Group seeks funds to buy, preserve big redwood grove
A 5-mile stretch of rugged, undeveloped coastline in Mendocino County full of towering redwoods and teeming with wildlife could be rescued from timber production under a deal recently reached by Save the Redwoods League.
But there’s a major catch: The group needs to raise $36.9 million by the end of the year.
Lost Coast Redwoods, near Rockport in northern Mendocino County, has for decades been managed for commercial timber production, according to the league. It was clear-cut in the late 1800s, but for several decades it has been carefully managed with selective cutting, and the second-growth trees are now tall, healthy and 80 to 100 years old — the old growth forest of the future, said Sam Hodder, president and CEO of the league.
Along with the tall trees comes a dramatic coastline, and an impressive wildlife population including elk, blacktailed deer, bear, steelhead trout and salmon.
“It’s amazing — a magical forest. There’s a sense of the power of nature,” Hodder said. “It’s this natural oasis that feels like walking into the California of days gone by.”
With trees that could produce millions of board-feet of top-notch lumber, the area would likely be subject to aggressive logging if purchased by another buyer, the league said. Purchasing the property will take the forest out of timber production and it “will be set on a new path to become an old-growth forest of the future and potentially an iconic coastal redwood destination for all people,” the league said in a statement.
The property is being sold by Soper Co., which owns Soper-Wheeler, a logging company.
While $36.9 million is a lot of money to raise in just three weeks, Hodder said he’s confident that donors will be generous enough to cover the cost, or at least contribute enough to allow the league to finance the rest of the purchase.
“Time and time again the broader California community steps up in big ways for opportunities like this,” Hodder said. “There is such a deep connection with California redwood forests, the Lost Coast and the California coast in general, that I think people will step up and help us meet this goal.”
Should the league raise the money to buy the forest, it would need to raise another $6.5 million in 2022 to cover acquisitions and stewardship expenses.
“The league will work to restore the land’s natural resilience and is committed to exploring opportunities for cultural stewardship and public access, consistent with our goals to protect key species, habitats, and biocultural values,” the group said.
Most of the state’s surviving old-growth forests already are protected, Hodder said, so the group’s attention has turned to protecting and restoring second-growth forests that have grown from the barren oldgrowth areas devastated by clear-cutting.
“Our focus now is on protecting younger redwood forests to become the old growth forest of the future,” he said. “This particular forest is way far along on its path to recovery, more so than any other forest.”