THPBlog

Oregon May Tighten Logging Rules to Protect Streams

2012-01-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press

January 10, 2012

A study finding that logging on private timberlands is making streams warmer, potentially harming salmon, has prompted the Oregon Board of Forestry to consider tightening state logging standards.

Board of Forestry chairman John Blackwell said Monday that he expects the changes would amount to a "tweaking" of the Oregon Forest Practices Act, which sets standards for timber harvest on state and private lands. He added that the board was mindful of the need to protect salmon, which need cold water, but did not want to impose regulations that would prompt timberland owners to sell their lands for vacation home and resort development.

"It's certainly going to tighten regulations on landowners, but it will not be onerous, and we will do it in such a way that landowners understand the value of it," Blackwell said.

The study by the Oregon Department of Forestry and Oregon State University found state logging standards on private lands were "inadequate" to meet the state water quality standard for protecting cold water. Based on 33 sites on state and private lands in the Coast Range dating to 2002, the study found an average increase of 1.26 degrees Fahrenheit after logging on private lands. There was no increase on state timberlands, where more trees are left standing along streams. The temperature increases were prompted by less shade thrown on the water by trees.

After hearing the study results last week, the board voted 5-2 to direct the department to start preparing new rules for protecting streamside buffers on private lands. The process is likely to take months.

Board member Jennifer Phillippi, whose family owns a mill and timberlands in southwestern Oregon, said she voted against moving forward on new regulations because the study results are not all in, and the changes in water temperature were small.

"Everybody agrees the RipStream study is a good study, but it's not finished," she said. "I would expect as we gather the rest of the information, that we're going to find solutions that are effective and efficient."

Dave Powers, regional manager for forestry of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Portland, said Washington state has had much stronger protections for streams on private timberlands than Oregon for a decade, and he expected the board to give the issue serious consideration.

"EPA also would like to see lands continue in forest production," he said. "We do not believe protection of water quality and aquatic species is inconsistent with producing timber."

Bob Van Dyk of the Wild Salmon Center in Portland said improving stream protection would help the sport and commercial fishing industries.

He noted it has been 17 years since state and federal regulations significantly cut back logging to protect fish and wildlife, and new science is prompting some of those decisions to be reconsidered.

Wolf's Entry Into CA Major Environmental Step

2012-01-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

By Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle

December 29, 2011

A lone gray wolf crossed the border into California and was on the move south of Klamath Falls on Thursday, becoming the first wild wolf in the state in almost a century.

The 2 1/2-year-old male wolf, known as OR7, was tracked using a GPS collar as it crossed the Oregon border, to the delight of conservationists and the horror of the many ranchers in the forested northern regions of California.

"Whether one is for it or against it, the entry of this lone wolf into California is an historic event and the result of much work by the wildlife agencies in the West," said Charlton H. Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Game. "If the gray wolf does establish a population in California, there will be much more work to do here."

The presence of the mythic predator in California is a major event for environmentalists, who would like to see the state's native predators and wildlife returned. But it could also influence environmental and ranching policies and gun laws if the large, potentially dangerous canine carnivores become prevalent in populated regions.

The young wolf, which left his pack in northeastern Oregon in September, was confirmed to be in Siskiyou County at about noon Wednesday. A signal from his radio collar at 6 a.m. Thursday showed that he was several miles south of the border.

California to Study Whether Woodpecker Endangered

2011-12-17T10:24:00.000-08:00

By Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

December 15, 2011

State wildlife officials today voted to list the black-backed woodpecker as a candidate for protection under the California Endangered Species Act.

The woodpecker is unique in that it prefers to nest in burned trees, and feeds on insects that attack trees after a fire. Environmental groups argue the current practice of rapidly logging burned forests before the lumber rots has deprived the woodpecker of habitat.

The California Fish and Game Commission, meeting in San Diego, voted 3-1 to declare the woodpecker a candidate for listing. The Department of Fish and Game has 12 months to prepare a status review on the species, then the commission will vote again on whether to protect the bird.

"It should reduce the amount of logging on post-fire habitat, but it will by no means prevent logging," said Justin Augustine, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned for the listing along with the John Muir Project. "This would just add some balance so we do some meaningful analysis of this type of logging."

California currently allows salvage logging of burned trees under streamlined regulations so property owners can harvest the wood before it rots. Delays to protect the woodpecker could mean lost wood value.

"It certainly could lead to that," said Bob Mion, a spokesman for the California Forestry Association. "It's a little hard to predict what's going to happen."

The woodpecker exists across Canada and most of the northern United States, but is considered rare almost everywhere. California is its southernmost range.

State officials struggled over protecting the bird because an clear picture of its population in the state is not available. Partly for this reason, the Department of Fish and Game recommended against candidacy. But the commission said there was enough evidence to warrant further study. To avoid harm to property owners and fire prevention programs, it waived interim protections for the bird during the study period.

Forest Wildlife Descend on Landlord

2011-10-17T08:21:00.001-07:00

Sierra Club CA Press Release

Juliette Beck, October 14, 2011

Berkeley, California: Residents from Sierra Nevada communities, Sierra Club members and forest critters rallied today to oppose clearcutting outside a talk by timber tycoon Mark Emmerson. Emmerson is Chief Financial Officer of Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), the nation’s second largest logging company and California’s largest land owner. The protestors dressed in animal costumes and held signs calling on Gov. Brown to end destructive clearcutting.

“Our specatcular Sierra Nevada forests provide clean water, fresh air and are home to amazing wildlfe- but not if they are clearcut to pieces,” said Karen Maki of the Sierra Club. “Governor Brown needs to put a stop to the robber baron theft of our pubic resources by timber companies like Sierra Pacific Industries.”

SPI owns 1.7 million acres—the equivalent to the land areas of Contra Costa, Napa, Alameda and San Mateo Counties combined—is cleaarcutting much of it at an unprecedented rate and scale. The clearcuts threaten important watersheds like the headwaters of the Mokulemne River, which provide drinking water for East Bay residents. Water pollution from clearcuts also threatens to undermine extensive Central Valley salmon recovery efforts and the region’s fishing economy.

But the damage does not stop there. The forests of the Sierra Nevada help clean the air we breathe and provide homes for animals like the Chickaree squirrel which needs forests with old trees to survive. The loss of natural forests can also have negative long-term impacts on our economy.

“Our community benefits from sport fishing, tourism, hiking, and boating. Clearcutting threatens these recreation-based industries, uses fewer workers than other forms of logging, and is devastation to the region,” said Patty Gomez, a Shingletown resident who lives one mile from a clearcut and a member of the Battle Creek Alliance.

Action Alert

Research Suggests NW Forests Might Not be as Healthy as They Look

2011-10-04T14:46:00.001-07:00

By Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian

October 3, 2011

Pacific Northwest forests may look healthy, but their ability to sequester carbon, filter water and shelter wildlife may be declining, according to researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Washington.

In articles published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers said forests may be losing ecological, economic or cultural values beneath a "veneer" of health.

Traditional forest management practices such as timber production, clear-cutting and replanting "tend to produce young forests with uniform structures and low diversity," according to OSU summary of the research.

The researchers centered on problems in mountain ash forests of Australia, but note the same issues occur in Pacific Northwest forests, an OSU news release said.

"If you just look at a forest, it may look about the same as it used to," the news release quoted K. Norman Johnson, a professor of forest ecosystems and society at OSU. "But we're losing them without really knowing it."

The researchers particularly question logging in old-growth forests and salvage logging after fires or storms. They called for more attention to natural processes and restoration of the broad range of forest structures needed to maintain the original ecosystem. They said policies and management practices should be reassessed.

Johnson said the dry forests of Eastern Oregon are an example. In the past, frequent small fires cleared undergrowth but allowed large trees to survive. They're now crowded and prone to catastrophic fire -- after which they regrow and repeat the pattern. Allowing burned forests to recover naturally would allow growth of diverse understories and more complex forest structures, according to the news release.

Billionaire Emmerson Destroys Spotted Owl Habitat

2011-09-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

By Rob DiPerna, Environmental Information Protection Center

September 27th, 2011

Archie Aldis “Red” Emmerson, a billionaire with a net worth of $2.5 billion, and his company, Sierra Pacific Industries, the largest private forestland owner in California, continue their onslaught of clearcutting northern spotted owl habitat. Forbes ranks Red Emmerson at #153 amongst the wealthiest individuals in United States and #459 worldwide. Operating in defiance of the law, Sierra Pacific stands as one of the last big logging companies in the State of California without an approved habitat conservation plan.

As owl habitat disappears, owl researchers recently issued a comprehensive report detailing the population demography for the species – Forsman et al. 2011, “Population Demography of the northern spotted owls: 1985-2008”, Studies in Avian Biology, UC Press. The author’s conclusions paint a dire picture, detailing range-wide declines for this iconic forest raptor. In particular, some of the most precipitous declines have taken place on private timberlands, including lands owned by Emmerson and Sierra Pacific.

While private interests liquidate old-growth trees and leave behind clearcuts visible from space, the state and federal agencies charged with protecting spotted owls and other wildlife have abdicated their responsibilities due lack of funding. In 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stopped reviewing timber harvest plans in California, citing high costs, leaving it up to state officials at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). Without federal owl biologists reviewing timber harvest plans, Cal Fire officials without any expertise in owl biology have relied on private consultants employed by the timber industry.

Under this new arrangement, Sierra Pacific’s destruction of Northern Spotted Owl habitat has accelerated. Without a federally approved habitat conservation plan, Sierra Pacific’s logging of owl habitat violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A conservation plan would not stop logging, but direct the operations in a more ecologically sound manner. Furthermore, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded that Cal Fire’s approval of timber harvest plans without oversight by federal owl biologists results in harm to spotted owls, particularly on Sierra Pacific land.

Cal Fire for its part insists that it has no mandate to manage for recovery of the spotted owl. Thus, state officials continue to allow Sierra Pacific to destroy habitat and compromise the integrity of spotted owl home ranges.

The 2011 Revised Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan calls for the retention of high quality habitats on private forestlands in order to mitigate for habitat loss and the invasion of nonnative barred owl, a competitor. Therefore, conservation of spotted owl habitat on Sierra Pacific’s lands is absolutely essential to the recov

California State Logging Program Called Out for Violation of Fish and Wildlife Protection Laws

2011-09-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

By Justin Augustine, September 21, 2011
Center For Biological Diversity

SACRAMENTO, Calif.— A coalition of conservation and sportsmen’s groups formally notified the state of California today that the state’s management program for timber harvest is out of compliance with laws designed to protect the state’s fish and wildlife. Recent changes in program funding have largely eliminated California Department of Fish and Game review of decisions by the California Department of Forestry (Cal Fire), the state agency that oversees logging in the state. Both Fish and Game and Cal Fire are housed in the state’s Resources Agency.

In October 2010, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed Fish and Game funding for the majority of staff positions that review timber harvest; the funding has yet to be reinstated. As a result, Cal Fire no longer regularly consults with Fish and Game over the environmental impacts of logging, as is required by state law. In the Sierra Nevada, for example, Fish and Game involvement has been completely eliminated despite the fact that widespread clearcutting continues to occur.

“Logging can cause severe harm to California’s wildlife, including species such as coho salmon and steelhead trout,” said Justin Augustine with the Center for Biological Diversity. “That’s why state law requires Cal Fire to consult with the Department of Fish and Game: to make sure that our fish and wildlife receive the protections they need and deserve.”

Cal Fire’s timber-harvest review program is currently exempted from certain provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act because the program is considered “functionally equivalent” to the normal “environmental impact report” process that most projects go through. But in order to maintain its “functionally equivalent” status, Cal Fire is required to consult with Fish and Game regarding the impacts of logging plans on fish, wildlife and rare plants.

“We have tried hard to maintain a fig leaf of funding for consultation on THPs by the Department of Fish and Game,” said Michael Endicott with the Sierra Club. “But even legislative budget proposals that would provide interim funding without taking any money from the General Fund have been removed by the past two governors. It is time for the governor and the agencies to come up with proposals that will assure full participation in THP reviews.”

“The state cannot slash funding for DFG’s review of timber harvest plans on one hand and then pretend that DFG is meaningfully participating in timber harvest reviews and protecting fisheries on the other,” said California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance Executive Director Bill Jennings.

In a letter to California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club California, Forests Forever, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Protection Information Center, Ebbetts Pass Forestwatch, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, Central Coast Forest Watch, Battle Creek Alliance, and the Northern California Council, Federation of Fly Fishers called for either a restoration of Fish and Game oversight of Cal Fire’s timber harvest review or a cancellation of Cal Fire’s functional equivalency status under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Why streams are warmer on private timberland

2011-09-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

By Cassandra Profita, September 12, 2011
Oregon Public Broadcasting

How many trees should be left along streams after logging operations? A nine-year study of 33 sites in Oregon's Coast Range found that the minimum buffer under the state forest practices law leaves streams warmer than they should be under state water quality rules.

A study by Oregon State University suggests that the Oregon forest practices law doesn’t require large enough stream buffers for private logging operations.

OSU researchers have found that logging leaves streams warmer on private timber lands than it does in Oregon’s state forests. And warmer than state water quality regulations allow.

