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Stretch of Lost Coast redwoods to be spared the ax

Conservation group plans to buy 5-mile tract of Northern California shoreline to protect trees from logging

By Brian Melley, Associated Press
Published: December 11, 2021, 4:09pm
2 Photos
In this photo provided by Save the Redwoods League is the Lost Coast Redwoods property near Rockport, Calif., on Dec. 2, 2021. The group plans to buy and preserve the five mile stretch of rugged Northern California coast that has been logged for more than a century and still features some old-growth redwoods.
In this photo provided by Save the Redwoods League is the Lost Coast Redwoods property near Rockport, Calif., on Dec. 2, 2021. The group plans to buy and preserve the five mile stretch of rugged Northern California coast that has been logged for more than a century and still features some old-growth redwoods. (Max Whittaker/Save The Redwoods League via AP) (max whittaker/Save the Redwoods League) Photo Gallery

LOS ANGELES — The rugged Lost Coast is about to become less forbidding.

A conservation group on Thursday said it planned to purchase a scenic 5-mile stretch of the Northern California coastline from a lumber company to protect it from logging and eventually open it up to the public.

The Save the Redwoods League said it agreed to pay nearly $37 million for the DeVilbiss Ranch if it can raise the money by the end of the year.

“This is a piece of California that inspires,” said Sam Hodder, the league’s president and CEO. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The property sits at the southern end of the largely undeveloped Lost Coast, an unruly landscape untamed by highways and surrounded by timberlands off-limits to the public.

Forested hills on the ranch plunge to isolated beaches. Waves crash into sea stacks. Lush forests teem with green ferns and thick moss. Redwoods and firs up to a century old tower overhead. Two creeks harbor coho salmon and steelhead trout. The grasslands and woods are home to Roosevelt elk, deer, and mountain lions. The habitat supports endangered species such as the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet and Pacific fisher.

Some old-growth redwoods remain on the ridgeline where strong winds have snarled their tops, making them less valuable as lumber and sparing them the saw blade.

The property near Rockport, 155 miles north of San Francisco, is the largest privately owned section of California coastline in the redwood range that runs from Oregon to Big Sur, Hodder said.

It’s being sold by Soper Co., parent of Soper-Wheeler, which is leaving logging after 160 years of family ties to the business.

“You’d be hard pressed to find 5 miles of coastline for sale without going to a third-world country,” said Aric Starck, executive chairman of Soper and a member of the family that owns it. “This one is very unique.”

Logging companies, ranches and other conservation groups also bid on the property, Starck said.

The 5-square-mile property was selectively logged so it doesn’t feature gaping clear-cuts found in some timberlands, Hodder said. Much of the forest is second-growth redwoods 80 to 100 years old and topping 200 feet in height.

Soper is selling its lands because it’s gotten harder to make a profit in a timber industry that has consolidated and faces tougher environmental restrictions, Starck said. Like other multi-generational family businesses, it has run into the problem of having a growing number of heirs with interests outside logging.

The company has sold all but a fifth of the 172 square miles of land it began selling three years ago. It plans to sell all of its acreage by the end of next year.

“It’s a sad point in the company’s history,” Starck said.

The area was aggressively logged since the late 1800s, and most of the area was cleared by the turn of the last century, Hodder said. Only 5 percent of all old-growth coast redwoods — the tallest trees on the planet — remain today.

Logging and other private lands kept much of the Lost Coast area off limits until the 1970s, when the King Range National Conservation Area was created.

The Lost Coast Trail — an arduous hiking route along desolate rocky beaches that vanish at high tide, through river crossings and across steep bluffs — follows the shore.

The trail could be extended 5 miles with the acquisition, Hodder said. The league will survey the land for possible routes and public access.

Richard Gienger, a watershed advocate in the area, welcomed news of the purchase but said much of the rugged shoreline will remain inaccessible. The property ends just short of another timber company’s land where Cottaneva Creek spills into the Pacific, which would provide easy access to a beach.

“This is very significant access, but I don’t think it can be overly stressed: The link to having public access to the beach at Rockport is the next step and will probably cost twice as much,” Gienger said.

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