Mendocino County forest protected under conservation deal

More than 2,000 acres of working forestland that is home to threatened owls and endangered rodents in southwestern Mendocino County will be protected from development under a conservation easement in a $1.7 million deal that became final Monday.

After years of planning, the Mendocino Land Trust project was able to finalize the Brush Creek conservation easement after receiving a grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board.

It is one of two Mendocino County conservation easement grants approved by the conservation board at its Sept. 3 meeting. The other was a $3.4 million purchase of 2,554 acres along the Ten Mile River, near Fort Bragg.

“We are delighted about this project,” Ann Cole, executive director of the Mendocino Land Trust, said of the 2,018-acre Brush Creek easement her organization now holds. The acquisition brings the trust’s easement holdings to more than 6,300 acres, she said.

The new easement is located between Manchester and Boonville on forestland owned by the Edward Miller Trust. It includes 4.8 miles of streams in the Brush Creek watershed.

The owners agreed to sell the easement for 25 percent less than fair market value, Cole said. Escrow on the deal closed Monday.

Landowner Steve Miller said it’s been his longtime goal ?to preserve the forest his family has owned for 65 years ?from development, an effort he hopes will help offset global warming.

“It’s exciting. It will never be subdivided,” he said Monday.

The land potentially could have been split into 12 parcels, Cole said.

Conservation easement purchases help landowners like Miller offset the costs of doing what they believe is good for the environment, she added.

Miller said he also plans to eventually sell carbon offsets from the forest.

The agreement also will ?help the feathered, finned and furry creatures that live on the land. They include threatened Northern spotted owls and an endangered burrowing rodent found only in Mendocino County, the Point Arena mountain beaver. There are only 17 known colonies of the animal in the state.

The Brush Creek mountain beaver colony was discovered by Louisa Morris, the trust’s director of conservation, while she was searching for a rare butterfly on the property, Miller said.

“Louisa knew what to look for,” he said.

The mountain beaver isn’t a beaver at all, but one of the most primitive rodent species. ?The small, nocturnal animal spends most of its time underground.

This is the furthest inland the rodent has ever been found, Cole said. Two other colonies are located on property managed by the trust. The rodents also live on the nearby Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands.

The conservation agreement contains provisions to protect the mountain beaver, the birds and the fish on the property, she said.

Easement restrictions include a ban on logging within 100 feet of Brush Creek - where salmonids have been found - and all logging plans are subject to review by the land trust and Cal Fire.

Brush Creek is the Mendocino Land Trust’s 16th conservation easement. It expects to add more easements and some ?6,000 to 7,000 acres to its land portfolio within two years, Cole said.

Nationwide, an estimated ?47 million acres were protected by state, local and national land trusts as of 2010, according to the Land Trust Alliance.

In California, land trusts have protected an estimated 2.3 million acres, according to the alliance. County breakdowns were not available.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 ?or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@MendoReporter