Warmer water, of course, is not good for cold-water fish such as salmon and trout. That’s why state environmental regulations say logging shouldn’t raise stream temperatures more than .5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Over the course of nine years, OSU researchers studied 33 sites on the Coast Range and found that average stream temperatures were 1.3 degrees higher after private timber harvests that left the minimum size stream buffers. That’s better than the 3- to 21-degree increases the streams saw in the 1970s, but still out of compliance with the state’s mandate that forest management activities shouldn’t raise stream temperatures by more than .5 degrees.

Timber harvests on state forest lands didn’t raise average water temperatures at all. That’s probably because the state requires larger buffers of uncut trees around streams and allows fewer clearcuts than the private sector.

The OSU researchers didn’t comment on whether the warmer streams are a problem for fish health. But the study does make an important point about the state’s minimum requirements for stream buffers. Oregon’s Forest Practices Act dictates the rules for logging private timberlands. Critics have long said it’s too lenient, and doesn’t do enough to protect streams and fish from private logging operations.

According to OSU, many private landowners leave more than the minimum buffer required by law, but the study only examined lands using the minimum requirements.

The study, one of the largest of its kind, aimed to evaluate whether state forest practice rules are actually protecting stream temperatures. Hm…looks like the answer is no?

Private Timber of Public Concern

2011-08-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

By Sarah Parker, Guest Columnist
The Oregonian, August 21, 2011

In a state with so many trees, forests are easy to take for granted. Nearly half of Oregon is covered in forests that have an impact on individuals through their inherent aesthetic, recreational, economic and educational values, and through the ecosystem services they provide. While trees are a renewable resource, research shows that established forests provide many more benefits than industrial forests, including enhanced carbon storage, freshwater regulation, soil protection and wildlife habitat.

While logging on public land has decreased, timber yields on private land have remained steady. The 1971 Oregon Forest Practices Act regulates logging on private land. Today it is evident that this obsolete law is failing citizens of Oregon by allowing detrimental harvest practices that endanger public safety and damage the surrounding environment.

The rights of private landowners must be respected, but the extent of their freedoms should be examined, especially in terms of their implications to the landscape and neighboring communities. In Williams, Oregon, the shortfalls of the Oregon Forest Practices Act are blatant. Currently in Williams, private timber harvests are pending on 1,700 acres. Many of these acres will be clear-cut, and harvests that meet legal qualifications for "partial cuts" are deceptive; the trees that remain might as well be marooned on a deserted island.

One parcel that has recently gained a lot of attention is the Williams 320 (W320): 320 acres situated on a highly visible ridge slated to be clear-cut by a private landowner from Idaho. The Oregon Forest Practices Act allows clear cuts of up to 120 contiguous acres. On the W320, 250 acres will be clear-cut, separated into three sections by two 300-foot buffers. With so much habitat lost, the Northern Spotted Owls, Pacific Fishers, and other wildlife that use the land will be displaced.

Additionally, the Act gives no regard to the three freshwater streams that flow on the property; buffers are not required to protect them. These waterways will sustain heavy sediment loads as the topsoil erodes away, and the reduced canopy cover will likely cause them to dry up in the summer months. Downstream local families and farmers use the water to irrigate crops, but herbicides sprayed on the W320 to suppress competing vegetation will contaminate the streams (these herbicides can also be measured in rain). Unsightly clear-cuts increase the risk of catastrophic fire and spread diseases like Phytophthora lateralis, which is deadly to the threatened Port Orford cedar.

Economically, harvesting on private lands does represent a boon to some individuals. Private cuts employ road builders, tree fellers and truckers, but their salaries are subsidized by the loss of a major environmental resource and the negative impacts experienced by local residents. In many cases the benefits end there, as wood is increasingly transported to China to be processed.

In one fell swoop the Oregon Forest Practices Act allows a resource that has taken years to mature on Oregon soil to be removed, leaving behind a paltry gain for few and an overwhelming loss for all. With so many detriments, it is time to rewrite the Oregon Forest Practices Act so that it supports our communities by promoting ecological forestry practices on private lands.

Sarah Parker is project manager of the Williams Community Forest Project.

DFG Battles Cal Fire Over Potential Harm to Coho

2011-08-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

By Rob DiPerna, August 8, 2011
Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC)

It is truly rare when the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) provides formal disagreement with Cal Fire over the approval of a THP, but that’s exactly what happened with THP 1-11-038 SCR, “Victoria”. The “Victoria” THP covers only 38 acres of selection logging in Santa Cruz County. However the THP is located in Branciforte Creek, a tributary to the San Lorenzo River, where the state of Central California Coast Coho salmon is extremely dire. The San Lorenzo Coho run is considered to be either extinct or on the brink of extinction, and logging, along with other human-related activities, has been identified as the primary cause of habitat loss and degradation.

As part of its Pre-harvest Inspection (PHI) for the “Victoria” THP, the DFG raised substantial concerns over the reconstruction of a landing in a stream channel that drains directly to Branciforte Creek, where it is believed that Coho salmon may be hanging on. The landing construction inside the watercourse channel, and the subsequent use of this landing and the road associated with it, raises significant concern over the potential for sediment to discharge into Branciforte Creek. The Forester for the THP, the Cal Fire inspector, and the Cal Fire review team all disagreed with the DFG’s recommendation to delete the use of the landing from the THP. The construction of a landing inside a watercourse channel is contrary to standard Forest Practice Rules provisions, and a special dispensation and justification must be made in order to go forward with such a proposal.

The DFG provided a formal letter of disagreement with Cal Fire review team recommendations to approve the THP without incorporating the DFG recommendation to delete the use of the landing. Cal Fire, for its part, remains complicit, and continues to rationalize away the potential dangers of reconstructing the landing inside the watercourse channel. Cal Fire has merely required the plan submitter to provide more discussion to justify the use reconstruction of the landing, and subsequently recirculated the THP for 30 days (re-opening the public comment period).

The Cal Fire review team and the plan submitter are not required by the Forest Practice Rules to accept and incorporate all the recommendations of the DFG into approved THPs, and as often happens, Cal Fire is siding with the landowner, while disregarding the concerns of the DFG. Cal Fire and the DFG have a long and sordid history of disagreement over recommendations made by the DFG, and in most cases, the DFG is forced to either formally disagree with Cal Fire, or simply let its recommendations go by the wayside. The DFG is often reticent to provide formal disagreement with Cal Fire, as Cal Fire almost always gets their way in these disagreements. This betrays one of the most fundamental flaws in the Forest Practice Rules; Cal Fire and landowners are allowed to disregard the recommendations of other public trust agencies such as the DFG, while the DFG is forced to fight for its proposals at management level.

EPIC will continue to monitor this situation closely. The DFG’s formal disagreement raises substantial concerns over potential harm to endangered Coho salmon, and we will continue to engage with the DFG and Cal Fire in hopes that an amicable resolution can be achieved.

Local Residents File Injunction to Stop Clearcutting in Battle Creek

2011-07-27T09:11:00.001-07:00

Center for Sierra Conservation and Battle Creek Alliance
July 25, 2011

128 million Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project Threatened by SPI Logging

SACRAMENTO, Calif. July 25, 2011 - Residents of the small town of Manton, near Mount Lassen, in conjunction with the public interest organizations Center for Sierra Conservation and Battle Creek Alliance, filed an injunction today in the Third District Court of Appeal to stop clearcut logging in Battle Creek, a tributary to the Sacramento River and one of California's last streams left for wild run salmon to spawn. The areas being clearcut belong to Sierra Pacific Industries, California's largest timber company and landowner by far with over 1.7 million acres statewide.

Residents of Manton challenged the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF's) approval of the Lookout Timber Harvest Plan (THP) on the basis that CDF failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of this plan in conjunction with surrounding plans as required by state forestry regulations and the California Environmental Quality Act. The Lookout Plan is one of sixteen THPs, encompassing almost 20,000 acres in total, approved by CDF in the Battle Creek watershed since 1998. The primary method of logging being used is clearcutting.

"SPI's logging is extremely destructive" said Michael Graf, one of the attorneys representing the petitioners. "They mow down the forest, spray pesticides to make sure nothing else can grow, then plant genetically selected pine trees in rows. These trees are then logged the same way as any agricultural crop. SPI are essentially replacing the Sierra Nevada forest with managed timber plantations across thousands and thousands of acres. Yet nowhere is there any acknowledgment in the environmental review process of the substantial impacts of this conversion on numerous wildlife species that rely on a diverse natural forest environment."

As reported in a June 19, 2011 Sacramento Bee investigation of Battle Creek, erosion from logging roads and areas clearcut by SPI is filling the streams and pools needed for salmon to spawn. Battle Creek is the site of a $128 million state and federally funded salmon and steelhead restoration project, which includes the removal of five PG&E dams. The restoration project is the largest of its kind in the nation and is hoped to restore salmon runs in the Sacramento River.

"The water, wildlife and fisheries belong to all of us, now and in the future. Environmental laws were enacted to prevent exactly this sort of piecemeal destruction from occurring, but the methodology used here has circumvented those laws," said Marily Woodhouse, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and co-founder of the watchdog group the Battle Creek Alliance. "This benefits only a few at the expense of the many. California's resources need to be protected, not looted."

Petitioners are part of a statewide coalition of fishing and conservation groups that are calling on Governor Brown and Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird to stop logging in the Battle Creek watershed. The coalition seeks to end environmentally destructive clearcutting and herbicide applications throughout the Sierra Nevada mountain range as an outmoded, ecologically destructive practice. The Sierra is the source for 65% of California's developed water supply.

Governor needs to keep pledge at Battle Creek

2011-06-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Sacramento Bee Editorial
June 21, 2011

Jerry Brown campaigned for governor on a strong set of environmental planks. In one of these he promised "to take reasonable steps to ensure a healthier habitat for California's unique fish species by limiting sediment and other runoff entering streams." Brown now can deliver on that pledge at Battle Creek, one of the Sacramento River's most crucial tributaries for imperiled fish. But to do so, the governor may need to buck a timber billionaire who has contributed to his campaigns and one of his charter schools – A.A. "Red" Emmerson, owner of Sierra Pacific Industries.

As The Bee's Matt Weiser reported Sunday, state and federal agencies are spending more than $100 million to restore populations of wild spring-run salmon and steelhead in Battle Creek, which tumbles down the western slopes of Lassen Peak to the Sacramento River.

Because the volcanic springs of this area produce vast amounts of cold, clear water, biologists see Battle Creek as one of those rare habitats where salmon could rebound and flourish.

Yet even as state and federal agencies invest in removing dams and restoring spawning habitat, another agency – the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – has been allowing Sierra Pacific Industries to clear-cut thousands of acres in the Battle Creek watershed. Scientists have found evidence that logging is contributing to erosion that has degraded spawning grounds in the creek. While Cal Fire officials say they've worked to buffer the creek from any logging sediment, they haven't yet analyzed the cumulative impacts of all the various clear cuts.

Brown and the Legislature could turn this situation around. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $1.5 million from the logging review program of the California Department of Fish and Game. While the state's budget problems have since worsened, lawmakers could set fees on businesses seeking timber harvest plans to pay for these reviews. The budget Brown vetoed last week included roughly $10 million yearly in such fees. The governor should insist that the final budget include fees for timber harvest reviews, although perhaps not at the $10 million figure.

Brown also needs to make key appointments to the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. Currently, three of the board's nine seats are vacant, including one for a public member. Brown must ensure this board, traditionally friendly to industry, can balance the demands of timber production with environmental protection, and be willing to use all of its available tools. For instance, the board has the legal authority to impose special logging restrictions in sensitive watersheds, but has yet to use that authority. Battle Creek may be one place to start.

The state's largest private landowner, Sierra Pacific has worked to cultivate a close relationship with previous governors, and Brown is no exception. The company contributed more than $46,000 to the governor's campaign last year. Emmerson and another Sierra Pacific executive also paid $10,000 to attend a gala reception last year for Brown's Oakland School for the Arts, which featured an appearance from actor Robert Downey Jr.

While the governor no doubt appreciates these contributions, we'd hate to think they'd have any impact on his dealings with Sierra Pacific. Quite the opposite. Californians elected him at least partly because of the promises he made on the campaign trail. One of these was to "ensure a healthier habitat for California's unique fish species by limiting sediment."

Clear-Cutting Planned on Strawberry Rock Trail

2011-04-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

From Trinidad Forest Forum Blog
March 28, 2011

A timber company’s plan to clear-cut near a look-out spot north of Trinidad known as Strawberry Rock has spawned a new blog. The blog was created by the Trinidad Forest Forum and “is intended to serve as a forum for information about the proposed clear-cuts near Strawberry Rock".

Green Diamond, owners of around 400,000 acres of forest in the northern Redwood belt, plans to log at least one rare pocket of century old Redwoods near Strawberry Rock in Trinidad, California. The proposed clear-cut would decimate the forest and bury the main trail to Strawberry Rock in tangled debris. Other areas of forest would be clear-cut in the area surrounding of the popular megalith.

This logging plan (THP 1-10-137 HUM) includes 84 acres of clear-cutting and 25.5 acres of "selection" logging. The main trail up to Strawberry Rock passes through a grove with trees over 100 years old, this is marked on the maps as "Unit E". 18 acres are slated for clear-cutting in that patch. 6.5 is marked for selection. There are very few trees left in the Trinidad area even close to 100 years old. The forest on the west facing slopes and terraces uphill from Trinidad was mostly clear-cut in the early 1900's and later burned in a huge fire in 1945. It was then logged again, the timber company (companies?) took most of the remaining big trees. Green Diamond aims to take some of the very few that remain, a grove that holds significance for many people who visit the rock and the forest.

