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Fort Bragg Shoreline Access
In May, the Conservancy approved $4.2 million to the City of Fort Bragg for the purchase of part of the 413-acre site of the closed Georgia-Pacific sawmill. The City will use the funds to buy 35 acres of the site for parkland. Georgia-Pacific donated to the City about 38 acres, valued at $3.3 million and containing the property’s whole shoreline and most of Fort Bragg’s waterfront. Georgia-Pacific closed the mill in 2002, after more than 100 years of operation, and has since been working closely with the City, the Conservancy, regulatory agencies, and the local community on the property’s re-use. The Coastal Trail will run the length of the blufftop along a 100-foot-wide trail corridor. It will link Glass Beach, to the north, to Pomo Bluffs Park, to the south. Both of those properties were acquired with Conservancy funding and strong community support. Environmental remediation must be completed on parts of the property to be acquired by the City before the land can be opened to the public.

Mendocino County Beach Access
Access to Mendocino County beaches is expanding. In September the Conservancy approved $240,000 to the Mendocino Land Trust to design and plan 15 new accessways and to continue to manage three existing trails to beaches. In May, it approved $140,000 to the nonprofit Westport Village Society and $100,000 to the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy for projects that will make it much easier to reach the surf at Westport and Gualala.

The Village Society will build a stairway to the beach along the bluff face of the Westport Headlands, about 15 miles north of Fort Bragg. To reach this beach now, people scramble down a steep, rough trail while grasping a rope that dangles from the blufftop. Small boats have been winched up and down the bluff on a launching chute. The new stairway will also be built to allow small boats to be raised and lowered. Also included in this project are a wheelchair-accessible scenic overlook and a 660-foot blufftop trail, part of the California Coastal Trail, along Highway 1. In 2000, the Conservancy provided the Village Society with $727,000 to buy the nine-acre headlands. The purchase prevented private development of the property, reserving it for these public access improvements.

Meanwhile, the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy will improve and maintain three beach trails about three miles north of Gualala. Two of the trails begin along Highway 1 near Bourne’s Landing. One leads to Cook’s Beach, the other to a blufftop overlook. The land conservancy will grade the trails, strengthen them with base rock, and install cable steps down to the beach. The third trail, which leads from a parking area along Highway 1 to the beach at the mouth of St. Orres Creek, will be realigned and improved. A cable step ramp will be installed for the 15-foot descent from the blufftop. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with the goal of completing the trails in about a year. New signs maintained by land conservancy volunteers will direct beachgoers to the trails.

Derelict Fishing Gear Removal
A $300,000 grant to the U.C. Davis Wildlife Health Center’s SeaDoc Society has launched a pilot program to remove derelict nets, lines, pots, and other gear that lies on the seafloor, gets caught on rocky reefs, or floats in the water. (See "Derelict Gear")

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