More than 900 acres of ‘critical habitat’ added to Mendocino National Forest

January 12, 2024

More than 900 acres of a sprawling ranch in Mendocino County featuring “rolling hills spotted with protected oak savannah and groves of madrone trees” has been added to the Mendocino National Forest, the Wilderness Land Trust announced this month.

In a press release, the land trust reported that it had both completed the purchase of 917 acres of “formerly private land known as the Thomas Creek project,” and successfully transferred to property to the Mendocino National Forest.

Aimee Rutledge, California Program Manager for the Wilderness Land Trust, said the latest acquisition was part of the former Ascherman Ranch in Hearst, an unincorporated area near Willits and Potter Valley. Rutledge described the property as “lightly-used” for cattle ranching, and that the trust had previously bought about 40 acres from the same landowner in 2011.

The latest purchase of land in Mendocino County, which she said was for about $2 million, was an example of the land trust’s slow and steady progress toward its goal of protecting wilderness areas by building and maintaining relationships with people who own property near them.

Though based in Montana, Rutledge said that the land trust has protected property throughout California, spanning “from the Pacific Ocean to the Sierra Nevada,” with another recent purchase being in Monterey County near Big Sur.

“The Thomas Creek project meets the mark for all the benefits of designating public lands – it’s going to protect critical habitat and treasured species, support biodiversity, and get us closer to our conservation and climate goals,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D- San Rafael) is quoted as saying in the land trust press release, which describes the property as providing “a link between lower-elevation habitats and the mature fir forests that blanket the high country, as well as a critical wildlife corridor between the Sanhedrin Wilderness to the north and other National Forest lands to the south.”

The property is described as supporting “a thriving community of rare plants, spotted owls, martens, bears, mountain lions, and deer, (and) also contains one of the last private sections of Thomas Creek, an important tributary to the Eel River, and critical spawning grounds for its steelhead and coho salmon fisheries.” The release also notes that “among the rare plant species is the Anthony Peak lupine which only grows in Mendocino National Forest.”

Because of its importance to the Eel River Watershed, the property was deemed “a high conservation priority for the Trust and National Forest for its climate change resilience value and high threat of development with the potential to be subdivided into six building sites.” According to the land trust, the Thomas Creek Project is the sixth property protected “either within or adjacent to the Sanhedrin Wilderness.”

The land trust purchased the property in October of 2022, and “for the last year … has been working with Forest Service leadership at Mendocino National Forest, the regional office, and Washington D.C. to complete the transfer of this important landscape to public hands. The transfer to public ownership was made possible by Land and Water Conservation (LWCF) funds with support from Rep. Huffman and the late Sen. Feinstein.”

According to the U.S. Forest Service website, “the 10,571 acre Sanhedrin Wilderness was established in 2006 by the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act. Elevations vary from 6,175 feet at Big Signal peak to 1,600 feet along Thomas Creek (which drains) westward to the Eel River. Developed trails do not exist within the Sanhedrin at this time; the only public access point for this area is by the lookout on Big Signal Peak at the end of Forest Road 20N04. From this location, visitors can enjoy off trail hunting, hiking, and camping activities.”


By:  JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN
Source: The Ukiah Daily Journal