For more information visit the Trinidad Forest Forum Blog or THP Tracking Center website.

CA Governor Axes Fish & Game THP Review Budget

2011-01-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from Forests Forever action alert.
December 31, 2010

In a devastating but still little-publicized move, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently exercised his line-item veto power to completely eliminate the state Dept. of Fish and Game’s (DFG’s) budget for inspecting logging in vast timber-producing regions of California.

The governor’s action came at the close of the long and wearying battle over the state’s 2010-2011 budget.

The cut represents fully two thirds of DFG’s timber harvest inspection budget for the entire state and affects primarily the Sierra Nevada and northern interior California, where by far the most clearcutting is taking place.

As one outraged citizen wrote in a letter to the editor of Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat soon after the veto, “It only took a single stroke of a pen for the Terminator to ax the Department of Fish and Game's Timber Harvest Plan (THP) review program from the state budget… How will the remaining three or four employees be able to review plans as required by law?” On-the-ground timber harvest inspections are one of the ways the state protects the natural resources of its public and private forests.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the state’s largest clearcutter, as well as a major campaign contributor to Schwarzenegger, Sierra Pacific Industries will be the budget cut's biggest beneficiary.

In recent years DFG has been the only environmentally responsible agency to maintain a reliable presence in pre-harvest inspections, providing vital information to agencies, environmental advocates, the concerned public and the timber operators themselves. With DFG out of the picture, and with citizens not allowed on pre-harvest inspections unless by invitation of the CDF or the timberland owners, there will not be a watchdog in the forest.

With more than 7.6 million acres of private and industrial forestland within California to safeguard, the DFG’s review function is vital in maintaining water quality, biological diversity, and other environmental values. The governor’s funding cuts jeopardize all those values, not just in the short term, but for generations to come.

Board Endorses Forest Clearcutting in Fight Against Global Warming

2010-12-22T22:10:00.000-08:00

Center For Biological Diversity
December 17, 2010

SACRAMENTO, Calif.— A cap-and-trade program approved Thursday by the California Air Resources Board includes damaging loopholes that would incentivize clearcutting in the name of reducing carbon emissions. The program — adopted as part of California’s effort to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions — would allow industrial polluters to purchase carbon “offset credits” instead of reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions. Among the options is buying offset credits from forest clearcutting.

“Clearcutting forests is not the solution to global warming,” said Brian Nowicki, California climate policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Including forest clearcutting not only threatens forest ecosystems and important wildlife habitat, but the integrity of California’s cap-and-trade program as a whole.”

Dozens of representatives of forest conservation organizations and residents of rural communities in California’s forested areas testified at the air board’s hearing Thursday in opposition to the inclusion of forest clearcutting in the rule. Air Resources Board member Dorene D’Adamo proposed an amendment to protect against forests being converted to tree farms for the purpose of generating carbon credits, but the board ultimately voted to allow forest clearcutting to remain in the rule.

Push to protect woodpecker may impact salvage logging

2010-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Redding Record Searchlight
Ryan Sabalow, October 11, 2010

An environmentalist group has filed a petition urging state wildlife managers to put a woodpecker under California’s endangered or threatened species protection, a move that both environmentalists and timber officials say could drastically curtail salvage logging around the state.

Late last month, the Tuscon, Ariz., based Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the California Fish and Game Commission seeking protected status for the black-backed woodpecker.

“Just as the spotted owl demonstrated the ecological value of old-growth forests, the black-backed woodpecker is now showing us the importance of post-fire snag forests,” said Chad Hanson, a scientist with the John Muir Project, which teamed with the center to file the petition.

The birds nest and feed on beetles living in dead snags and burned trees. The bird’s name comes from its black feathers which, biologists say, have evolved to blend into the charred tree trunks on which it feeds.

The center’s biologists contend the beetles the birds eat are only found in forests that have been around for several years after a fire, so the black-backed woodpecker depends on regular fires to create new snag-forest habitat.

Under current salvage logging rules, those forests are being cut down around the state, and the birds’ numbers have drastically shrunk, said Justin Augustine, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney.

“California’s forestry rules currently contain a loophole that allows post-fire salvage logging to essentially occur unchecked, which allows the destruction of vital habitat for the black-backed woodpecker and other species,” he said. “State-level endangered species protection for the woodpecker will help close that loophole.” MORE >>>

ESA Protection Sought for Humboldt Marten

2010-10-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

September 28th, 2010
EPIC Blog

ARCATA, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity and the Environmental Protection Information Center petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Humboldt marten under the Endangered Species Act. The Humboldt marten is a cat-sized carnivore related to minks and otters that lives only in coastal, old-growth forests in Northern California and southern Oregon. Because nearly all of its old-growth forest habitat has been destroyed by logging, the Humboldt marten is so rare that it was believed extinct for 50 years.

“The Humboldt marten was once common in old-growth, coastal forests in California and Oregon, but now fewer than 100 are known to exist,” said Tierra Curry, a biologist at the Center. “These martens are in dire need of Endangered Species Act protection if they’re going to have any chance at survival.”

“Logging of old-growth forests has driven the marten to extinction across 95 percent of its historic range,” said Scott Greacen, executive director of EPIC in Arcata. “To rebuild a viable marten population, we need to restore old forest conditions, which requires moving beyond short-rotation clearcut logging.”

The historic range of the marten extends from Sonoma County in coastal California north through the coastal mountains of Oregon. The Humboldt marten was rediscovered on the Six Rivers National Forest in 1996. Since that time, researchers have continued to detect martens using track plates and hair snares. In 2009 a marten was detected at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park by remote-sensing camera, the first to be photographed in recent times. Martens are 1.5 to two feet long and have large triangular ears and a long tail. They eat primarily small mammals, including voles and squirrels.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 90 days to decide whether the petition presents substantial information indicating that protecting the marten under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted.

Forest Activists Blockade Clearcut Logging In Jacoby Creek!

2010-08-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Earth First Humboldt
August 21, 2010

In August forest defenders set up a 60 ft high road blockade to stop the active clear-cutting operations of Green Diamond Resource Company in the redwoods near Jacoby Creek Road north of Eureka in Humboldt County. These clear-cut logging plans represent a mere fraction of the ongoing clear-cut logging operations in Northern California.

“We are not coming down voluntarily until the reckless logging in the Jacoby Creek watershed is stopped,” said “Fly”, one of the activists from atop the 60 ft high hanging platform

Citing concern for the local redwood eco-system as well as global climate change, the activists scaled rope structures made to block the entrance of a logging road. The blockades were constructed so that if moved or damaged, the activists could fall from a considerable height. Several pickup trucks and a van full of workers had to turn back when they arrived. One of the workers from the van started cutting the rope before supporters on the ground could stop him.

“This is about global eco-cide,” said Fly , “We are doing this to preserve life on this planet, to fight climate change, loss of species and threats to our ability to survive.”

Recent studies from botanist Steve Sillett, of Humboldt State University show that Redwoods grow faster as they grow older, storing huge amounts of carbon and slowing the rate of global warming. There is currently a collaboration of conservationists and scientists using highly advanced technology to decode the information stored in redwood tree trunks, branches and leaves to study the effects of climate change on these giants.

It has also been found that fog decrease is threatening California’s Redwood forests as reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. University of Berkley Professor Todd Dawson commented, “As fog decreases, the mature redwoods along the coast are not likely to die outright, but there may be less recruitment of new trees. They will look elsewhere for water, high humidity and cooler temperatures.” (Reuters, Feb.15, 2010)

YouTube View of Green Diamond Clearcuts

2010-07-06T05:24:00.000-07:00

EPIC Eye on Green Diamond Blog
July 6, 2010

Last month, EPIC’s Green Diamond Stop Clearcutting Campaign staff and volunteers flew over the timber giant’s patchwork ownership in Humboldt County. This truth-telling mission included video documentation by the Klamath-Salmon Media Collaborative shown here on EPIC’s new Youtube Channel.

From a bird’s eye view, the company’s reliance on clear cut logging and chemical herbicides across their ownership becomes crystal clear. A century of bad logging by Simpson Timber and their corporate partner Green Diamond Resource Company has left behind a barren patchwork of clearcuts across whole watersheds as is visible in the short film.

Of course many important forest groves still remain across Green Diamond’s 430,000 acres, that must be protected. The forests could regenerate for future generations if the company weened themselves from boom and bust logging habits and integrated sustained yields into their planning process. With rotations of around 45 years, how do they expect these sensitive forest ecosystems to recover from the blade?

Biomass Energy Juggernaut Threatens Human and Forest Health

2010-05-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

By George Wuerthner, New West Blog
May 20, 2010

The long awaited Kerry-Lieberman energy bill known as The America Power Act has, among other goodies for industry, a clause that legally defines biomass incineration as “carbon-neutral” and “renewable.” Biomass includes field stubble, sewage, construction waste, municipal garage, and other sources, but the largest source for commercial biomass electrical generation plants is wood.

While I cannot comment on the merits of the bill overall, the provisions that would allow wood biomass energy to be labeled as renewable and carbon neutral poses a real threat to our forest ecosystem, human health, and global planetary climate. Already in Europe two thirds of the “renewable” energy portfolio comes from wood biomass—and increasingly that wood is being imported from even outside of Europe including the US and South America.

This legislation will only increase the demand for wood biomass consumption. Far more dangerous is the legislation helps to promote the widespread perception that burning woody biomass is somehow “green” energy. Since many government entities from local cities to states now require renewable energy as part of their energy portfolios, defining wood energy as a renewable energy creates a direct economic windfall profit for the timber industry.

Worse, the use of woody biomass burning to meet renewable portfolio “clean energy” mandates is a fraud perpetuated on unsuspecting consumers, many of whom believe when they are paying for “renewable” electricity they are supporting the development of clean and truly renewable sources like wind and solar energy. Instead, millions of taxpayers’ dollars are being poured into incinerators and subsidies for the cutting of forests to provide biomass energy that could be better spent on energy conservation.

Unfortunately like the ethanol debacle that has taxpayers subsidizing corn-based ethanol that uses more energy to produce than it creates when burned, many are jumping on the biomass energy bandwagon with a similar lack of critical review of the claims of “green” energy.

One of the prevailing myths about biomass is that it is “carbon neutral.” Biomass combustion power plants are treated under regulatory and subsidy programs as if they emit “zero” carbon dioxide. Because of its low energy content, burning wood releases 1.5 times smokestack CO2 than burning coal to produce the same amount of energy.

Plus recent research suggests that logging disturbance of forest soils can increase carbon losses as well. Then there is the carbon emitted by the logging equipment, trucks that carry the wood to the mill, and so forth. Finally, since most wood biomass burners are expensive to operate, they are often supplemented with natural gas, coal, or other fossil fuels, which also emit carbon.

All this carbon is immediately added to the excessive amount of human-caused carbon already spewing into the atmosphere. Most climate scientists believe we need to not only limit new carbon sources, but reduce the current carbon levels. more >>

California Fisher Report Challenged By Scientists

2010-04-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

By Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee
March 31, 2010

Wildlife experts allege that a new status report on the rare forest-dwelling Pacific fisher was altered by state officials to favor the logging industry.

The sleek and carnivorous fisher, a cousin of the weasel, has long been thought to favor old-growth forests, and its decline in the Sierra Nevada has been linked in part to logging that eliminated such habitat.

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the state to list the fisher as endangered.

The state Department of Fish and Game's recently published status review concludes the fisher does not warrant protection under the state Endangered Species Act, in part because of information that they appear able to survive in logged forests if some large trees are left uncut.

The outcome is politically sensitive. If the fisher is eventually recommended for protection by the state Fish and Game Commission, new logging restrictions could harm the timber industry.

Reginald Barrett, a professor of wildlife management at UC Berkeley and an expert on the fisher, on Friday sent the commission a 15-page critique of the final report.

Barrett in January reviewed a draft report, which he praised as supporting a conclusion to protect at least the southern Sierra Nevada fisher population as "threatened."

But in his Friday letter he called the final report "so different in content and tenor."

"It is evident that more emphasis was placed on timber industry input via personal communications and unpublished industry reports than the scientific literature," Barrett writes. "What I am concerned about is the fact that the Commission is being given a recommendation by DFG that has apparently gone beyond the expected biological, scientific information to include political and economic considerations."

Barrett did not respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment.

His letter highlights 21 sections that were deleted and 16 others added between the draft and final reports. The changes appear to strengthen arguments that the fisher population isn't harmed by logging, and to weaken support for protecting the species.

In numerous instances noted by Barrett, the final report deletes references to evidence that fishers depend on older and deeply shaded forests, and adds other information – largely based on unpublished studies – that fishers can survive in habitats altered by logging.

Eric Loft, chief of Fish and Game's wildlife branch, challenged as "not true" Barrett's suggestion that industry influenced the report. He said the report was an effort to provide the commission with the latest information – especially on the habitat question.

"Clearly, yes, it would be great if everything was peer-reviewed. But everything isn't peer-reviewed. It's the best available scientific information that we have," Loft said.

The reports are typically drafted by a staff-level biologist and then reviewed and finalized by department supervisors. In this case, the changes Barrett cites are alleged to have been made after staff completed the draft.

The draft was peer-reviewed individually by scientists, including Barrett. The final document has not received any peer review.

Loft said many of the changes referenced by Barrett were done to include information from a 2008 report, which evaluated the Center for Biological Diversity's original petition, so the two documents would be consistent.

