April 28, 2004
Spring is upon us. Some good rains came in February followed by record-breaking heat and no rain for much of March. Some nice showers and seasonable temperatures returned as March blended into April. There have been reports of some pretty good runs of chinook and Coho Salmon in the Mattole and the South Fork Eel this winter of 2003-2004. I videotaped Coho moving high up in the headwaters of the Mattole and spawning in the headwaters of a South Fork Eel tributary, almost up to the last ridge before the ocean. While trying to avoid stepping in a Coho redd (nest) in a three-foot wide tributary of the Mattole, I almost stepped on a steelhead. Love those wintertime thrills.
Many people are looking forward to Parks & Recreation's authorized field trips into the area of last September's Canoe Creek fire. The whole fire management/fire safe issue has become high profile, especially since the Southern California fires that dwarfed the impacts from the local Honeydew and Canoe fires. Statewide reports, studies, and measures are ongoing along with local and regional efforts. Communities all around the Mateel area and elsewhere have been meeting and forming fire safe councils. These councils focus on preventative measures ranging from lowering risks to buildings to undertaking construction of shaded fuel breaks on ridges and roads to facilitate fire control. "Defensible space" is becoming a familiar term. Forester and environmentalist Tracy Katelman has been serving on the California Fire Safe Council and helping to form local groups. Rural residents need to become actively involved in the many aspects of fire-related forest management.
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In accepting the Coho Recovery Strategy, the Commission validated more than a year's strenuous effort by a 20-member Coho Recovery Team representing a spectrum of interests from landowners to tribes to fishers to environmental groups to agencies, and to the Petitioners. There are over 750 recommendations dealing with all manner of impacts and threats in a massive document available on the Department of Fish & Game (DFG) website. I was honored to be an alternate team member, backing Craig Bell, representing the Sierra Club. The timber management recommendations, of course, were controversial. DFG amalgamated three options for the Commission, which were cobbled from four different sets of recommendations from the Timber Subcommittee and then approved by the Recovery Team.
At the hearing on February 4th, the Commission accepted the Department's recommendations for timber management measures and policy guidance for establishing an "Incidental Take" permitting process. The management measures are a combination of the landowners, petitioners, Sierra Club, and DFG takes on what is necessary. A lot of it is conceptual and will only be meaningful if implemented. For instance, Recovery Planning/Implementation on a Watershed scale, Road Management Plans, Riparian Recovery program, and Upgrading Watercourse Crossings are all obvious elements necessary for Coho Recovery. - All are in some stage of realization at different levels in various venues -- but there is no set timetable or standard for implementation. The recommendations do include moving on the issue of Cumulative Impacts so that adverse impacts are prevented prior to their occurrence. Another recommendation, simple but vital, is, "...that [California Department of Forestry] and the Board of Forestry work with DFG and other interested agencies and stakeholders to establish a procedure for [Timber Harvest Plans] to document and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of Coho-related mitigation measures prior to the official completion inspection by CDF and other agencies." Currently there is no credible feedback loop that documents conditions and assures logging impacts are not adversely affecting Coho.
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By way of some kind of humor: Someone at the Commission meeting (and also ironically at the February Board of Forestry meeting) brought up the notion of the "pirate code" referred to in the movie hit, "Pirates of the Caribbean". The specific reference being that a pirate, when questioned about the `code', gave assurances that it was really just guidelines.
The upshot, for better or worse, is that the Board of Forestry (BoF) is having a joint meeting with the F&G Commission in May, in San Diego, to determine policy and actions to implement the Coho Recovery Strategy. Tentatively, the F&G Commission will have a hearing in June to start to formalize the policy guidelines/rules "...to guide the issuance of Incidental Take Authorization under the California Endangered Species Act." The formal listing of Coho will coincide with completion of that process. Hopefully the meeting locations for those hearings will be closer to the North Coast.
Since the last "Diggin' In" column Governor Gray Davis was recalled, replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger -- providing Sacramento with `bipartisan' leadership. So far it's hard to tell what that's all going to mean, but there have been signs that the new Governor is trying to be balanced in his appointments -- one conservative, one liberal -- like appointing the head of an environmental group, Terry Tamminen, to lead the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), while appointing ex-Pacific Lumber (PL) PR man, Jim Branham, to a Deputy Secretary role there.
On the North Coast, the Maxxam/PL-backed recall of Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos was defeated 61% to 39%. In Mendocino County, Proposition H, banning Genetically Modified Organisms, passed with 56% of the vote.
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* A BIG issue, resulting from a California Department of Labor Relations ruling last summer against a restoration project in Redding, is the requirement that construction projects (including restoration projects) must have workers paid at `prevailing wage' -- even volunteers. Many folks and non-profits are coming unhinged. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and prevailing wages and health benefits will become the norm for paid workers with restoration projects and volunteers will remain an important and often essential part of the restoration effort. Negotiations are ongoing over the content of AB 2690, authored by Assembly Member Lonnie Hancock, which initially was to waiver all watershed restoration from prevailing wage requirements. Looking forward to a workshop/forum on the issue in late May to- get a little fact sharing and balanced perspective .
* The Buckeye Conservancy's Buckeye Forest Project (BFP) is holding a Nonindustrial Timber Management Plan (NTMP) workshop on April 21st and 22nd. This is intended to educate a broader audience as to NTMPs -- what they are and how they might be changed. The BFP is advocating for acreages larger than 2500 acres to be able to have an NTMP, and for Timber Harvest Plans to be remain in effect for more than five years. The workshop has been seen as a first step in getting broader understanding and support to accomplish some positive change. And then, a month ago - surprise! -- a CDF authored bill, AB 2762, carried by Assembly Member Rick Keene, surfaced. That bill would create a Conservation NTMP for up to 10,000 acres, and create a Planning Watershed THP which would last up to 10 years. The bill is being criticized from all angles.
* Plans for both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) King Range and California Department of Parks and Recreation Sinkyone Wilderness State Park are underway. The Sinkyone Wilderness draft is supposed to come out any day. Meeting are scheduled for the King Range Plan.
* An Old Growth rules package is facing a second committee's attention at the Board of Forestry. The package is directed toward filling a THP loophole whereby disclosure of Old Growth of less than 20 acres is not required. A reasonable process is being sought to disclose Old Growth early in THP development to give the best possible chance for protection of significant Old Growth remnants. Again, hopefully, the full BoF will pass a good package before the end of the year.
* Water Quality issues and the saga of the five `especially impaired watersheds' of Elk River and Freshwater, Bear, Jordan, and Stitz Creeks continues. A complex web of waivers, litigation, and bureaucratic process is happening everyday. Get in touch with EPIC at 707-923-2931, or Humboldt Watershed Council at 707-822-1166 for the latest information.
Well, I'm past my word limit, so that's it for now. Pray for those late Spring rains. Get involved.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2004