Forests Forever Press Release
For Immediate
Release:
Thursday, November 7, 2002
Contacts: Steve Hopcraft, 916/457-5546; Paul Hughes, Andria Strickley, (415)
974-3636
STATE ADOPTS
PLAN TO
CLEAR-CUT ONE-HALF OF PUBLIC FOREST
Lawsuit Would Halt State Plan to Log Jackson State Forest
November 7, 2002, Sacramento, CA – Forests Forever Foundation, a nonprofit
California forest education group, called decisions made Wednesday by the
California State Board of Forestry (BOF) to adopt a plan to log Jackson Demonstration
State Forest (JDSF) "encouraging in some respects, but deeply flawed
overall."
The decision is the latest action in the State’s efforts to continue
its profitable, but increasingly controversial, massive logging of publicly-owned
Jackson State Forest.
"The 50,000 acres of Jackson Forest constitute an island of public land
in the midst of a half-million acres of industrially owned, devastated redwood
timberland. Jackson State Forest is the only possible large sanctuary between
San Francisco and Humboldt County for salmon and other endangered redwood-related
species. It could also be a recreation haven for the millions of people who
live in the Bay Area and Central Valley. The state ought to be restoring this
publicly owned treasure for its precious ecological and recreational values,
not logging it like another big industrial company," said Paul Hughes,
Executive Director of Forests Forever Foundation.
"We applaud the Board, and especially its new members, for beginning
to tighten the leash on the Department of Forestry. But it remains that the
threat to Jackson from logging comes at the hands of the very state agency
entrusted with safeguarding the environmental values of our forests. The State
adopted a plan to cut down many millions of dollars worth per year of the
taxpayers’ redwoods," said Hughes. "Talk about penny-wise
and pound-foolish! The State is using the public forest as a cash cow. This
year, the Department of Forestry may not be able to make the cut before the
rainy season begins. We’re pleased that the Board has required the Department
to evaluate its logging activities in terms of how massive logging contributes
to the restoration of this forest."
Located three hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Jackson is situated on
the coast between the towns of Mendocino and Fort Bragg. At 50,000 acres it
is the largest of California's eight state-owned forests and the only one
home to a significant percentage of mature second-growth redwoods. Until halted
by a lawsuit last year, large-scale timber operations in Jackson State Forest
had been generating $15 million of revenue for state forestry programs, including
subsidies to timberland owners. The State has near-term plans to fell some
10,000 mature second-growth redwood trees on 1,000 acres in pending Timber
Harvesting Plans.
"The State’s logging plan threatens water quality and wildlife
in the forest," said Hughes. "The funds not only enrich CDF, but
also subsidize programs to repair watershed damage on private timberlands
– effectively paying many of time owners’ environmental repair
costs."
Experts had filed 1,000 pages detailing glaring deficiencies in the Environmental
Impact Report (EIR) and management plan.
"We have asked the court to step in, because CDF ignored the public and
experts. It adopted a management plan that will clear-cut half the forest.
It approved an EIR that doesn’t meet the legal requirements," said
Hughes.
CDF has been working for over a year to develop and gain approval for a new
management plan. In April 2001, it issued a draft management plan that called
for continued large-scale commercial timber production in Jackson State. The
draft plan was widely criticized for its heavy use of "even-age management"
(commonly known as clear-cutting), minimal protection for salmon streams,
and planned cutting of some of the finest unprotected second-growth stands
in Mendocino County.
In response to the criticism, CDF requested informal public comment, which
many took to be a sign that CDF was planning to revise its plan to incorporate
public concerns. An approved EIR is necessary under the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) before a management plan can be approved. In May 2002,
CDF released a new draft management plan and a draft EIR. The new draft plan
was essentially identical to the heavily criticized plan of 2001.
The new plan and EIR drew an immediate and overwhelmingly critical flood of
public comment. Of the 4,000 public comments, less than 50 supported the proposed
CDF plan. The remainder strongly opposed CDF’s large-scale logging plans
and most called for restoration of the publicly owned forest to old growth
for recreation, habitat, education and research.
CDF also received a thousand pages of detailed expert comments on the EIR.
The expert comments detailed numerous deficiencies, including lack of any
meaningful cumulative impacts analysis, lack of comprehensive botanical surveys,
inadequate protection of endangered species, inadequate presentation of data
on timber, and errors in estimates of timber inventory, growth and allowable
harvest levels.
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