UC to Sell Land With Redwoods to Logging Firm : Environment: University, saying ancient trees near Santa Cruz serve no academic purpose, tentatively OKs deal for $2.38 million. Although some giants will be spared, conservationists are upset.

In a move being assailed by residents and environmental groups, the University of California tentatively has agreed to sell a stand of ancient redwoods near Santa Cruz, some of them 1,200 years old, saying the trees serve no academic purpose.

If the sale is approved by the UC Board of Regents later this month, Eel River Sawmills Inc. of Humboldt County, which bid $2.38 million for the land, will have access to nearly 2 million board-feet of old growth timber. A conservation easement imposed by the university, however, would prevent some of that timber from being logged.

The redwoods, ranging in age from 700 to 1,200 years, are scattered across the 410-acre site, half of which the university acquired in a 1940 bequest. The rest was purchased in 1952.

“It wasn’t being used for research. It was costing us money to hold. The university has budget problems. So it was declared surplus,” said Gordon Schanck, a senior real estate officer for the university.

The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and area residents have condemned the university’s decision.

John Dewitt, executive director of the San Francisco-based Save-the-Redwoods League, likened it to selling off rare books or archeological artifacts in order to meet short-term financial needs.

“It’s a tragedy that the university is selling an antiquity that can’t be replaced,” Dewitt said.

Besides the ancient trees, the acreage includes younger redwoods, Douglas fir and oak trees.

Pat Keosheyan, whose property borders the site, said she and other neighbors are heartsick at the prospect of losing the trees and fear logging will worsen erosion problems.

“We can get up to 80 inches of rain here, and mudslides are already a constant danger,” Keosheyan said.

Save-the-Redwoods, which has donated $76 million since 1910 so state parks could acquire redwoods, also bid for the Santa Cruz property. The offer was about $240,000 less than the timber company’s winning bid.

In approving the sale, the regents are bound by a state law requiring them to accept the best price and the best deal, said Michael Houlemard, director of community planning for UC Santa Cruz. He said maintaining the property was costing the university $15,000 to $20,000 a year.

“My opinion is that it is a shame that something couldn’t be worked out (with Save-the-Redwoods),” he said. “But state law says we have to accept the bid with the best combination of price and terms. Either that or reject all bids.

“Unfortunately, that’s not in the best interest of the trees,” he said.

But Houlemard pointed out that a 17-acre conservation easement, as well as logging limits imposed by the California Department of Forestry, would protect some trees. Under the department’s restrictions, 40% of all trees larger than 18 inches in diameter would be left standing.

The university decided to sell the land, Houlemard said, after determining it had no academic value that was not being provided by its other forest land.

“The academic folks took a hard look to see if it had any value, and frankly there wasn’t any as an academic resource,” he said.

The property is 35 miles from the Santa Cruz campus. The school occupies 2,000 acres, including nearly 1,000 acres of redwood forest.

In all, said Schanck, UC owns at least 140,000 acres of land as part of its natural reserve system--land held for research purposes. It includes “very fine old growth stands in Big Sur and elsewhere,” Schanck said.

Proceeds from the timber sale probably will go toward scholarships and other student programs, university officials said.