Forests Forever Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
Contacts: Jon Akana, 916/ 457-5546, cell 916/ 697-5325;
Paul Hughes, Andria Strickley, 415/ 974-3636, cell 917/ 697-5325
Forest Advocates Protest Jackson State Forest Timber Sale
State Sells Oldest Second-Growth Groves
WILLITS, CA -- Forests Forever Foundation, a nonprofit California forest
education group, the Campaign to Restore Jackson Demonstration State Forest,
and local forest advocates today denounced the State of California’s
sale of 8.8 million board feet of timber in Brandon Gulch in the publicly-owned
Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF).
"The State is moving swiftly to log Brandon Gulch – 540 acres
of older second growth redwood forest in an unparalleled recreation and
wildlife habitat area of Jackson State Forest," said Paul Hughes,
Executive Director of Forests Forever Foundation. "The State is acting
foolishly in logging our best recreation trails, and doing so when the
price of logs is so low. If the State wants to destroy precious public
assets and get the least return for the public, this is the way to do
it."
Mendocino County portable sawmill operator Bill Heil told a news conference
at the California Department of Forestry (CDF) office as bids were opened
that CDF’s approach is wrong-headed and favors big business. "This
sale favors large, industrial sawmills, not small local businesses. The
size of the sale means that only the largest sawmills will be able to
afford to bid," said Heil. "CDF continues to manage Jackson
State as if it were industrial forestland. It is time for CDF to abandon
the Industrial Forest Management model in Jackson State and begin to demonstrate
modern methods of management that place higher consideration on ecological
and social issues and less on short-term economic gain."
Forest advocates criticized the State’s management of the forest
and charged that CDF has failed to follow the legally required steps before
awarding a contract to log the forest. "The State plans to take 15,000
trees from Brandon Gulch, one of the most beautiful and ecologically valuable
canyons of our public redwood forest without completing an environmental
impact report on the cumulative impacts of its logging," said Vince
Taylor, executive director of the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood
Forest. "We won’t stand by while our state government destroys
the most precious ecological and recreational part of Jackson State Forest."
The CDF is also soliciting bids for logging in Camp 3, in the central
recreation area of the forest, and adjacent to Brandon Gulch. The two
plans cover 900 acres of 80-to-110-year-old redwood forest. More than
30,000 trees and 20 million board feet of timber will be taken from one
of the largest parcels of unprotected mature second-growth redwood forest
in Mendocino County.
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