Permanent protection of the biodiversity, habitats, and water resources for the State of California

About

Upper Bear Creek Meadows, in Siskiyou County, northwest California is more than 4,750 acres containing critical wildlife habitat across a diverse landscape of softwood forests, wet meadows, and riparian woodlands. It forms part of New Forests’ Shasta Cascade Timberlands estate.

The property is found within one of the world’s most biodiverse conifer forests, mixed with smaller stands of upland oak and riparian woodlands, and containing a patchwork of ecologically critical wet meadows.

Unique to this area of California, Upper Bear Creek Meadows is home to quaking aspen groves that provide habitat to migrating Roosevelt elk. The property also provides habitat for several other wildlife species including the gray wolf, southern long-toed salamander, Cascades frog, black-backed woodpecker, American goshawk, bald eagle, sandhill crane, and norther spotted owl. Important for stream ecosystems and recreational fisheries, endemic red-banded trout populate cold-water tributaries that flow into the headwaters of the Fall River.

Upper Bear Creek Meadows is situated within a vast network of conserved lands across the landscape. Tributaries snake through mixed forests and wet meadows, feeding into the Fall River, Pit River, and ultimately the Sacramento River, along the way nourishing farms, towns, and cities across the state. These waters sustain the rich historical and cultural tapestry of California’s communities and drive its thriving economies, from the forests to the vineyards to the coast.

Key Initiative

The Upper Bear Creek Meadows is now fully protected due to a permanent conservation easement granted in late 2024 to the Siskiyou Land Trust (SLT) by New Forests with support from CalFire, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Wildlife Conservation Board, FWS Forestry Services California, and Trust for Public Land. The conservation easement will see the protection of habitat and wildlife species forever, while retaining New Forests the right to sustainably manage the property for timber production.

As part of the approval, approximately 10 per cent of the property will be established as forest reserves to protect large trees and nesting sites for sensitive species. A further 149 acres will be established as meadows and aspen groves. A large proportion of the timber producing area will include uneven-aged silviculture, retaining and adding wildlife trees that considerably exceed the average volumes per acre in that area.

SLT will be responsible for the long-term monitoring and management of the conservation easement, protecting conservation values, natural forest and meadow ecosystems, and the scenic characteristics of the property.

Impact

The agreement between New Forests and SLT guarantees the permanent protection of the biodiversity, native fish and wildlife habitats, and water resources for the State of California, while ensuring the long-term sustainable production of timber. As a working forest conservation easement, the property can continue to address societal needs for fiber and wood products through and increasingly ‘circular bioeconomy’ while simultaneously conserving ecosystems, species, and critical watersheds as legacy for generations to come. These conservation efforts are part of a larger vision, the national 30×30 Campaign, a movement to protect 30 per cent of America’s lands and waters by 2030.