Why restore Jackson State Forest? First, it contains one of the county's last large maturing redwood ecosystems. Second, the California Department of Forestry, which writes, approves and monitors timber harvest plans on publicly owned Jackson Forest, is allowing tens of thousands of trees, an average 28 million board feet of lumber each year, to be cut from the forest. Third, it's ours to defend; Jackson Forest is the property and the responsibility of the people of California.
The Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest is determined to restore Jackson's 50,000 acres to a healthy and renewing condition for the benefit of future generations. Join us.
CDF continues to approve the decimation of Jackson Forest's watersheds. But as someone wondered recently, why does CDF need to demonstrate how to log in 100-year-old stands? There aren't enough 100-year-old standsleft on industrial timberlands in California to hold a weekend seminar on how to cut them, let alone year after year of "demonstration" logging.
What needs to be demonstrated is that the people of California prefer their forests standing and alive. The time has passed for CDF to give away the last remnants of our natural heritage and possibly our future survival.
The Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest stresses that because Jackson State Forest is already publicly owned, it has the potential to provide enormous ecological, recreational and educational benefits without any more expenditure of taxpayer money. By far California's largest state forest, Jackson Forest reaches 20 miles from near Fort Bragg and Mendocino on the coast to the ridges of the inland valleys near Highway 101. Because of heavy logging throughout the redwood region, Jackson Forest has become one of the last sizeable repositories of 100-year-old trees and of habitat for the species that require mature redwood stands.
Steve Antler, Campaign Director, says, "We are working urgently to get people to know what is happening to Jackson State, because quick actionis needed to save this forest. The California Department of Forestry, is logging the biggest, oldest second-growth trees first. Current harvest plans will enter 1000 acres of forest that haven't been logged for eighty to 100 years, destroying the delicate balance of trees, ferns, shade and light that has taken so long to reestablish."
The Campaign filed a lawsuit in June to halt further logging in Jackson Forest until the Forest's management plan, last updated in 1983, is revised. The Campaign believes that the public wants a far different future for the forest than the heavy logging program set out in 1983, and that the public will see no sense in cutting redwoods out of a publicly owned forest while hundreds of millions of their taxpayer dollars go to save Headwaters Forest.
To join or learn more about Jackson State Forest, visit the Campaign's website: www.jacksonforest.com., which contains maps, history and loads of research on the forest. Call the Campaign (707 964-5800) if you are interested in visiting Jackson Forest. Guided tours are available to take you to see both the wonders and the devastation of Jackson. Get to know your forest.
It is time to start treating Jackson State Forest as the public treasure that it is, rather than continuing to cut its magnificent old redwoods and firs. Join us.
Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest
phone:707.964.5800
fax: 707.964.6202
website: www.jacksonforest.com
email: campaign@jacksonforest.com
PO Box 1789
Fort Bragg CA 95437
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2000
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited