Feds pony up money for Jenner Headlands
Posted 9 pm, July 19, 2006
By JW SharpWhen it comes to conserving land in the public interest, the quiet knock of opportunity is usually required to open the door. Last March, that knock came in the form of an offer from the owners of 5,630 acres of land in and around the mouth of the Russian River known as the Jenner Headlands. The opportunity for preservation came a step closer to reality on July 13, when the Senate appropriations committee approved a bill to provide $2.85 million toward the purchase of the property.
“Acquisition of the Jenner Headlands is the most significant opportunity along the Sonoma Coast to protect an important area with unique and diverse conservation, recreational, ecological and aesthetic values,” said US Senator Diane Feinstein, one of the proponents of the bill, in a press release. “The bill approved today will help provide funding to purchase a property that is a critical link in completing a 30-mile-long conservation corridor from Bodega Head to Fort Ross.”
The purchase price of the property is estimated at $25 million, but could easily exceed $30 million according to Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Reilly. The money would come from a varied group of local, state and federal agencies with an interest in preserving the area. Now that the federal money is on the table, more pressure is placed on local and state agencies to put up the remainder and preserve this land in perpetuity.
Preservation would offer habitat conservation for many species, including the endangered coho salmon, as well as recreational and aesthetic pleasure for the public whose money is being spent. Several key watersheds in the area, including the domestic water supply for the 170 residents of Jenner, would also be protected in the deal.With funding from the Sonoma County Agricultural and Open Space District for assessment and analysis, SLT is currently negotiating with the landowners and acquiring funding for the purchase. In their Spring 2006 newsletter, SLT described the property as “a perfect complement to the recently acquired Willow Creek watershed” on the other side of the Russian River. The purchase would also protect a 1.7-mile stretch of the scenic Sonoma Coast, which draws over 3 million visitors every year.
“We’re currently in negotiations with the landowners,” SLT Executive Director Ralph Benson told me by phone. “We’re hoping to pull a lot of strings together this fall and do a deal in 2007.”
The land, historically known as the Rule Ranch, is owned by a set of business partnerships and has been held for development and timber management. In recent years, the owners have upgraded and decommissioned many of the logging roads on the property to prevent erosion and sedimentation.
The property was also at the center of a recent power struggle between the California Department of Forestry and the State Water Resources Control Board. As a result of that struggle, SWRCB clarified their legal right to monitor and regulate timber harvests that threaten local waterways. It was after that decision was handed down that the owners began exploring the possibility of getting the necessary Administrative Certificates of Compliance that would allow them to subdivide without further permits.
The
subdivision would create between 31 and 47 developable parcels, less than
one home per 100 acres. While few (if any) of those homes would be in the
public eye, they represent the final crop and signal a virtual end to the
possibility of preservation.
Even if the property falls into public hands, it’s future is still in doubt. The California Department of Parks and Recreation has expressed an interest in the 1100 acres along the coast, but they have little enough funding for management and almost none for acquisition. While public access is a likelihood (if not a necessity for funding purposes) it might wind up being along the lines of that offered for nearby Willow Creek – by permit only under the auspices of LandPaths, a Santa Rosa non-profit. Access to the rest of the property, which might be purchased in phases as funding becomes available, would be severely limited as well due to topography and other issues.
Even without public access, however, the benefits of preservation would be enormous. The property is in the view shed of both Highway One and the Russian River. Clean water, always a high priority, is becoming more and more so both for consumption and habitat, and preserving the land in this case will also preserve the water. Acquisition would also ease the construction of the California Coastal Trail, a long-held dream of environmentalists and recreational hikers to provide access to the entire coast from Oregon to Mexico that slowly moves ever closer to reality.
Perhaps Benson puts it best in the SLT newsletter: “What a magnificent addition this land would make to our network of protected, publicly accessible places.”Illustrations are from the Sonoma Land Trust.The entire Sonoma Land Trust application document is available at:
http://www.coastalconservancy.ca.gov/CELCP/Jenner%20Headlands%20CELCP%20Application.pdf
http://www.sonomalandtrust.org/pdfs/newsletters/slt_newsletter_spring06.pdf