"The draft document did undergo change to make sure we emphasized what we know ... versus what we think," Loft said. "We worked to avoid being overly speculative or draw conclusions that could not be substantiated by scientific information."

In a letter dated Friday, another wildlife biologist, Carlos Carroll, wrote the commission that the report "does not provide the level of scientifically rigorous review" needed for an informed decision.

Like Barrett, Carroll urges the commission to send the report back for more work.

"All I know is that the final report is not scientifically sound," Carroll told The Bee this week.

Much of the disputed anecdotal information came from a wildlife biologist who retired last year from Sierra Pacific Industries, the largest private landowner in California and a major player in the wood-products industry.

Sierra Pacific spokesman Mark Pawlicki denied that his company had any improper influence on the report.

"Here are the facts," Pawlicki said. "The Department of Fish and Game asked for more recent information that anyone has. We provided our input to the process just as other people have. Our input is no different than anyone else."

The Fish and Game Commission will discuss the report, and the fisher's conservation status, at its meeting April 7 in Monterey.

Green Diamond to Clearcut Little River Watershed

2010-04-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) Blog
Kerul Dyer, March 26, 2010

For over 15 years Green Diamond Resource Company (and formerly Simpson Timber Company) have been intensively clearcutting in the Little River Watershed. That trend is continuing into 2010. This year, the focus of Green Diamond’s logging operations in the Little River Watershed appears to be squared in the Headwaters.

There are currently three more logging operations filed for the Headwaters Little River Planning Watershed. Three Timber Harvest Plans (1-10-011, 1-10-014, & 1-10-015) will combine to operate on 380 acres in the Headwaters Little River Planning Watershed, which totals 8,988 acres in size. Of this, a total of 291 acres combine will be clearcut. The rest is selection near watercourses, road construction, and small habitat retention areas.

Clearcutting has been the preferred method of logging in the Little River Watershed over the last 10 years. Within the 27,703 acre Little River Watershed, of which Green Diamond owns 26,041 acres, approximately 2,015.5 acres have been clearcut over the last ten years. This does not include any other type of logging that has been conducted in the last 10 years. A view of the ten-year cumulative impacts analysis map reveals a patchwork of clearcuts dominating the landscape.

This trend is not set to change any time soon. According to THP 1-10-1015, Green Diamond plans to cut another 1,482 acres over the next 10 years, 1,277 acres by clearcut. Green Diamond claims that clearcutting is the best way to ‘manage’ for homogenous, even-aged stands. It also happens to be the best way to fragment the landscape, displace resident species, and reduce the quality and quantity of habitat for species utilizing the watershed.

Little River is home to Steelhead trout, Cutthroat trout, and Coho salmon. The biological assessment area for these plans also includes Northern Spotted Owls (NSO), Pacific Fisher, and Tailed Frogs. While Green Diamond does have an NSO Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), and an Aquatics HCP, they currently do not have coverage for Pacific Fisher, which is now a California Candidate Species for listing.

Common Weedkiller Turns Male Frogs Into Females

2010-03-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

By Maggie Fox, Reuters News Service
March 2, 2010

Bloggers Note: Atrazine is used in forestry. 9,379 lbs were sprayed in N CA in 2007.

WASHINGTON - Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday.

The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones and which is one of the chief suspects in the decline of amphibians such as frogs around the world.

"Atrazine-exposed males were both demasculinized (chemically castrated) and completely feminized as adults," Tyrone Hayes of the University of California Berkeley and colleagues wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The chemical had been shown to disrupt development and make frogs develop both male and female features -- termed hermaphroditism. This study of 40 male frogs shows the process can go even further, Hayes said.

"Before, we knew we got fewer males than we should have, and we got hermaphrodites. Now, we have clearly shown that many of these animals are sex-reversed males," Hayes said in a statement.

"Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution."

Syngenta AG , one of several companies that makes atrazine, questioned the design of the study and said Hayes has a history of offering flawed studies for publication.

"For 50 years, atrazine has been used safely in agriculture with no effect to amphibians, fish, birds and other wildlife at concentrations found in the environment -- a fact that is supported by numerous scientific studies," the company said in a statement.

The Proceedings is a peer-reviewed journal, meaning that papers it publishes have been screened for obvious flaws.

EFFECTS ON HUMANS?

Whether the effects translate to humans is far from clear. Frogs have thin skin that can absorb chemicals easily and they literally bathe in the polluted water.

The European Union banned atrazine in 2004. The finding may add pressure to the United States to more closely regulate the chemical, used widely in agriculture.

"Approximately 80 million pounds (36,000 tonnes) are applied annually in the United States alone, and atrazine is the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water," the researchers wrote.

"In fact, more than a half million pounds (220 tonnes) of atrazine are precipitated in rainfall each year in the United States."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in October it was reviewing the health impacts of atrazine.

Hayes and colleagues studied 40 African clawed frogs, keeping them in water contaminated with 2.5 ppb (parts per billion) of atrazine. The EPA's current drinking water standard is 3 ppb.

"Ten percent of the exposed genetic males developed into functional females that copulated with unexposed males and produced viable eggs," the researchers wrote.

"Regardless of the mechanism, the impacts of atrazine on amphibians and on wildlife in general are potentially devastating," they wrote.

"The negative impacts on wild amphibians is especially concerning given that the dose examined here (2.5 ppb) is in the range that animals experience year-round in areas where atrazine is used as well within levels found in rainfall, in which levels can exceed 100 ppb in the Midwestern United States," they added.

Groups Ready Fisher Lawsuit Against Feds

2010-02-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

By Walt Cook, Sonora Union Democrat
February 11, 2010

An alliance of environmental groups plans to sue the U.S. Department of the Interior for failing to place the West Coast fisher on the Endangered Species List.

The historical trapping of the animal, a relative of the mink that weighs as much as a house cat, and logging of old-growth forests have “devastated” West Coast fisher populations, the groups contend.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Forest Legacy, Environmental Protection Information Center and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center filed a formal notice of intent to sue the Interior Department on Feb. 4. The groups can file a complaint in federal court 60 days after that date.

Fishers once ranged throughout the forests of Canada and the United Sates, including Washington, Oregon and California. They were almost completely wiped out in the United States, due to a desire for their pelts, which fetched $150 apiece in 1900. They are now making a comeback in some parts of the country.

Today, in California, two native fisher populations exist: Near the California-Oregon border and in the southern Sierra Nevada, about half of the animals’ historic statewide territory, say the groups bringing the lawsuit.

Timber industry groups worry placing the West Coast fisher on the Endangered Species List will hinder logging operations, as such a designation places restrictions on human activities in areas deemed critical habitat.

Chris Conrad, president of the Tuolumne County Alliance for Resources and Environment, sees the environmental groups’ push to list the fisher as an underhanded way to stop logging operations. Twain Harte-based TuCARE defends the interests of cattle and logging operators in the Stanislaus National Forest.

Forests in the Sierra Nevada are so overgrown in places that a catastrophic fire is inevitable without more logging, Conrad said.

“I think it’s evident that these groups have another agenda, and that is to completely shut down forest management,” Conrad said. “It’s unfortunate because the thing that endangers the fisher right now is the incredible buildup of forest fuels. If we don’t address that, their whole habitat is going to burn down.”

Noah Greenwald, of the Center for Biological Diversity, accused the Interior Department of “foot dragging” for not listing the fisher.

The Interior Department, since 2004, has designated the fisher as a species warranting Endangered Species Act protections, but, Greenwald noted, such a designation provides no protections.

The Interior Department cites a lack of resources and says various other species warrant protections ahead of the fisher.

Greenwald insists the suit is not a gouge at the timber industry.

“It’s not about stopping logging, it’s about protection,” Greenwald said.

Furthermore, according to Greenwald, logging can actually increase the risk of forest fires.

“Young clear-cuts spread fire better than anything,” he said. “Logging big trees that the fisher relies on makes the problem worse.”

Greenwald advocated prescribed burns to ease the fire risk in some areas, but Conrad countered state air-quality rules have curtailed forest managers’ ability to use fire.

Conrad added that some logging companies, like Sierra Pacific Industries, have planted fishers in parts of the Sierra Nevada. Because it is the only animal that regularly preys on porcupines, which often kill or damage small trees, the timber industry has reintroduced the fisher to many parts of the country.

Greenwald countered that the logging companies’ reintroduction efforts don’t make up for the loss of the old-growth forest habitat that fishers rely on.

Greenwald also pointed to the fisher-porcupine relationship to illustrate the important niche various animals have in ecosystems. Without fishers preying on porcupines, porcupines could kill more trees than they otherwise would have, he said.

“Everything in the universe is connected to everything else,” Greenwald said.

The fisher kills porcupines with repeated bites to the face, devouring the porcupine via the quill-less underbelly. Where fisher reintroductions have been successful, porcupines have indeed declined in number, according to Greenwald.

Fishers are omnivores that not only hunt, but eat carion, nuts, insects, berries and mushrooms.

Greenhouse Gas Lawsuits Filed Against 15 Logging Plans in California

2010-01-29T11:15:00.000-08:00

Center For Biological Diversity Press Release
January 27, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO— The Center for Biological Diversity today filed lawsuits against the California Department of Forestry for illegally approving clearcut logging projects without properly analyzing the carbon emissions and climate consequences. The 15 logging plans, all proposed by the timber company Sierra Pacific Industries, would clearcut more than 5,000 acres of California forests in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade regions.

“Properly analyzing, and ultimately reducing, the carbon emissions from forestry are essential if California’s efforts at addressing greenhouse emissions are going to be effective,” said Brian Nowicki, California climate policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “But by continuing to rubberstamp Sierra Pacific Industries’ clearcutting plans, the Department of Forestry is chopping a gigantic hole in the credibility of California’s climate policy.”

The seven lawsuits, filed in superior courts in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Modoc, Shasta, Tehama, and Trinity counties, assert the state violated the California Environmental Quality Act and Forest Practice Act in approving Sierra Pacific Industries’ timber-harvest plans without properly addressing the resulting CO2 emissions.

Undisturbed forests generally act as carbon sinks, continuously absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis and storing it in the forests’ trees, shrubs, and soil. Logging can convert a patch of forest from a net carbon sink to a carbon source. Clearcutting, which is also damaging to wildlife and water quality, generates the most greenhouse gases of any logging method.

The California Department of Forestry is responsible for approving all logging plans on private land in California and must ensure that each proposed plan complies with the California Environmental Quality Act. Under this law, state agencies and local governments approving projects must analyze the projects' effects on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, as well as the cumulative impact of related logging. However, rather than calculate the carbon emissions that would result from Sierra Pacific Industries’ actual logging plans, the Department of Forestry has asserted that over a 100-year time frame enough trees would grow back on the company’s lands to render the logging carbon neutral.

Timber Corporations, Real Estate and Community Forests

2010-01-13T07:29:00.000-08:00

By Felice Pace, KlamBlog

Weyerhauser – the nation’s largest timber company – has announced that it will convert itself into a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). The company’s stock rose about 7% when the conversion was announced in December.

The Weyerhauser announcement came as no surprise to those familiar with western forest management; it has been under discussion for several years. Many forest products companies with large forest holdings have already converted to REITs or created REITs to complement other operations.

Large corporate owners control a good amount of the West’s prime development property. Once remote, these holdings are now on the fringes of cities like Seattle and Portland. Where I live along the Redwood Coast, timber giant Green Diamond Resources (formerly Simpson) owns forest lands – now mostly clearcuts and tree plantations - on hills and ridges surrounding the Humboldt Bay Metropolitan Area (where the cities of Eureka and Arcata are located).

The company would like to develop those lands for so-called “mc-mansions” on 10 to 40 acre parcels. But the Healthy Humboldt Coalition wants the Humboldt County General Plan – currently under revision – to prohibit subdivision of the forests. Healthy Humboldt argues that dispersed development will not only harm the environment but also destroy a key aspect of the quality of life along the Redwood Coast – outstanding scenery. They favor urban growth boundaries , in-fill development and sustainably managed forests.

Another option for industrial timberlands located near towns and cities is to convert those lands to community forests.

Community forests have been around for quite some time; one of the most well known is on the Redwood Coast. The Arcata Community Forest, owned and operated by the City of Arcata, provides sustainably-logged redwood as well as recreation and ecosystem services.

In recent years interest in community forests has blossomed across the West and world-wide. In part this is a reaction to the fact that clearcuts have migrated from the backcountry far from community viewsheds to the slopes directly above and visible from the communities. The Northern California town of Weaverville, for example, is working to establish a community forest on lands above the town which have been intensively logged by Sierra Pacific Industries – California’s largest timber company. In recent years, SPI clearcutting near town has prompted protests from landowners who find their views degraded and their water systems overwhelmed by sediment. The Weaverville Community Forest will be managed by the local Resource Conservation District.

Many forest communities are realizing that they need to own the forested watersheds from which they draw water in order to protect the quantity and quality of water produced. The US Forest Service provides technical assistance and a grant program that can be used to establish community forests.

Will western timber companies succeed in developing the prime real estate they own on western urban fringes? Or will local planning commissions take effective action to protect the water quality and forested viewsheds which attract urban refugees, retirees and foot-loose businesses? And is the current avalanche of interest in community forests only a passing fancy or a sign of things to come?

The answers to these questions will be determined in western boardrooms and council chambers across the West. Stay tuned.

