Sonoma Land Trust to add Fitzsimmons Ranch to Hood Mountain Regional Park
On April 20, Sonoma Land Trust will close escrow on the 200-acre Fitzsimmons Ranch, which is an inholding of private land within 2,000-acre Hood Mountain Regional Park and Open Space Preserve. The expansion of the park has been a key priority for Sonoma Land Trust, ensuring that future generations of visitors and wildlife can thrive and adapt in this important corridor of the Mayacamas Mountains. Immediately upon closing on the $1.13 million ranch, Sonoma Land Trust will convey the property to Sonoma County Regional Parks for inclusion into the park. The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted on March 16 to accept the Land Trustās donation of Fitzsimmons Ranch to Regional Parks.
Fitzsimmons Ranch has a rich modern history. Homesteaded in 1912 by Max Arthur Fitzsimmons and his wife Maud William Fitzsimmons, the couple received a land grant that was signed by the U.S. President in 1913. While they returned to Santa Rosa to live shortly thereafter, Max, Maud and subsequent generations of their family maintained the ranch for cattle grazing and family visits. It is this faint footprint on the land that has made it so compelling to Sonoma Land Trust and Regional Parks.
āThis is the epitome of wild land, which is rare to come by in our county anymore,ā says Land Trust acquisitions director John McCaull. āWe are very grateful to this family for keeping the land intact and undeveloped ā and to their commitment to making sure the land becomes part of the park for everyone to enjoy.ā
The Fitzsimmons Family
āThere is a lot of history up there,ā says Maud and Maxās granddaughter, Marda Mitchell Gallagher of Santa Rosa, who, along with her sister and brother, is selling the property to Sonoma Land Trust. āWhen our grandfather was homesteading it, he planted a cottonwood tree that grew to be 75 feet tall and was a key landmark on the property.ā Unfortunately, last yearās Glass Fire burned the century-old tree to the ground. āIt was devastating, such a beautiful old tree and now itās gone,ā says Marda.
The recent Nuns and Glass fires were hard on the property and led to the family selling it a little earlier than anticipated. The Nuns Fire of 2017 burned through most of the fencing, requiring the family to sell off their cattle (āWe were too old to rebuild 200 acres of fences,ā says Marda). Then, the Glass Fire last year burned every remaining fencepost ā along with the barn.
āIt is hard to give up the ranch, but we are all very happy to be selling it to Sonoma Land Trust. Itās the perfect answer for us,ā says Marda. āMy siblings and I all want it to remain open space ā that was never in question. Weāre thrilled that itās going to such good caretakers and that other people will be able to enjoy it as part of the park,ā proudly pointing out that Fitzsimmons Ranch plays the very important role of connecting Hood Mountain Regional Park with Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.
The path to parkland
Fitzsimmons Ranch has been a high-priority acquisition target for Regional Parks for many years and they are an enthusiastic partner in this acquisition process.
āWe are incredibly grateful to the Fitzsimmons Family for contributing a vital inholding within Hood Mountain Regional Park,ā says Sonoma County Regional Parks director Bert Whitaker. āWith their contribution, we are able to expand one of the largest swaths of preserved wilderness and intact wildlife habitat in the Mayacamas Mountains in very close proximity to Santa Rosa. Additionally, this region has proven to be a critical buffer for firefighters defending neighboring communities from wildfires. Strategically placed and managed parks and undeveloped natural lands have become critical to our communityās resiliency as we experience impacts from climate change.ā
Natural resources and development threat
Blessed with stunning views as far away as San Francisco, the ranch is part of an 85-mile wildlife movement corridor that connects Point Reyes on the Marin Coast to the interior mountains of Lake and Napa counties. It also possesses rare plant communities and is a significant source of water resources.
With over a mile of steelhead-supporting Bear Creek running through the property and numerous springs, āWe never had to haul water up there ā hay, yes,ā laughs Marda, ābut not water. There is pure water bubbling out of the mountain even in drought years.ā
Fitzsimmons Ranch lies in the Sonoma Creek watershed of the Mayacamas Mountains, with mountain meadows, chaparral and rare serpentine areas. Protecting this L-shaped ranch is critical to protecting and expanding the linkages for wildlife habitat across the Mayacamas. Rapidly increasing development is increasingly stressing wildlife and fragmenting open space and natural habitats in this range. If this property is not protected, the current zoning would allow for homesite or other development that would threaten watershed health, biological diversity, climate resiliency and management integrity of Hood Mountain Regional Park and Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.