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A Bay Area conservation group that signed a deal to purchase Alder Creek, the world’s largest privately owned giant sequoia forest, is still $3 million shy of closing the sale.
Save the Redwoods League, a non-profit based in San Francisco, has until Dec. 31 to finalize its deal for the 530-acre property, in Tulare County 10 miles south of Sequoia National Park.
With $12 million of the $15.65 million needed to close on the property raised through donations from 50 states and 19 countries, the group is seizing this Giving Tuesday, an international holiday of charitable giving. Rebranding the day as Giving TreesDay, the League hopes to complete its fundraising campaign to buy the primeval home of 483 massive trees. On Tuesday, all gifts will be matched 2-for-1 by the Bently Foundation Challenge Grant.
The giant sequoias at Alder Creek are cousins to the coast redwood, the world’s largest tree. They soar 250 feet tall, with trunks up to 80 feet around, and live for more than 2,000 years.
The property is roughly the same size as Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County and has been owned by the Rouch family since the 1940s.
The league, founded in 1918, signed a purchase agreement with the family. It intends to transfer the parcel to the U.S. Forest Service over the next decade, so it can be included in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, a part of Sequoia National Forest set aside for special protection in 2000 by President Bill Clinton.
