Angelo Coast Range Reserve

The Heath and Marjorie Angelo Coast Range Reserve, located in Mendocino County in northern California, protects one of the state's largest remaining tracts of uncut, old-growth Douglas-fir forest. It contains the watersheds of three perennial streams, tributaries of the South Fork Eel River, which winds through the heart of the reserve. The river and its tributaries host native runs of salmon and steelhead. Above the river, steep forested slopes open in places to an unusually diverse chaparral, surprising in a region of such high rainfall.

Heath and Marjorie Angelo, the couple for whom the reserve is named, purchased an old homestead on Elder Creek in 1931. Over the years, as pressure to log nearby forests increased, the couple purchased additional parcels to protect them from harvest. By the mid-1950s, the Angelos had amassed nearly 3,000 acres of forest along with a heavy tax burden.

Hoping to protect the land in perpetuity, the couple sold their holdings to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 1959, creating the Conservancy’s first preserve in the western United States. In 1994, TNC transferred the land to the University of California for inclusion in the Natural Reserve System to be used for teaching and research. Today the 4,055-acre reserve has become the focus of several national scientific studies. TNC continues to hold a conservation easement on the property, while UC Berkeley staff and faculty handle the day-to-day management of the reserve.

To learn more about the Angelo Coast Range Reserve, go to: http://angelo.berkeley.edu/.