Some Good News,
Some Hopeful News,
And Some Bad News
Editor's Note: For background information on all but the first and last of these updates, see the Spring 2001 issue of this MEC Newsletter. For background on the "Hole in Headwaters," see Naomi Wagner's cover article in the Summer 2001 issue.
First the good news! For many years, Coast citizens and supporters have been working to protect and preserve the long-suffering Big River watershed, harassed by logging for 150 years. In mid August of this year, a purchase agreement was reached to transfer the 8.3 mile tidal estuary and 7,400 acres of tributaries and bordering forest to California State Parks. The deal is now in escrow and public funds have been committed, but closure is dependent upon an additional $6 million in private matching funds. $3.4 million of this has been raised, and the remaining $2.6 million is due by the end of this year. Contact Mendocino Land Trust at (707) 962-0470 to donate to this worthy cause.
Timber Harvest Plan (THP) 1-00-364, adjacent to Montgomery Woods State Park, is also in escrow limbo. This logging plan contains large second growth trees that should be preserved in their own right, and which provide wind shelter for the old growth giants in the Park, including the tallest tree in the world! Sale to private parties is pending, but a glitch has developed that may squelch the purchase. Contact Ed Nieves at 937-0637 to find out how you can help.
Another logging plan in the "hopeful, but not out of the woods" category is THP 1-99-412, which lies along the Skunk Train right of way in the upper reaches of the Noyo River. Apparently Campbell Timber Company (based in Oregon) didn't anticipate the public outcry they triggered by trying to log this plan. As a condition to Campbell's request for an extension until January to revise the THP, Judge Richard Henderson is requiring the California Department of Forestry (CDF) to re-open public comment. Meanwhile, Campbell has declared itself to be a "willing seller" if money can be raised to buy the property encompassed by the plan. Contact the Mendocino Environmental Center to stay informed.
Thanks to a groundswell of outrage over Mendocino Redwood Company's new Enchanted Meadow logging plan (THP 1-01-033), trees are still standing in one of the few unentered second growth stands left in the Albion River watershed. Activists have continued to press CDF over many unanswered legal issues, including unfinished botanical and raptor surveys, and the agency may have to redo its Second Review process. There is still hope for this critical area of forest, but MRC is continuing to hammer the Albion with an onslaught of new THPs. The company's bogus "sustainable forestry" certification is coming up for annual review right about now, and challenges are underway. For more information, contact Linda Perkins at 937-0903, or the Mendocino Environmental Center.
Like the Albion River, Greenwood Creek still has significant numbers of large and medium-sized trees. AndÑno surpriseÑMRC is concentrating its plunder in these and a handful of other similar watersheds. In the Spring 2001 issue of this MEC Newsletter, we described a particularly flagrant logging plan that was destined to dump more sediment into Greenwood Creek and impact a community project, three years in the making, to restore fish habitat and water quality. When the Greenwood Watershed Association mounted a legal challenge to this plan, MRC shrewdly withdrew it and replaced it with another in the same location. THP 1-01-254 is a 77 acre virtual clearcut on very steep, unstable slopes, and only one mile upstream from another recent "disaster" plan with 25 documented landslides and 18 stream crossings. To find out more about MRC's logging practices and what you can do, check out the Greenwood Watershed Association's web site at www.elksoft.com/gwa.
Jackson State Forest differs from the other forestlands discussed in these updates in one very important way: it is owned by us, the people of California. Unfortunately, Jackson State is administered by the same California Department of Forestry that rubber stamps liquidation logging plans for industrial forestry corporations. Not surprisingly, CDF's management philosophy is identical to industry'sÑto cut trees for profit. Last May, the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest prevailed in a lawsuit to stop CDF from operating under its archaic 1983 Management Plan. The court agreed that this plan is likely to cause "substantial and possibly irreparable harm" to the forest. Incredibly, CDF reacted by conspiring with its parent State Board of Forestry to rescind the Board of Forestry's requirement that logging conform to "a current management plan." Now CDF claims it is free to resume logging under the 1983 plan while completing a new one. In April, CDF tipped its hand and released a draft of a new plan, and it is even worse than the old one, calling for clearcutting over half of the forest while targeting the largest, oldest trees! The mission of the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest is to convince the state legislature to stop all logging in the Forest and make restoration, recreation and education the priorities. To accomplish this goal, the Campaign's strategy is to build a large base of members. To learn more and to join this effort, visit www.jacksonforest.com, or call 964-5800.
THP 1-97-520, the "Hole in Headwaters," is a gigantic 705 acre logging plan on the South Fork of Elk River in Humboldt County. It is completely surrounded by the Headwaters Preserve, having been omitted from public acquisition and handed to Charles Hurwitz's Pacific Lumber Company as part of the infamous Headwaters "deal" in 1999. The plan allows cutting right up against the northern edge of Headwaters Grove, exposing ancient trees to blowdown. Although heavily impacted, the South Fork is one of the best Coho salmon spawning grounds left in California. Since the "deal," Pacific Lumber applied relentless pressure, all the way to the governor's office. State and federal agencies caved in, flouting provisions in the Headwaters Forest Agreement, and logging began on Tuesday, October 23. Once again, courageous activists have mobilized to defend Headwaters. Many have already been arrested, and an Action Camp is in progress at Grizzly Creek State Park. Phone North Coast Earth First! at (707) 825-6598 (or page 269-9731) to get involved. Information is available at (510) 835-6303 or (707) 923-4949. You can also phone the Mendocino Environmental Center for updates and information on donating food, clothing and money to forest defenders.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2001
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited