Until halted by our lawsuit, CDF was illegally logging this publicly owned 50,000-acre redwood forest under a management plan that expired in 1993. CDF ignored numerous requests, starting in 1995, to halt logging until it updated its management plan to reflect current science and environmental factors. Until stopped, CDF was systematically destroying the oldest and ecologically most valuable forest stands by large-scale commercial logging.
The settlement also ends an abortive attempt by CDF and the Board of Forestry to nullify the lawsuit. After the court issued its preliminary injunction against further logging, CDF and the Board cooperated to hastily revise Board of Forestry policies on state forests. A July 2001 amendment removed the requirement that forest operations be conducted under a ?current management plan?, the key provision cited by the court in issuing its injunction. After the amendment, CDF announced its intention to ask the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
Rather than succeeding, the attempt to evade the law and the court added further to the state?s legal problems. The Campaign?s lawyer, Paul Carroll, provided CDF and the Board with case law showing that the Board amendment was illegal because it didn?t follow procedures mandated by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). When Judge Richard Henderson brought lawyers for all parties together for a settlement conference in August 2001, they agreed to the halt in logging contained in the settlement. In return, they asked for and received the Campaign?s agreement not to sue the Board over its hasty policy change.
A resumption of logging in Jackson State Forest must wait until a new management plan and related Environmental Impact Report (EIR) are approved. CDF released an initial draft management plan in May 2001. A draft EIR has still not been released. CDF claimed it would be released in April, but as of press date, it is still not out. Strict requirements for the content of the EIR and process for approval are set out in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). It is uncertain whether this process can be completed in time for any logging to take place in Jackson State Forest this year.
According to Campaign spokesperson Vince Taylor, the suit that resulted in the settlement is part of an effort to get the state to restore Jackson Forest to an old growth redwood forest. ?The 50,000 acres of Jackson Forest constitute an island of public land in the midst of a half-million acres of industrially owned, devastated timberland. Jackson State Forest is the only possible large sanctuary in Mendocino County for salmon and other endangered redwood-related species. It should also be a recreation haven for the millions of people who live in the Bay Area and Central Valley. The state ought to be restoring Jackson State Forest for its precious ecological and recreational values, not logging it like another big industrial company.?
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2002