Forests Forever Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Thursday, January 16, 2003
Contacts: Steve Hopcraft, 916/457-5546; Paul Hughes, Andria Strickley,
(415) 974-3636
State Clears Path to Log Jackson State Forest
San Francisco, CA – Forests Forever Foundation, a nonprofit California
forest education group, today said that State Board of Forestry actions
and the Governor’s Budget proposal reveal the State’s plan
"to cut down century-old trees in California’s largest publicly-owned
forest to help ease the State’s current fiscal crisis."
The State Board of Forestry met in January and took steps to clear the
way for the State to continue its profitable, but increasingly controversial,
massive logging of publicly-owned mature second-growth trees in Jackson
Demonstration State Forest (JDSF).
"The State has cleared almost all obstacles to begin logging in Brandon
Gulch and Camp 3 – just under 1,000 acres of older second growth
redwood forest in the heart of the recreation area of Jackson State Forest,"
said Paul Hughes, Executive Director of Forests Forever Foundation. "Not
only is logging mature stands to pay today’s bills unwise, it is
foolish to log at today’s depressed timber prices. Even if you accept
the logging the State proposes, it still makes no sense to sell the timber
at the time when you will get the least for these precious public assets."
The Governor’s Budget proposal for 2003-04 estimates the State will
fell $17,500,000 worth of the taxpayers’ trees in the next 18 months.
Based on estimated mill prices for redwood of $600 per thousand board-feet,
the State will log a large portion of the 50,000 acres of Jackson Forest.
The Jackson State Forest area proposed for logging constitutes 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 tract
that realistically could serve as a 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 Hughes. "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 is revving up its chain saws. The biggest obstacle remaining in
their way is the lawsuit objecting to this penny-wise, pound-foolish logging,"
said Hughes. "The State is using the public forest as a cash cow."
Until halted by a lawsuit last year, large-scale timber operations in
Jackson State Forest had been generating $15 million in revenue for state
forestry programs, including environmental-restoration subsidies to timberland
owners. The State has near-term plans to fell about 10,000 mature second-growth
redwood trees on just under 1,000 acres in the pending Timber Harvesting
Plans. 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.
"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 timberland owners’ environmental
repair costs."
Experts have filed 1,000 pages detailing glaring deficiencies in the Environmental
Impact Report (EIR) and management plan for Jackson Forest. Deficiencies
include 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. Forest Forever Foundation’s
suit asserts that CDF failed to respond fully and appropriately to this
expert testimony, as required by state environmental law.
"CDF continues to ignore the public and experts. It continues to
pursue a management plan that will clear-cut half the forest. We will
continue to pursue in Court ways to block the State from logging based
on an EIR that doesn’t meet the legal requirements," said Hughes.
On January 8, 2003, the Department of Forestry revealed its plan to accelerate
large-scale commercial timber production in Jackson State. The State’s
plan will make heavy use of "even-age management" (commonly
known as clear-cutting), provide minimal protection for salmon streams,
and planned cutting of some of the finest unprotected second-growth stands
in Mendocino County.
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