Audio segments from Trees Radio Hour! Interview with Sanctuary Forests' ED Eric Goldsmith September, 2004 Eric discusses ways the public can get involved in Sanctuary Forest's stewardship projects, through voluntary private lands conservation vehicles, restoration site monitoring, naturalist-led watershed hikes, and commenting on the management plan for the Mattole headwaters area currently being developed. The problem of chronic seasonal low water flows in the Mattole is also addressed with a focus on conservation and storage of abundant winter water. Sanctuary Forest's upcoming report (as part of its participation in the Mattole River and Range Partnership) on options for, and obstacles to voluntary private landowner and collaborative water conservation in the headwaters of the Mattole, will also provide a model for north coast watersheds that face the same issues.

Sanctuary Forest is a non-profit land trust that has protected more than 10,000 acres of old-growth forest and salmon spawning habitat through land purchases and conservation easements. Sanctuary Forest?s purpose is to protect land in the Mattole River headwaters and surrounding areas for conservation of natural resources, protection of genetic sources for native plant and animal life, preservation of mature forests, education in principles of ecology, non-consumptive recreation, and preservation of spiritual and aesthetic values.

Sanctuary Forest successfully completed the first phase of the Upper Mattole River Watershed Restoration Project. This multi-year project is continuing to restore the impacted Mattole by removing abandoned, eroding logging roads that potentially could smother salmonid spawning grounds with tens-of-thousands of cubic yards of sediment.



August, 2003 Update
By Noah Levy (read more)

Sustaining Instream Flows for Fish and People
September 2, 2008
It's early August and the Mattole River presents itself as a long grey ribbon of dry gravel running through a tunnel of green leafy banks as seen from a small wooden bridge near its headwaters on the Mendocino-Humboldt County line. (read more)


Sanctuary Forest
December 10, 2007
Sanctuary Forest's Mattole Flow Program continues to lead the way for our community and the land trust movement in the area of rural water conservation and protection of instream flows. The goal of the Mattole Flow Program is to maintain healthy instream flows for fish and people during the critical dry season. Since 2000 the Mattole watershed and many other north coast rivers have experienced a prolonged pattern of extreme low stream flows threatening the survival of endangered salmonids and the water supply of rural communities. (read more)


Sanctuary Forest: Sanctuary Forest Continues to Enhance Mattole Headwaters Area
November 15, 2006
As Sanctuary Forest moves into its (read more)


Restoration Lessons from Ancestor Creek
April 5, 2006
Watershed and fisheries restoration is part science, part art, part engineering, and part sociology. Ancestor Creek is just one of the more than twenty tributaries to the Mattole River headwaters where Sanctuary Forest and its partners are working to restore the habitat of endangered salmon as part of the Upper Mattole Watershed Rehabilitation Project. Many of the successes and lessons learned from this project are seen in Ancestor Creek. (read more)


Sanctuary Forest
December 1, 2005
During the mid-1980s, when Sanctuary Forest began, the most urgent threat to our forests was the rapid liquidation of the remaining old growth. Today, the emerging threat to the integrity of our forest and river ecosystems is forest fragmentation. As the threats to the health of our forest and river ecosystems change, so does the ways that Sanctuary Forest responds to them. (read more)


Sanctuary Forest
September 20, 2005
Water shortage has become a global problem, necessitating a change in how societies value and use water. Today's water scarcity challenges us to recognize the preciousness of water and learn how to steward this resource. (read more)


Sanctuary Forest
April 4, 2005
With annual rainfall at 65% of average, low summer flows in the Mattole River headwaters have become a critical issue impacting both fish and people. Developing and implementing solutions to the Mattole low flow is driving the work of Sanctuary Forest in our four program areas: Stewardship, Land Conservation, Collaboration, and Education. (read more)


Sanctuary Forest: On-Line In 2005
December 8, 2004
We're building a new internet portal to Sanctuary Forest. Coming in 2005, you'll find ongoing descriptions of our conservation projects, the latest hike information, news about our education programs, maps, and ways you can help protect the Mattole River watershed. Open a window that leads to a virtual trail into the Sanctuary Forest. We invite you to shout out to us via the web or enjoy a moment of reflection at www.sanctuaryforest.org. (read more)


Sanctuary Forest
April 28, 2000
In our shared conservation work, there seem to be three dimensions: Activism, Advocacy, and Education. These dimensions are defined by what role an organization plays in a particular campaign, issue, or cause. Involvement in the challenges of environmental protection requires the use of all three of these elements. If we take each one of these individually, we see that each can be extremely useful, relative to its timing. Activism, which takes an immediate approach, indeed will create an immediate effect. Advocacy, in written or spoken support of a desired effect, takes more time but may create longer-term results. Education links activism and advocacy together to create an immediate approach with lasting, long-term results. It is this third dimension that can give great depth and meaning to the important and essential work of protection and preservation of clean water and temperate rain forests. Many environmental organizations just assume that education will be one of the results of Activism and Advocacy, leaving experience to be the teacher. But, think what today would look like if we had spent as much time in our lives as educators as we did as activists and advocates. (read more)



Contact Information

Email: sanctuary@asis.com
Web Site: www.sanctuaryforest.org
Phone: (707) 986-1087 - Fax: (707) 986-1607
P.O. Box 166 Whitethorn, CA 95589