A preservationist’s perspective on the Jackson Demonstration State Forest

Editor’s note: This column is in response to the Community Column that appeared in the Advocate News and Beacon on April 1, titled “A conservationist’s perspective on Jackson State Forest.” If you would like to submit a Community Column on any local subject, please email editor@advocatenews.com. All submissions are subject to editing.

In his Community Column, Roger Sternberg fails to address the critical issue of our time: Wildfire. Though he mentions that the JDSF is currently “working well,” I’d like to give another perspective from a local resident’s angle.

As I recently stated in the Mendocino Voice, facts are, indeed, stubborn things. Despite what Forester Sternberg contends, clear-cuts and other redwood tree-removing operations increase, not decrease, the fire risk in our forests. Just take a look at the cut in Jackson State Demonstration Forest three years ago, a few yards north of the end of pavement off Road 409.

Walk out into that opening and look up. Above is an opening in the forest canopy that allows the sun to beat down on the wide slash the timber operator left behind. Multiple studies show that because of this “demonstration,” the forest floor is now hotter and drier than it was before the trees were removed.

I believe that to say that this forest is now more fire-resistant is a denial of the basic facts of the sciences of meteorology, hydrology and morphology. Additionally, because of the high density of roads in Jackson (more than 6.5 miles of roads per square mile) the watersheds within these public lands fail the National Marine Fisheries Service definition of a properly functioning watershed: “Watersheds over the three miles of road per square mile threshold are characterized as not properly functioning.”

Thus, not only do the forests become more vulnerable to fire after logging, entire watersheds are affected when management puts money first and conservation second. If California is to achieve its stated goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040, it’s time to start looking at facts and stop making excuses for continuing activities that degrade our public lands.

That said, those of us who live near these timber harvests are fearful that during these historically dry times one spark could lead to a catastrophic wildfire. Sternberg mentioned the federal lands within the Mendocino National Forest in his column. What he failed to mention is that almost all of the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness was destroyed by the August Complex fire in 2020.

Could such a thing happen here? Yes.

We have a shooting range in the rock pit going up Road 408 to Observatory Hill. One spark from a stray bullet, one smoldering cigarette, or one motorcycle without a spark arrestor, and a fire would happen. Even Tom Porter, CAL Fire Chief, is on the record saying all of California is in an extreme fire peril situation right now.

The case for preserving the second-growth redwoods isn’t just about fire though. These trees are the world’s best carbon sequestration method we have on a planet awash in carbon. What sense does it make to remove the trees? To demonstrate that, after the fact, we’re sorry we made a mistake? And the next generations have to pay the price of choices made by CAL Fire?

We’re asking for a one-year moratorium on logging in Jackson State Demonstration Forest so that we can figure all these things out. I don’t think that’s too much to ask in light of global climate change and the current fire risk along the entire Mendocino Coast.

William Lemos is a resident of Mendocino, and is an avid hiker, biker, sailor, scuba and skin diver, kayaker, surfer, natural historian and fisherman. He has doctorate in education and in 1999, he helped win a grant to start the Advanced Placement ecology and eco-literacy course at Mendocino High School