| Acreage | 10 acres |
|---|---|
| Watershed | Curry Creek/Curry Canyon on the southeast side of Mount Diablo |
| Vegetation Communities | Blue oak woodland, black oak woodland, riparian woodland, chaparral, and knobcone pine forest |
| Ownership | Protected by Save Mount Diablo in 2023; owned by Save Mount Diablo |
The Balcerzak inholding and the surrounding Mount Diablo State Park. Photo by Google/Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO Landsat Copernicus Data MBARI Data LDEO/Columbia, NSF, NOAA Data CSUMB SFML, CA OPC
Description
The 20,000-acre Mount Diablo State Park has five inholdings—private land surrounded by public land.
Inholdings are a unique opportunity for the landowner: isolation, views, and spectacular beauty surrounded by nature but with special challenges including fires, floods, wildlife, privacy concerns, and public recreational use.
From a park agency’s perspective, private properties within parks create management challenges, impact resources and can conflict with recreational use.
The Balcerzak inholding includes a large log cabin house, barns, and outbuildings as well as four converging stream canyons and black oaks, blue oaks, chaparral, and fire-adapted knobcone pine woodland, near Save Mount Diablo’s 1,080-acre Curry Canyon Ranch property.
The Balcerzak inholding. Photo by Scott Hein
Curry Canyon is a special high priority acquisition area for Save Mount Diablo. Save Mount Diablo and the state have preserved five-sixths of the canyon, and Save Mount Diablo has secured two other access routes.
In March 2023, Save Mount Diablo also opened to the public a missing piece of the Knobcone Point Trail across its Curry Canyon Ranch property, connecting Curry Point and the Knobcone Point area in the state park along a ridge east to Riggs Canyon.
The bottom of Curry Canyon is still private, but the new Balcerzak acquisition will allow several new trail loops to be opened from Mount Diablo State Park across Curry Canyon Ranch.
Reached three miles up a steep dirt road from Morgan Territory Road near Clayton, as well as several fords of Curry Creek, the property is closer to Blackhawk and Danville. There is not a more isolated house in a more isolated canyon on all of Mount Diablo.
Area map showing location of the Balcerzak property
Save Mount Diablo must raise at least $500,000 and hopefully more for the Balcerzak land acquisition project.
When Balcerzak was listed on the market, Save Mount Diablo was already committed to three other acquisitions, including its Krane Pond land acquisition project, and its North Peak Ranch project near Clayton.
To move fast at Balcerzak, the organization took out a two-year, interest-only loan. As soon as possible within these two years, Save Mount Diablo will look to receive funding support from its partner agencies.
Read more about the Balcerzak inholding in our press release.