California's Carbon Game

2010-01-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

By Felice Pace, KlamBlog
December 28, 2009

As the world focuses on the Stockholm Climate Change Conference, how California is addressing climate change is generating conflict. In late November the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued a draft of what are likely to be the first government regulations in the nation for carbon trading.

Two environmental justice organizations - Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) and California Communities Against Toxics - filed a lawsuit earlier this year to block the cap-and-trade option California's CARB has proposed. The groups alleges that California’s cap and trade plan will allow the most entrenched polluters, including oil refineries, to continue emitting toxic and smog-forming pollutants, which are associated with carbon emissions. Here's a link to how an anti-environmental web-site views that lawsuit.

The environmental community is split over whether or not to support California’s cap and trade climate plan. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council support carbon trading which seeks to use market forces to achieve reductions in carbon emissions. Many other environmental organizations think carbon trading lets polluting industries off the hook and instead advocate for a tax on carbon emissions with the proceeds used to develop green energy.

One of the most contentious issues in the California, national and international climate debate is the “off-set" issue. Under off-set schemes polluters can buy carbon off-set credits rather than reduce their own emissions. Forestry and agriculture are two industries which can generate off-sets; carbon is stored as trees grow and agricultural practices can lock-up carbon in the soil. But some experts and many climate activists believe it will prove difficult to impossible to verify that off-sets are actually occurring as claimed. They say carbon trading will not result in reduced emissions and cite Europe’s recent experience with carbon trading to prove their point. The most skeptical observes think carbon off-set schemes will prove a source of proliferating climate boondoggles.

Closer to home, carbon off-set skeptics point to a recent deal involving Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), California’s largest timber company, which they say illustrates what will take place if forest carbon off-set schemes are embraced. Under the deal SPI will continue to clearcut - replacing natural forests with tree plantations. According to Brian Nowiski of the Tuscon-based Center for Biological Diversity: “This looks a whole lot like a giant timber company getting paid millions of dollars to do business-as-usual, and destroying our forests, water quality, and wildlife in the process…..Giving carbon credits for logging operations is a shell game where timber companies win, and the forest, the climate, and everyone else loses.” More

SPI caught not reporting hazardous air emissions again

2009-11-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

By Kyle Haines, THP Tracking Center
November 5, 2009

Yesterday (Nov 4th), SPI was caught not reporting a potentially life threatening release of hazardous materials to authorities right away. A truck driver hooked up the wrong tank at the Quincy co-generation plant and mixed 20-30 gallons of sodium hypochlorite, essentially bleach, with 200 gallons of hydrochloric acid, which caused a chemical reaction that gave off 30 pounds of chlorine gas and an undetermined amount of liquid sodium monoxide. Four workers were injured by the incident and according to the Plumas County News reporter authorities did not know of the hazardous release until people started showing up at the emergency room.

The fact that such an incident could occur at a company that owns over 21 facilities in 2 states and employs 4,400 people is not so unusual, but the pattern of late reporting and/or cover ups is. In 2004, California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued alleging that SPI’s sawmills and wood-fired boilers in Lincoln and Quincy were egregious air polluters. “On hundreds of days … SPI polluted the air with smog-forming oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide, and particulate matter far in excess of permit limits,”. As restitution, in 2007, Sierra Pacific agreed to pay the state $8.5 million in penalties and attorney fees and to plow millions more into upgrading its pollution-control equipment.

Putting the public at risk seems to be a re-occuring problem with SPI. The Quincy incident happened right next to an elementary school and residential area. Chlorine is one of the most dangerous industrial chemicals known to man which can kill all lifeforms within a half mile in just a matter of minutes from release. State law requires immediate notification and reporting to authorities, much faster than the hour long delay before SPI admitted a release had occurred.

Samoa Freshwater Tissue Pulp Mill To Close

2009-10-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from Ukiah Daily Journal article
October 28, 2009

Bob Simpson, formerly of Louisiana-Pacific and now president of Freshwater Tissue, California's last pulp mill and the only chlorine-free/dioxin-free mill in the United States, said the mill will have to close. Simpson said the current owners of the Samoa pulp mill were unable to get federal stimulus funds to convert the Samoa mill into an integrated tissue plant. When the new owners acquired the Samoa mill in February of 2009, Simpson said, their vision was to make the mill competitive by manufacturing consumer-ready, eco-friendly, chlorine-free toilet tissue.

Rick Hind, Legislative Director of Greenpeace said of the closure, "It's outrageous that the federal government, which just offered $55 million for experimental clean coal' technologies, could not find a penny for a proven chlorine-free pulp mill and the green jobs it would support." The company's vision had broad support from environmental advocacy groups, educators, foresters, community leaders and labor unions.

Greg Pallesen, Vice President of The Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers remarked that, "The closure of the Samoa, California mill is a prime example of failed U.S. financial and trade policies, which continue to be the main cause of massive job losses in the U.S. At the same time as the green' Samoa manufacturing site is closed forever, large polluting mills in China and elsewhere are being brought online in order to supply U.S. consumers. The end result destroys working families here at home while increasing pollution worldwide. Shame on our politicians who do nothing but talk about green' job creation. This facility is closed forever, and the families and communities in Northern California will suffer for years to come."

Bob Simpson noted that with the GP power plant, the Masonite plant and now the Samoa pulp mill being closed, the market for sawmill by-products and forest fuel is financially impacting the timber industry. Pulp chips are now reduced to the value of fuel for power plants, or as landscape bedding. There are no remaining facilities, other than compost facilities, left in Mendocino County.

Siskiyou County Supervisor's Biomass Smokescreen

2009-10-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

By Felice Pace, Klam Blog

Dale Adreasen’s report on the recent meeting to discuss the future of biomass utilization in Siskiyou County should alarm citizens who believe the way to move forward is to collaborate with those seeking to preserve forests and protect the health of citizens. Instead of reaching out to those with environmental concerns, this group of county supervisors prefers to blame and demonize those with environmental concerns. If they really wanted to make biomass work here these folks would start by curbing their inflammatory rhetoric. Or maybe we should use all that hot air to make electricity!

In addition to using the session to play their tired old anti-environmental saw there were statements by other participants that are downright dangerous. Larry Alexander is reported to have emphasized “maximizing the biomass utilization opportunities in Siskiyou County.” Doing that would create more fire danger rather than less.

Removing too much forest canopy opens the forest to sunlight and reduces competition for moisture. This encourages brush sprouting and tree seedling survival. If the canopy is reduced below 60%, the result will be much greater fire risk 8 to 10 years down the pike. Unfortunately, the Forest Service – and Mr. Alexander’s group - usually insist on reducing canopy to 40% or less and calling this “fire risk reduction” In reality these practices create more fire risk over time. Furthermore “maximizing” biomass production would result in increased landslides and erosion leading to massive delivery of sediment to streams. Among other values, fisheries would suffer as a result.

Supervisor Marcia Armstrong would have us believe that the health destroying smoke experienced by Californians is the result of failure to log. This just repeats what Armstrong has heard from her timber industry backers. But – judging from the extensive fires of 2008 - at least half of that smoke is not from natural forest fires but from ill advised, dangerous and (at times) irresponsible burn-outs and back fires lit by overeager firefighters who do not understand how fire behaves in Northern California’s forested mountains. Furthermore, many of our largest fires “blew up” into firestorms in the flammable “slash” (small trees, branches and limbs) left behind by timber companies. Here’s a partial list of Siskiyou County fires that “blew up” in logging slash: Hog Fire (1977), Yellow and Glasgow fires (1987), Specimen Fire (1994).

Thank goodness for Priscila Franko who introduced a dose of reality to the La La Land our supervisors inhabit. The truth is that the cost of getting biomass out of the woods in most of western Siskiyou County is so high that biomass production just does not pencil out there. On the flatter and more forgiving forests of eastern Siskiyou County, on the other hand, biomass energy generation can be feasible and sustainable.

Biomass generation that makes good environmental and economic sense and which protects public health will be supported by the environmental community; biomass utilization according to the “vision” of our stuporvisors will neither pencil out nor secure that support.

Carbon Credit Program Won't Stop Clear-Cutting

2009-09-26T09:07:00.001-07:00

By Jackson West, NBC Bay Area
September 25, 2009

California has officially approved a controversial new fee on utilities and other companies that spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as part of a bill signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

However, companies can ultimately cut their state-imposed pollution costs by simply buying carbon offsets from companies that manage timberlands in the state on an open market within two years.

So will the loggers have to plant more trees in order to sell credits? Nope. They can go ahead and continue clear-cutting, the ugly but maximally profitable practice of denuding acres of forest at a time.

Companies like Sierra Pacific argue that with more light, new seedlings grow faster and therefore cleanse more carbon from the atmosphere.

However, clear-cutting requires smog-belching heavy equipment and is the most pollution-intense method of logging, argue environmentalists who also don't like the monocultures and loss of habit left in clear-cutting's wake.

And in a classic California twist, apparently the e-mail announcing the decision to allow companies to both clear-cut and cash in on carbon credits was sent hours before the Air Resource Board even voted on the decision.

It's yet another sign of the conflicted sentiment coming from the governor's office, where taxes and regulations are loathed and the environment loved. Hence, markets are the solution to every problem, and if they aren't working, then just create a new one.

But one must question the sense in letting a company cut down trees and sell carbon credits -- since maintaining the status quo in the Sierra won't get us out of the global warming woods.

Clearcutting and Climate Change

2009-09-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

By Felice Pace, Klam Blog
High Country News Goat Blog

Recently the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in California challenging approval of 400 acres of clearcuts in Northern California’s Sierra Mountains. In the press release announcing the lawsuit, the Center claims that approval of the clearcutting by California’s Board of Forestry violated California law which requires that state agencies analyze and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from a project when they approve it. The Board of Forestry claims the trees will grow back in 100 years and that the clearcutting is therefore carbon neutral.

This is believed to be the first time logging has been challenged on the grounds that it will damage the climate. It comes at a time when there are signs that the Forest Wars may be once again heating up in California.

The Board of Forestry is under attack from environmentalists and fishing groups for seeking to weaken logging rules that were enacted a decade ago to protect Coho salmon and other at risk salmon. Those rules only apply to watersheds where Coho and other at risk salmonids spawn and rear. The logging rules were themselves deemed inadequate to protect Coho by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In a related political move the Department of Forestry recently asked the State Water Resources Board to remove authority to regulate logging under the Clean Water Act from the North Coast and other regional water boards. The North Coast Water Board has been reworking a “waiver” of waste discharge requirements for timber operations on private lands. It is believed that the new North Coast waiver would have included road maintenance and other more stringent requirements which environmentalists say are needed to protect water quality, salmon and other Public Trust resources. The Board of Forestry opposes stronger water quality protection; it is dominated by timber interests – including one seat which has been occupied by Sierra Pacific Industries executives for about a decade. In a reaction to the Board of Forestry action, some California forest protection groups have proposed legislation to abolish the Board of Forestry.

In California's timber wars carbon credits for growing trees is also an issue. Industry giants like Sierra Pacific Industries want to be paid for growing trees even while they continue clearcutting; they are heavily lobbying the California Air Resources Board to adopt carbon rules which will pay them for continued clearcutting.

The timber industry claim that once trees are turned into lumber they will keep the carbon in storage for many years or even centuries. Critics contend, however, that the carbon footprint from logging and milling trees wipes out any benefit from carbon storage in lumber.

Specialists believe that the details of rules on forest and agricultural carbon storage will determine whether “cap and trade” systems will be effective in reducing human climate change impacts. The Timber Industry and Big Agriculture recently won a round in the carbon storage game when Ag Champion Colin Peterson of Minnesota succeeded in amending the climate bill which passed the House in June. The Peterson Amendment substitutes the Department of Agriculture for the Environmental Protection Agency as the agency which will decide how much credit farmers and timber companies get for storing carbon.

Numerous Inspector General audits as well as citizen investigations document the waste, fraud and abuse which is wide spread in USDA-operated Conservation Programs. Recent congressional testimony by the USDA's Inspector General summarized the situation and was the subject of a GOAT Blog post in April. In many cases payments are made even when those approving the payment know that no conservation benefit will result. Some promoters of carbon trading are fearful that a carbon trading system operated by USDA would likely exhibit the same abuses.

All this indicates that carbon will be a major front in the ongoing conflict over logging in the American West. Stay tuned.

U.S. official fears new California logging rules may hurt salmon

2009-09-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Article by Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee
September 12, 2009

New logging rules intended to protect California salmon may do just the opposite, according to federal officials who are considering additional industry monitoring to prevent extinction.

The California Board of Forestry on Wednesday granted initial approval to the new rules governing logging near streams in coastal and mountain forests.

The unanimous vote by the nine-member board came after a decade of pressure from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which had warned repeatedly that state logging rules didn't do enough to protect salmon habitat from erosion and high temperatures.

The forestry board, however, rejected protections sought by the service and by the state Department of Fish and Game.

Charlotte Ambrose, California salmon recovery coordinator for the federal fisheries service, called the rules approved Wednesday an "overall weakening" of those in place before. She said they likely would push the state's already imperiled salmon and steelhead closer toward extinction. "There is a likelihood of harm to salmon or steelhead should forest practices proceed under these rules," Ambrose said.

The national fisheries service may impose its own regulations on logging plans in some areas of California if state rules gain final approval at the forestry board's October meeting, Ambrose said.

