Five hours north of San Francisco, the Eel River Canyon Preserve was purchased from the estate of financial broker Dean Witter by The Wildlands Conservancy out of Oak Glen, CA.
Frazier Haney is their Executive Director of the conservancy.“This was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a property of this size. It’s one of the biggest acquisitions by acres for conservation in California over the last ten years,” said Haney.
The non-profit buys properties across the state for environmental conservation and currently operates seven preserves around the San Bernardino National Forrest and another 15 around the state.
Haney said they’ve purchased properties outside Southern California because there’s land across the state that needs conservation. He added, “California’s State Parks really haven’t been growing in a couple of decades, but there is a real need for additional open space protection and public access to the outdoors.”
The Wildlands Conservancy is currently working on plans to protect wetlands and logged forests on the 26,600 Acre property and hopes to have a ranger station and a group campground open for the public in about a year.
