Conservation Group Receives Government Assistance in Buying Land

A conservation group has staved off development of northern California forest land with the help of a state environmental agency, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Conservation Fund, in Arlington, Va., has bought 16,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forests with the help of a $25-million loan from California’s State Water Resources Control Board. The rationale behind the loan was that protecting the forest would preserve a water source of two salmon streams.

The land was bought from the Hawthorne Timber Company for $48.5-million. The Fund received $14.5-million in grants from two other state conservation agencies and pledges totaling $7.5-million from donors.

This will not be a one-time deal; the Conservation Fund has expressed interest in trying a similar experiment elsewhere. Larry Selzer, the group’s president, said, “We hope to use this deal as a model for additional lands to acquire not only in California, but for other parts of the country.”

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