The decision comes amid an unprecedented California salmon crisis. Commercial harvest of Central Valley chinook has been suspended for a second year due to a record-low population.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pressed the Obama administration for economic aid in response to the salmon crisis. Yet he also has urged federal officials to weaken salmon protections that govern reservoir operations.

Schwarzenegger's appointments have tilted the forestry board in favor of logging interests. By law, three board members must come from industry and five from the public at large. The governor named industry-leaning members to two of the public seats.

At issue are protective buffers around streams and how so-called "Class 2" streams are defined.

Class 2 streams are those that hold water year-round and have important spawning habitat. They are fed by Class 3 waterways – small tributaries that dry up in summer.

The state Department of Fish and Game urged the Board of Forestry to assume that wherever two seasonal waterways meet to form a water-bearing stream, it should be considered a Class 2. Buffers then would be required around that Class 2 zone to limit or prevent logging.

Tractors and other heavy logging equipment can cause erosion that clogs gravel where salmon could spawn. Excessive tree removal along streams reduces shade and can cause water to become too hot for fish.

Instead, the forestry board approved its own process for defining Class 2 waterways: Foresters working for logging companies will determine in the field whether a stream merits Class 2 status and its buffer zones.

State officials would determine later whether the forester's decision was valid.

"It was a piece of rule language that, in my personal opinion, wasn't as well written," said Mark Stopher, an environmental program manager with state Fish and Game. "I'm a little disappointed. But we can make this work."

The forestry board also shrank the buffer zone from 150 to 100 feet for Class 1 streams – larger waterways that hold fish year-round. It banned logging within 30 feet of those waterways, and will restrict the number of trees that can be cut between 30 and 100 feet.

Industry officials say the new rules don't allow enough logging near streams.

"The concern is that we're going to re-create an environment that's going to foster severe wildfire," said Bob Mion, spokesman for the California Forestry Association. "When fire burns severely in those areas, the effect on watershed health is devastating."

How The West Was Lost

2009-09-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from opinion piece By Marily Woodhouse
September 8, 2009

I live in the foothills of Mt. Lassen, where the Sierra and the Cascades overlap. I also live down the road from many thousands of acres of timberland that is owned by Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), the largest landowner in the state and the second largest in the U.S.

For the past 10 years, SPI has been engaged in the systematic destruction of the Battle Creek watershed here as well as other watersheds from Central California to the Oregon border. SPI practices clearcutting on a huge scale over its land holdings.

I have lived in Manton since 1989 and became involved in working against clearcutting - not against logging- when i learned of a Timber Harvest Plan (THP) that was in the Digger Butte area and on Digger Creek, which is one of the borders of my home.

As time passed, I learned how many other THPs were in the area between Manton and Highway 44. There are 13 - with a fourteenth just filed - that cover nearly 20,000 acres.

Each one of these THPs was filed with almost no disclosure of the adjoining THPs and no discussion of the cumulative impacts associated with the sum total of them all.

According to the Dept. of Fish & Game website there are not quite 3 million acres of timberland in private ownership in California.

Sierra Pacific Industries owns 1.7 million of those acres, or 58%. (That’s about the size of the state of Delaware, or twice the size of the state of Rhode Island.)

SPI’s ownership is also across 15 counties, so I think it is fair to say that what they do matters and has consequences.

CalFire oversees the THP process, and according to their records, by 2006 SPI had been given approval for clearcutting and other plantation conversion of 45,413 acres in Shasta County alone; the figure is close to a quarter million acres in all of the counties they own land in, and their plans are to cut and convert 1,000,000 acres.

Scientists find that the temperature in clearcut areas increases 5 to 10 degrees while the humidity decreases by 35 percent. Actually, anyone who has ever walked out in a clearcut doesn’t need a scientist to tell them that.

In a time when water supplies are in the decline throughout the West, our watersheds that provide most of the water for the entire state need to be protected. Many studies have been released recently that find forests are more important for protecting the regularity of water flows and the water quality than was previously supposed.

Studies also show that plantations are more fire prone and burn at a higher severity than natural forests. Tree plantations of between 1 to 5-foot tall trees, that have piles of logging debris pushed up against the small replants, will be lucky to survive the next 30 or more years it takes for them to start becoming a forest and perform all of the complex functions that life as we know it, depends on.

I encourage anyone who reads this and anyone who ever turns on a faucet with the expectation of water flowing out to look at the aerial view of our area on the Internet at Google Earth or visit the Battle Creek Alliance website to see what the land looks like over many, many miles of the state.

Marily Woodhouse is a Sierra Club organizer for the “Stop Clearcutting California” campaign. She lives in Manton.

Taking An Ax To Forest Protection

2009-09-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

By Traci Sheehan, Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Legislature Poised To Weaken Timber Harvest Plans

Over the last several months, the environmental community has defeated many legislative attempts to weaken California's environmental protections. However, with only two weeks left in the session we're still racing to fix several measures that could be adopted at any moment.

Here's one that's particularly troubling:

AB 1066 by Assemblymember Tony Mendoza threatens the health of our forests, water, and air by allowing numerous extensions of Timber Harvest Plans (THPs).

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's program for approving timber harvest plans is a "certified regulatory program" that is supposed to be "functionally equivalent" to the traditional CEQA process. Unfortunately the department has had a history of failing to live up to the substantive and procedural requirements of CEQA, and the courts have repeatedly found that implementation of the certified regulatory program does not measure up.

By allowing repeated one and two year extensions, AB 1066 increases the difficulty of THP reviewing agencies like the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, regional water boards, and the Department of Fish and Game to effectively analyze environmental impacts. In addition, with longer compliance periods, timber companies may concentrate their logging activities at times when lumber prices are high, exacerbating the industry's boom and bust cycle.

AB 1066 is now on the Senate floor. Even after several rounds of amendments, it's clear that the bill will have significant negative effects on our state. We hope the Senate sees fit to send it back to the drawing board one more time.

Greenhouse Gas Lawsuits Force Timber Company Cancellation of Sierra Nevada Clearcut Logging Plan

2009-08-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Center for Biological Diversity Press Release
August 25, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO— In response to recent lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity, plans to log more than 1,600 acres of Sierra Nevada forest have been formally withdrawn by Sierra Pacific Industries, the timber company that had proposed the logging. The Center filed three lawsuits earlier this month against the California Department of Forestry for illegally approving the plans without analyzing the carbon and climate consequences of the logging.

“Rather than attempt to defend the indefensible, Sierra Pacific Industries wisely retreated from this fight,” said Brendan Cummings, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The cancellation of these ill-conceived and illegal logging plans is an important step toward bringing the timber industry in California into the 21st century.”

Despite well-established law that state agencies must analyze and mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions from a specific project when they approve it, the Department of Forestry had failed to carry out any project-specific analysis of the emissions that would result from Sierra Pacific Industries’ clearcutting plans.

Beyond the three now-canceled plans in litigation, more than two dozen similar logging plans by Sierra Pacific Industries are awaiting approval from the Department of Forestry. Together, these plans would authorize clearcutting over 12,000 additional acres of California forests.

“The California Department of Forestry now needs to reject all pending and similarly flawed clearcutting plans,” said Jan Chatten-Brown of Chatten-Brown & Carstens, co-counsel for the Center in the recent suits. “Unless the Department starts requiring logging companies to disclose, analyze, and most importantly, mitigate the actual carbon dioxide emissions resulting from logging plans, they will likely find themselves back in court.”

Undisturbed forests generally act as carbon sinks, continuously absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis and storing it in the forests’ trees, shrubs, and soil. Logging can convert a patch of forest from a net carbon sink to a carbon source. Clearcutting, which is also damaging to wildlife and water quality, generates the most greenhouse gases of any logging method.

The California Department of Forestry is responsible for approving all logging plans on private land in California and must ensure that each proposed plan complies with the California Environmental Quality Act. Under this law, state agencies and local governments approving projects must analyze the projects' effects on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, as well as the cumulative impact of related logging. However, rather than calculate the carbon emissions that would result from Sierra Pacific Industries’ actual logging plans, the Department of Forestry has asserted that over a 100-year time frame enough trees would grow back on the company’s lands to render the logging carbon neutral.

The three lawsuits, filed in superior courts in Lassen, Tuolumne, and Tehama counties, asserted that the state violated the California Environmental Quality Act and the Forest Practice Act when it approved Sierra Pacific Industries’ timber-harvest plans without addressing the CO2 emissions that will result from the clearcutting.

“Clearcutting is an abysmal practice that should have been banned long ago due to its impacts on wildlife and water quality,” added Cummings. “Now, in an era where all land-management decisions need to be fully carbon-conscious, there is simply no excuse to continue to allow clearcutting in California.”

CA Agency Ignores Greenhouse Gas Logging Impacts

2009-08-18T12:12:00.001-07:00

Center For Biological Diversity Press Release
August 13, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO— Today the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Forestry over the agency’s failure to analyze the carbon and climate consequences of clear-cutting when it approved a logging plan in the Sierra Nevada. Despite well-established law that state agencies must analyze and mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions from a project when they approve it, the Department of Forestry failed to carry out any project-specific analysis of the emissions that would result from a plan by Sierra Pacific Industries to clear-cut over 400 acres in Tehama and Butte Counties.

“If California is serious about actually reducing its greenhouse emissions, it must start addressing the substantial carbon dioxide emissions resulting from logging our forests,” said Brendan Cummings, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Unfortunately, state agencies continue to approve clear-cut logging without any regard for the serious carbon consequences of doing so.”

Undisturbed forests generally act as carbon sinks, continuously absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis and storing it in the forests’ trees, shrubs, and soil. Logging can convert a patch of forest from a net carbon sink to a carbon source. Clear-cutting generates the most greenhouse gases of any logging method. Globally, deforestation accounts for about a quarter of all greenhouse emissions.

The California Department of Forestry is responsible for approving all logging plans on private land in California and must ensure that each proposed plan complies with the California Environmental Quality Act. Under this law, state agencies and local governments approving projects must analyze the projects' effects on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, as well as the cumulative impact of related logging. However, rather than attempt to calculate the carbon emissions that would result from Sierra Pacific Industries’ actual logging plan, the Department of Forestry simply asserted that over a 100-year time frame enough trees would grow back on the company’s lands to render the logging carbon neutral.

“The law is clear that agencies must look at the greenhouse emissions of the specific project they approve,” said Jan Chatten-Brown of Chatten-Brown & Carstens, the law firm representing the Center in today’s suit. “The Department of Forestry cannot escape this mandate by simply claiming the project’s impacts will be offset elsewhere, which is in any case, a dubious claim.”

The lawsuit, filed in superior court in Tehama County, alleges the state violated the California Environmental Quality Act and the Forest Practices Act when it approved the timber-harvest plan without disclosing, analyzing, or mitigating the CO2 emissions that will result from the logging. Over two dozen similar logging plans by Sierra Pacific Industries, which owns nearly 1.7 million acres of forest land in California, are awaiting approval from the Department of Forestry.

“While forest management in a changing climate is increasingly complex, one thing is abundantly clear: You cannot clear-cut your way out of the climate crisis,” added Cummings. “California should quickly move to ban clear-cutting.”

Sierra Pacific Industries: For tampering with air-pollution equipment and getting caught

2009-08-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

Excerpt From Sacramento News & Review Worst in Show
August 2009

#7 from the top 10 list of the region’s biggest and most incorrigible polluters:

The years have not been kind to this Lincoln-based timber company. Sawmills have been closing down throughout the Sierras for decades. Not that the public feels all that warm and fuzzy about lumberjacks or logging these days.

The company closed its Quincy sawmill in May. Its Camino operation followed in June, costing 167 jobs. And the company plans to close its Sonora mill in August.

Company officials told The Sacramento Bee that the closure was due to “the economic and regulatory environment.” SPI spokesman Mark Pawlicki told SN&R those mills may reopen if the housing market comes back.

But a recent multi-million dollar lawsuit from the state of California can’t be helping company morale.

In 2004, California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued alleging that SPI’s sawmills and wood-fired boilers in Lincoln and Quincy were egregious air polluters. “On hundreds of days … SPI polluted the air with smog-forming oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide, and particulate matter far in excess of permit limits,” the A.G. alleged.

Worse, the pollution often wasn’t reported and air-quality investigators found air-pollution equipment disconnected. “To mask pollution at its Lincoln facility, SPI tampered with the monitoring equipment so that it would indicate much lower emissions,” the A.G.’s lawsuit states. “The true extent of violations will never be known.”

Pawlicki said that the tampering was done by individual employees, without company knowledge, and that it was the company that reported the problem in the first place.

But in 2007, Sierra Pacific agreed to pay the state $8.5 million in penalties and attorney fees and to plow millions more into upgrading its pollution-control equipment. “Even if we would have won in court, we would have wound up paying the same amount in legal fees,” said Pawlicki. Presumably, the new monitoring equipment will be somewhat more tamper-proof.

New Threat to North Coast Forest and Rivers

2009-07-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from N CA River Watch Activist's Blog and Coast Action Group
July 23, 2009

Almost all north coast rivers are listed as impaired – that is they do not meet Water Quality Standards. These impairments are the basic reason for the collapse of the salmon fishery on the north coast. The fundamental reason for impairment by the pollutants: sediment, temperature, low dissolved oxygen, and nutrients, is in land use practices – mostly from timber harvest operations and poor agricultural practices. On most of the listed impaired north coast rivers timber harvest is by far the most dominant land use and is the primary cause of impairment.

