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Press release from the Northcoast Regional Land Trust:

The Northcoast Regional Land Trust (NRLT) announced today the completion of three conservation easements totaling 412 acres near Willow Creek, CA. NRLT will hold and steward the easements, conserving in perpetuity working forestlands, vital streams, wildlife habitat, and significant stands of Port Orford cedar.

The three easements, Panther Creek and Summit Creek I & II, are adjacent to a property previously conserved by NRLT, the 1,600-acre Miller Forest, as well as the 950,000-acre Six Rivers National Forest. Together these lands provide habitat connectivity and buffer previously conserved areas from subdivision and development. Most significantly, the newly established conservation easements expand a Port Orford cedar reserve. Port Orford cedar is a Klamath Mountain endemic species currently threatened by root rot, Phytophthora lateralis, a fungal pathogen that has been decimating the trees in recent years. These conservation easements protect stands in which the root rot has not yet taken hold, reducing the risk of future infection throughout the Willow Creek and Trinity River watershed, and helping to conserve this southernmost population of Port Orford cedar into the future.

The Northcoast Regional Land Trust would like to thank the landowners of the Summit Creek properties, John and Peggy Ridlon and Clifford Gibson and Linda Tabacco, as well as the landowner of both the Panther Creek property and the previously conserved Miller Forest, Steve Miller. The Northcoast Regional Land Trust would also like to thank the California Natural Resources Agency’s Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program for their generous funding to complete these vital conservation easement projects that will last in perpetuity.

With the addition of these three conservation easements, the Northcoast Regional Land Trust has conserved more than 53,000 acres in our region over the past 20 years.

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TheNorthcoast Regional Land Trust is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and economic viability of working landscapes, farms, forests and grazing lands, and to the preservation and protection of land for its natural, educational, scenic and historic values. We work with landowners on a voluntary basis to promote stewardship of Northern California’s healthy and productive resource base, natural systems and quality of life.