|
Compared to other regions in the state, there is little public forestland
in the redwood region between San Francisco Bay and Humboldt County.
Jackson Forest is the only opportunity to protect and restore the region’s
depleted biological heritage and provide forest-based recreation for the
public.
Jackson is also the
only large public redwood forest available to practice silviculture that
is not driven by debt service, mill utilization concerns, or the need to
demonstrate increasing profits to stockholders on a quarterly basis. The
Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) appointed by former CDF Director Wilson
recognized this when they sent a letter to Director Wilson asking that
Jackson be managed according to the principles of good silviculture rather
than based on an externally driven need to make money.
Jackson
Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) is bounded north and south by two large
industrial timberland owners, Hawthorne Timber LLC (Hawthorne) toward the
west, and Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) toward the east. These
ownerships extend far to the north and south. Both are relatively new
owners, being successors to Georgia-Pacific (now Hawthorne) and Louisiana
Pacific (now MRC). G-P and LP depleted their lands, culminating in the
1990s with the virtual elimination of older second growth redwoods (stands
exceeding 40 years of age in a region where trees will live to be 2000
years old). The surrounding industrial lands have only 25% of the timber
volume that Jackson Forest does.
During this period,
the California Department of Forestry (CDF) approved thousands of Timber
Harvest Plans and concluded that each individually and cumulatively
resulted in no significant adverse impact to the environment. Yet during
this same period, ever increasing numbers of species were listed as
threatened or endangered by both the state and federal governments and
most of the streams in the area were listed as impaired under Section 303d
of the Clean Water Act including both the Big River and the Noyo River,
major watersheds in Jackson. Each of these listings cited poor
California Forest Practice Rules and logging as either primary or
significant factors in the listing. This is the regional setting around
Jackson Forest. (Maps were provided illustrating these statements.)
Two 1990 photos
taken by Nicholas Wilson show about 20 square miles of clearcuts in the
Pudding Creek and Noyo watersheds, directly north of Jackson. The photos
date from the time Mendocino County tried to get the Board of Forestry to
approve local rules that had been developed in a long, arduous, and
democratic fashion. The Board of Forestry turned down the rules requested
by our Board of Supervisors saying that the new Sustained Yield Plan (SYP)
process would take care of our problems. To date, no SYP has been
approved in Mendocino County and none are pending.
Whatever you think
of the forest management in the photo, it must be acknowledged that this
watershed will not be old forest anytime soon, if ever. It is
unfortunately quite typical of the region’s industrial timberland
holdings.
Another set of
photos by Nicholas Wilson show an old growth redwood grove liquidated by
GP in 1975, one of the last in the County. It was located on the Little
North Fork Big River, adjacent to Jackson. After the tree was cut, it was
measured at 17-foot diameter and the ring count revealed it to have been
1,540 years old. If it’s green, those who don’t know better tend to think
all is well. But look at what we have lost!
The ecosystem and
the original balance of its plants and animals great and small have all
been massively diminished in this region. Both the people who live here
and those who might come to spend some time have no option but to turn to
Jackson Forest. We ask the Board of Forestry to rearrange priorities at
Jackson, resolve the longstanding conflict, and move management of the
forest into a new and productive era.
|