Redwood forest saved from vineyard development

[n2doc]

A giant redwood forest in Sonoma County that was on the verge of being divvied up and plowed over into a patchwork of vineyards has been preserved by a public-private partnership that engineered what is being touted as the largest land conservation deal in California history.

The group, led by the nonprofit Conservation Fund, purchased 16,645 acres of forest known as Preservation Ranch, just east of Annapolis, saving the vast ridgetop groves of redwood from being plowed over for vineyards.

The $24.5.million purchase is part of an effort by the fund to eventually preserve more than 125,000 acres of Douglas fir and redwood forest and use sustainable management practices to conserve critical habitat, restore native watersheds and support local economies through “light-touch” timber management.

The ranch, which is 13 times larger than Golden Gate Park and will be renamed Buckeye Forest, is part of an experiment in Northern California in which redwood groves are being preserved and selectively logged in a way that allows the overall forest to grow faster, enabling the owners to gain credits in the state’s emerging carbon market.

more
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/06/14/redwood-forest-saved-from-vineyard-development-2/

[Politicalboi]

1. This is the first time I heard about this

I am so glad over the outcome. Imagine plowing down a forest to put in fucking grapes for wine. Disgusting.

[Gregorian]

2. I know the guy who owned it. Weird.

I'm working with him to do a similar project on my timber ranch in Mendocino. He put around 30 square miles into conservation easement. But that was only about 1/5th of the property down there. He sold the other portion recently. He's a nice guy, but has done some crappy things, like that attempt to do a vineyard.