In October 2011, we completed a landmark preservation agreement to protect this “working forest,” which will provides jobs in the local timber economy. The agreement permanently prohibits development and conversion to non-forest uses while allowing, the nonprofit Redwood Forest Foundation, which owns the Usal Forest, to sustainably harvest timber while restoring and maintaining habitat for fish and wildlife.

To save this community forest, we led a complex, collaborative team that negotiated the preservation agreement and secured the financing to help the Redwood Forest Foundation achieve its conservation goals. Our partners included the Wildlife Conservation Board, the Save the Redwoods League and the California Coastal Conservancy.

In December 2014, we transferred the 49,600 acre working forest easement on the Usal Redwood Forest to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to be managed as part of the agency’s Forest Legacy Program. The largest working forest conservation easement in California, the transfer more than doubles the total number of acres under the Department’s 17 year old Forest Legacy Program.  The project is a testament to the extraordinary benefits that have resulted from the Wildlife Conservation Board’s diligent and effective administration of the Forest Conservation Program funded by California voters in 2006. 

Learn More

• North Coast Forest Conservation Initiative
• 2012 North Coast Forest Conservation Initiative Annual Report (PDF)

Sustainable Forestry? How Does It Work?

Protecting and maintaining working forests, and the communities that depend on them, remains one of the Fund's top conservation priorities. Watch the video to learn why.

Why Do Forests Matter?

At The Conservation Fund, we believe that well-managed forests can be both economically viable and ecologically sustainable, but like all other necessary parts of our national infrastructure, they need to be invested in and maintained. That's why, since 1985, we've protected more than a million forest acres across America. Protecting and maintaining working forests, and the communities that depend on them, remains one of our top conservation priorities.