The North Coast Regional Board has taken action to control pollutants and address timber harvest issue via use of a Conditional Waiver of Waste Discharge and/or Waste Discharge Reporting. This Conditional Waiver sets minimum stream protection standards and, when complied with, negates the need for Waste Discharge Reporting. However, the State Water Board seeks to take responsibility away from the North Coast Regional Board and write State Wide Conditional Waivers and WDRs - to be administered by the State Water Board and/or the Department of Forestry (under State Water Board Authority).

Due to complaints from the Forest Service, the timber industry, and the Department of Forestry, the current State Board Chair has indicated that Timber Harvest Waste Discharge Reporting and Waiver Conditions, and management of same, should be reorganized and administered by the State Water Board. This change of course appears politically based rather than resource protective.

The North Coast Regional Board (with oversight by the State Board) is in the best position to assess, promulgate, and implement actions necessary to protect water quality values in areas of timber harvest in the region. Management scenario from outside the region would necessarily by less effective and more costly in the long run.

Wildfire and Firefighting in Klamath Country

2009-07-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

By Felice Pace, Excerpts from KlamBlog feature
July 14, 2009

Forest Service Burnout, Little N. Fork Salmon River. Burnout occurred summer 2008, Photo June 2009.

Last summer’s wildfires are history but on the burned landscape there are lessons to be learned. The complaints which surfaced in local media last summer about smoke from excessive and unnecessary backfires and burnouts were justified.

Largely because of the work of local Fire Safe Councils, Northwest California’s rural residents are becoming much more knowledgeable about how fire works in surrounding forest ecosystems. Rural folks in Klamath Country appear to be coming to the conclusion that the burnouts and backfires - which consume the vast majority of taxpayer dollars spent “fighting’ these fires - are not necessary to protect communities and actually constitute an increased risk through escaped backfires and burnouts and the extra health-destroying smoke they create. At least one NW California newspaper – the Record Searchlight of Redding – has continued to focus on the health impacts of smoke – including whether backfires and burnouts are unnecessarily exacerbating those impacts.

It is unlikely that the simmering anger and outrage in rural Klamath Country about the manner in which fires are “fought” will have any impact on national wildfire suppression policy. The voices of western rural residents are typically not heard within the corridors of power in Boise (seat of the vast Firefighting Bureaucracy) and Washington, DC – from whence the money flows.

The local congressman for most of Klamath Country – Wally Herger – could help. But Mr. Herger appears spectacularly uninterested in the impact of unhealthy smoke on his constituents. Instead his emphasis is on promoting the false claim that commercial logging can reduce the risk from wildfire – a position which pleases the private owners of Sierra Pacific Industries, California’s largest timber corporation and the source of substantial contributions to Herger’s campaign war chest.

Uproar Over Bohemian Club Logging Plan

2009-07-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from San Francisco Chronicle article
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

The members of the 130-year-old Bohemian Club will return this week to their Sonoma County redwood forest for the annual encampment, the exclusive retreat of the men-only secret society.

This year, the long weekend of male bonding for 2,000 of the mostly rich and powerful is under public scrutiny: The club's management is seeking to limit governmental review of future logging on the 2,700-acre Bohemian Grove in the lush Russian River watershed.

The state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, is considering the club's application for a streamlined logging permit on the largest remaining private redwood forest close to San Francisco, a profusion of trees that offers habitat to the rare marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, coho salmon and steelhead.

The permit, called a nonindustrial timber management plan, would allow the club to log over 100 years about 1 million board-feet a year, or enough wood for 70 houses, without having to file a timber-harvest plan for each logging operation, which would require comprehensive government oversight and review. Over a 50-year period, the logging would increase from 800,000 board-feet to 1.7 million board-feet under the proposed permit.

Sierra Club, Forest Unlimited and Central Coast Watch insist that repeated governmental review for every cut is necessary. They say the important Russian River forest can't support all that cutting. In March, at a formal review meeting of several state agencies, the forestry agency staff said it would recommend approval of the permit. The proposed permit was put out for comment, which ended in May, bringing in a series of new objections. A final decision by the agency's director is expected this year.

Update on AB 1066 "THP Timeframe Extension Bill"

2009-07-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Forest Forever Action Alert Excerpt
July 5, 2009

Even amidst an historic state economic crisis, the legislative struggle over the fate of California's forests, fisheries and watersheds continues unabated. Meantime the timber industry is using the crisis to advance its interests in easing logging restrictions. The industry's latest bad bill, AB 1066, is coming to a vote as soon as Monday July 6 in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water.

The good news is that your calls and letters succeeded in moderating the impact of AB 1066. The legislation, which initially called for extending he effective period of THPs to ten years, now calls for five-year limits, with possible extensions. The bad news is that five years is still too long for logging operations to continue unmonitored.

On June 3 AB 1066 as amended to five years passed the Assembly floor 53 to 12. Soon thereafter it passed 7-0 in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. AB 1066 would extend THP timeframes from the current three years to five years, raising the prospect that watershed disturbances could occur for longer periods before being reported and/or ameliorated. Critical new data could be ignored or have no effect on logging operations during the extended period.

Calls to legislators are needed immediately to prevent the bill's passage. Ask the state senators to vote "no" on 1066.

Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) (916) 651-4203
Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) (916) 651-4039
Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco/San Rafael) (916) 651-4003
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-San Fernando Valley) (916) 651-4020
Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) (916) 651-4011
Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) (916) 651-4002

California Proposes Logging Rules That Would Exterminate Coho Salmon

2009-06-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Center For Biological Diversity Press Release Excerpts
June 24, 2009

Inadequate Regulations Proposed in Critical Watersheds as Coho Salmon Spiral Toward Extinction

The California Board of Forestry is considering proposed state timber-harvest regulations that would continue harmful logging adjacent to critical salmon streams, prevent recovery of key salmon watersheds, and essentially guarantee extinction of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) from California.

The Board is updating its “threatened or impaired watershed” logging rules, state forest practice rules originally adopted in 2000 that regulate commercial timber harvesting on private land in watersheds harboring threatened or endangered salmon species and in water bodies listed as impaired under the federal Clean Water Act. Most remaining coho salmon streams in northern and central California are within private forestlands subject to California's Forest Practice Rules.

The Board has proposed a smorgasbord of options for riparian timber-harvest rule changes, almost all of which reduce critical riparian protection. The rules would also: allow excessive road densities, near-stream roads and road stream crossings that will result in degradation of salmon habitat with sediment; approve logging and road building on unstable slopes and soils; allow logging of critical headwaters refugia; and prevent previously logged watersheds from adequately recovering.

The effects of logging activities on coho salmon habitat have been catastrophic. Coho spawn, and the young rear, in cold-water streams with abundant protective cover, mostly provided by fallen trees. For this reason, coho require dense coastal forests for their survival. Removal of trees eliminates shade for streams, increases water temperatures, and reduces the amount of large woody debris that falls into streams to provide critical habitat for rearing salmonids. Thousands of miles of temporary logging roads create large-scale soil instability on the steep slopes in coastal Northern California, eroding huge quantities of fine sediment into streams, filling pools, degrading spawning gravels, and burying coho habitat.

The proposed rules are not based on best science or good land-management principles and are geared toward allowing more timber harvest in critical coho watersheds. Even though the Board of Forestry’s supposed salmon protections to date have failed to protect coho, the agency is now proposing rules that in some instances would further erode habitat protections. The watersheds covered by the rules have been subjected to unreasonable levels of logging well over acceptable limits to maintain suitable conditions for salmon. Many of the sub-basins covered by the rules have been altered more than 50 percent due to logging in the past few decades, and logging road networks far exceed levels known to increase sediment yield and alter hydrology. Intact functional patches of salmonid habitat are extremely limited or have been completely eliminated by logging in many of the watersheds, such as the Russian and Gualala Rivers.

If prompt action is not taken to reverse the decline in freshwater habitat quality for coho salmon before predicted less favorable ocean productivity and climate cycles occur between 2015 and 2025, coho salmon will likely go extinct throughout the state. In 2008, renowned California native fish expert Dr. Peter Moyle published a report for CalTrout, SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis, documenting the unprecedented decline of California’s native salmonids. Thirteen of California’s 21 native salmonids are in extreme danger of extinction, including coho salmon. The National Marine Fisheries Service reported in 2008 that coastal coho populations plunged 73 percent compared with the previous spawning season.

AB 1252 and SB 539 would safeguard forests

2009-05-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Forests Forever Action Alert
May 27, 2009

Forest activists survey a logged slope in the Stanislaus River Watershed of the Sierra Nevada.

A trio of bills winding their way through the state legislature offers big pluses – or in the case of one bill a big negative – for the state’s forests, fisheries and watersheds. On the plus side, Forests Forever is sponsoring AB 1252, authored by assembly member Anthony J. Portantino (D-Pasadena). The bill would guarantee public access to timber harvest plans (THPs) via the Internet and enable land managers, advocacy groups and ordinary citizens to assess logging’s fullest impacts on watersheds. Another excellent bill, SB 539, authored by Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa), enlists the state Ocean Protection Council (OPC) in watershed restoration efforts. It authorizes OPC to engage in the full range of activities needed to bring back salmon and steelhead trout fisheries, both of which ultimately need healthy forest habitat for spawning. And on the negative side, AB 1066, by assembly member Tony Mendoza (D-Norwalk), tosses an unnecessary and potentially harmful give-away to the timber industry. The bill would extend THP timeframes from three to five years, raising the prospect that watershed disturbances could occur for longer periods before being reported and/or ameliorated. Critical new data could be ignored or have no effect on logging operations during the extended period.

All three bills are headed for their respective appropriations committees, where they must be voted up or down by May 29. Lawmakers need to hear your messages of support for pro-environment bills AB 1252 and SB 539, and your opposition to timber industry backed AB 1066. “The most exciting aspect of the online posting requirement,” says Forests Forever Executive Director Paul Hughes of AB 1252, “is that it holds the potential to redress the single most glaring deficiency in California forest practice law since the Forest Practice Act first came into being at the end of World War II.” Namely, the FPA requires that every THP address the cumulative impacts of a proposed logging operation in the context of – in concert with – all past, current, and reasonably foreseeable development projects in the area. Evaluating the big picture with respect to watersheds has always been a great idea in theory. But until Internet technology came along, that picture almost always has remained a blur for lack of readily available documentation. Although CDF has maintained a pilot online THP program since 2005, the effort is subject to cancellation without notice and its Web interface is “user unfriendly.”

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The Wally Herger/SPI Dog & Pony Show

2009-05-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

By Kyle Haines, THP Tracking Center
May 21, 2009

Quincy, CA SPI Log Deck 2009

Since early 2009, Sierra Pacific Industries has become vocal in local newspapers and radio outlets blaming environmentalists for work reductions and closures at Northern California mills. They claim over 400 million board feet of timber is currently tied up in litigation and appeals. They also cite a lack of availability of logs on Forest Service lands as being the chief reason for closing a small log mill operation in Quincy, CA. And, on the heels of a large wildfire season last year across the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, they claim widespread logging would have stopped the fires.

To reinforce these claims, Congressman Tom McClintock (R-Granite Bay, CA), Congressman Wally Herger (R-Chico, CA) and Congressman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) stepped forward and organized a dog and pony show in Quincy, CA to blame environmentalists. McClintock told the crowd of 100 people "I want the people of Quincy and the surrounding areas to know that the current situation is simply not acceptable" and requires the "full attention of the national government". Congressman Rob Bishop claimed "Suing timber sales has become a cottage industry" and Rep Wally Herger promised to bring the issues before the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee in Washington, DC, and get a congressional hearing organized.

Despite all the song and dance, it is the market which is the real driver of mill closures and log supply. According to the most recent estimates from the Western Wood Products Association, "The poor economy and housing market are the chief reasons for the remarkable decline in lumber demand". WWPA predicts U.S. lumber demand will slide this year to just 28.9 billion board feet, down almost 30 percent from 2008 totals. Since reaching an all-time high of 64.3 billion board feet in 2005, U.S. demand for lumber has dropped by more than 55 percent - the steepest decline in the history of the industry.

Sierra Pacific Industries settles for $3,000 air pollution fine

2009-05-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

From CA Air Resources Board Website, CARB
April 20, 2009

In April 2009, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) agreed to pay $3,000 in penalties; $2,250 to the California Air Pollution Fund, $375 to the Peralta Community College District, and $375 to the California Pollution Control Financing Authority for violating air quality regulations. An investigation by the ARB showed that SPI failed to properly self-inspect their diesel trucks to assure the trucks met state smoke emission standards. ARB documented violations as they related to the Periodic Smoke Inspection Program (PSI). To settle the case, SPI agreed to the $3,000 penalty and to comply with the PSI and other ARB programs.

In late June, 2007, the California Air Resources Board, the Placer County Air Pollution Control District, and the California Attorney General reached a nearly $13 million civil settlement of a jointly prosecuted air pollution enforcement case against Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI). The company agreed to settle a civil complaint brought in 2004 alleging numerous violations of air pollution regulations. The complaints alleged that SPI operated sawmills and wood-fired boilers at their Lincoln, Quincy, Loyalton, and Susanville (now closed) facilities in violation of their air pollution control permits. Among the alleged air quality violations in the civil complaint were: falsification of emission reports as a result of operator tampering with monitoring equipment; failure to report emission exceedences and exceeding permit emission limits on a multitude of occasions over several years; failure to operate and maintain air pollution control equipment; and discharging soot from the Lincoln facility that caused nuisances to nearby residences. The settlement includes approximately $8.5 million in penalties and public agency costs and fees. SPI will also spend $4.5 million for projects to enhance future compliance of their operations in California or to benefit air quality. As part of the settlement, SPI will ensure that all conditions alleged in the complaints do not occur in the future.

