Save Our Noyo Redwoods & preserve local trains!

“In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”

- Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist and poet~

The last surviving old redwoods in our important Mendocino County, California, watershed face logging after April 1, 2011. Save the Redwoods League needs your help to raise $7 million to purchase and protect the trees, which are now owned by The Willits Redwood Company.
The 426-acre property contains 123 acres of ancient and old redwood and Douglas-fir forest — about 30 percent of all remaining old forest in the Noyo River watershed.

This region contains the smallest amount of ancient redwood stands in the coast redwood range. Because of its high concentration of ancient and old redwoods, the purchase ranks as a high priority for Save the Redwoods League.
Protecting the redwoods on the Noyo River Redwoods property also will safeguard the wide variety of animals that depend on this complex forest ecosystem for their survival.

ENTER…The Save the Redwoods League
The League’s purchase of the property would protect these last survivors of an ancient forest and allow restoration of habitat for imperiled salmon in the Noyo River, which runs through the property. The Noyo River watershed drains west and is the source of drinking water for Fort Bragg and the surrounding area.
Protecting the redwoods also would safeguard the wide variety of animals that depend on this complex forest for their survival. In addition, this project could provide habitat for other imperiled species such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

To protect the property permanently, the League would create a land preservation agreement and eventually transfer the acreage to a permanent steward such as a conservation organization or private party.
Current and future generations could see these remote, ancient redwoods from the 125-year-old railroad running between Willits and Fort Bragg.
We can’t afford to lose a single one of these living giants. A Timber Harvest Plan has been approved for the property, and trees are already marked for logging — which could begin as soon as the sale deadline passes if we don’t succeed.

“This is an urgent situation in which the public will play a vital role,” said Ruskin K. Hartley, executive director, Save the Redwoods League. “By purchasing the Noyo River Redwoods property, we will not only safeguard some of the natural characteristics that truly make California unique, but also we will protect these iconic and rare treasures for all to experience and enjoy. With less than 5 percent of the ancient redwood forest remaining, we must continue to work diligently to protect redwoods across their range.”

Since 1918, Save the Redwoods League has saved ancient redwood forests and redwood ecosystems to ensure that current and future generations can feel the awe and peace that these precious natural wonders inspire. We also save redwoods because they are rare — their natural range is only in central and northern California and southern Oregon — and because they are Earth’s tallest and some of the oldest and most massive living things.
Since 1918, Save the Redwoods League has assisted in the purchase of more than 189,000 acres of redwood-related land in California. The support of individual members, public service organizations, private foundations, and the State of California has enabled the League to help build and protect 63 redwood parks and reserves…the plan for the League’s current and future conservation efforts—the Master Plan for the Coast Redwoods. This plan provides Save the Redwoods League with a science-based conservation agenda for all coast redwood ecosystems and guides the League in prioritizing protection of the remaining 5% of the world’s greatest forest for people to enjoy.

E-mail:
info@savetheredwoods.org

Telephone: (415) 362-2352  Toll Free: (888) 836-0005  Fax: (415) 362-7017

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And – saving these trees will help give our railway a reason to exist – beyond giving tourists a lovely ride for the day…this train line could then survive to become a commuter line in the foreseeable near future of reduced private auto usage…we could ride trains again to destinations at 10% the petrol energy now required to fuel private vehicles…

so- here’s the story of our local train line…

This year is the 125th Birthday of the Skunk Train!

In the 1850’s a silk & tea ship beached on the north coast and soon cargo hunters from San Francisco were bringing back tales of miles of forest filled with big trees the likes of which they could hardly describe. Lumber mills began to spring up along the coast. Bands of Indians began to raid these settlements to discourage the takeover of their traditional hunting & fishing grounds. Fort Bragg was built in 1857 as an Army Post to counter these raids. In 1867 the Indians were removed to Round Valley, a saga that deserves a full story in itself.

