On Tuesday, August 12, 2025, the Butte County Collaborative Group’s August tour was hosted by Northern California Regional Land Trust (NCRLT) on their Deer Creek Preserve. The tour was well attended by community members, agencies, and organizations working in Butte County on forest health, restoration, and wildfire safety projects. The 600-acre Deer Creek Preserve north trailhead is located 40 miles from Chico, CA on Highway 32, adjacent to Lassen National Forest and is owned and managed by NCRLT since 2012.
The tour was kicked off by Hannah Espinosa, Stewardship Director, NCRLT who oriented participants to the landscape and gave a brief history of the preserve. The Deer Creek Preserve was donated to the NCRLT in 2012 by the Western Rivers Conservancy and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. NCRLT funds ongoing management of the preserve through grants. Deer Creek supports steelhead trout populations and is one of five tributaries to the Sacramento River boasting critical habitat for both wild fall and spring-run Chinook Salmon. NCRLT is currently working with Butte County Resource Conservation District through a grant funded by Sierra Nevada Conservancy to create both a land management plan and a burn plan for the Preserve.
Sam Vasen, Stewardship Assistant for NCRLT led tour participants onto the Deer Creek Preserve trail from the campground on Lassen National Forest Land. Vasen explained that the Preserve is open to the public year-round for non-motorized day use. In addition, he shared that cattle set loose during last year’s Park fire had been causing trail damage moving through the Preserve. The Resource Conservation District, Tehama County is managing grant funded efforts to recover or remove any remaining cattle.
Tour participants learned of the original inhabitants of the Deer Creek Preserve, the Yahi tribe, of the Yana people, of whom the last member, Ishi, passed away in 1916. The land in and around the preserve was likely stewarded with fire in the past; however, it has not burned in recent history. The Park Fire in 2024 came close to the Preserve and was halted at the K-Line road, a critical holding line for the Park Fire. The Panther fire in 2013 burned to the west of the Preserve and the Orion 2 and Cub fires burned to the east in 2008. As Dave Derby, CalFire, pointed out on the hike, this land will burn in the future and how its managed can determine in large part the outcomes of that inevitability.
As the hike progressed along the creek, Dallas Koller, Fire Program Manager, Butte County Resource Conservation District, spoke about the draft burn plan in progress and pointed out various burn units with good access near the trail. Dallas also pointed out that other units in the vicinity were limited in prescribed burn feasibility due to extremely steep terrain, noting that access is key where burns can occur. He explained that additional roads would not be planned to create more burn access as one of the primary goals is to reduce unnecessary disturbance. In addition, Dallas will be consulting with fisheries folks to include critical fish habitat as a consideration in the riparian area for the burn plan.
The Deer Creek trail winds by the fish ladder on the Preserve which participants learned was refurbished by California Department of Fish and Wildlife in 2018. CDFW also maintains the ladder which includes clearing wood that high flows deposit on the ladder over the wet season. The falls on Deer Creek create a natural barrier that could limit trout and salmon from reaching their spawning habitat. The fish ladder allows access to an additional 5.25 miles of valuable spawning and rearing habitat beyond the falls. The ladder served as the turn around point for the tour.
The Deer Creek Preserve hike was a spectacular display of Butte County’s beautiful and valuable landscapes of delicate ecosystems. We gained insight into consideration being employed by collaborative land stewards working towards shared goals through the creation of the burn plan. The unique riparian corridor on the Preserve is inviting land managers to lean into the world of fish and fire. What an inspiration to see the work being done in Butte County, planning to protect the land, water, and all its inhabitants!