October 1, 2000
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The struggle on individual timber harvest plans (THPs) seems to have intensified locally: the Lower North Fork Mattole and Rainbow Ridge area being an example. The Headwaters Deal left the Mattole and its remnant old-growth forests as a prospective "sacrifice zone" to satisfy Pacific Lumber's (PL) lust for timber volume. The fight there is complete with citizen resistance and lawsuits, rare lichens as well as listed salmon, and rumored acquisition negotiations for the last old-growth Douglas-fir forests of the Mattole watershed. Freshwater Creek was supposed to have a moratorium on new approved THPs until watershed analysis was completed (part of the Headwaters Deal for PL watersheds). Yet deals are being bandied about to end the moratorium before adequate procedures and protection and recovery standards are established. A half dozen or more THPs are approved or about to be approved a huge outpouring of concern and contention continues.
The Redway THP, 044, was approved on October 16th without adequate provision for cumulative impacts, mitigation, or alternatives. The failure to review or respond to a geological report of landslides for PL's Redway holdings is particularly galling. Litigation is being prepared. Civil defenders are concerned and have been focused on the so far unpermitted logging access through Whittemore Grove (Humboldt Redwoods State Park). Negotiations for acquisition, conservation easements, and other considerations are "intermittent." PL, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and Save-the-Redwoods League seem to be reluctant players in protecting the steep unstable slopes and remnant old growth.
Many more individual THPs are being contested, often bitterly, all over the North Coast: for example, in Bear Creek near Pepperwood, Kaisin Gulch in the Albion River, and DeHaven Creek near Westport. The general struggle for watershed protection and recovery has continued in many venues-many devils in many locations. A great deal of attention and energy went into AB 717, Assemblyman Keeley's bill that changed over time: from addressing watershed analysis standards and processes to setting a moratorium on clearcutting. Consistent in all the versions was the effort to bring the light of science into the political darkness of forestland conservation. The final form,
the "clearcut version," included a body of respected experts directing appropriate responses to forestland resource needs.
Industry mounted a huge opposition, activists mobilized huge support, and the bill ended up dead on or near the Senate floor at the midnight end of session in August. Industry and CDF got spooked, the public got inspired, and new administrative, legislative, and initiative moves are in the works.
At the Board of Forestry the struggle over the Interim "Coho" Rules extension and the "Interim Rules exemption/site specific watershed evaluation" deal reached a fever pitch at the October meeting. High-intensity committee meetings, where the watershed evaluation "option" went from the Preliminary Watershed Evaluation and Mitigation Program (PWEMP or P-WEMP) to Watershed Evaluation and Mitigation Addendum (WEMA), preceded the stalemate vote by the Board in October when no majority vote could be raised for either the agency's Option A or Industry's ("landowners'") Option B. Option A and B would have created a shadow and parallel forest practice process whereby the large landowners would determine the site specific measures to follow, becoming exempt from the Interim Rules. Option C, supported by NMFS and DFandG, would not have fallen into acknowledging the bogus "deal"-would have kept the focus on actually
improving the cumulative impact evaluation and response process, and would have placed a more appropriate emphasis on monitoring and adaptive management. The failure of the WEMA was yet another "depressing victory" for fishery and watershed advocates-stopping bad practices, but making too little progress to change things for the better. Experts and the public should lay out clear, viable alternatives by January 2001.
Perhaps the most important development in this struggle is the long hoped for positive response of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (WQ) to carry out the provisions of state and federal water law. A specific manifestation is WQ's "Staff Report-For Proposed Regional Water Board Actions in the North Fork Elk River, Bear Creek, Freshwater Creek, Jordan Creek, and Stitz Creek Watersheds." These actions actually would evaluate and repair watershed damage-to control the controllable sources of sediment in watersheds impaired by sediment. They were supposed to be part of the September WQ meeting, which was moved back to November (after the election). Through further machinations (stemming from the governor's office? PL?), the hearing has been moved to February 2001. Related revelations: PL admitted that "the residents were right" as regards increased flooding frequency due to reduced stream-channel capacity from sediment aggradation increased by logging impacts. In early October, CDF put five or six alternatives in writing to address hydrological disruption by rate and intensity of cut and projected recovery rate. CDF estimates that no cutting in Freshwater for ten years would allow for 92 percent recovery. PL's desired cutting rate would allow for a supposed 28 percent recovery. CDF advocates a middle alternate with reduced acreage and clearcutting that it claims allows about a 60 percent recovery rate.
The case regarding adequate Native American cultural protection and consultation, resulting from an NTMP in the Salmon Creek watershed near Miranda, lost in the Superior Court. An appeal may be prepared, but other measures are being sought to correct the process and implementation for Native American heritage protection and consultation. The BoF will be voting on the final version of the last rule changes from the "Coho '99"- HWC rules package at its November meeting. (It passed 7-0.) These changes will require that THPs include the mapping of stream and riparian related problems and mitigation, as well as spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead-and specifically provide for stereo aerial photo inclusion in THP documentation. Get in touch with EPIC (P.O. Box 397, Garberville, CA 95542
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TOC for Forest & River News, Fall 2000