California Western opened with freight service in 1885.
Built as a logging railroad, the Skunk line began that year as a logical vehicle for moving massive redwood logs to Mendocino Coast sawmills from the rugged back-country. Lumber was also carried from Willits south on the NWP to the Bay Area.

The First Passengers of The California Western Rail Road “Skunk Train”
The crowd at Willits gave an enthusiastic welcome to the first train from Fort Bragg in 1911, gathering around the depot when this picture was made.
Practically every person in Fort Bragg wanted to be on the first train to Willits when the line was completed in 1911. Those fortunate enough to be invited for the trip rode free as guests of the CWR and its then parent, the Union Lumber Company. Considerable status went to the person who could boast that he or she went aboard for the historic trip. The headlines read “ Willits & Fort Bragg – Connected by bands of steel & friendship”. It took 40 miles of track to cover the 23 mile distance between the 2 towns.

Willits soon became the Rail hub of 3 lines – the Northwestern Pacific Railroad with service available from Eureka in the North (1914) and Sausalito in the South with the California Western meeting these trains & running West to the Coast!

Mixed trains of freight, mail & passengers were the norm until 1995, an unusual arrangement hardly found in recent US Rail service.

Steam passenger service was begun in Fort Bragg 1904, extended to the town of Willits in 1911. In 1921 Pullman car Service was inaugurated and you could take an overnight train leaving Fort Bragg at 9pm and arriving in Sausalito at 9am.

Steam service was discontinued in 1925 when the self-powered, yellow “Skunk” rail cars were inaugurated. The little trains were quickly nicknamed for their original gas engines, which prompted folks to say, “You can smell ‘em before you can see ‘em.”

California Western was initially operated as a division of the Fort Bragg mill. In the mid 1960s, Arizona-based Kyle Railways began managing the railroad, and purchased it in 1987. In August 1996, a group comprised entirely of local Mendocino Coast investors purchased California Western, marking the first time is its 111-year history that the line would be operated as an independent business. Today the Skunk Train is owned and operated by Mendocino Railway.

California Western welcomed more “modern” equipment in later years, which rail fans can still ride. The vintage 1925 M-100 motorcar — the only remaining train of its kind in use anywhere today — runs the line year-round, as does the 1935 M-300 motorcar. During the busier summer months, they are joined by three 1950′s diesel-powered engines, and famous Old No. 45, a majestic 1924 Baldwin steam engine, the kind most kids dream of when they think “train.”

The View from the Observation Car
As you leave Willits at 1363 feet above seas level, you travel uphill on a 3% grade through beautiful meadows and stands of softwoods to Summit station at 1740 feet above sea level. West of the Summit stop, as you leave the tunnel – the forest changes dramatically as the meadows & hardwoods give way to the rainforest of fir, pine & redwoods (softwoods) of the Noyo Headwaters. Soon you begin the 8.5 miles of switchback “zigzag “along the descent to the river bottom that offers only 1.5 mile of linear travel for that 8.5 miles of track. (You will arrive in Fort Bragg at only 80 feet above sea level) Here are the majestic Ancient Redwoods of the endangered trees of the Crowley THP – hopefully soon to be purchased “Noyo Headwaters Monument Park”. This incredible opportunity for a redwood park can include an open-air museum and learning center – teaching habitat, unique species, fish spawning – with discovery trails (maybe small EV cars can be used to offer assistance to the elderly & disabled for visiting some areas of waterfalls & big trees) The last 4% of our original Primeval Redwood & Fir Forest of Mendocino County resides in this acreage. This is perhaps the only ancient forest in the world with a train running through it… Mass transit into the forest! Any ecological damage created by building this rail line was done over 100 years ago and the area has healed itself superbly. No more harm need be done to offer ingress to visitors by building roads or new transit feeds.

Please consider donating BIG MONEY to the Save the Redwoods League so that we can – indeed – save these ancient trees & the animals depending on them for their habitat, go to the website-

Noyo Headwaters Forest

http://www.savetheredwoods.org/protecting/NoyoRiverRedwoods.shtml

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