Jenner Headlands Pacific Coastal Ranch Sold

The Jenner Headlands Ranch landowners have sold their 5,630 acre spectacular Pacific coastal property at the mouth of the Russian River to the Sonoma Land Trust for $36 million. The Jenner Headlands Ranch extends from Sheephouse Creek to Russian Gulch north of Bodega Bay and San Francisco, and west of Santa Rosa, California. About 1,220 acres of the Jenner Headland’s 5,630 acres is coastal prairie with nearly two miles of frontage on Highway One. The redwood timbered ridgelines offer spectacular views of the coast and the Russian River estuary. The three Jenner Headlands Ranch landowners have been growing redwood trees and grazing cattle on the land since they bought the ranch in the early 1960’s.

“This is one of the most spectacularly beautiful tracts of land on the entire Pacific Coast,” said Ollie Edmunds, CEO of Gualala Redwoods, Inc., and a general partner of Sonoma Coast Associates, and Russian River Redwoods, the three affiliated adjacent companies who were Jenner Headlands Ranch landowners. To help accomplish future ranch maintenance the three landowners donated $1 million to the Sonoma Land Trust. Before the sale, the three landowners owned 35,202 acres; after the sale Gualala Redwoods owns 29,572 acres near Gualala and Jenner. When negotiations started 5 years ago, the Jenner Headlands Ranch owners were unsure that Sonoma Land Trust could gather the funds to buy the land. But the Sonoma Land Trust assembled 10 public and private partners to provide the $36 million through grants and loans in a difficult national economy with a state in financial crisis.

The following agencies and organizations partnered with the Sonoma Land Trust to make the purchase a reality: the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Estuarine Land Conservation Program, the California State Coastal Conservancy, the California Wildlife Conservation Board, the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Legacy Program, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Wildlands Conservancy, the Save the Redwoods League, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

David Ferreira, Russian River Redwoods resident general partner, said “We are pleased that the new owners are passionately committed to caring for and protecting the beautiful Jenner Headlands.”