Cannabis Farmers Help Fund Effort to Save the Van Arken
The Compliant Farms Watershed Fund, financed by environmentally-minded cannabis farmers, is proud to fund an acre for the Save the Van Arken project to permanently protect the bio-diverse headwaters of the Mattole River.
The Van Arken Watershed is in the heart of the Mattole River headwaters and spans 1,650 acres in Humboldt County, California. This watershed is currently free from residential development, and is a salmon stronghold for wild runs of native coho, chinook, and steelhead. Sanctuary Forest launched the Fund an Acre campaign to take advantage of an opportunity to purchase and protect this sensitive watershed from being divided and developed.
“I am really excited about the Fund an Acre program for the Van Arken Watershed,” said Hollie Hall, co-founder of Compliant Farms and steward of the Watershed Fund. “Not just because of the incredible positive impact that holistic management of the watershed will have on the overall health of the Mattole River, but also because it provides another opportunity for environmentally-minded cannabis farmers to come out of the shadows with their long-time community support by rocking a land stewardship logo on their webpages and products.”
Sanctuary Forest has created a Save the Van Arken logo that donating businesses can display to show they support permanently protecting the incredibly rich and bio-diverse land in the headwaters of the Mattole River.
The Compliant Farms Watershed Fund is an education and research fund that is hosted by the Humboldt Area Foundation and funded by the cannabis farmers who work to be Compliant Farms Certified. “We seek to fund projects that support integration of the cannabis community, with our broader community and healing of our environment,” Hollie Hall said. “The Van Arken project fits this bill perfectly.”
Sanctuary Forest’s goal is to secure 90 Fund an Acre donors each year for the next 5 years, resulting in a total of nearly $2.5 million. That’s about 28% of the estimated purchase price of 9 million dollars. These donations will leverage significant support from state grants (55%) and foundations (11%) to buy the land and create the Van Arken Community Forest.
Friends, neighbors, road associations, cannabis farmers and collectives have stepped up and donated/pledged to fund an acre all at once or over the life of the campaign (Starting in 2018 – 4 years: $1,375/year; $115/month). Sanctuary Forest has funded over 75 acres, and has raised over $557,000 in donations and pledges since 2016.
Learn more at Save the Van Arken.