NOTE: The circled numbers refer to locations on the map on the next page.
The Albion River watershed constitutes only six percent of Mendocino Redwood Company's holdings, but MRC intends to cut 10 million board feet of timber from the Albion this yearÑone fourth of the total for their entire ownership. Two timber harvest plans have been of special concern the past several months.
The J Road plan (THP1-98-199 MEN)ʬ contains several unstable, slide-prone areas, including a deep-seated one that could release vast quantities of sediment into the Albion. Another slide, caused by an abandoned logging road, has already dumped considerable mud into the river, further stressing the endangered Coho salmon struggling for survival in this degraded waterway.
Frustrated by the refusal of MRC to remove some 400 cubic yards of dirt still hovering over the river, and by the company's determination to cut trees that a geologist said were helping hold the slides in check, Albionians resorted to nonviolent civil disobedience. A tree sit (photo above) was in place in the slide area when fallers arrived on May 10. Thirty people took part in a road blockade the next day, and six were arrested. One hundred people attended a rally at the J Road gate on May 19, and 60 trespassed and hiked down to the slides.
Regrettably, the tree sit (which was in place for nearly two months) was dismantled by MRC in mid-July, and the disputed trees were cut. A pair of spotted owls appeared on the scene during the tree sit, and their behavior indicated that a nest may have been cut down.
Meanwhile, a legal struggle is continuing over the fate of the Clearbrook logging plan (THP1-98-350 MEN)ÊÁ. This plan has a bizarre and convoluted history, in which MRC first jumped the gun and started cutting in mid-February, just before the start of spotted owl calling. Then, after the Albion River Watershed Protection Association and the Sierra Club filed suit, the company withdrew the THP and conspired with the California Department of Forestry to "fix" concerns over cumulative impacts in the entire watershed with new language, but with no significant changes on the ground.
CDF reapproved the Clearbrook plan in early July, but Judge Conrad Cox issued a Temporary Restraining Order shortly thereafter. A Preliminary Injunction hearing is set for Sept. 24 in UkiahÑplan on attending!
For more information on Albion logging plans, and MRC forest practices in general, contact Linda Perkins (707) 937-0903.
The Navarro River Watershed Protection Association is closely watching two MRC logging plans adjacent to Paul Dimmick camp ground in Navarro River Redwoods State Park. The group held an informative demonstration Sunday, July 25, with banners and signs along Highway 128 next to the campground.
The two plans in question contain old-growth trees, and involve clearcutting and clearcutting euphemisms ("group selection" and "alternative prescription"). One of these plans (THP1-99-239 MEN)ÊÂ has 102 acres of clearcutting out of a total of 177 acres, and is home to spotted owls and other endangered species. The other (THP1-99-286) 4 is audaciously entitled "Park View."
For further information, call Hilary Adams (707)877-3527.
The Barn Gulch logging plan (THP1-95-315 amend. 10) 5 was in court July 19 for a Preliminary Injunction hearing. Judge Vincent Lechowick took the matter under submission.
This was the original "Breakfast First" plan, which L-P changed to commercial thinning in 1995 in response to community outrage, multiple arrests and a lawsuit. However, L-P never logged the plan, and earlier this year MRC "amended" it to group selection clearcuts, targetting all trees over 10" in diameter, including old-growth trees up to five feet in diameter and 200-600 years old.
MRC has filed three more logging plans in Greenwood Creek, and intends to clearcut one-third of their holdings in the watershed over a 10 year period.
Contact Mary Pjerrou (707) 877-3405 for more information.
Operations on a Roger Burch/Redwood Empire 402 acre logging plan in lower Elk Creek are currently playing havoc with the only Coho salmon found in the region. On June 28, Superior Court Judge Vincent Lechowick denied a Temporary Restraining Order on THP1-98-266 MENÊ6. The local watershed group, Guardians of Elk Creek Old Growth, appealed that ruling, and on July 30 the State Court of Appeals imposed a temporary stay on logging while the judges consider the case.
Meanwhile, Mendocino Redwood Com-pany's attorney Jared Carter is seeking to remove a Stipulated Injunction from a huge clearcutting plan (THP1-97-445) 7 just upstream from the Roger Burch/Redwood Empire plan. Of all the MRC "disaster" plans, this is among the worst, with 418 acres of clearcutting out of a total of 606 acres. These two logging plans surround the only Coho salmon found in a 150 square mile region.
If MRC succeeds in this legal maneuver it could affect not only THP1-97-445 MEN, but another clearcut plan in Greenwood Creek (THP1-97-352 MEN)ÊÇ, and the two old 1989 Enchanted Meadow "Albion Uprising" plans (THP1-89-100 MENÊ´ and THP1-89-145 MEN)ÊÉ.
