Western Rivers Conservancy
About the Western Rivers Conservancy
Western Rivers Conservancy buys land along the West’s finest rivers and streams to conserve habitat for fish and wildlife, protect key sources of cold water and provide public access for all to enjoy. Western Rivers Conservancy is the only organization dedicated exclusively to saving the great rivers of the West through land acquisition.
Their motto: Sometimes to save a river, you have to buy it.
Dillon Beach – Conserving a Fragile Coastal Estuary for Imperiled fish and Wildlife
Dillon Beach is a jewel of the Northern California coast, with green, rolling headlands, sweeping views of Bodega Bay, and tide pools that teem with life—all within driving distance of the Sacramento Area. Critically for fish and wildlife, Dillon Beach contains a dynamic estuary called the Estero de San Antonio. This estuary provides important habitat for a vast array of fish, birds, insects, plants, and animals, many of them rare. Within this vibrant coastal refuge, Western Rivers Conservancy has the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to conserve a 466-acre property called Dillon Beach Ranch and remove the threat of private development. The property makes up the entire southern shore of the estuary (about 1.5 miles) and another mile and a half of the Pacific coastline. In the summer of 2023, we committed to purchase the ranch, and we plan to buy, secure long-term funding, and convey it to its ancestral stewards, the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria in 2024.
