Big River Acquisition

by Douglas Seekatz, Supervising Ranger

Every now and then, California State Parks acquires a piece of property that is worthy of state and national attention. Such was the case, on July 1, 2002, when the Big River property transferred to State Parks. The Big River acquisition is 7,334 acres, with 50 miles of Big River and its tributaries. It includes the entire tidal estuary and 12 miles of prime salmon spawning gravels. There are 1,500 acres of wetlands
providing habitat for endangered and threatened species.

The Big River property is connected to Van Damme State Park on the south, and Jackson State Forest and Russian Gulch State Park to the north. This creates 60,000 acres of connected wildlife corridors and potential trail system. This truly is a significant acquisition. The Big River property was acquired from the Hawthorne Timber Company, LLC for almost $26, 000,000. Twenty million was raised from public agencies and six million from private donations. The Mendocino Land Trust acted as the lead organization in the fund raising effort.

The fact that this property was owned by a timber company means that it has a large network of old logging roads. This is both good and bad. Many of the old roads need to be eliminated, while others are a ready made trail system that can accommodate hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian use. In fact the property has been used for these purposes for many years by the locals (gates what gates? I didn't see any stinkin' gates).

That's the good news. Now for the bad. None of the operating budget or staff has been forthcoming for this new acquisition. This creates a serious problem for the park staff, who have no resources to deal with the current problems on the Big River property.

There are some serious resource problems-- erosion, slides, road failures--and some law enforcement problems, the most serious being off road vehicle use. To deal with these problems, the Mendocino Land Trust is cooperating with State Park staff to create a volunteer group called Stewards of Big River. This group will work on resource restoration projects and will include a volunteer equestrian and mountain bike patrol. With the current budget crisis, this may be the only way we have of dealing with some of our problems for the near future. Fortunately, there is very strong community support for the Big River acquisition and the Stewards of Big River.

I urge anyone who can do it, to come to Mendocino and check out the Big River acquisition. There are 8.3 miles of river that are great for canoeing or kayaking, and I can't even tell you how many miles of hiking trails/roads.