Natural History Wanderings

AP  reports

 A ranch in remote Northern California once owned by the late financier Dean Witter has been sold to a nature conservancy that plans to convert into a park, providing public access to a wild and scenic stretch of the Eel River for the first time.

The nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy announced Wednesday it closed escrow on the nearly 30,000-acre (12,140-hectare), $25 million property and will rename it Eel River Canyon Preserve, after the 196-mile (315-kilometer) river that runs from the Mendocino National Forest to the Humboldt County coast.

Read more at  Financier’s Northern California ranch to become public park