Conservation partnership buys large swath of redwoods

A deal is complete that will transfer ownership of the largest tract of privately owned land in Santa Cruz County to a collection of five local conservation groups.
The groups have plans to transform the 8,500 acres of redwood forest between Davenport and Bonny Doon, which is currently owned by the building materials suppler CEMEX, into an ecologically-sustainable environment.
The $30 million deal, signed Dec. 16, is part of the “Living Landscape Initiative,” a partnership of private donors that includes the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, the Sempervirens Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Peninsula Open Space Trust and the Save the Redwoods League.
The acquisition of the land is the first of a three-step process to ensure that the land, which connects wildlife habitats in nearby state parks and supplies Santa Cruz with 20 percent of its water supply, is not clear cut or developed, according to Stephen Slade, deputy director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.
The second step involves the placement of a conservation easement to protect the land by legally limiting its commercial uses and providing for trails and public access.
During the final phase, the property could be sold to a private party as a sustainable working forest. That means that the land could be logged, however an easement will be in place — which would remain held by the organization after any sale — that would prevent the owners from doing so in any manner that did not conform to sustainable practices.
“It will be a working forest that still achieves conservation goals,” Slade said. “This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often — when it does, you have to grab it.”
Slade said that, considering the budgetary crisis threatening California’s state parks system, sustainable-use easements might be the way to protect natural lands in the future.
“It’s an innovative approach,” he said. “The old ways to protect forests don’t work right now.”
The property has been owned by CEMEX — based in Monterrey, Mexico — since 2005, when the company acquired the Davenport cement plant operations from RMC Pacific Materials Inc.
According to Sara Engdahl, director of communications for CEMEX, the company decided to sell the property after operations at Davenport were permanently shut down in January 2010 because of market conditions and economic reasons.
Engdahl said that CEMEX had received SmartWood certification from the Rainforest Alliance for its sustainable harvesting of redwoods. The company entered into negotiations with the Living Landscape initiative in October, she said.
“CEMEX wanted to find a partner that could continue our work in environmental stewardship of the vast redwood and wildlife habitat,” Engdahl said.
Contact Joe Shreve at 438-2500 or jo*@pr*********.com.