Through a densely forested slope on the west side of Dutch Bill Creek, upstream of its confluence with the Russian River, a dirt road zigzags skyward through the redwoods. Once used by loggers to extract the watershed’s timber, the road leads past marks of the lumbering era: a coil of rusted cable strewn in the ferns, deeply eroded stream channels, and countless redwood stumps uphill and down. 

But the din of logging has vanished from this land. Today, the steep road is a multiuse trail and the recovering forest is protected, part of Sonoma County’s Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park and Open Space Preserve. Opened in 2020, Monte Rio quadrupled in size last summer with the purchase of 1,517 acres of mostly second-growth redwoods and mixed woodland. Significantly, the approximately 2,030-acre preserve connects to adjacent public property, making it a wonderland for hikers, cyclists, and equestrians. 

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Alastair Bland, a freelance journalist living in Sebastopol, began publishing articles related to travel and cycling in the early 2000s and has since covered topics as varied as energy and climate, fisheries and marine ecosystems, and the family courts and judicial misconduct. He currently focuses his reporting on freshwater ecosystems, marine research, and environmental regulations. His work has appeared on CalMatters and NPR, and in the East Bay Express, Smithsonian, and The Atlantic.