"STEWARTS POINT — For more than a century, Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County has been one of Northern California’s main tourist attractions, with towering old-growth redwood trees that draw more than 1 million visitors a year.

But now, there soon will be a new destination to admire the majestic trees. In the largest deal to protect old-growth redwood trees anywhere in California in 20 years, a Bay Area environmental group has purchased a remote 730-acre ancient forest on the Sonoma Coast for a new public park west of Santa Rosa. Not only is it larger than Muir Woods, the property boasts more old-growth redwoods, 319 trees taller than 250 feet, including many that are taller than the 305-foot-high Statue of Liberty, and dating back more than 1,000 years.

“It’s a remarkable place,” said Sam Hodder, president of the San Francisco-based Save the Redwoods League, which purchased the property, blessed with babbling streams and giant ferns, inland from Highway 1 between Jenner and Sea Ranch. “It’s like getting another Muir Woods.”"

Paul Rogers reports for the San Jose Mercury News June 26, 2018. [2]