Contact Mary Pjerrou (707) 877-3405 for more information on cutting in Elk Creek and Greenwood Creek, and on Mendocino Redwood Company logging travasties in general.
The following places are outside the scope of our map.
One of many outrages in the Headwaters "deal" consummated between corprate raider Charles Hurwitz and the state and federal governments is the exclusion of a huge logging plan in the South Fork of Elk River. THP1-97-520 HUM, nicknamed "The Hole in Headwaters," involves over a square mile of clearcuts and is completely surrounded by the newly formed Headwaters Forest Preserve.
At risk is one of the last runs of native Coho salmon in the state, the homes and water supplies of downstream residents, and the ecological integrity of the already fragmented Headwaters preserve. There are other disastrous logging plans in the South Fork of Elk River, and forest defenders are demanding that Governor Gray Davis add this entire watershed to the Headwaters Forest Preserve. (See "What You Can Do" on page 4.)
Watershed Monitoring. One of the conditions of the Headwaters Forest Agreement (the "deal") was that studies would be conducted in each watershed within the 200,000 acre Maxxam/Pacific Lumber ownership to establish stream buffer zones, etc.
As expected, the company has been less than enthusiastic about this process, and has been omitting data on two of the important "modules": water quality and herbicide use. Local watershed associations, cooperating within the Humboldt Watershed Council, have been pressing to keep the company and regulatory agencies honest.
One positive development that relates to monitoring is that the Northwest Water Quality Control Board and other state and federal regulators are using documentation supplied by citizen hikers to uncover false information in timber harvest plan applications. This is important, because agencies like State Fish and Game are always complaining that they just don't have adequate staffing to do the job themselves. For more information, contact North Coast Timber Monitors at (707) 496-8341.
Direct Action. Julia Butterfly Hill is in the 19th month of her marathon tree sit in Luna, continuing to reach out to the world on her cell phone. Nate Madson, with others, is in the 10th month of his tree sit in the Freshwater area. Gypsy Mountain, where David Gypsy Chain was killed by a Maxxam/PL logger, is still being monitored.
North Coast Earth First! is conducting trainings in nonviolence, backwoods hiking, tree climbing, and jail/legal, and will call an action camp if Maxxam/PL moves on the "Hole in Headwaters." Call (707) 825-6598 for updates.
At the end of April, all MEC members were mailed a "MEC Alert" call to action. The issue was the fate of a publicly owned 60 acre old growth Douglas Fir grove on Scott Creek, eight miles east of Willits. The State Lands Commission (SLC) was trying to sell it for logging.
The good news, for now at least, is that the SLC has asked the California Department of Forestry (CDF) to put their current THP application on hold. A CDF official has said that it is "highly unlikely" that this THP will go forward.
The Commission owns a 320 acre parcel, of which the 60-acre old growth is a part, in trust for the State Teachers Retirement Fund. Years ago, SLC tried to sell another old growth parcel on behalf of State Teachers Retirement, but the teachers passed a resolution stating that they didn't want that old growth cut to benefit their pensions. We can probably credit a vigorous letter writing campaign on the part of teachers, MEC members and Forests Forever for what appears to be a change of plans by SLC for Scott Creek as well.
Unfortunately, the present status of the Scott Creek old growth is unsettled and uncertain. SLC has a legal agreement with neighboring landowners to sell them the parcel, but only if SLC is not able to obtain THP approval from CDF. There are reasons to mistrust the prospective buyers' verbal claims that they would put the 60 acres of old growth into a conservation easement, should they prevail in lawsuits pending between them and SLC.
The bottom line is, this precious remnant of old growth, so rare in Mendocino County, should not be logged by anyone. Stay tuned!
* Join the Forest Defense 911 emergency response network! Phone 468-5752, leave your name and number, and you will be contacted about carpooling to a nonviolent protest if a watershed group requests help.
* Check the "contact" information at the end of each Mendocino County watershed update, and the Headwaters update, to learn how you can get involved locally.
* Write (phone, fax) Governor Gray Davis. (See Resource Directory, p.18.) Remind him of his pledge to ensure that "wetlands are preserved, rivers are clean and all old-growth trees are spared from the lumberjack's ax."
Demand that Governor Davis:
1) Add the entire South Fork Elk River watershed to the Headwaters Forest Preserve;
2) Further strengthen no-cut zones along streams in logging areas. He is proposing changes in state Forest Practices Rules which do not meet the standards set in the Headwaters Forest Agreement or those in place on federal lands.
* Carpool to a rally at the State Board of Forestry offices in Sacramento on Tuesday, September 14. This is to protest the Davis administration's Forest Practices Rules "package" (see item above). Call North Coast Earth First! at (707) 825-6598 or the MEC for details.
You also may want to join the MEC and/or make an extra donation. The MEC is a networking hub and directly assists all of the regional forest defense efforts.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited