Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it
Preservation Ranch saved in record deal
A giant redwood forest in Sonoma County that was on the verge of being divvied up and plowed over into a patchwork of vineyards has been preserved by a public-private partnership that engineered what is being touted as the largest land conservation deal in California history.
June, 2013, SF Chronicle
Sonoma County redwood forest spared from conversion into vineyards
Opponents organized under the banner Friends of the Gualala River mounted a campaign against the CalPERS-funded company that included street theater tactics and an online petition signed by 90,000 critics of the development project.
June, 2013, LA Times
Sonoma Deal Aims to Combine Logging and Preservation
Can you preserve a forest by logging it? A land conservation group thinks so. The Conservation Fund announced Monday that, along with some partners, it had acquired 19,645 acres of forest in Sonoma County. The land had been slated for planting vineyards.
June, 2013, KQED
Preservation Ranch Earns Its Name
Opponents organized under the banner Friends of the Gualala River mounted a campaign against the CalPERS-funded company that included street theater tactics and an online petition signed by 90,000 critics of the development project.
June, 2013, The Conservation Fund
Preservation Ranch officially preserved
Nearly 20,000 acres of remote forest once targeted for vineyard development in remote northwest Sonoma County will be set aside as timberland and wildlife habitat under a landmark conservation deal that closed Friday. May 31, 2013, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Preservation Ranch: Big conservation, thanks to carbon credits
On May 31, the ink will dry on the largest land conservation deal in Sonoma County history: $24.5 million to permanently protect the 19,000-acre Preservation Ranch from a long-threatened vineyard and estate conversion process. Bay Nature, May, 2013
Who Saved Preservation Ranch?
“I sincerely hope that the mainstream press and officials at future dedication ceremonies recognize… Friends of the Gualala River for the sacrifices they made against enormous odds. Lest we are encouraged or allowed to forget, a few people are what it takes to make a difference.”
– Larry Hanson, Sonoma County Gazette, May, 2013
Preservation Ranch Acquisition
Coastal Conservancy staff recommend that the Conservancy authorize the disbursement of up to $10,000,000 to The Conservation Fund to acquire the property known as “Preservation Ranch.”
“A Sonoma forest is saved” 
Activists, led in recent years by the Annapolis-based Friends of the Gualala River… have been mobilizing voters for over 10 years to oppose Preservation Ranch in its various forms. March, 2013, Vibrant Bay Area
The Conservation Fund reaches agreement to purchase Preservation Ranch by May 31
The Conservation Fund plans to buy 20,000 acres of forest land in northwest Sonoma County, ending the “Preservation” Ranch forest-to-vineyards conversion project funded by the state employee pension fund, CalPERS.
Summary
The so-called “Preservation” Ranch was a 19,300 acre development in the heart of the Gualala River watershed owned by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and managed by Premier Pacific Vineyards (PPV).
PPV planned to “preserve” the land by destroying 1,600+ acres of coastal redwood forest and converting it into vineyards. Those vineyards – and the road infrastructure needed to service them – would have fragmented the remaining forest land, reducing its value as habitat for the creatures that depend on the forest for survival.
Water usage for irrigation, frost protection and supplying resident and migrant workers, filling of seasonal creeks and building of dozens of reservoirs would have had significant adverse impacts on down-stream water users – including fish.
Sonoma County was preparing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to assess the project’s potential to result in adverse impacts and to consider feasible mitigations and alternatives.
Comment letters on EIR scope, from:
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To aid public review, Friends of the Gualala River (FoGR) provided excerpted highlights, or “tabs,” of important items in the Initial Study that could otherwise be buried and obscured. These tabs are taken straight from the Initial Study with page references or verbatim quotations — not our interpretations.
FoGR’s own independent critical questions about the project – an important foundation for scoping – are an open and growing list, expanding as we consult with experts and non-technical residents alike. Our updated question and concern list is presented separate from the Initial Study tabs.
The Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) prepared an Initial Study of the Preservation Ranch Project to identify potential impacts and issues that should be assessed more thoroughly in the EIR.
Sonoma County’s Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) received an enormous stack of paperwork from PPV. The documents are available at the PRMD office, Santa Rosa Public Library, Horicon Elementary School in Annapolis, CalFire office at The Sea Ranch and on the PRMD website; see: PRMD: Preservation Ranch Project Proposal.
