Old Growth Forest Will Be Preserved From Logging/Environmentalists win right to buy it
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle
September 22, 2000
Angelica Pence, Chronicle Staff Writer
A Los Altos environmental group soon will be the proud owner of a 1,340-acre parcel in the Santa Cruz Mountains, essentially disallowing any future logging in the pristine redwood forest.
The Sempervirens Fund earlier this month offered $11 million to buy Waterman Gap, an old-growth forest situated at the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River, from the San Lorenzo Valley Water District.
Several lumber companies had their eye on the gap including San Jose's Pacific States Industries, owned by California timber mogul Roger Burch. But last night, at their board meeting in Boulder Creek, the five-member district board unanimously accepted the Sempervirens' offer.
``This is a major victory for us,'' said John Gilliland, director of development for the Sempervirens Fund, which has saved thousands of forest acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The deal marks the fund's largest and costliest land purchase in its 100-year history. Well worth the money, it said, for a piece of land long considered among California's most pristine old growth forests.
In the early 1900s, a catastrophic fire ravaged the region, the scars of which still can be spotted, said Willie Yaryan, a co-author of ``The Sempervirens Story: A Century of Preserving California's Ancient Redwood Forest.'' During that time, at least 30 lumber mills were open for business in the area known today as Big Basin Redwood State Park, which borders Castle Rock State Park. Now there remains only one.
Since that period, Waterman Gap has remained intact, essentially unscathed by Mother Nature or the powerful lumber industry.
Situated just south of Castle Rock, the gap's second-growth timber resources are estimated to be more than 46 million board feet. The woods link the 33-mile-long Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail, and are home to the San Lorenzo River -- habitat for several fish species and Santa Cruz's main water source.
``It's exceptional in that it's returned on its own to a very healthy native forest,'' Gilliland said. ``In addition to being beautiful, the water is running clear and is well collected. And erosion problems are minimal. It's well on its way.''
The district and Sempervirens had been in negotiations over the land since February. On Friday, Burch proposed a purchase price of $12.5 million, slightly more than the Sempervirens offer. The company did not, however, submit an official offer to the five-member board, according to water district manager Jim Mueller.
The Sempervirens Fund plans to turn Waterman Gap over to the California Department of Parks and Recreation for inclusion in the 4,500- acre Castle Rock State Park.
To that end, the Peninsula organization must raise a total of $13.4 million -- the final price tag for the precious redwoods after taxes and interest are tacked on. So far, the nonprofit group and its 15,000-plus donors have collected $1.2 million -- enough for a down payment, Gilliland said. The rest probably will come from state and federal funds, including money available via Proposition 12 -- a measure passed in March allotting $2.1 billion for conservation measures.
``This is big, three times as large as the largest campaign we've mounted in our history,'' Gilliland said of the Sempervirens Fund, which is charged with preserving California's coastal redwoods, or Sequoia Sempervirens. ``We're bracing ourselves for a three-year campaign, at least.''
Many neighbors of Waterman Gap, fearful of haphazard enforcement of environmental laws, damaged watersheds and rising truck traffic, have long argued that the forest should remain as is, in its natural state, void of any degree of logging or government intervention.
``The fact is fires were natural here long before Smokey the Bear came around,'' said Yaryan, who has lived just outside Waterman Gap for the past 25 years. ``I have faith that the forest will take care of itself, especially without our interference.''