Embedded within the BLM land between Cahto Peak, Brush Mountain and Elkhorn Ridge is the Nature Conservancy's first preserve in the West, the Northern California Coast Range Preserve. Together, the nearly 22,000 acres, will be included in a citizens' proposal for California BLM Wilderness when Congress looks at BLM lands outside the desert. The Eel is one of five Northern California Wild and Scenic Rivers added to the federal protection system by the Secretary of Interior in 1981. The most sensitive classification, wild, is given to the river where it flows through the proposed Cahto Wilderness. The most sensitive of native salmon runs, the Coho, uses the wild river and tributaries here for spawning. Old Growth Mixed Evergreen forest is distributed throughout the area in 47 stands on nearly 5,000 acres. Fisheries biologist, Peter Moyle says, "Coho are the species of fish probably most dependent on Ancient (Old Growth) Forests" because they need the cool water and sustained flows these forests provide.
In the heart of the Cahto Wilderness adjacent to the preserve, BLM wants to carry out the Elkhorn Ridge Timber Sale. It "breaks nearly every environmental law on the books regarding timber sales", according to the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund attorney who represents environmental groups who sued after an Earth First! blockade of operations in 1988. Among many legal requirements BLM had not completed, a River Management Plan for the "Wild" river is now out for public review. In the South Fork Eel River Management Plan and Elkhorn Ridge Timber Sale Environmental Impact Statement Supplement to the Draft (River Mgt. Plan), the sale is "excluded from Designated Critical Habitat" only because the BLM State Director told US Fish and Wildlife Service that "the suit was settled" (page 106). In fact, the litigation still stands.
"Conformance" (page 1) is with old plans that are "inadequate, particularly with regard to Old Growth" according to the Arcata BLM manager Lloyd and a "Record of Decision" that is under appeal. Please ask BLM to offer an alternative in the River Mgt. Plan that you will support because it will:
1) Buyback the timber sale contract at Eel River Sawmills' cost, investment and interest only. No sweat, no profit.
2) Recognize Old Growth Forest in the regional setting and the Cahto area as an "Outstandingly Remarkable Ecological Value" to the Wild River.
3) Protect Old Growth on all streams in the Cahto area that drain into the South Fork Eel.
4) Stop further fragmentation of Old Growth Forest habitat.
5) Identify land acquisitions necessary to protect the Wild River values.
6) Designate the Wild River Corridor all the way to federal ownership boundaries to better manage the Wild River values.
7) Limit access to the river corridor to only the types and amounts of use that have no adverse impact to the Wild River Values.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
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