Late Seral Development Committee
Meetings
  • July 21, 2008, Santa Rosa, Agenda
  • August 5, 2008, Ukiah, Agenda

Public Archive

All emails among members of the Late Seral Development Committee, including attached documents, are at the JAG public archive.

Audio

Documents

Maps

Public comments are welcome and should be addressed to the chair of the subcommittee, John Helms

 The Committee

The Late Seral Development Committee (technically a subcommittee of the JAG) was formed to recommend how logging should be done in Brandon Gulch and Camp 3 with the objective of accelerating development of old-growth conditions. "Late Seral" is a technical term for "Old Growth."

Members

John Helms, chair -- forest ecosystem dynamics, silviculture
Brad Valentine -- wildlife and fisheries in the context of forestry
Linwood Gill -- practical silviculture, sustainable forest management
Dan Porter -- redwood ecology and botany, late successional redwood structures
Peter Braudrick - recreation
 
Assisting them as consultants will be:

Kevin O'Hara - UC Berkeley -- late successional silvicultural prescriptions, redwood ecosystem literature

Greg Giusti - UC Berkeley, Mendocino County Extension Agent -- forest management, vertebrate pest management, wetlands, watersheds, fisheries, redwood landowner practices survey

The subcommittee will also be able to draw upon other colleagues and experts.
The subcommittee and the consultants together will bring to bear a broad range of knowledge and concerns.

Context

The existing timber contracts on Brandon Gulch and Camp 3 were the focus of the lawsuits of the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest from 2000 forward. These two plans cover almost 1000 acres of forest that has not been entered since the initial logging in the early 1900s. Such unentered old second growth stands are rare in Jackson Forest, and these particular stands are in the heart of the major recreation area of Jackson Forest. These stands are highly valuable for habitat, recreation, and human enjoyment.

Negotiations among the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest, Cal Fire, and the contract holders have been concluded successfully, leading to an agreement to revise the two timber harvest plans to accelerate "late seral conditions" (the technical term for the forest conditions found in old growth stands). Camp 3 will have an experimental design and have baseline measurements of biological and timber inventories. Brandon Gulch will demonstrate late seral development, but will not have an experimental design.

A key question is, "What will be done in the name of old growth development?" The purpose of the Late Seral Development Committee is to assure that the best scientific information is consulted and that the public interest is fully represented. The committee will make recommendations to the Director of Cal Fire on the specifics of marking trees for cutting. All of its meetings will be open to the public, and it will interact with the full advisory group as it develops its recommendations. Recreation values will be explicitly considered by the subcommittee.

 

News

Late Seral Development Committee Presents Recommendations for Camp 3

September 2, 2008. The Committee on Late Seral Development will present its recommendations for the Camp 3 Timber Harvest Plan to the JAG on September 5 (Agenda).

Camp 3 Timber Harvest Plan

The proposed harvest is designed to provide research on accelerating late-seral development. Approximately 160 acres of original Camp 3 harvest plan was removed from harvesting in a settlement agreement between the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest and the state. The remaining 215 acres are to receive two different levels of thinning: 30% removal and 45% removal.

Inventory plots will be established and measured prior to the harvest and at 5-year intervals afterward to measure the difference in tree growth rates in the two areas receiving different treatments.

A new hiking trail is proposed (map). The trail will go through both the unharvested and the harvested areas, providing people with direct experience with the effects of the timber harvest operation.