Proposed Northern Spotted Owl Rule Change

2009-05-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

By Alan Haggard, Change.org website excerpts
May 1, 2009

In the name of budget shortfalls and fiscal crisis, California is on the brink of allowing commercial interests to hamstring California's endangered species protections.

A proposed amendment to the California Forest Practice Rules would eliminate the requirement for a state-employed biologist to oversee Timber Harvest Plans. Instead, the amended language would allow a "spotted owl expert" to assess the risks to spotted owls, but this "expert" need not be unbiased and could even work for the timber companies themselves!

The proposed rule changes would also eliminate the requirement that the Department of Fish and Game review Timber Harvest Plans before they are approved.

The claim that the proposed amendments are necessary due to fiscal restrictions and tight budgets sets a dangerous precedent for the future protection of imperiled species. California supports a large variety of ecosystems and numerous at-risk wildlife. Allowing the California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to eliminate the requirement for unbiased state-employed biologist oversight means none of these habitats or animals are safe from exploitation.

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Preservation Ranch Vineyard Conversion

2009-04-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

Northern California River Watch Activist's Blog
April 28, 2009, You Tube Video

"Preservation Ranch is the latest in a long series of environmental assaults on western Sonoma County forests. After years of environmentally destructive logging, Sonoma County forests now face the additional threat of permanent development and conversion to vineyards. Numerous western Sonoma County forest conversions have been approved in the past, but the Preservation Ranch proposal is more than twice as large as all previous proposed and approved conversions combined since 1989."

The “Preservation” Ranch proposal is the largest forest-to-vineyard conversion project ever proposed in California coastal forestlands. Premiere Pacific Vineyards, Inc. has now started the formal applcation process for a permit to convert 1,681 acres of timberland to vineyard on an approx. 19,000 acre project in northwest Sonoma County near Annapolis. As a result, the Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) of Sonoma County has initiated the required Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process to publish detailed information on this proposal. Forest conversion to vineyards is prohibited under current zoning. The core components of the proposal are: permanent rezoning from timber production use to rural residential development; use permits for 17 ridge top vineyard blocks; and “consideration” of other project activities. Over 1700 acres of forest is proposed to be permanently deforested.

The Initial Study describes a project that includes a 3 to 5 year construction period for ridge top vineyards, reservoirs, gravel quarries, internal road expansion and upgrades, drainage and water delivery systems, worker housing and renewed timber operations. The current proposal does not appear to include any vineyard estate luxury homes, however past versions of the project proposed over one hundred such residences, and they might appear in subsequent proposals after initial permits are issued.

This land has been over-logged for decades, which is why it now looks profitable for a land conversion and this new use. Consider, what will the landscape look like in thirty years if this project goes ahead? Is there a better alternative than vineyard conversion for this property?

Court decision may have impact on pesticide applications by timber companies

2009-04-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

By Felice Pace, KlamBlog

On January 7th the Federal Court of Appeals for the sixth circuit issued a court decision in a long-running battle over whether the application of pesticides in, near or over water requires a Clean Water Act point source permit. In a case which consolidated multiple-challenges to a Bush Administration regulation exempting pesticide applications from clean water permit requirements, the Court held (in the words of the winners) “that pesticide residuals and biological pesticides constitute pollutants under federal law and therefore must be regulated under the Clean Water Act in order to minimize the impact to human health and the environment”.

The Agriculture Industry has long sought to avoid regulation under the Clean Water Act’s NPDES permit process as well as regulation of pesticides. When agriculture is regulated, the industry prefers that the regulations are enforced by an agricultural agency rather than by an environmental agency. But in recent years agricultural operations in general and pesticide applications in particular have come under closer scrutiny – usually as the result of environmentalist lawsuits. The impact of pesticides on ESA-listed salmon is another area in which litigation has resulted in agricultural regulation. In the salmon case the supreme court let stand a Ninth Circuit decision upholding no spray buffers along salmon streams.

The clean water appeal court decision may also have an impact on pesticide applications by timber companies. In California, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) – the states largest landowner and largest timber company – was recently fingered by the group Forest Ethics because the company sprays herbicides – including some banned in Europe - in areas above domestic and municipal water supplies. According to state data, SPI sprayed more than 335,000 pounds of herbicide on land it owns in the north state between 1995 and 2006. Adjacent landowners have long expressed concern over SPI’s herbicide use but to date little beyond stream monitoring has been required of the company. If timber companies must obtain a clean water permit each time they spray toxic chemicals, however, they may choose to engage in less spraying.

A Response to Recent SPI Mill Closures

2009-03-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

By John Buckley, March 24, 2009
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center

Quincy, CA SPI Log Deck 2009

Twain Harte, CA...SPI's press release on March 23rd announced plans to close two major sawmills -- one in Sonora and one at Camino. That is clearly a tragic loss for the millworkers and other workers who are tied to the seasonal employment of logging in our local area. The mill closures, however, are a clear response to the current economic downturn...

The huge hit to housing starts caused by the recession has led to low lumber prices and an even lower level of demand for wood for new construction. Mills all across the country have continued to crank out wood despite a lack of demand. Now, the market is flooded, and there simply is little incentive for SPI or Weyerhauser or many other companies to keep cranking out a high level of lumber from their mills.

Our Center (CSERC) and other local conservation groups have worked for years to support high levels of thinning logging on local national forest lands. Out of the many timber sales offered on the Stanislaus National Forest over recent years, local conservation groups have accepted ALL of those timber sales without appealing or blocking any logging sales. Local groups have bent over backwards to support thinning logging on the Stanislaus Forest.

This part of the central Sierra Nevada region is one of the few areas in the West where conservation groups such as CSERC, the local Sierra Club group, Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch, and the local Audubon group all strongly support thinning logging on national forest lands and support lumber companies purchasing those timber sales. CSERC in particular has worked hard to support such logging.

Our Center looks forward to the Standard mill either staying open if the economy rebounds quickly or re-opening as soon as the economy improves. The local timber industry has a positive role to play in thinning local forests and producing wood products. It's unfortunate when anyone loses their jobs in this tough economy, whether they are millworkers, truck drivers, or loggers.

For years, our Center has openly pressed for SPI to stop its widespread use of clearcuts on their private lands, but we've strongly supported SPI's logging with a gentler touch on the Stanislaus National Forest. We want there to be a healthy local timber industry. We hope that when SPI begins to engage in intensive logging again as the wood market rebounds, that SPI will shift away from clearcuts and widespread herbicide use. Collins Pine and other companies use more sustainable practices, and perhaps those practices can reduce the mistrust that SPI has created with national and regional conservation groups who have been so appalled at its clearcut logging impacts on water, wildlife, and scenic values.

When the economy rebounds and the local mill becomes more profitable again, the local conservation community hopes to see thinning logging being done in the local forest on both public and private lands -- to provide wood products, to reduce dense stands of young trees, and to provide jobs for the local area. No one in the local conservation community wants to see the mills close.

Sierra Pacific Industries Renews Threat to Underwood Forest

2009-03-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Earth First Humboldt
March 23rd, 2009

Notorious timber baron Red Emmerson of Sierra Pacific Industries has filed a new logging plan in the native forest of Underwood Mountain. Thier new plan aims to wipe out most of the remaining square quarter mile private inholding of forest land nestled in the public Underwood Roadless area. Last year, SPI built a much contested road through public old-growth forests in order to log this area. At that time they hurriedly cut a portion of the forest under “salvage logging” loopholes in environmental law.

Most of the forest remains standing. The tree species in the area are mostly Douglas fir, Oaks and Pines. The forest is comprised of trees of all ages, some of the giants reaching over 200 years old.

Last year, EF! Humboldt attempted to stop the road building by occupying trees in the path of construction. We had to evacuate the area after lightning strikes set fires near by. As the fires advanced in the direction of the tree-sits, dense smoke caused respiratory problems and ashes and burned leaves rained down from the sky. It was a priviledge to witness this beautiful natural process but we had to leave for fear of suffocating or being roasted.

SPI is the largest private land owner in California with over 1 million acres of forest land. This logging plan goes along with SPI’s agenda of rapid clear-cutting and conversion of wild forests into tree-plantations. If all goes well for SPI, they may be able to log this wild ancient forest this summer. We are watching.

Citizen’s want to Halt Green Diamond’s subdivsioning and clearcutting

2009-03-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Forest Policy Research Website Excerpt
March 13, 2009

“Clear-cutting by any name equates to a radical change in the landscape, on a grand scale,” said Kerul Dyer of the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC). “By eliminating the canopy in the redwoods, Green Diamond impacts overall forest function. How can they consider this antiquated logging technique sustainable?”

In May 2004, the Seattle-based Simpson Resource Company created Green Diamond as an offshoot and transferred ownership of around 450,000 acres of California redwood timberlands. Although the Simpson name was reviled in some circles due to public opposition to large clear-cuts and old-growth logging, especially around the area that is now Redwood State and National Parks, the company has received little scrutiny under its new alias.

However, in recent months, local residents and activists have challenged various Green Diamond timber harvest plans. The McKay Tract adjacent to Cutten in Eureka has been the subject of a series of opinion columns in the local media, most written by outraged neighbors who do not want to see the area logged and/or developed and environmentalists concerned about the impact on life in this sensitive ecosystem.

Green Diamond has been in negotiation with Humboldt County planners for at least a year to convert around 450 acres of forestlands to residential development. Although the McKay Tract is most in the public eye, the company also is looking to convert parcels from Rio Dell up to Orick. In a letter last year to Kirk Girard, Humboldt County director of Community Development Services, Green Diamond officials discussed the possibility of altering General Plan Update Alternative B to include new residential development adjacent to the Cutten area.

In exchange, Green Diamond would take financial responsibility for the building of roads and other traffic-mitigating infrastructure. The McKay Tract totals 7,200 acres. In the letter, Green Diamond stated that “442 acres are suitable for residential and/or commercial purposes,” and that 256 acres have already been re-zoned. According to Dyer, Green Diamond has already received approval to clear-cut a portion of this and may begin any day. The company has also identified over 2,000 acres in McKinleyville and 565 acres in Westhaven for potential development, as well as 207 acres between Highway 101 and Strawberry Rock.

With Water Board rulings of recent years loggers are pressured to curtail winter logging

2009-03-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

Forest Policy Research Website Excerpt
March 10, 2009

Decades of legal battles against logger-caused water pollution from silting, and logger-caused high water temperatures from lack of streamside shade is starting to take away loggers’ freedom to log forests year round. Because of the tireless work of forest and fish defenders loggers are now starting to get treated with the same type of authority that regulates chemical plants that poison streams. And of course if you were a Salmon you’d agree that a silted stream that’s too warm to survive in really is the equivalent of pouring poison in the water.

From Siskiyou County (Mt Shasta area): The board of supervisors approved a letter prepared by county resource policy specialist Ric Costales to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board requesting attendance by representatives of the water board at the March 17 board of supervisors meeting. The purpose of their attendance at the meeting was to explain their recent ruling prohibiting winter logging on a Scott Valley logging operation at Patterson Flats. The water board based its issuance of a necessary Waste Discharge Requirement permit contingent upon prohibiting the winter logging operations.

“The water board clearly does not understand our situation here,” Costales told the supervisors. The letter was addressed to Robert Klamt, timber division manager for the water quality control board. Copies were sent to several water board members and other staff. Costales explained that winter operations can be done safely and in an environmentally safe manner and that those operations are vital to the county’s economy. “The continuing deterioration of Siskiyou County’s forest-related infrastructure is made worse by such season-shortening decisions,” the letter stated. “…the County is extremely troubled by this example of the Regional Board’s unilateral inflexibility at a time when much effort has been expended to convince the agricultural community of the Regional Board’s commitment to adaptive management strategies,” the letter further states.

Fishy Deal Relocates Rare Pacific Fishers

2009-03-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

By Alex Felsinger, Planetsave
Published on March 1st, 2009

Despite vocal opposition from the public and conservation groups ForestEthics and Sierra Forest Legacy, California will soon move 40 Pacific fishers from a healthy habitat along the North Coast to land owned by logging company Sierra Pacific Industries along the Southern Cascades.

The California Department of Fish and Game’s stated intention is to rebuild colonies of the small mammals that have long vanished, but conservationists argue that the likelihood of success is slim. Sierra Pacific Industries is notorious for their harsh, pesticide-laden logging practices, so some worry the animal will not thrive on their land.

The fisher is a rare species that while is not considered threatened or endangered on federal or California endangered species lists, is under consideration to be added due to their sharp decline from trapping, mining, logging, and wildfires.

According to the agreement, Sierra Pacific Industries would not have to change their logging practices if the fisher were added to the endangered species list. They get a full exemption from all the requirements such a listing would normally carry.

“This ‘extraordinary rendition’ of the Pacific Fisher is a dangerously misguided idea,” said Josh Buswell of ForestEthics. “Imagine the state capturing California Sea Otters from Monterey Bay and plopping them down at the Port of Los Angeles. The displacement of the Fisher is, sadly, no less foolish.”