photo credit: Greta Mart/KRCB
The Sonoma County coast.

Save the Redwoods League plans to purchase land along the coast of Sonoma County. 

The 1,624-acre property includes second-growth redwoods and coastal prairies. Save the Redwoods League wants to raise $16 million dollars by the end of the year to secure the purchase. 

Jeff Stump is the director of land protection for the League. He said this purchase keeps the land out of the hands of developers, and also helps California’s climate.

"As you go into climate change and fire becomes more presents, the resilience of this forest to persist over time is important because it's these forests [that] sequester the most carbon," Stump said.

He said historical logging and development severely reduced the number of old growth redwood trees in California.

"We're gonna now rewrite that history … so again, thin the forest, work towards forest health," Stump said. "And so we're setting this forest on the trajectory to be old growth.

Stump said the League plans to restore parts of the land that have been impacted by logging and wildfires. The nonprofit also wants to eventually make this area accessible to the public.

Adrianna Andreucci is a land protection manager for the League. She said buying this land is an important step in preserving California’s redwoods, which in turn helps the state’s climate.

"When we think about permanent protection for these places, that means permanent carbon storage in these trees," Andreucci said. "We are protecting the environment by seeing these trees left where they are and holding those carbon stores in place."