The Northcoast Regional Land Trust recently announced the creation of a cooperative relationship with international conservation organization The Nature Conservancy designed to increase the effectiveness of North Coast conservation efforts. As part of the agreement, the Northcoast Regional Land Trust will work closely with the Conservancy to establish a Conservation Area Plan for the region and has welcomed George Yandell, project director for The Nature Conservancy, to its board of directors.

“This partnership is a very positive step for the people and wildlife of the North Coast, those here today as well as future generations,” Jim Petruzzi, executive director of the Northcoast Regional Land Trust, stated in a recent news release. “We have an incredible opportunity to maintain the scenic nature, healthy ecosystems and quality of life in this area through conservation of our working lands and wild spaces, and this new relationship will increase the ability of the Northcoast Regional Land Trust to do just that.”

As an area of particular conservation interest, the North Coast has nearly a quarter of California’s natural resources, holding only .5 percent of its population in Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte counties, a ratio that provides superb wildlife habitat, clean water and healthy ecosystems, according to the release. While providing organizational resources and project expertise to the Northcoast Regional Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy will be able to use this new affiliation to help in conserving these resources for the future.

“The Nature Conservancy recognizes the North Coast as important to California’s future, and an area of particular conservation interest,” Yandell stated in the release. “By pooling our organizational resources, the Conservancy and the Northcoast Regional Land Trust hope to protect this spectacular landscape for both wildlife and people.”

This new formal alliance is a natural progression from their previous work together in a broad conservation planning effort in 2004 aimed at synthesizing a regional conservation movement among the many different stakeholders, as well as their contribution to a landscape-scale conservation effort aimed at protecting more than 25,000 acres of large owner-operated area ranchlands from subdivision called the Six Rivers to the Sea Initiative.

Established in 2000 to protect the wild and working lands of Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity counties, the Northcoast Regional Land Trust has already helped protect more than 6,300 acres of land, from coastal bottomlands to hilltop forests and ranches. As a leading nonprofit conservation organization in the region, this collaboration will increase its capacity to engage in and complete conservation projects. For more information, visit www.ncrlt.org.

The Nature Conservancy is an international nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to preserve plants, animals and natural communities by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have safeguarded more than 15 million acres in the United States. The Conservancy has also worked with like-minded partner organizations to preserve more than 100 million acres in Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific and Asia. In California, The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 1.2 million acres. For more information, visit nature.org/california.