Land Deal Will Preserve Threatened Redwoods In Santa Cruz Mountains
BONNY DOON (KCBS) - A huge swath of Central Coast forest that is home to several threatened and endangered species has been purchased by several preservation groups.
The $30 million deal to be finalized on Friday protects 8,500 acres of forest from Bonny Doon nearly to the Pacific Coast, although some logging will be permitted.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
"We will demonstrate the compatibility of a sustainable working forest with protection of old growth, improvement in the waterways, and even recreation," said Terry Corwin, executive director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.
In all, five environmental groups joined together to buy up a forest that Brian Stranko with the Nature Conservancy of California said has tremendous biodiversity.
"What the partners have done is globally significant," he said. "There are rare unique species and an assemblage of threatened and endangered species like nowhere else on the planet."
The environmentalists described the deal as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve property that had only recently come onto the market for development.
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