YUBA POWERHOUSE

AND

SIERRA FOOTHILLS LANDSCAPE

The Yuba Powerhouse sits on highly scenic oak woodlands facing the Sutter Buttes, toward the west, and surrounded on 3 sides by the University of California's Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center. Its 1898 Victorian manager's house and stabilized powerhouse foundation near Browns Valley (Yuba County) California has great "keystone" value, both natural & historical. It is owned by the California Institute of Man in Nature (CIMIN) and is used by beginning environmental education groups and historical/nature tours. It would also be valuable for oaks/range management research as a third natural area for the 5300 acre UC Davis Foothill Research lands around it. Being surrounded both by U.C.lands and Fish and Game lands and easements, the Reserve's 80 acres of key Blue Oak/Gray Pine vistas highlight a 22,000-acre Sierra Foothill Landscape, one of ten cross-state scenic zones comprising Hwy. 20's Tahoe-Pacific State Heritage Corridor*.

Its ecological amenities include many species of animals, birds and plants that are common at the 800-1000 foot elevations along the Western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Foothills. The bird population is abundant, with diverse hawks, turkey vulture, wild turkey, acorn woodpeckers, etc. Hunting and grazing stopped about 1970 on the 80 acres, so deer, rabbit and wild turkey flocks tend to congregate around several acres of wetlands all year long. An occasional bobcat, mountain lion, coyote, skunk or fox may be seen. Former farming has left plentiful cherry/plums and berries, which grow along the entrance road to the Victorian style mansion (1898). Large ornamental groupings include a Washingtonia palm, two Chinaberry trees (Melia sp.), prickly-pear cacti and an Agave (century plant).

Spring tour groups often focus on aesthetic appreciation and artistic expression inspired by the beautiful oaks, flowering shrubs, and spring flowers. Other groups focus on the historical aspects of the turn-of the-century Victorian Manager's house, powerhouse shop and barn remnants, or the extensive water delivery canals, first used to generate power, then later for irrigation. The site's prime historic roots were developed during turn-of-the century growth of what would become PG&E in 1906. The 1901 pioneering hydroelectric power grid to Oakland was under the intervening name of Bay Counties Power, but was conceived at the Manager's house of this pre-1900 Yuba Power Company, PG&E's 3rd predecessor. Yuba Power sold the first hydropower to Marysville for streetlights and trolley cars on a 22-mile line opening service on March 21, 1898.

Below the plant site, a former canal levee is adaptable, with some volunteerism, for disability (wheelchair) access, providing a level grade for exploring and experiencing the lower-foothill landscape. The goals of CIMIN on this land include developing management plans that maintain and restore spatial and temporal connectivity within the Yuba Foothill Landscape, watershed and the Heritage Corridor. Onsite connectivity comprises a central bowl, wetlands and upslope areas of 120 acres, a watershed, with a north side of scattered blue oaks, and south side of denser live and blue oaks. The network connections are intended to provide unpolluted and unobstructed routes to areas critical for fulfilling life history requirements of wildlife, plant, and riparian-dependent species.**

CIMIN also offers support, advice and information to those involved with the preservation of historic or wildland landscapes, scenic qualities, and the creation of new ones especially along the Mendocino-Tahoe Biodiversity Transect (39th Parallel) that are a part of our local, state and nationwide heritage.

* A Heritage Corridor is an area of historical, natural, or conservation education significance, with roads, state and other parks, greenways, or private land holdings with features that enable tourism and environmental conservation education along most of its length, with an emphasis on facilities whose physical and interpretive accessibility meet "whole access" goals. "Whole access" is a general level of accessibility that includes disabled persons and all others. This level of accessibility emphasizes natural terrain accessibility in cooperation with volunteer and nonprofit groups who own and/or manage these outdoor recreation resources. Refer to the Heritage Corridors of California and map for a general visual orientation and a listing of other specific information.

**This requires, in part, maintaining the water quality necessary to support healthy riparian, aquatic and wildland ecosystems. Appropriate water quality maintains the biological, physical and chemical integrity of the system and benefits survival, growth, reproduction and migration of individuals within the wild or riparian communities.

The following map shows the relationship among the water and power networks during 1859-1901.

 

 University of California (Davis)---Sierra Foothills Research and Extension Center adjoins the Yuba Powerhouse Historic District and Sierra Foothills Landscape.

The Nevada “Rome” Power House and the Birth of PG&E by A. Dale Johnson, PG&E Retired

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1898 Water-Powered Generators