The Wildlands Conservancy, California’s largest nonprofit nature preserve system, has announced its first out-of-state acquisition in the $16.5 million purchase of the 30,000-acre Cherry Creek Ranch near Mitchell, OR.
The Center for Biological Diversity helped provide acquisition funds. The Wildlands Conservancy has renamed the ranch to Enchanted Rocks Preserve and classified it as a “climate preserve” because “all land management and financial decisions will be made in favor of creating resilience to the impacts of climate change and maximizing the sequestration of atmospheric carbon.”
The conservancy will eliminate the diversion of Cherry Creek water for pasture flood irrigation and will leave the water in the creek for trout and steelhead.
“It’s an honor to partner with the Center for Biological Diversity,” said Frazier Haney, the Conservancy’s executive director. “The Center is recognized as the most effective group in America in protecting imperiled species.”
