Middle Mattole Conservancy
When you ask people how they came to live in the Mattole River watershed there are as many interesting stories as there are people to tell them. One such story begins in the drought year in the fall of 1976 when some young travelers came not in covered wagons, but in a 1968 Rambler with New York plates. They made a friend in town who invited them to his place in the wilderness with a promise of land for sale and music to be played. They followed him through the ancient forest where Redwood trees stood like gentle giants waiting for rains to come. Through the forest, up the switchbacks and over a mountain they climbed. When they reached the top looking back over the Eel River watershed there was a view of intact ancient forests for as far as the eye could see. To the west was a coastal sunset over Rainbow Ridge edged only by the blackness of its? old growth Douglas fir. (read more)