Preservation Ranch,
in the heart of the Gualala River watershed
“The heart of the proposed mitigation concept for Preservation Ranch is forest restoration as a means of compensating for the loss of forest to vineyards. . . The nature of mitigation and restoration, particularly of coastal forests in this region, should be given a hard look before they are accepted as a routine permit process.”
– Retail restoration and forest mitigation:
Conservation during the new “Grape Rush”
by Peter R. Baye, Ph.D.
Evans Ridge vineyard development on ‘Preservation’ Ranch
from a series of aerial photographs by Jamie Hall, October 2007
“Preservation Ranch is the latest in a long series of environmental assaults on western Sonoma County forests. After years of environmentally destructive logging, Sonoma County forests now face the additional threat of permanent development and conversion to vineyards. Numerous western Sonoma County forest conversions have been approved in the past, but the Preservation Ranch proposal is more than twice as large as all previous proposed and approved conversions combined since 1989.”
Worse than a Clearcut
Video produced by the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter.
More information
- Buckeye Forest – TCF
- Preservation Ranch saved in record deal – SF Chron
- Sonoma County redwood forest spared from conversion into vineyards – LA Times
- Sonoma Deal Aims to Combine Logging and Preservation – KQED
- Preservation Ranch Earns Its Name – TCF
- Preservation Ranch officially preserved – PD
- Preservation Ranch: Big conservation, thanks to carbon credits
- Who Saved Preservation Ranch?
- Supervisors approve landmark deal to purchase Preservation Ranch – PD
- Preservation Ranch Acquisition, Coastal Conservancy staff recommendation
- Letter from FoGR supporting the purchase of Preservation Ranch
- Support the purchase of Preservation Ranch
- Preservation Ranch purchase facing May 31 deadline
- A Sonoma forest is saved
- Some wine leaders pleased with pending demise of forest-to-vineyard project – PD
- Preservation Ranch Sale
- $24.5 million deal to protect 20,000-acre Sonoma County forest – PD
- We challenge supervisor candidates for REAL action on Sonoma County forest-vineyard conversions!
- Interview with Friends of the Gualala River – KGUA
- Preservation Ranch Petition – KRCB
- Activists protest Preservation Ranch – PD
- Stop Wineries from Destroying Redwoods
- CalPERS vows to push Preservation Ranch project – PD
- Sonoma Co. freezes hillside vineyard conversions – PD
- Coalition asks CalPERS to withdraw PRanch proposal
- Moratorium would block some proposed Sonoma County vineyards – PD
- Petition Presentation to Board of Supervisors
- Vintage Capital – FA
- Into the Woods – North Bay Biz
- Is Premier Pacific Vineyards Dead? – AVA
- “Preservation” Ranch – KPFA radio interview
- CalPERS move puts Preservation Ranch on hold? – PD
- Debunking the myths of Preservation Ranch
- May we suggest a Pinot w/ that redwood forest? -HuffPo
- Water Use by Vineyards Is Challenged – NYTimes
- Redwoods versus red wine – LA Times
- Plan to cut forest for vineyards faces opposition – AP
- Forest lands eyed for vineyards – PD
- People Who Belong To The Land – AVA
- Global warming threatens North Coast vineyards – PD
- Mendonoma Coast’s Second Spanish Invasion – AVA
- Decimation not Preservation – North Bay Bohemian
- Question on “Preservation” Ranch – KQED Forum
- “Preservation” Ranch – KTDE radio interview
- Mega-vineyard begins quest for permits
- “Preservation” Ranch Scoping Issues
- “Vineyard development is a real threat” – Craig Bell
- Worse than a Clearcut – Sierra Club
- Sonoma County Democratic Party opposes
“Preservation” Ranch - Timber Vs. Grapes – PD
- CalPERS vineyard venture attacked – SacBee
- Disregard for environmental regulations – AVA
- Leaving something behind doesn’t mitigate environmental harm – attorney Paul Carroll
- Sierra Club, Redwood Chapter, Sonoma Group
- “Preservation” Ranch info on Sonoma County website
- Notice of Preparation of Draft EIR
- Initial Study of the Preservation Ranch Project
- “Preservation” Ranch website
