THE GRAND CANYON OF THE EEL RIVER
A landscape-level conservation project launched in 2019

Not unlike our 110-mile Santa Ana River Trail and our 1.6 million-acre Mojave Trails National Monument projects, The Wildlands Conservancy is envisioning landscape protection and public access along the entire Grand Canyon of the Eel River.

The first phase of the acquisition was of the White Ranch, now our Emerald Waters Reserve, in late 2019, which secured a two-year window for The Wildlands Conservancy to raise $25 million dollars for the purchase of the crown jewel of the Grand Canyon of the Eel River—the 26,600-acre Dean Witter’s Lone Pine Ranch.

During the second phase, The Wildlands Conservancy was able to raise $18 million via the California State Coastal Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Board, and Center for Biological Diversity inside the two-year window, leaving a funding shortfall of nearly $7.5 million when the option expired in October 2021. California Senator Mike McGuire, a resolute champion for the Eel River, was critical in helping to secure this support.

Since this was such a crucial acquisition, Wildlands guaranteed a bridge loan provided by the Packard Foundation to The Conservation Fund, securing the final 8,086 acres of the Preserve. The Fund will serve as an interim holder of this portion of the property for up to three years while final acquisition funds are sought by the Conservancy in the coming year to complete the third and final phase of the effort from both public and private sources. We hope a generous philanthropist or foundation takes on this final phase of the historic acquisition as a lasting environmental legacy and to help save our wondrous planet.

 LANDSCAPE-LEVEL CONSERVATION

The Eel River Canyon Preserve acquisition is part of Eel River Emerald Necklace conservation project, which links a system of preserves spanning the Grand Canyon of the Eel to the estuary. The Preserve is a day’s paddling journey downstream from The Wildlands Conservancy’s Spyrock Reserve, which has five miles of frontage on the Eel and is located 80 miles upstream from the Conservancy’s Eel River Estuary Preserve where the river meets the Pacific Ocean.