America’s favorite forests include the redwoods along California’s North Coast. The redwood region is known for its raw beauty and rich wildlife but decades of aggressive harvesting, changing timber owners and encroaching development have left this landscape diminished, with heavy impact on the spotted owls, salmon and other species that call it home.

At The Conservation Fund, we believe that working forests can be financially self-sustaining and environmentally healthy. We’re demonstrating a new way to sustainably manage these famed forests, as a nonprofit owner that uses both sound environmental strategy and sound economics—including a “light-touch” harvest regimen, sales of carbon offsets and a supply of local jobs. We work with our partners to skillfully manage both forest growth and harvest to ensure that these forests remain viable ecosystems for generations to come.

Since 2004, we have purchased 40,000 acres of North Coast forestland: the Garcia River, Big River and Salmon Creek forests. In addition to restoring the forests’ watersheds and supporting local economies, these efforts fight climate change. Our forest properties were among the first and largest to receive verification as a source of greenhouse gas reductions under the protocols of the Climate Action Reserve.

Learn about volunteer opportunities, youth educational trips, guided tours, native plant walks, and other activities on our North Coast Forest Community Involvement page.

Usal Redwood Forest

In October, 2011, we completed a landmark preservation agreement to protect this 50,000-acre  “working forest,” which provides timber and community jobs.

Garcia River Forest

In 2004, when we purchased the Garcia River Forest—a 24,000-acre expanse of redwood and Douglas fir forests along the Garcia River and several tributaries—we created California’s first large nonprofit-owned working forest. With our partners, we have developed a forest management plan to restore the land and streams and provide public access. The Nature Conservancy holds a conservation easement that protects the forest from future development.

Click here for the Garcia River Forest Fact Sheet.

Gualala River Forest

Next door to our Garcia River Forest, the 14,000-acre Gualala River Forest shares its remarkable canopy of redwoods and Douglas firs. Beneath these magnificent trees, the Gualala River courses across the property, providing important spawning habitat for coho salmon and steelhead trout. But this land is vulnerable. At least five vineyards have erupted nearby, replacing Mendocino County forests that once sustained these fish, spotted owls or timber jobs. To protect the Gualala River Forest, we acquired a preservation agreement on the property in November, 2011, ensuring the land will be sustainably harvested to restore and maintain a healthy balance of trees, water quality and local jobs.

Big River and Salmon Creek Forests

The Conservation Fund owns and manages 16,000 acres in Mendocino County along Big River and Salmon Creek. We practice sustainable forestry across the properties to generate revenue to repay property loans and to restore streams for steelhead trout and coho salmon habitat.

Reference Documents

Click here for a list of reference documents available for download.

Press

The Fund's Chris Kelly and Jordan Golinkoff are featured in the NPR article, "Scientists Turn Trees Into Carbon Banks." Click here to read.

The article, "Carbon Equation" in the Winter 2009 edition of Nature Conservancy magazine features our Garcia River forest. Click here to read.

Click here to read the CNBC.com article, "Certified Forest Products: A Great Choice for the Environment" written by the Fund's CEO, Larry Selzer.

NPR's Living on Earth program featured the Fund's Chris Kelly, head of our California North Coast Forest Initiative, in its recent story, "Forest Salvation." Click here to listen. (For the transcript, click here.)