Conservation Easements
(Rancheria Creek Conservation Easement: Photo by James Bernard)
MLT works with private landowners to steward the following Conservation Easements in Mendocino County in Northern California:
- Rancheria Creek Conservation Easement (746 acres)- 1.5 miles of anadromous fish habitat, old growth redwood and fir, oak woodlands, grasslands, and wildlife habitat are abundant on this property.
- Irish Creek Conservation Easement (112 acres)- This property has a working redwood-fir forest and is home to the endangered Point Arena Mountain Beaver.
- McNab Creek Conservation Easements (470 acres)- An organic vineyard and historic home are conserved by these Conservation Easements.
- Cummiskey Creek Conservation Easement (40 acres)- Open grasslands, live oaks, madrone, and chaparral slope toward Cumminsky Creek, a tributary to the Russian River.
- Garcia Conservation Easement (72 acres)- This property hosts douglas fir and redwood forest and is headwaters of an anadromous tributary in the Garcia River watershed.
- Feliz Creek Headwaters Conservation Easement (320 acres)- This property contains ¼ mile of anadromous fish habitat, scattered old-growth douglas fir, oak woodlands, wildlife habitat, and areas of prehistoric activity.
- Digger Creek Conservation Easement (1.25 acres)- MLT partnered with the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens and the California Department of Water Resources' Urban Streams Program to conserve a riparian area on Digger Creek, south of Fort Bragg.
- Ridgewood Ranch Redwoods Conservation Easement (33 acres) - Mature
second-growth and 800 year-old old-growth redwood groves at Ridgewood Ranch near Willits were protected through a conservation easement. The project was undertaken with the support of the Save-the-Redwoods League and augmented by funds raised by the Inland Mendocino Land Trust. - Ridgewood Ranch Oak Woodlands Conservation Easement (1,689 acres) - The conservation easement permanently conserves conifer forest, oak woodland, and rangeland on Ridgewood Ranch including 4.75 miles of Riparian Protection Area that follows portions of Walker and Forsythe Creeks (fish bearing streams) and seven miles of critical Class II tributaries of the two creeks. To afford special features the best protection, a “wet meadow” and a vernal pool are also included in the Oak Woodlands conservation easement although they are located geographically inside a proposed Agricultural Conservation Easement area adjacent to the Oak Woodlands acreage.
- Salmon Creek Conservation Easement (25 acres) - Donated by a private landowner in Albion, California, the conservation easement permanently conserves 1,000 feet of stream and riparian habitat, a pond, mixed conifer forest, rare plants and wildlife habitat.
For more information on MLT's Conservation Easement program, please contact us at info@mendocinolandtrust.org or 707-962-0470.
