When you take North Bloomfield Road north of Nevada City toward the South Yuba River, you might get a glimpse of Round Mountain from across the broad gentle basin of Rock Creek. Its rounded ridge is a local landmark on the south side of the river canyon just downstream from Edwards Crossing. On the north side of the mountain is a quarter-section of land extending to the edge of the river canyon, labeled Round Mountain Estates on the maps.

In the 1980s it was divided into four 40-acre parcels, each bought by different owners. In 1989, Janaia Donaldson and Robin Mallgren bought the North parcel. They moved onto the land in 1990 and, when the opportunity arose, bought the adjoining East parcel. Then in 1992 they purchased the South parcel, followed in 1994 by the West parcel.

Torn by wanting to keep the land as forest but finding the financial burden of owning four parcels too great, Janaia and Robin approached the Land Trust to determine whether the organization would be interested in purchasing some of the land to protect it as open space. The Land Trust offered the option of putting a conservation easement on the land. By donating the value of the easement to the Land Trust, Janaia and Robin own the land but could deduct the value of the easement from their income taxes.

Completed in late 1994, Round Mountain East became the first conservation easement project for the Land Trust. The easement, designed to protect scenic and wildlife values, prohibits development such as house building, subdividing, ranching, waste dumping and similar activities. The land is situated completely within the critical winter range for the Nevada City deer herd.

The property owners retain the right to selectively harvest timber from the property and plan to do some ecologically sustainable forest management on the parcel. This easement does not require public access for public trails. The owners can sell or bequeath the property at any time in the future.

Prior to accepting and recording the easement, the Land Trust collected extensive baseline data on the property, including 108 different photos to record existing conditions.

The Land Trust makes annual visits to the property and checks against the original photo points to assure that no prohibited uses are being made of this land. The long-range goal of the easement is to create and maintain a healthy, natural forest ecosystem with an emphasis on enhancing wildlife habitat. In the succeeding years 1995, 1996, 1997 the other three parcels owned by Janaia and Robin were put under protection.

Fall 1997
The last easement was much the same as the previous three except that the existing homesite was located on this property. As a result, a building envelope was defined to allow the owners to continue to maintain a dwelling. But everything outside that envelope is protected forest. Unlike many forest-based conservation easements, the purpose of the Round Mountain easements is specifically to protect old growth big trees.

The owners started out thinking they would use the easements to maximize the diversity of species, open space areas and habitat types within the 160 acres. An eco-forester suggested using the easements to re-create old growth. The owners realized there was substantial logging and clearing taking place around them for homes and yards. Such harvest takes the big trees and leaves mostly small trees and open space.

But those kinds of changes lead to loss of one particular type of habitat - old growth. The owners decided it would make sense to limit forestry practices on their protected land to those that would eventually lead to the development of old growth habitat. They accomplished this by specifying that no one is allowed to cut the largest third of whatever trees exist on the land at any given time.