Mailliard Ranch is a 14,838-acre property near Boonville, California, in southern Mendocino County, within the ancestral lands of the Central Pomo Tribes. Home to the largest coast redwood forest still in private family hands. This expansive landscape features sweeping meadowlands, crystal-clear streams, and mountains and canyons blanketed by lush redwood forest, mixed-conifer groves, and oak woodlands.

In partnership with Save the Redwoods League, the Mailliard family agreed to permanently protect this forest via three conservation easements, preserving the future of the property’s old-growth redwoods and 28 miles of salmon-bearing streams at the headwaters of the Garcia River and in tributaries to the Navarro River.

After securing conservation easements for the Mailliard west and middle ranches in December 2018, the Save the Redwoods closed the final phase of this project in February 2021, protecting Mailliard east ranch, including the exquisite 58-acre old-growth coast redwood Cathedral Grove. The Mailliard family will retain ownership of the land and continue their exemplary stewardship of the forest, while the agreement safeguards the entire property from the threat of subdivision, development, and aggressive, non-sustainable timber harvest.

Redwood trees in the Cathedral Grove at Mailliard Ranch

Three conservation easements protect the expansive Mailliard Ranch property, including the 58-acre old-growth Cathedral Grove. Photo by Marcos Castineiras.

What we secured

  • 14,838-acre property in southern Mendocino County that includes 1,000 acres of reserves and two old-growth redwood groves
  • Watershed health and habitat connectivity throughout 82,000 acres of contiguous protected lands
  • 28 miles of salmon-bearing streams at the headwaters of the Garcia River and in tributaries to the Navarro River
  • Three conservation easements that permanently protect the land from aggressive timber harvesting, development, and subdivision
  • Reduction by 50 percent the amount of timber that can be cut under the California Forest protection rules—and an increase by that same factor the amount of carbon that will be stored by the forest
  • Optimal habitat for rare and endangered plants and wildlife, including 12 plant species of special concern and 8 animal species of special concern

We’ve completed a conservation puzzle

Redwood trees in the Cathedral Grove at Mailliard Ranch

Save the Redwoods League completed the final phase of conservation of the Mailliard Ranch in February 2021. Photo by Marcos Castineiras.

By safeguarding Mailliard Ranch, we’ve completed a puzzle of more than 82,000 acres of contiguous protected lands extending west from the Garcia River’s headwaters to the coast and south into northwestern Sonoma County. The ranch connects adjacent Mailliard Redwoods State Natural Reserve—donated by the Mailliard family to Save the Redwoods League for inclusion in the California State Parks system in 1954—and the Garcia River Forest, a nearly 24,000-acre forest owned and managed by The Conservation Fund for sustainable timber production, watershed restoration, and carbon sequestration.

This ideal connectivity has made the ranch a decades-long priority for conservation interests in California. With nearly 1,000 acres of reserves, including old-growth coast redwoods, mature mixed-conifer forest, and salmon-bearing streams, this land provides optimal habitat for a wide range of rare and endangered plants and wildlife, such as northern spotted owls, western pond turtles, Townsend’s big-eared bats, and golden eagles, as well as at least 159 native plant species. The Snow Mountain wildlife corridor also runs through the east ranch and is home to 12 plant species of special concern and eight animal species of special concern.

A family-owned forest, now permanently protected

Landscape at Mailliard Ranch

Once a sheep ranch that produced Merino wool, the Mailliard Ranch property is also home to the family’s low-impact cattle operation. Photo by John-Birchard.

There are 69 potential legal lots that the Mailliard property’s numerous co-owners and future inheritors—multigenerational family members who are geographically dispersed—could have ultimately sold to developers.

Instead, in 2015, the Mailliard family formalized their commitment to conservation and partnered with Save the Redwoods to grant conservation easements for the entire property. A conservation easement is a legal agreement that permanently limits uses of the land to protect its conservation values, no matter how many times the land gets sold or who owns it in the future.

The Mailliards have been sustainably managing timber on the property for more than 90 years. Under the easement terms, they can continue their forest management activity on the ranch’s young second-growth working forest, utilizing low-impact management techniques such as selective harvesting. The easements will reduce by 50 percent the amount of timber that can be cut under the California Forest protection rules—and, by consequence, increase by that same factor the amount of carbon that will be stored by the forest.

Additionally, the easements will contribute to the region’s fire resilience. Residential development in the wildland-urban interface can dramatically exacerbate wildfire intensity and resulting firefighting costs, whereas mature redwood forests are among the most fire-resilient ecosystems in California.

While there will be no public access to Mailliard Ranch or its protected groves, ensuring this forest stays forest for all time is important to the regional ecosystem and for the health of California’s natural landscapes, flora, and fauna.

Our expansive approach to conserving redwood forests

Cathedral Grove at Mailliard Ranch

Mailliard Ranch safeguards sustainable working forests across nearly 15,000 acres and protects nearly 1,000 acres of reserves, including old-growth coast redwoods, mature mixed-conifer forest and salmon-bearing streams. Photo by Marcos Castineiras.

Securing the 14,898-acre Mailliard Ranch—home to sustainable timber forests and a working ranch amid a larger swath of protected lands—is a prime example of what’s known as “landscape-scale conservation.” This expansive approach to protecting redwood forests aims to ensure that the interests of different stakeholders are met, instead of focusing on a single use of the land. It also supports communities, the economy, as well as the wildlife and natural resources of an area.

Save the Redwoods’ land protection goals for the next century are to double the size of coast redwood forests in parks and reserves from 400,000 to 800,000 acres, including the remaining old-growth forests, and to secure the remainder of the redwood forests’ footprints in ecologically managed working forests. To achieve these goals we have to think big—and protecting the nearly 15,000-acre Mailliard family property through conservation easements is a giant step in the right direction.

Generous donations and voter-approved funding make protection possible

Giant redwood tree at Mailliard Ranch

Thanks to you, the Mailliard property’s two old-growth coast redwood groves, Cathedral Grove and Armstrong Grove, are now protected forever. Photo by Marcos Castineiras.

Save the Redwoods League is deeply honored that the Mailliard family not only chose to partner with us to achieve permanent protection of this invaluable property but also contributed a land value donation of $6.5 million toward the $24.7 million purchase price for the easements.

We are also grateful to our federal and state agency partners for bringing voter-approved public funding to bear on our shared conservation goals. Save the Redwoods received $4.75 million in grant funding from the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) through Proposition 84, the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006; $4.3 million from CAL FIRE granted by the USDA Forest Service Forest Legacy Program; and $1 million from the California Natural Resources Agency’s Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program, established by legislation in 1989 under the California Streets and Highways Code with funding from the Highway Users Tax Account. These state and federal funds would not exist without voter support, demonstrating how critical Save the Redwoods’ supporters’ voices and votes are in helping us fund conservation projects.

The protection of Mailliard Ranch was made possible through public funding and by donors who supported the project through Forever Forest: The Campaign for the Redwoods. Save the Redwoods donors contributed $8.15 million, including a $1 million grant from the Hind Foundation, a leadership gift from Ralph Eschenbach and Dr. Carol Joy Provan, a $250,000 match challenge offered by Justin Faggioli and Sandra Donnell, and grants from Walmart’s Acres for America program through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Nancy Eccles and Homer M. Hayward Family Foundation.