Press Release

January 28, 2003

Owners Sign Pact to Preserve Comptche Ranch --
Deal Safeguards Private Forest, Public Interest

Santa Rosa, Calif. -- Whatever changes may come to Mendocino County, the Royal Redwood Ranch -- a 600-acre spread of redwoods, Douglas fir and grassland prairie where generations of teenagers have learned to love horseback riding -- will remain a thriving, productive forest.

Which is just how its longtime owners, Joe and Claudia Ayres, want it.

The couple, who have owned the ranch in Comptche for 35 years, reached final agreement this week with the Pacific Forest Trust on a deal that will give the land permanent protection from development pressures and overharvesting -- benefits that serve the interests of both the landowners and the surrounding communities.

The deal takes the form of a conservation easement the Ayreses donated to the Pacific Forest Trust. The easement -- a voluntary legal agreement that permanently limits development on the site -- prohibits subdivision of the ranch, and ensures that its forest will always be managed for a balance of timber, wildlife habitat and watershed values.

"We've been especially blessed to own, use and be stewards to this special property for the past 35 years. Now we've got this conservation easement specifically tailored to our concerns and the ranch's needs," said Joe Ayres. "The Pacific Forest Trust has been great to work with, and now we know that the ranch will be protected from exploitation and guaranteed respectful and gentle use permanently, long, long after we're gone. Claudia and I couldn't be more pleased."

For the 10-year-old Pacific Forest Trust -- which pioneered the use of conservation easements on working forests -- such deals form the cornerstone of its mission to protect significant resources of public value, and to maintain forests in productive use.

In addition to ensuring the property is never broken up, the easement will prevent overgrazing, and protect the Navarro River and environs by controlling erosion, reducing sedimentation and maintaining cold-water flows. The mutually beneficial arrangement makes possible an older, more complex forest, with great wildlife values, while the Ayreses retain the land-use rights necessary to support themselves.

Besides its 400 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest, the Royal Redwood Ranch contains several seasonal tributaries of the Little North Fork of the Navarro River, identified as a critically important waterway by local, county and state authorities. The ranch's water resources provide direct and indirect habitat benefits for coho salmon and steelhead trout, both federally listed threatened species.

"This agreement is the fruit of several years of careful, detailed planning," said Connie Best, PFT's managing director. "The result is a property that's sustainable both ecologically and financially. The future of forestry in Mendocino County depends on people like the Ayreses, who show that productive forestry and protection of sensitive fish and wildlife are complementary, not conflicting."