Jackson Campaign: Little group makes huge headway

From the Summer, 2002 issue of The Watershed

Although it only formed two years ago, the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest has already altered the destiny of the 50,000-acre forest.

Started by a group of Mendocino County residents intent on stopping large-scale commercial logging in the forest, the Jackson Campaign has grown to 2000 members. Although it is still relatively small - with only one paid staff member - the group has put a temporary halt to timber harvests in Jackson.

In September 2001 the Jackson Campaign partnered with Forests Forever, combining efforts to stop large-scale logging in Jackson and return the forest to conditions approximating old-growth.

Vince Taylor

Vince Taylor, the Jackson Campaign's executive director, said he was motivated to stop commercial logging in Jackson after witnessing the forest being eaten away, chunk by chunk, by large harvests.

Taylor, whose background includes a Bachelor's degree in physics from CalTech and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT, moved to Mendocino County in 1989. Jackson Forest is literally in his backyard - his property runs right to its edge - and he is passionate about protecting it as both an ecological and recreational resource.

"My role is to raise people's consciousness around this," he said.

And that's exactly what he and the Jackson Campaign have done. From a small office in Fort Bragg, the group has created a website and newsletter, published ads and articles in local papers and moved hundreds of people to write letters to the California Department of Forestry (CDF) imploring the agency to halt commercial logging.

The Campaign's biggest victory came in May 2001 when the Mendocino County Superior Court stopped all logging in Jackson as a result of a lawsuit the group filed.

The suit asserted that CDF was logging illegally under an outdated management plan. The state forestry board's policy states that state forest management plans must be updated every 10 years. At the time, the Jackson plan's latest revision was from 1983.

The court ordered CDF to create a new management plan and commission an accompanying Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Drafts of both documents now have been completed and are awaiting review by the forestry board.

Taylor is convinced that the will of California residents is to end massive logging in Jackson. Because the forest is publicly owned, Taylor said, halting Jackson timber harvests is much more achievable if the land were private.

"Justice is on our side," he said, "and it's doable."