The North Coast Timber Monitors is a group of citizens living in the Mattole Valley who pick up the slack where state and federal agencies fail. Here in northern California, logging plans are required to comply with regulations meant to protect the land's fish and wildlife habitat as well as rivers and streams. Protecting these values also protects downstream residents from flooding, because logging regulations are meant to protect the rivers from receiving an overflow of sediment, which results in a muddy, shallow river that widens and takes out houses in the process. The problem is that state and federal agencies are understaffed and underfunded and do not have the ability to go out and monitor all of the logging plans that desperately need to be monitored. We are all volunteers who go out to the plans and bring them into accordance with California logging laws in order to protect habitat for fish, wildlife, and downstream residents. We can be reached at (707) 441-3828 or by email: felony@joymail.com.
This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-54
Forest & River News is produced by Trees Foundation.
