Mendocino County Board of Supervisors appeal to Governor Newsom over public forest controversy
FORT BRAGG, CA— Nov. 19, 2021 by Mary Rose Kaczorowski
Despite the push back from local California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire) staff, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on Monday, Nov. 15, to send to Governor Newsom a request that state officials review whether CAL Fire’s current management practices regarding Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) operations and plans align with achieving California's climate goals. According to Supervisor Dan Gjerde, the Board of Supervisors received over eight hundred letters/emails and fifty archived phone calls in response to the issues regarding JDSF. Under six percent of the comments submitted were against the adoption of the resolution.
The scientific community worldwide agrees that present approaches to logging forests contribute to climate change. Logging depletes the forests’ ability to absorb vast amounts of the warming gas CO2.The competing interests and the purpose of JDSF forests are now up for debate and begs the question , should JDSF now be managed for public recreation, education and tourism and restoration, not primarily to display logging practices for private industry
The text of the Resolution #21 and the Special Meeting of the Board of Supervisor Meeting can be accessed along with the whole balance of public comment voices that spoke at that meeting and can be viewed at https://mendocino.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=265 (once at the link scroll on the agenda to the left of the screen and then click on “4a) Discussion and Possible Action Including Adoption of Resolution Requesting Scientific Review of Jackson Demonstration State Forest “
Also see Agenda Pages 5, 6 and 7 for selected Public Comment Attachments:
(Full Disclosure: My public comments were presented and submitted in favor of the resolution)
For two years now the outcry cry from the public has been to ensure the resiliency of these publicly owned forests in the face of climate change. Asking for placing a moratorium to resolve inherent contradictions in the mission of JDSF and issues found in the logging operations at JDSF has been one of the main objectives of a broad coalition that consists of a wide diversity of the public in the local area and statewide since this is one of the largest public forests in California.
Restoration, Demonstration and Recreation are the three main operating elements of Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF). Just over 49,000 acres, JDSF is at best a second growth regenerating public forest, technically owned by the taxpayers of California and managed by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire) .
There are controversies around the 2006 Jackson Demonstration Forest Management Plan that is supposedly used to guide the how JDSF is managed. JDSF operates under Cal Fire & California Board of Forestry who in turn regulates logging. The Board of Forestry, stacked with timber industry interests, govern the Timber Harvest Rules and their regulations are deemed outdated in their response to the unprecedented and historic impacts of climate change and how forests have enormous potential in mitigating climate change despite what the intent of the JDSF Management Plan indicates.
Even though CAL Fire has done some important studies and impressive restorative work, the2006 updated JDSF management plan is heavy on rhetoric, leans toward wishful projects in many areas and cites older literature and studies. There is an obvious lack of current science and data to drive the plan in accordance with current conditions exacerbated by global warming. Actual solid mitigation steps in the plan regarding climate change are unconfirmed. These are some of the valid criticisms of the outdated plan and of the interests managing these forests as represented by CAL Fire and operating under the California Board of Forestry. Lack of cross disciplinary staffing and collaborations to do the real on the ground science is what is missing.
The filing of several Timber Harvest Plans in the Casper area of JDSF is what set off tree sits and blockades by local citizens.
A Timber Harvest Plan called the “Caspar 500” was released to the public in 2020 as California was ordered into a full shelter-in-place mandate due to the COVID 19 pandemic outbreak.
Being forced to shelter-in-place and unable to access posted notifications, and without regard for the emergency orders CAL Fire went ahead with closing the public comment period without input from the public and gave approval to a logging operation in a popular area that locals and tourists alike utilize for recreation and nature study. The realization was that CAL Fire was taking advantage of the lockdown to push through these plans while other agencies in California strictly followed the Governors orders for curtailing operations. Logging was not seen by locals as an essential business especially without input from the public or local native tribes whose homelands comprise the breadth of JDSF.
Logging is done by outside local timber operators who contract with Cal Fire and the contracted staff are not biologists nor trained in forest restoration. Hundreds of older merchantable trees being cut down has been criticized as not a sustainable approach to this regenerating forest.
We would like to think that sustainable logging is not about clearcutting. Unfortunately, certain types of near clearcutting are employed —" allowable cut, “ “even-aged management,” “sustained yield,” “variable retention,” are under so-called sustainable forestry practices.
Logging terminology is often not understood by the public or policymakers. And many variations of terminology mean that technically correct usage may not be descriptive or updated to todays’ science or enough to know what is meant in each case.
Compounding the problem is that the public access to THPs, aka Timber Harvest plans, are cumbersome even though CAL Fire states on its website,
“CAL FIRE provides frequent updates on the status of Timber Harvesting Plans (THPs) and all harvesting documents currently under review.”
Timber Harvesting Status Reports are available online, by following this link: Timber Harvesting Status Report
RESOURCES:
Stopping the Loggers on Mendocino’s Jackson Demonstration State Forest by Cal Winslow on June 29, 2021 https://beyondchron.org/stopping-the-loggers-on-californias-north-coast-mendocino-countys-jackson-demonstration-state-forest/
Background Analytical Study Forests and Climate Change- Background
study prepared for the fourteenth session of the
United Nations Forum on Forests (2019)
https://www.un.org/esa/forests/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/UNFF14-
BkgdStudy-SDG13-March2019.pdf
Historical Perspective, Conservation & Politics, Cal Fire Documentshttps://www.mendocinotrailstewards.org/research-background-links
Over 200 Top U.S. Climate and Forest Scientists Urge Congress: Protect Forests to Mitigate Climate Crisishttps://johnmuirproject.org/2020/05/breaking-news-over-200-top-u-s-climate-and-forest-scientists-urge-congress-protect-forests-to-mitigate-climate-crisis/
Mendocino Trail Stewards Policy Papers https://www.mendocinotrailstewards.org/policy-papers
The Mendocino Voice: Activists: It’s not sustainable to cut down in an hour what takes 100s of years to grow back https://mendovoice.com/2021/06/activist-its-not-sustainable-to-cut-down-in-an-hour-what-takes-100s-of-years-to-grow-back/
The Mendocino Voice: Pro-logging counterprotest held at Jackson State Demonstration Forest https://mendovoice.com/2021/06/pro-logging-counterprotest-held-at-jackson-state-demonstration-forest/
KZYX: Trail Stewards Radio Hour, June 15, 2021: with climate scientist JP O’Brien discussing climate change and forest health and ecologist Teresa Sholars, we examine sustainable timber harvest from an ecologists’ perspective.
KPFA: Terra Verde, May 7, 2021: Gary Hughes, Biofuel Watch International Policy Monitor, with Chad Swimmer, President of the Mendocino Trail Stewards, on the evolution of the Trail Stewards and why JDSF needs a change of management.
More Media Links: https://www.mendocinotrailstewards.org/media-links