By Victoria Brandon, Redwood Chapter Chair
Redwood Chapter has spent years fighting to protect our coastal forests and the streams that run through them, and we’ve had some notable victories. To cite two recent examples, “Preservation Ranch” really was when a conservation buyer acquired the property, and Artesa Winery’s plans to clearcut 154 forested acres in the Gualala River watershed was decisively defeated in court.
Now we’re facing another challenge. On July 1 the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE) approved the five mile long, 400+ acre “Dogwood” Timber Harvest Plan even though the entire tract lies within the floodplain of the designated Gualala River, which is both state-impaired and federally designated as Wild and Scenic.
California forestry regulations are supposed to protect forested riparian areas from the massive disturbances that inevitably accompany logging operations, destroying habitat and degrading the watershed, a watershed which in this case has already been degraded by unsustainable appropriation levels, illegal diversions, unregulated toxic discharge and underfunded enforcement. Unaccountably, CAL FIRE waived those protections and instead granted a massive “exception” to the rules—an “exception” that could set dangerous precedents elsewhere.
Unless the approval is challenged, Gualala Redwoods Timber will have a green light to destroy 90-100 year old redwoods (the old growth of the future) and to carve logging roads through wetlands populated by rare plants. The flawed environmental review that preceded project approval did not even survey these sensitive habitats in advance.
We have been maintaining for a long time that the highest and best use of the remnants of coastal redwood forest that remain is to preserved them as redwood forest in perpetuity. Ironically enough, a new study by Humboldt State University and University of Washington scientists has demonstrated yet another reason to leave these ecosystems in their natural condition: they sequester an astonishing 2,600 metric tons of carbon per hectare (about 2.5 acres), more than twice the 1,000 metric tons estimated for old growth Pacific Northwest conifer forests or massive eucalyptus forests in Australia.
As a warming planet threatens our very survival, we simply cannot afford to demolish anything so precious. More later, please stay tuned.