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 owned and managed more than 70,000 acres: Buckeye, Garcia River, Big River, Salmon Creek and Gualala River 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.
