When Blue Oak Ranch Preserve was rechristened in 2019 in honor of Soapy Mulholland on the occasion of her retirement as SRT’s executive director, it was quite a handle the Board chose: The Sopac McCarthy Mulholland Blue Oak Ranch Preserve. It didn’t exactly roll off the tongue, or bear a quick read, even for them.
With input from Mulholland, SRT leadership recently announced a more manageable and succinct formal name for the Springville-area preserve: The McCarthy Blue Oak Ranch Preserve.
The original 2019 renaming was part of a gift bestowed upon Mulholland by the SRT Board of Directors in recognition of her contribution to Blue Oak Ranch’s establishment as well as for her 17-year tenure as SRT’s executive director.
“We are pleased to rename Blue Oak Ranch Preserve in a way that that honors both Soapy’s contribution to SRT and her family’s ranching legacy in the area,” said Logan Robertson Huecker, current SRT Executive Director, adding that “New signage will soon be added reflecting this helpful change.”
Located five miles north of Springville, SRT’s McCarthy Blue Oak Ranch Preserve is a magnificent 908-acre nature preserve nestled among substantial public lands, including Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sequoia National Park and the Sequoia National Forest.
The preserve is open to the public on the first Saturday of each month, and features rolling blue oak woodland, chaparral, and the headwaters of Sycamore Creek. Located within the Tule River area, this magnificent nature preserve protects an important corridor of habitat between the foothills and higher elevation riparian areas for rare mammals like the Pacific fisher and for songbirds like the Swainson’s thrush and black swift as they migrate between their summer and winter ranges.
For more information on McCarthy Blue Oak Ranch Preserve, visit the SRT website at:
https://sequoiariverlands.org/what-you-can-do-see/preserves/blue-oak-ranch
