redwoods – Enviro Updates

Logging plan for Jenner forestland riles coastal community

March 23, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

For several generations, the Berry family has logged the forest on their sprawling coastal property near the mouth of the Russian River to feed a sawmill they continue to operate a few miles upstream.

But the family’s latest plan for 1,099 acres of forest they own overlooking the river near its outlet at Jenner has riled this small community, raising concerns about the long-term impacts on drinking water and imperiled salmon runs that have yet to recover from a century of destructive commercial logging.

Bruce Berry, proprietor of Berry’s Mill and Lumberyard in Cazadero, is seeking state approval to thin his family’s forestland, which borders the river’s north bank, with the protected Jenner Headlands Preserve to the west.

The proposal has sparked concerns among some local residents and with environmentalists, who have waged a larger fight in recent decades over the scope of modern commercial logging on the coast. Stretching back to the Gold Rush-era, the region was razed for its redwoods and fir trees, producing lumber that helped build San Francisco — and rebuild it after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Forestscoho salmon, Douglas fir, redwoods, Russian River, salmon habitat, Sheephouse Creek

Bill would shift state demonstration forests from logging to restoration

February 20, 2026

Sarah Stierch, MENDOCINO VOICE

A bill to change how California’s demonstration state forests are managed — placing greater emphasis on research, public access and forest restoration rather than logging — was introduced in the State Assembly on Friday.

Assembly Bill 2494 was introduced by Assemblymember Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa and co-authored by state Senator Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg.

According to Cal Fire, California has 14 demonstration state forests totaling 85,000 acres. Unlike state parks, they are working forests. Cal Fire manages the lands that are used to test and show forestry practices, conduct research, and harvest timber while remaining open to the public for recreation.

Two of the state’s 14 demonstration forests are in Rogers’ district: Jackson Demonstration State Forest in Mendocino County and Ellen Pickett State Forest in Trinity County.

Rogers introduced the bill with the goal of modernizing policies that he says haven’t been updated in decades and are not aligned with the state’s current climate initiatives.

Under current law, known as the State Demonstration Act, timber production is a key part of how demonstration forests are funded and managed. AB 2494 would shift that emphasis by stating that research, recreation and forest restoration are the primary purposes of the forests.

Forestsconservation, forest restoration, Jackson Demonstration State Forest, recreation, redwoods, sustainable logging

Conservation group purchases historic Sonoma County family ranch

December 19, 2025

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.”

Forests, Land Useconservation, Land Paths, redwoods

Coho salmon found in Sonoma Coast creek for first time in 60 years

December 8, 2025

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The excitement started with a flash of silver followed by a hefty dose of disbelief.

A team of conservationists and biologists from The Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the 5,600-acre Jenner Headlands Preserve on the Sonoma Coast, couldn’t believe what they were seeing: the telltale color and shape of juvenile coho salmon, darting back and forth in the clear current of the East Branch Russian Gulch.

It had been decades since the endangered fish had made its way to that arm of the watershed.

And yet there they were, as Ryan Berger, Corby Hines and Luke Farmer of The Wildlands Conservancy looked on.

“I had never heard of coho being in the Russian Gulch in recent memory,” said Hines, a ranger with the group.

Coho salmon once thrived in the coastal watersheds of Sonoma County and the broader North Coast, where winter rain, summer fog and the protective canopy of towering redwood forest sustained young fish and spawning adults over millenia.

Habitats, Water, Wildlifecoho salmon, endangered species, redwoods, Russian Gulch

Op-Ed: Fixing Forests

May 25, 2025

Teri Shore, PACIFIC SUN

I just visited the redwood country and wilderness forests that stretch from the cool coastal range to snow-topped alpine ridges in the interior mountains in Northern California. Hiking through groves of redwoods adorned with bouquets of trillium and along clear rivers ringing with birdsong from tiny hidden warblers, I felt at times like I was in paradise.

But then I’d come upon massive redwood stumps that were cut generations ago still standing. Heading into the famed Headwaters Preserve, the newer growth didn’t hide the past devastation. The fragmented groves of ancient redwoods in the national parks often felt like tree museums. In fact, the Tall Trees Grove on Redwood Creek requires a permit for entry past a locked gate.

Heading into the Smith River, Scott River and Trinity Alps, I was taken by the rugged landscapes and powerful waters but overwhelmed by the miles of burned lands. Some places were recovering with green and wildflowers. Other expanses were spoiled by salvage logging where giant scorched logs were abandoned and massive slash piles left behind.

After seeing all this, I realized the urgency of halting the Fix our Forest Act moving toward passage in Congress. The bill authorizes more logging and less environmental protection in our forests and is key to the log-baby-log mantra coming from The White House.

We need our State Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff to oppose this bill and rally their colleagues to defeat it. If not, they will allow the beauty of our forests to be finally and forever turned into the beasts of industry.

Source: https://pacificsun.com/your-letters-may-21/

Forestslogging, redwoods

Save the Redwoods League signs $24 million deal to purchase Monte Rio redwood forest and expand county park

February 11, 2025

Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The $24 million acquisition by Save the Redwoods solidifies a 22,000-acre block of protected land stretching from Monte Rio to the Sonoma Coast.

A San Francisco-based conservation group has agreed to purchase 1,517 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest near Monte Rio for $24 million, with the goal of transferring the property to Sonoma County Regional Parks for public use.

The deal — between Save the Redwoods League and Mendocino Redwood Company, which owns the property — is aimed to dramatically expand Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park and Open Space Preserve, from its current 515 acres to more than 2,000 acres.

It also would create a contiguous swath of more than 22,000 acres of protected land, from the Bohemian Highway to the Sonoma Coast and north to the Jenner Headlands.

Forests, Land UseDouglas fir, protected lands, redwoods, Save the Redwoods

One of California’s tallest redwoods is 2,000 years old. Inside the fight to keep it safe

July 27, 2022

Gregory Thomas, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

See Guerneville Forest Coalition “The Clar Tree” for more information.

Standing on the side of Highway 116, which winds through the dense forests of western Sonoma County, John Dunlap looked across the Russian River into a stand of tall trees and pointed out one old redwood in particular.

“It’s really a hidden gem here that’s kind of out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t deserving of our attention.”

Up from the riverbank near Guerneville is the county’s tallest tree, an estimated 2,000-year-old, 340-footer known as the Clar Tree. Once thought to be the highest tree in California, it carries the name of a timber family that lived in the area back when it was a logging capital. It is easily identifiable by its dead, forked crown — the result of a lightning strike some years ago.

Passersby wouldn’t be able to glean the tree’s significance at a glance — its prominence is somewhat camouflaged by its brethren — yet the Clar is at the center of an impassioned dispute over how best to care for California’s iconic, old-growth coast redwoods, the towering titans that have inspired generations of naturalists but were nearly cut to extinction during California’s frenzied development 150 years ago.

The tree stands at the edge of a 224-acre property of redwoods, firs and oaks that has been logged in pieces for decades and is considered a “high fire hazard severity zone.” The Cloverdale timber company that owns the land, Redwood Empire Sawmill, is intent on harvesting redwood there “sustainably” and as soon as possible.

ForestsCalfire, logging, redwoods, Russian River, timber harvest plan