Editor's Note
Trees play a very basic role in the earth's complex ecological system. Among many other contributions, healthy forests clean our air and water, which allows all life to exist. (read more)

Engaging Timber: Protecting Your Watershed and Your Backyard
You've just learned that a logging plan is proposed in your backyard or watershed. Maybe you're concerned about adverse impacts to the steelhead or coho salmon that once were plentiful in area streams, but now seem more a dream than a reality. Or perhaps you're worried about your private road that is slated to be used for log hauling. Maybe your water intake is in a creek that runs through the land to be logged. What can you do and where should you start? The Fight Back! Forest Defenders Handbook, A Citizen's Guide to Timber Harvest Regulation may be able to help. But before getting into the particulars, it will be useful to understand a bit of the history of logging regulation. (read more)

Engaging Timber: This Land Is Your Land: National Forest Timber Sales and Public Involvement
The best thing that ever happened to me was the old-growth timber sale program on our National Forests. Seriously. (read more)

Engaging Timber: The Timber Harvest Plan Process: An Explanation
Looking out over the hills of the North Coast region, the expansive patchwork of clearcuts and young tree plantations marks a stark contrast from the tiny patches of preserved old-growth redwood forests within parks and the Headwaters Preserve. Private timber operators logged for years without effective regulation, and nearly destroyed the integrity of forest ecosystems for all of the species that depend on them. Since the 1970s local community activists and EPIC have worked to support better logging practices and provide habitat protection in our region, by monitoring industrial timber operations through the Timber Harvest Plan (THP) process. (read more)

Engaging Timber: Northwest California's National Forests in the Big Picture
A decade into the 21st century, the US Forest Service is only beginning to face the challenges that nearly overwhelmed it in the 20th. The tension between competing desires to exploit western forests for immediate gain or to protect them to provide for long-term sustainability first drove Teddy Roosevelt to create the National Forest system to secure both forests and key sources of clean, abundant water. But following World War II, the National Forests became the focus of an enormous logging and road-building boom. (read more)

The Redwood Curtain Bicycle Run, Part II
Never judge a book by its cover... (read more)

Tree Musings: Reminiscences of "The Old Pine Tree"
On a sloping point of land stands a lone pine tree. Its branches are gnarled and twisted, its huge trunk is warped and bent by time and storm, and like an old man tottering in the feebleness of age, it stands alone, a landmark of the past. The branches of the old pine tree swayed to and fro in the salt ladened breeze; and from their venerable presence there came a soft, uncertain sound which shaped itself to words. (read more)

Diggin' In: The Gienger Report
In this issue I'll be "recapping" some of the continuing sagas, like the bond funding freeze and watershed/fisheries restoration work. But first I'm going to try to summarize some of the elements of the so-called "timber wars" over the last three-plus decades and then focus on crucial current conflicts and opportunities. I'll have to skim over years of fundamental detail in order to get to the here-and-now. For those who want to dig in deep, there are multiple sources to search out--you might be able to earn a PhD, or two, for your efforts. For a one-stop summary of a central aspect you might read and/or acquire Sharon Duggan and Tara Mueller's Guide to the California Forest Practice Act and Related Laws. For a millennial overview I'd recommend A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization by John Perlin. And while you're thinking millennial, read King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon by David R. Montgomery. (read more)

Community-based Forestry: Discounting Future Forests
I'd like to draw your attention to one aspect of evaluating the economic feasibility of forest management focused on growing older, bigger trees: discounting future values. There will be some numbers involved. For some of you this will be overly simplistic, for others it may seem counter intuitive. And, of course, financial analysis will never capture all that we value in our forests. But, I hope you will bear with me. This is an important concept for understanding what it will take to increase inventories, stand ages and ultimately conservation values in working forests on the north coast. (read more)

Re-Thinking Water: Water Day 2010

The lush and beautiful north coast of California is fortunate to enjoy an average annual rainfall of more than 60 inches. For all of our readers who live in the more arid or populated areas, you may be surprised to learn that the north coast doesn't have an abundance of water. In fact, our rivers and streams are drying up; fish are dying, and mandatory conservation measures have been imposed. For earth day 2010, one community member decided to make a difference. Here is her story. (read more)

May 24, Judi Bari Day

Judi Bari was a fighter and organizer for many social and environmental justice causes. The common denominator was her indignation over injustice, whether in the form of war, racism, sexism, political repression, economic exploitation, or the unnecessary destruction of ecosystems. (read more)

13th Annual Coho Confab: August 13-15, 2010 Westminster Woods in the Russian River Watershed
The Coho Confab is a symposium to explore watershed restoration, learn restoration techniques to recover coho salmon populations, and to network with other fish-centric people. To confabulate literally means to informally chat or to fabricate to compensate for gaps in ones memory. Not to imply that restorationists are prone to hyperbole when recounting the size of a rescued fish, the magnitude of the waterfall coming out of the culvert, or the heroics of a particular restoration job. The Confab is an informal gathering of fishheads that allows for participants and instructors to learn from each other's experience. Participants learn skills and practices that can be applied to restore habitat in their home watershed. Each year the Confab is held in a different location on the North Coast. (read more)

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