L-P Announces Cutting of Last Tree in Interior Mendocino County
Don't be surprised that you haven't heard this news. Louisiana Pacific didn't hold a press conference to announce it so you can't expect to have been informed by radio, T-V or newspaper.
How L-P chose to let us know was by burying the information in a number of thick binders full of technical information which collectively they called their "Sustained Yield Plan" for their interior Mendocino County lands. (Environmentalists have their own versions of what the acronym SYP stands for, most of which are not publishable, but one of which is "Sell Young Pulp".)
And, yes, yes, the above headline is a bit - but just a bit - of an exaggeration and a tad premature. What L-P's SYP actually tells us is that on their 84,000 acres of land in interior Mendo County, only 4% has conifers that are as large as 10-16 inches in diameter. The remaining 96% of their land is either hardwoods or smaller conifers. And, since L-P claims a "high quality sawlog" can be as small as 10 inches, the majority of these smaller conifers are not going to be allowed to grow much larger. Bottom line - as opposed to headline - is that there aren't many trees of any size out there now and L-P doesn't plan to grow any.
L-P Fires Foresters, Hires Crystal-Ball Gazers
Sustained Yield Plans are supposed to demonstrate how timber companies will be able to sustain the production of products of the company's choosing- be it Christmas trees or "high-quality 10 inch saw logs" - over the long term. The long term, in L-P's case, is 120 years.
Can you imagine anyone living here 120 years ago - 1877 - being able to predict what the forests of today would be like? Or can you imagine any one or any system today being capable of predicting what our forests will be like in the year 2117? Absurd on the face of it, eh? Can anyone really be taking this seriously?
But, no, the truth (I think) is that L-P didn't really hire any crystal-ball gazers. They hired instead some high-priced consultants - some millions of dollars worth - who turned on their fancy computers, entered into them lots of theoretical models based on lots of assumptions, and got out of them....well...some pretty darned fancy, hi-tech crystal-ball gazing.
Board of Forestry Says OK to L-P Rewriting Forest Practice Rules
Timber companies, in writing their SYPs, are supposedly constrained by the current Forest Practice Rules. That is, they can't propose anything in their SYPs which is in conflict with or replaces the current rules.
Louisiana-Pacific, however, treats us to some new rules of their own devising. Among their new rules is a new category of "timberland".
The rules tell us that the least productive land that can exist and still produce timber is "Class V". Bottom of the tree-growing barrel. What L-P gives us is a new class called "marginal timberland" which they define as "poor site quality not managed for timber production", which, of course, they plan to manage for timber production. Not only a new rule but new logic.
OOPS, Admits L-P, We Forgot to Mention Old Growth
When L-P filed the original version of their SYP - one that was sent back to the drawing board - it contained no mention of old growth, which the agencies pointed out was not synonymous with the "late seral" that L-P was promoting. The agencies politely asked them to discuss old growth in their revised plan.
I am pleased to be able to report that L-P cooperated with the agencies' request and provided in their revised document a discussion of the issue of old growth trees and the species which are dependent on them for survival.
For the reader's education and consideration, it is essential that L-P's discussion of old growth be repeated here in its entirety: "We don't have any."
In all fairness to L-P, it must be admitted that their lands will eventually have some "late seral" - that is, some trees 24 inches in diameter. In 120 years. According to the crystal ball.
A SYP Coming to a Watershed Near You. Soon!
The above are just a few of the many surprises L-P has in store for us. The impacts on hardwoods and on our county's economy are two of the many others that could be covered in connection with this SYP.
But to get serious here for a moment, or less serious, as needed: what we have here in Northern California is that a bunch of these plans are coming through. Soon. All timberland owners of more than 50,000 acres are required to file SYPs. Within the next year. Not only L-P and Pacific Lumber, but G-P, Sierra Pacific, Simpson Timber, Coastal Forestlands, et al.
In order to most efficiently comment on SYPs, let the public know what is happening, and keep our I.Q.s (Irreverence Quotients) elevated, a group of us got together, raised some money, hired some experts: an expert in watershed assessment, a wildlife biologist, a lawyer (o.k., o.k., some of 'em did have fancy computers) and commented on L-P's Interior Mendocino County Sustained Yield Plan. We commented on behalf of 19 environmental organizations, including the MEC, EPIC, Sierra Club, Redwood Coast Watershed Alliance, Willits Environmental Center, Mendocino Coast Environmental Center and others. Our comments were serious.
Our group continues in existence. Our next goals are to challenge the coastal plan which Louisiana Pacific has just submitted and to sponsor workshops to share what we have learned and to seek local knowledge - your knowledge - of the watersheds covered by this next SYP. We would love some help. Our group has too few people to take on every SYP that will be filed in Northern California. But by pooling our resources and sharing our knowledge, together we could make a run at it.
If you're concerned about what's happening next in your watershed please contact any of the above organizations or call me, Linda Perkins at 937-0903.
(This article, by the way, is mine alone, my wanting to share with you, once again, that the emperor is wearing no clothes. I don't speak for any of the above-listed groups.)
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited