The hills above Jenner, Rule Ranch, and the surrounding 5,630 unspoiled acres at the mouth of the Russian River on the Sonoma County coast were most recently only known to a few working cowboys and the livestock which grazed there. But by the spring of 2009, this sweeping land, which has been almost unaltered over the centuries is set to become opened for the public’s enjoyment. This coastal prairie, which overlooks some of the most photographed views of the Pacific Ocean on the northern California coast, and remains much as it was when Native American Indians used the land, has been rescued from possible development using a $36 million purchase by the Sonoma Land Trust, government agencies, and non-profit organizations, forging the largest conservation land purchase in the history of Sonoma County.
Newly named the Jenner Headlands, this large, beautiful, intact landscape site adjacent to the 13,000 acres of the Sonoma Coast State Park, with the Russian River cutting between the two, will gain a 2 1/2-miles stretch of the California Coastal Trail. These properties will then be part of more than 30 miles of a relatively unbroken stretch of preserved land from Bodega Head to Fort Ross. The sweeping vistas offer sightlines from Russian Gulch to Bodega Head and Point Reyes, and on clear days, one can glimpse the Farallon Islands and Mount Diablo. Here the Russian River meets the ocean and harbor seals give birth on the beach. The headlands include 3,100 acres of redwood trees, large tracts of oaks and Douglas fir, natural ground coverings and grasses, and varied rock formations. The property contains eight watersheds, with 8 ½ miles of streams, all of which are home to steelhead trout and Coho salmon. Above them the public will be able to look in the sky and trees and see northern spotted owls, burrowing owls, American peregrine falcons, ospreys and bank swallows, just as the Native Americans saw them, on the land that is just as they left it.
