Effort launched to save Willits old-growth redwoods

<p>The Save the Redwoods League on Friday launched a campaign to raise $7 million to buy a 426-acre redwood and Douglas fir forest located along the historic Skunk Train tracks in Mendocino County.</p><p>The group has until April 1 to raise the money before logging commences on the property owned by the Willits Redwood Company.</p><p>The property includes about 123 acres of old-growth redwood and fir, said Bruce Burton, co-owner of the lumber company and mayor of Willits. It represents about 30 percent of the old growth still standing in the Noyo watershed, according to the conservation organization.</p><p>“This is an urgent situation in which the public will play a vital role,” said Ruskin K. Hartley, executive director of Save the Redwoods.</p><p>Bruce Burton and his partner, Chris Baldo, have agreed to delay cutting trees until the spring, Burton said. “We recognize it as being a very special piece of property,” he said.</p><p>The agreement to delay logging also helped avoid a lawsuit against the company's proposed logging operation, Burton said.</p><p>Because the land is surrounded by private property it is unlikely to end up as part of the state or federal parks system, as happens with much of the land purchased by the league.</p><p>Since 1918, Save the Redwoods has purchased more than 189,000 acres of forest land, including 5,000 acres in Mendocino that is now included in parks such as the Navarro River Redwoods State Park, Sinkyone Wilderness State Park and Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve.</p><p>The League expects to eventually transfer the Willits tract to a conservation organization or private land steward.</p><p>The property, located about five miles west of Willits, is accessible to the public only by train. People riding the Skunk Train between Willits and Northspur, located about halfway to Fort Bragg, can view the forest in passing, but the train normally does not stop.</p><p>Conservationists would work with Skunk Train officials to enhance public access to the property, said Save the Redwoods spokeswoman Jessica Lee. The group envisions educational trips for students, Lee said.</p><p>Currently, it costs $40 each for adults and $22 for children under 12 for a four-hour round-trip ride between Willits and Northspur, which could prove prohibitive for a classroom of children. Lee said that's another detail the League would be working on with Skunk Train officials.</p><p>A purchase would end Burton's first foray into owning and harvesting timber. His Willits sawmill, established in 1974, is fed by logs purchased on the open market.</p><p>The League began discussing acquisition of the land two years ago, just months after Burton's company bought it for $1.8 million, Burton said.</p><p>After the company's $150,000 timber harvest plan was approved in late 2009, several environmental groups threatened legal action. The groups agreed not to sue if Willits Redwood Company postponed logging for a year and made a good faith effort to sell the land, Burton said.</p><p>Burton said the property is worth far more than the $7 million price they've agreed to, but he would not divulge its appraised value.</p><p>“We're ambivalent about selling it,” he said.</p>