A conservationist’s perspective

I have recently read articles on the proposed Timber Harvest Plans on Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) and the campaign to set aside 20,000 acres of JDSF as a forest preserve. As a person who has spent 40 years working as both a land conservation professional and forester, I’d like to share my thoughts on the campaign

1) JDSF’S Mission and Role: The legislative intent in establishing JDSF was to use its 48,000+ acres to demonstrate various approaches to managing a working forest so that this information can be shared with forest landowners and forest managers.

JDSF is a working laboratory that provides important research and demonstrates methods for reducing sediment delivery to creeks, the effect of forest management on subsurface hydrology and the application of various silvicultural methods on forest growth. I know of no other place in the state where this kind of critical applied research is consistently occurring.

JDSF’S role is particularly important given the major fires that have recently destroyed not only working forests, but also old growth redwood preserves. How to protect both resources is a major question, and many forest stewards look to JDSF to help provide the answers.

In my case, I am working with a number of landowners who want to re-establish old growth/ Late Seral forests, but we’re finding that leaving them alone fails to respond to the need to reduce fuel loads and build forest resiliency. Ironically, active forest management in preserves, including removing the understory, prescribed burning, and conservative thinnings are now tools that are being applied in the effort to preserve the preserves. We have a lot to learn about forest stewardship in the age of climate change and catastrophic fire, and this is where JDSF can play a critical role in demonstrating what approaches are most effective.

2) JDSF Forest Management Practices: To suggest that JDSF is destroying critical redwood forest is fundamentally inaccurate. Since its establishment in 1949, JDSF has been transformed from a forest that was overcut and depleted of much of its non-timber forest values to vibrant working forest that most of us in the field envy. This was accomplished not by locking up the resource, but building it back up by cutting less than 50 percent of what the forest is growing annually and in averaging less than 3% of its land base being harvested annually.

Undoubtedly, JDSF could improve its forest management, as could all of us involved in management of complex forest ecosystems. But JDSF’S approach to forest management demonstrably focuses not just on timber management, but building forest resiliency from wildfire, improving and protecting wildlife habitat, riparian corridors, and recreational opportunities. Simultaneous to the management of its timber resource, JDSF’S non-timber resources have also been restored. Just a few of these resources include:

• 76 Northern Spotted Owl “Activity Centers” (nest and other high-use areas)

• 459 acres of old growth reserves thousands of old growth trees (reserved via a no-cut policy)

• 12,234 acres of forestland managed primarily for non-timber values, including riparian corridors for salmonids, areas set aside for marbled murrelets, and special treatment areas adjacent to the Woodlands State Park and other State Parks

It is also critically important to understand the extent to which public scrutiny of JDSF’S forest management occurs. Five different agencies, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Regional Water Quality Board, need to approve each THP that is submitted by JDSF, which also entails review of requisite wildlife, plant, and archaeological surveys. Equally important is the input from JDSF’S Advisory Group, which regularly reviews proposed THPS, as well as the JSDF Recreation Task Force. Composition of both of these groups is made of a broad spectrum of community members.

3) Economic Benefits: At the same time that JDSF provides the aforementioned non-economic benefits, it also provides a significant amount of both direct and indirect employment. In the last 10 years, timber harvesting has resulted in the employment of about 1,300 people, and annually JDSF employs 20 full-time and 6-10 part-time staff.

In addition, Mendocino

County benefits directly by receiving about a half a million dollars annually from timber taxes.

Unlike our wonderful State Parks in the County, which are funded via tax revenues and have a huge amount of deferred maintenance to address, JDSF is a real bargain for us taxpayers, as it is selffunded via timber sales. These revenues enable JDSF to not only actively maintain its roads to prevent soil erosion and sediment delivery to creeks, but also its recreational trails, which are free for public use.

4) State Parks and National Forests in Mendocino County and in the State: Mendocino County is blessed with about 24,000 acres of State Park lands, including old growth reserves at Montgomery Woods and Hendy Woods. In addition, the Mendocino National Forest contains 913,306 acres of land, including 180,000 acres of the Yolo Bolly Wilderness Area, with the remaining acreage for all intents and purposes not managed for timber production. Stepping outside our county, there are approximately 243,000 acres of coastal redwood State Parks stretching from the Oregon border south to Monterey County. These are fabulous assets that have been set aside for the public, belying the need for further preserves.

Decades ago, conservationist, forester, and author of a “Sand County Almanac,” Aldo Leopold, advocated for treating our natural resources not just as a commodity, but as a community of which humans were only a part. He saw this “land ethic” as a process, not something that can be reached with finality. I believe that JDSF is modeling this approach via its forest stewardship. It could generate much more revenue from timber sales, but it has elected — to our great benefit—to temper commoditization with other human and natural values. I respectfully submit that JDSF is working well, and we not fix what isn’t broken.