December 8, 2004
The Mill Creek Watershed Conservancy and Mattole Restoration Council, with the assistance of the Mattole Salmon Group, the California Coastal Conservancy, and the Bureau of Land Management, have completed the draft community plan and preferred management alternative for the public lands of the Mill Creek watershed.
The public acquisition of Mill Creek in 1997 represented a culmination of decades of efforts to protect lower Mill Creek, the coldest tributary in the lowest six miles of the Mattole River. This 675-acre acquisition included 220 acres of old-growth Douglas-fir forest and provides habitat for salmonids, macro-invertebrates, sensitive amphibians and reptiles, rare birds and mammals. The community-led effort began with the purchase of land from Eel River Saw Mills and various private landowners.
The Community Plan will be submitted to the BLM in late 2004. The BLM will then take this plan into consideration in a formal NEPA process before adopting a final plan for federal lands in the Mill Creek watershed.
The Community Plan considers three management alternatives. The Mill Creek Watershed Conservancy has selected Alternative C, Re-wilding, as their preferred alternative. The Re-Wilding Alternative provides management direction and specific actions for as long as the next twenty years intended to restore the natural values of the watershed's ecosystem to healthy abundance by careful, light-touch actions that will return the forests of the watershed to pre-1940 condition.
To see a draft plan visit www.mattole.org or phone the MRC at 707-629-3514.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Fall 2004