By MIKE GENIELLA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
February 13, 2006
UKIAH - For the first time, Mendocino County supervisors are endorsing less
logging and more recreational uses in Jackson State Demonstration Forest.
After an intense debate, county supervisors this week split 3-2 to
endorse a management option plan favored by environmentalists, the Sierra Club
and some locally prominent timber interests.
The county board's stance signals a significant shift in local attitudes toward
long-term management of the 49,000-acre state-owned forest, which straddles
Highway 20 between Fort Bragg and Willits.
"It was the right thing to do," said Art Harwood, whose family operates the last
large independently owned sawmill in Branscomb.
Board members David Colfax, Kendall Smith and Hal Wagenet voted in favor of
recommending to the state Board of Forestry a management plan that would allow
the least logging, one of seven alternatives being reviewed at the state level.
[Note by Vince Taylor: the endorsed plan was not the alternative with the
"least logging." It would log at 80 percent of the state's preferred plan. Four
other alternatives would have lower levels of logging.]
The state Department of Forestry, which has managed Jackson State Forest since
it was established in the late 1940s, favors continuing to manage it with a
focus on timber production and logging techniques. That's a concept that has won
support from major timber companies, local logging contractors and the Mendocino
Employers Council.
When acquired after World War II from the old Caspar Timber Co., the Jackson
forest was a heavily cut-over tract. But over the past half-century, state
management practices have turned it into one of the best-stocked commercial
timberlands along the North Coast.
Even so, there's been a push over the past decade for the state management
emphasis to shift from logging to recreation.
In 2003, logging within the boundaries of Jackson forest was halted by a
Superior Court judge after reviewing a lawsuit filed by local environmentalists.
Judge Richard Henderson then found that state environmental studies were
inadequate and ordered a logging halt until they could be revised.
[Note by Vince Taylor: the court first halted logging in Jackson Forest in
2001, responding to a suit by the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest. The
suit led to the verdict that the management plan was legally out of date. Except
for 5 days in 2003, logging has been halted since 2001.]
This week's vote is the latest chapter in a continuing struggle by state
foresters to get a new management plan in place. While the vote by Mendocino
supervisors is only advisory, it's the first time since the 1940s that local
officials have urged less logging in Jackson forest.
Supervisor Mike Delbar said the board vote reflected a movement to turn Jackson
forest "into a park."
Delbar said the mandate for Jackson forest has always been to support maximum
sustainable timber harvesting to provide logs for the region's timber industry.
"That's why it was formed as a demonstration forest," said Delbar.
But sawmill operator Harwood said times change.
Harwood said Jackson forest managers need to re-examine the overall goals
because public sentiment today favors management of forest resources "for the
greatest public benefit."
"The future of forestry is no longer the old industrial model," Harwood said.
Copyright Press Democrat, 2006