Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres in one of California’s largest ever land returns

The newly named Wélmelti Preserve. Photograph: Elizabeth Carmel

The Washoe Tribe has purchased more than 10,000 acres of land near Lake Tahoe for conservation in one of the largest tribal land returns in California history.

The sprawling property, located 20 miles north of Reno, Nevada, stretches from the Great Basin through the Sierra Nevada and encompasses sagebrush scrublands and juniper and pine forests.