A recent land purchase transfer from Save the Redwoods League to Sonoma Regional Parks added 1,500-plus acres to a now incredibly vulnerable park.
Public lands are under attack (again). The current Trump administration recently announced its plan to open up 58 million acres of federally protected lands … mostly for building roads. These natural bastions — areas Trump’s cabinet is poised to dismantle to also increase domestic lumber production, by any means possible, and restart federal infrastructure projects that formerly ceased because of their environmental impact — would see decades of conservation efforts fall to their wayside. Moreover, coastal forests are now disproportionately jeopardized due to their abundance of sought-after woods and high-value plots.
Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park and its respective open space reserve, both of which were acquired by the Sonoma County Regional Parks in 2020, contain rare swaths of native plants that live underneath giants: coastal redwoods. (In fact, the redwood groves at Monte Rio Redwoods are among the furthest inland examples of these trees in California.) However, the aforementioned regional park protects only about 550 acres of vulnerable forest.
That all changed earlier this month when the San Francisco-based conservation nonprofit Save the Redwoods League and its partners acquired an additional 1,500-plus acres of old-growth forest, transferring the land purchase to Sonoma Regional Parks, quadrupling the size of Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park.
“The League’s purchase and immediate transfer of the Monte Rio Redwoods Expansion to Sonoma County Regional Parks marks a significant moment for redwood forest conservation,” said Steve Mietz, president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League, in a statement. Deemed the “Monte Rio Redwoods Expansion,” the park’s new map now shares 75% of its border — “about 4.7 miles” — with Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park and Open Space Preserve to the east and Sonoma Coast State Park to the west. Per the non-profit, the expansion will connect a conserved area of more than 22,000 contiguous acres of “forest, wildlife corridors and watershed, from the Bohemian Highway to the Sonoma Coast and north to Jenner Headlands.”
Director of Sonoma County Regional Parks Bert Whitaker remarks he and other government staff are immensely grateful for the land purchase transfer, confirming the area will soon be accessible to the general public for generations. The park expansion also includes climate-resilient forests and other habitats that are crucial to conserve amid the climate crisis.
The parcel of land was originally owned by forest products company (read: lumber harvester) Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) for $24 million; MRC collectively owns roughly 228,000 acres of forest primarily located inside Humboldt County; as of publishing, the company holds multiple certifications for its dedication to sustainability and timer management practices.
It’s unclear when the Monte Regional Redwoods Park Expansion will open for public access, but rest assured its safeguarding from potential destruction or manipulation is a massive win for regional biodiversity, the climate, and NorCal residents — all while quietly giving a middle finger to the current federal government’s attitude toward protective land stewardship.
Feature Image; Courtesy of Justin Lewis / The Coldwater Collective, via Save the Redwoods League
