Atkins Place: Facts & FAQ

Forest landscape — The view to the west from Atkins Place. Photo: Max Forster, @maxforsterphotography

KEY FACTS

Atkins Place is 453 acres.
Located in Mendocino County, approximately 10 miles west of Ukiah as the crow flies.

Located within the traditional lands of the Northern Pomo people.

Adjacent to Bureau of Land Management parcels and Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve. Atkins Place shares a 0.75-mile boundary with Montgomery Woods.
Atkins Place includes 335 acres of mixed coast redwood and Douglas-fir forest, 18 acres of brush, and 100 acres of grassland.
In the Big River watershed, Atkins Place contains 1.25 miles of high-quality steelhead and coho salmon streams: Dark Gulch Creek along the western boundary and Alfred Creek running east to west through the property.
- Coho and steelhead are known to spawn on the property.

The property provides important habitat for endangered foothill yellow-legged frogs, which have been noted within a 1-mile buffer of the property.
Atkins Place provides nesting habitat for northern spotted owls, northern goshawks, white-tailed kites, and other raptors.
A Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan has been in place since 2002.

FAQs

What is protected?

The property is 453 acres, including 335 acres of second-growth coast redwood and Douglas-fir forest and 1.25 miles of high-quality streams for imperiled fish in the salmon family. The acquisition protects all of this, which includes habitat for endangered foothill yellow-legged frogs, threatened steelhead trout, threatened northern spotted owls, and coho salmon, as well as northern goshawks, white-tailed kites, and other raptors.

What is the condition of the forest in Atkins Place?

While the forest was heavily logged in the past, the land has been under a Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan since 2002, using active forest management to restore the forest from heavy logging in the past. Timber harvests under this plan have focused on removing small, unhealthy trees to promote the growth of the larger, more vigorous trees. This brings back diversity in tree sizes and age classes, which are characteristics of a healthy forest. The property has 335 acres of young, healthy mixed coast redwood and Douglas-fir forest. By protecting land, these redwoods can grow to become the old growth of the future, further protecting Montgomery Woods in an expansive, healing, redwood forest.