Sam Mauhay-Moore, SFGATE
A Santa Rosa-based environmental nonprofit recently purchased a historic Sonoma County ranch complete with a trout-filled creek and a 13-foot-wide, 1,000-year-old redwood tree.
Calvi Ranch, a 69-acre property west of Occidental, had been owned by the Calvi family since 1935. In November, the conservation group LandPaths purchased the ranch from the family with funding from the California State Coastal Conservancy and anonymous donations, the nonprofit announced in a news release Dec. 10.
The ranch operated as a sawmill when it opened, but only smaller trees were cut — allowing the property’s old growth and mature second-growth trees to remain, including the massive, thousand-year-old redwood. Giovanni “Rico” Calvi, the ranch’s former owner, once raised goats on the property, the Press Democrat reported.
“I will never forget my first visit to the incredible Calvi property,” California Coastal Commission vice chair Caryl Hart said in the news release. “Dropping down into the redwoods, to the creeks and the beautiful meadows. The idea that it could become a LandPaths’ preserve was like a dream.”
Read more at https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/calvi-ranch-sonoma-county-purchase-21253037.php