Newly signed contract in hand, Sempervirens Fund Executive Director Brian Steen walks a ridgecoast above the northern boundary of Waterman Gap on Friday afternoon. Sentinel photo by Bill Lovejoy

BOULDER CREEK - Water district officials turned their backs on a last-minute $19 million proposal to log in the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River. Instead, they approved a deal to sell their Waterman Gap land to a conservation group for $8 million less.

Sempervirens Fund’s purchase of the land for almost $11 million Thursday night ended a generation-long debate over logging 1,340 acres north of Boulder Creek.

Two last-minute proposals from logging companies, both higher than the Sempervirens bid, were rejected unanimously by San Lorenzo Valley Water District directors.

Sempervirens Fund intends to turn the land over to the state as an addition to Castle Rock State Park.

"There was no way that any board member or the public wanted that property logged," said Terry Vierra, chairman of the water board. "No way were we going to log, no matter how much money was on the table."

Big Creek Lumber Company of Davenport faxed a purchase proposal to the district three hours before directors were scheduled to approve the Sempervirens offer.

Big Creek’s proposal was in addition to an offer made a week ago by Redwood Empire logging company owner Roger Burch, who offered $12.5 million cash and 220 acres in the Mulosky Creek watershed for a guarantee he could get a logging permit.

Big Creek’s offer included establishing a variety of conservation easements and conducting a "light-touch" timber harvest under standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international non-profit organization whose membership includes Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council.

Bud McCrary, whose family owns Big Creek, also offered an alternative plan in which the water district would maintain ownership of the land and allow Big Creek to log periodically. The selective logging would thin trees to reduce danger from fires and would leave the larger trees to grow, speeding the process of returning the forest to one with old-growth characteristics, McCrary said.

As an example, McCrary pointed to Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve near Lexington Reservoir, recently purchased by the Peninsula Open Space Trust and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

Big Creek currently logs the land in accordance with Forest Stewardship Council standards with the support of both land-conservation groups.

McCrary said the Waterman Gap land was logged a century ago, and is not an old-growth forest.

"It is a second-growth forest. To get back to an old-growth forest without getting burned up, it needs to be managed for a period of time," he said.

Water district directors, however, said strong anti-logging sentiment in the community ruled out both logging proposals.

"This is public land and the public has an input and spoke very strongly: ‘Do not log,’" Vierra said. "It’s just not what the public wanted to see done with the property."

Vierra said Sempervirens’ was the only substantive offer, adding that the others were "offer proposals." He also was miffed that the Big Creek offer came hours before a decision was to be made.

"I don’t know what’s up with Bud. He’s had all this time to make an offer," he said.

"We weren’t following it as closely as we should have been and were late getting our offer in," McCrary said. "But when would have been the right time? When was it too early and when was it too late?"

While most residents supported the no-logging stance, the decision disappointed Boulder Creek resident Janet Laidlaw, one of a handful of people who spoke in favor of the logging offers Thursday.

"I can’t believe it. It’s like the Sierra Club has taken over this county’s political business," Laidlaw said. "Here they are, selling our watershed for pennies on the dollar."

Sempervirens Fund director Brian Steen said acceptance of their offer concluded a 20-year quest to buy the land. It is also the largest debt incurred by the organization in its history, Steen said.

Initially, the organization offered $3.2 million, then $7.5 million. After McCrary made an informal estimate that the land was worth much more, Sempervirens upped the bid to $10.9 million.

Sempervirens’ final offer included the right for the water company to purchase options that Sempervirens Fund holds on two other parcels in Mulosky Creek.

About half the purchase money is expected to come from the state as allocated by Proposition 12, a conservation funding initiative approved by voters in March. The organization will start a major campaign to complete the acquisition, Steen said.

After the land is conveyed to the state parks system, a public planning process will determine the level of use, said Dave Vincent, state parks Santa Cruz District superintendent.

State parks officials have wanted the Waterman Gap property for decades. The land abuts Castle Rock State Park and has trails that connect with trails in Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

The water district has owned the land since 1946, when it was donated as a potential site for a reservoir. Battles over how to use it have been fought ever since.

In the mid-1970s, environmentalists banded together to fight off a proposal to log the land to pay for water-system improvements. It was one of the first environmental battles in the San Lorenzo Valley and was the springboard for several new environmental groups, including the Environmental Council of Santa Cruz County, Val Ahlgren said.

The environmentalists, including Ahlgren, filed suit to force an environmental impact report to be prepared, figuring "if we could get an adequate EIR, there would never be logging on the property," Ahlgren said.

They won, and the logging plans were dropped.

Ahlgren on Friday was delighted that the chainsaws had been stopped — again. "We’ve spent a whole generation working on this. It’s nice to know it won’t be logged."