Current Stewardship
Elk Creek
Watershed
Photo: Justin Garwood
Elk Creek runs through the old-growth redwood country of Del Norte County, where the Klamath Mountains descend to meet the Pacific. This is one of the most biologically rich and least disturbed landscapes remaining in California — a refuge that has survived the logging era by circumstance more than by protection, and that now faces pressure from all sides.
Our 15-acre parcel sits within the lower Elk Creek watershed, in the riparian zone where the forest meets the water. This is the interface that matters most: the shaded creek banks that keep water temperatures cold enough for Coho salmon, the root systems that hold the soil against the current, the fallen logs that create the complex structure juvenile salmon need to survive their first winter.
We hold this land not as owners but as stewards — participants in a community of life that has been here far longer than any human institution, and that will persist, if we do our part, long after we are gone.
- Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)endangered
- Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina)threatened
- Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana)
- Pacific Giant salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus)
- Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti)
- Cougar (Puma concolor)
- Black bear (Ursus americanus)
Coho salmon in California's Klamath Mountain region are among the most imperiled populations on the West Coast. Their recovery depends not on any single action but on the integrity of entire watersheds — clean cold water, intact riparian forest, minimal sediment, unobstructed passage. Every parcel that remains forested and undisturbed is a contribution to that integrity.
Elk Creek is also a stronghold for Port Orford cedar, a species facing existential pressure from an introduced root disease (Phytophthora lateralis) that spreads primarily through human disturbance — soil movement, road building, foot traffic. Protecting this parcel from development means protecting the cedars from the vectors that kill them.
This land does not need to be managed. It needs to be left alone. Our role is to hold the legal and financial infrastructure that makes that possible in perpetuity.