by Felice Pace, North Group Water Chair
When I first began paying attention to logging in Northern California back in the late 1970s, operations (often called “shows” by the loggers) invariably were completely shut down during winter. That was true whether the land in question was public land or privately controlled. In those days loggers put away their chainsaws, parked their logging trucks, went on unemployment and spent the winter fishing for salmon and steelhead. Virtually all logging back then occurred during what was known as “the normal operating period” which extended from April 1st until October 30th. Logging during the wet time of year was prohibited in order to protect water quality.
Things began to change with the Great California Drought of 1977; the year the rains simply did not come. Seeing that the land stayed dry, timber interests began arguing that they should be allowed to log during the “extended dry periods” that sometimes occur at the beginning of the normal rainy season. Forest Service managers and Water Board regulators agreed and began approving logging during “extended dry periods” that occurred in winter. Conservationists and clean water advocates did not object; after all, those periods were truly dry.
But the timber industry was not satisfied. They had a foot in the door and their representatives have continued to chip away ever since at rules which prevent them from logging during wet weather. Little by little, these timber industry lobbyists convinced the water boards to further loosen logging rules. As a result, logging now stops only when there are successive days with an inch of more of precipitation; and logging resumes soon after big rainstorms end.
Because conditions on the North Coast can and do change quickly from dry to wet, the current North Coast Water Board logging rules sometimes result in logging and log hauling taking place during wet weather. Photos on this page show the results. According to the scientists who have studied North Coast logging for decades, hauling logs in wet weather results in significant amounts of fine sediment being delivered to streams where it smothers salmon and steelhead eggs, preventing many eggs from hatching.
As early as the 1980s, empirical studies by Leslie Reid and Tom Dunne found that hauling logs during wet weather conditions delivers significant amounts of fine sediment to streamcourse even when those roads have been covered with gravel. The Reid and Dunne road studies are part of long-term research by Forest Service scientists and others examining logging and its impacts within the North Coast's Caspar Creek Watersheds.
As I write this report it is raining across the region with wet snow at higher elevations. Nevertheless, post-fire salvage logging continues in the Horse and Seiad Creek tributaries of the Klamath National Forest. These watersheds have experienced forest fires in recent years but those impacts have not stopped Forest Service managers from proposing, and North Coast Clean Water regulators from approving, logging and road reconstruction during the winter wet season. North Coast Water Board approval of winter logging and wet-season road work for the Low Gap and Copper Timber Sales is based on a Forest Service proposals to upgrade what it calls “legacy sediment sites” along logging roads within the timber sale area. Ironically, these road improvements do not heal sediment sites. Instead they upgrade sites that might fail in a future storm by installing larger culverts and rolling dips. The idea is that future risk of sediment delivery from the site is reduced. However, treating these so-called “legacy sites” also make it feasible for logging and log hauling to proceed during wet weather. And that, as clearly indicated by the Reid and Dunn road studies, will result in fine, salmon-killing sediment being delivered to Klamath River salmon streams.
But even as mud logging proceeds, there is an opportunity to tell North Coast Water Board officials that the logging rules they have approved are much too lenient when it comes to logging and log hauling during the wet season. The opportunity comes because the permit for private land logging along the North Coast and within the California portion of the Klamath River Basin is up for renewal and public comment is being accepted until 5:00 p.m. on February 4, 2019.
What you Can Do: Please consider sending a message to North Coast Water Board commenting on the proposed “Short-TermRenewalofCategoricalWaiverofWaste Discharge Requirements for Discharges Related to Timber Harvest Activities on Non-Federal Lands in the North Coast Region.” Tell the Board that current North Coast Water Board rules for private and public land logging are not adequately protecting water quality; that logging and hauling in wet weather cannot be done without unacceptable risks to water quality. Suggest that the renewed permit prohibit log hauling between October 30 and April 1 and only allow logging operations when there is a truly extended dry period lasting at least a week. Please email comments to Northcoast@waterboards.ca.gov by the deadline of 5:00pm on February 4, 2019.
Oral comments will be heard at the hearing to take place 8:30 A.M., Thursday, April 17, 2019, or Friday, April 18, 2019, at 5550 Skylane Blvd. Suite A, Santa Rosa, CA.
Please send a copy of your email to me at unofelice@gmail.com as well.
The Public Notice for this comment opportunity can be found at the Water Board website.
View the “Categorical Waiver” for private land timber operations which is proposed for renewal