Tag Archive for: Big Sur

Alaska’s Chuck River Wilderness grows with 28-acre transfer

April 20, 2026-

In Southeast Alaska, the Tongass National Forest covers almost 17 million acres of coastline and temperate rainforest. It is the nation’s largest national forest, and about 35% of it is designated as wilderness in 19 wilderness areas.

Within it, the Trust recently transferred our 28-acre Chuck River Bend property to public ownership to be added to the Chuck River Wilderness.

The property, accessible by boat only at high tide, sits where the Chuck River flows into Windham Bay. Its open meadows are prime pink salmon fishing grounds for Alaskan brown bear, and also have blueberries, salmon berries, and devil’s club, which are other important food sources for bears.

Chuck River Bend is the third property the Trust has protected as wilderness in the Tongass National Forest since we began working in Alaska in 2017.

Learn more about our recent Alaska projects in this virtual site visit video from a few summers ago.

 

Trail access, redwoods, and steelhead spawning grounds protected in California’s Central Coast

March 6, 2026-

Along California’s Central Coast, the Pacific Ocean meets mountains in one of the nation’s most significant biodiversity hotspots. Here, over 35 endangered species make their homes in the narrow canyons, chaparral, and old-growth forests. The Ventana Wilderness protects over 240,000 acres of this critical habitat. In 2020, a family wishing to see this landscape they love protected for future generations generously donated their 87-acre property to The Wilderness Land Trust. The Trust recently transferred the property, known as Little Sur River, to public ownership to be added to Los Padres National Forest.

The Little Sur River property sits between the Ventana Wilderness to the south and another section of Los Padres National Forest, which was previously landlocked by private property, to the north. Its transfer to public ownership has not only connected those two sections of public lands, it has also ensured public access on two trails running through the property

“Our gratitude goes out to the Wilderness Land Trust for leading the effort to add the Little Sur River parcel to our treasured public lands,” says Ventana Wilderness Alliance Executive Director, Carol Olson. “This transfer of private lands to public ownership advances our shared goal to protect wilderness values in the Big Sur backcountry.”

This transfer has also protected a tributary to the South Fork of the Little Sur River, the Central Coast’s most important and pristine spawning grounds for the threatened South-Central Coast steelhead trout. Today, only an estimated 100 fish return to the Little Sur River each year to spawn, making every foot protected of its sheltered cold water tributaries critical for their survival. The property is also home to an old-growth stand of coastal redwoods, which can grow to over 350 feet in height and live for 2,000 years.

This is the 7th property protected by the Trust in and around the Ventana Wilderness, totaling over 830 acres.