMP process and landowner goals Cedar Woods NTMP View of 2022 mastication and site preparation
Opportunities for Cost-share programs
Discussion of local Firewise community activities
Discussion of local Prescribed Burn Association
Return to staging area.