Major $11.7 Million Conservation Land Deal Made

PALO ALTO, CA -- A conservation group paid $3.5 million to buy property next to Butano State Park along the border of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties to keep the redwood-tree laced land pristine.

The Gazos Creek 320-acre land deal brought together ecologists and loggers who the latter have long made their living in resource extraction. Still, the land has been left dormant by Big Creek Lumber, a regional logging company owned by the McCrary family.

"This land has been in the McCrary family for 50 years. They've not been logging it and been a conservation-minded company," Peninsula Open Space Trust spokeswoman Marti Tedesco told Patch.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust of Palo Alto has been working with the McCrary Family to set aside a total of 937 acres of redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains in a dual-property, multi-party $11.7 million deal establishing a working forest conservation easement.

The mission involves putting together swaths of land like a jigsaw puzzle in order to keep the forests healthy.

"From my perspective, the forests don't do really well to have tiny pieces of forest here and there. It's significant to have swaths of uninterrupted forest that's good for our water quality and good for our air quality," Tedesco said.

"The forest quilt" is intended to somewhat stall the overwhelming encroaching development the Silicon Valley has witnessed over the last decade or so. To POST, it helps that both properties are located within watersheds.

The Gazos Creek portion of the deal permanently protects 320 acres of critical watershed, mature redwoods and wildlife habitat like the endangered marbled murrelet adjacent to the state park -- with no plans to develop the site. Gazos Creek sits nestled due north of Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

The land will be managed by the Sempervirens Fund, a redwoods protection advocacy group.

"I think it's exciting and great. I think POST will work well with the lumber company for the redwoods. It's exciting to see and far better to collaborate," Los Altos resident Emy Thurber told Patch. Thurber once served as the Sempervirens president and holds the distinction of being honored by California Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, as woman of the year last month for her 50 years of public service.

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“We are honored to partner with the McCrary family to protect significant areas of redwood forest from development and support responsible, sustainable timber production. It’s a win-win arrangement that benefits the forest and shows just how far conservationists and timber companies have come,” POST President Walter T. Moore said, referring to days when fist fights and tree sit-ins marked the conflict conservationists and loggers battling over how to manage the redwoods.

“For more than 70 years, these forests have been integral to our family’s identity and livelihood,” said Janet McCrary Webb, president of Big Creek Lumber. “The innovative deal we’re announcing makes good environmental sense, as we continue to apply our progressive forestry practices that deliver the many benefits of active forest management to the surrounding community.

Beyond Gazos Creek, a 617-acre property owned by the Cal Poly Corporation is the second part of the deal known as Valencia Creek, an upper watershed of Aptos Creek in Corralitos. Big Creek Lumber will owning, manage and leave alone the Valencia Creek property, with POST holding the working forest conservation easement.

Assuming management of the Gazos Creek parcel, the Sempervirens Fund has labored since 1900 at protecting 53 square miles of local redwood forests and watersheds for current and future generations. For this dual deal, it is working in concert with the lumber company, POST and the California State Coastal Conservancy.

“This landmark arrangement could establish a model for similar protections and partnerships in the Santa Cruz Mountains and elsewhere,” said Sam Schuchat, executive officer of the Coastal Conservancy. “It provides for optimal land uses: preserving endangered species habitat and working forest, along with watershed protections and permitting public access to the Gazos property.”