Save the Redwoods League has completed a deal to double the size of Montgomery Woods State Reserve, a secluded Mendocino County site where some of the world's tallest trees grow.
The San Francisco-based conservation group has turned over title to a 1,240-acre parcel to the state parks department.
"The acquisition is significant because it contains stunning ancient redwood trees in an area of the redwood range where there is relatively little old growth left," said Katherine Anderton, the league's executive director.
The league pulled together the $2.4 million expansion cost with financial assistance from the state Wildlife Conservation Board, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, the Coastal Conservancy and the state parks department. The non-profit league put up $700,000 to complete the deal.
Former owners of the once private land located northwest of the state reserve were not identified by the league.
Besides protecting more old growth redwoods, the expansion also provides watershed protection for two tributaries of the south fork of Big River.
It also includes a portion of an ancient Native American trade route that Indians used to follow from the Ukiah valley to the Mendocino Coast.
Anderton said the expansion also features oak woodlands, striking rock outcrops and beautiful views from ridge tops.
"The land is exceptionally beautiful," said Anderton.
Montgomery Woods is located in a canyon along Orr Springs Road, about 13 miles west of Ukiah. It was created in 1945 with a nine-acre donation by landowner Robert Orr. Over the years, the redwoods league enlarged it to 1,142 acres through purchases and additional land donations.
A two-mile long trail loops around a magnificent bowl-like grove of ancient redwoods. Among them is the "Mendocino Tree," a 370-foot towering redwood that in 1999 was named the world's tallest tree. It has since been eclipsed by a slightly taller tree in Humboldt State Redwoods Park, about an hour's drive north on Highway 101.
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