Wild and Scenic

by W.W. Keller news@mendonoma.com © copyright 2018, Independent Coast Observer reprinted with permission The Redwood Coast Land Conservancy and the Mendocino Land Trust announced on Thursday, Nov. 8, that an offer to buy the Mill Bend property in Gualala by an unidentified conservation buyer, has been accepted. The deal includes both the Mill Bend and the Lower Mill Bend parcels. …

On November 15, 2015, the Gualala Municipal Advisory Council (GMAC) sent a letter to CalFire expressing concerns regarding the proposed “Dogwood” and “Apple” logging plans in and directly adjacent to the environmentally sensitive floodplain of the Gualala River. Download the letter in pdf format: GMAC letter on Apple & Dogwood logging plans

Eight Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in southern India returned to our coastal communities for the fourth time in May, 2011. The monks are from one of three Tibetan refugee resettlement communities which were set up in India to accept refugees who were fleeing Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1959, where over one million Tibetans were …

River otter in the Gualala River Short video taken by a friend of the Gualala River, just west of the Green Bridge, near the confluence of the North & South Forks, in July 2009.

Report: California taxpayers may be getting fleeced by unreliable system to appraise sales price for park and open space land by Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News, October 23, 2007 [excerpt:] California voters have approved spending billions of dollars to buy new parks, wildlife refuges and open space preserves in recent years. Yet taxpayers may be getting fleeced because state …

Published in the Independent Coast Observer on November 3, 2006. Only 70 years ago, in the mid 1930s, most of the central and upper reaches of the Gualala River Watershed still were covered with virgin old-growth redwood forests. The trees shaded the river and its tributaries, and a deep network of tree roots helped prevent erosion of forest soils. Salmon …

Historical Proposals 1955 – Sonoma County Planning Commission Revised Beach and Shoreline Master Plan Excerpt:   Priority 1 – F. Gualala Riverbank and coastal shoreline. “This area is proposed for a major park because of its size, its natural beauty of second growth timber and other foliage, and because of its location along the Gualala River and the south fork. …

3/6/2006   John “Old-timers say that Annapolis has two seasons… dust and mud. Well, with several days of non-stop heavy rain, I have to say we are definitely still in the mud season.” “Here’s a mudslide that closed Annapolis Road during yesterday’s storm. The Gualala River is down in the canyon to the left.” “A small muddy stream is flowing …

2/20/2006   Peter “The river mouth has formed a double sand spit, an atypical configuration — a small ‘counter-spit’, growing in the reverse (south) direction of the main spit’s growth, overlaps the ocean side of the spit, and deflects the shrunken mouth southward about a hundred feet. It partially chokes the mouth, so the lagoon stands above the low tide.” …

12/31/2005   Peter “Soon after noon, the northern 2/3 of the sand spit was almost completely eroded from the river side, leaving 4 evenly spaced mounds (beach cusps) with vertical scarps facing the river, and low washover troughs between them. The above-tide mounds were less than 5 m wide by 1:30, and it’s likely that most of it will be …

1/26/2006   Jeanne 1/26/06 Storm on Gualala Point Beach; photo credit, Jeanne Gadol“I was driving south from Gualala towards the bridge around noon on a very stormy January 26th when I noticed the waves flowing over the sandbar. I grabbed my camera and settled in along the bank just below the pullout south of the Breakers. There was a small …

 12/31/2005   Britt “In the hours after we received our second significant storm of the ’05/’06 winter, I made my way to the main stem of the Gualala River to photograph the full and flooding river in conjunction with the 6.9 foot high tide. I first attempted to reach the green bridge where the North Forks join the main stem. …

 12/2/2005   Jim “Hiking in Gualala Point County Park gives a fine view of the Estuary. It is especially fine as the sun is setting and the shadows lengthen, heightening the peaceful colors of a clear early December afternoon.”

Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.

Governor Gray Davis signed Assembly Bill 1168 on July 23, 2003, adding segments of the Gualala and Albion Rivers to the California Wild and Scenic River system as “recreational” rivers.Wild & Scenic Gualala River, estuary photo credit: PT Nunn, 2004  Assemblymember Patty Berg (D-Eureka) introduced the bill to protect the two rivers after Alaska Water Exports, Inc. attempted to divert …