Forest Protection Committee

Welcome to the Sonoma Group's Forest Protection Committee. The Forest Protection Committee believes that climate protection strategies, including forest conservation, have become critically important, and there is urgent work to be done in Sonoma County to protect our local forests The Sonoma Group encompasses all Sierra Club members (about 6,000) living in Sonoma County. For more information, contact Jay Halcomb halcomb@sonic.net or call 707-869-3302.

Current issues:

"Preservation" Ranch

The ironically named "Preservation" Ranch project is the 20,000 acre vineyard conversion project near Annapolis, Sonoma County. Among other environmental impacts, roughly 1700 acres of forest will be permanently converted to vineyards.

ACTION ALERT: "PRESERVATION" RANCH: PUBLIC SCOPING, INITIAL STUDY and PUBLIC NOTICE of the EIR (Environmental Impact Report)

For more, please see: We Propose a Better Plan.
Bohemian Grove Logging

This non-industrial timber management plan proposes to aggressively log 2,470 acres of the Bohemian Grove property in Monte Rio, under the rubric of “a Healthy Forest Initiative” - ostensibly but dubiously in order to reduce fire danger. The first submission of this logging plan would have first doubled, then tripled, the historical rate under which the Grove has been logged until now The Bohemian Grove represents one of the most remarkable remnant stands of old- growth and late successional redwood and fir forest within Sonoma County.
Forest Conversion Resolution re Climate Change

ACTION ALERT:"PRESERVATION" RANCH: PUBLIC SCOPING, INITIAL STUDY and PUBLIC NOTICE of the EIR (Environmental Impact Report)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2009, 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
PRMD Hearing Room, 2550 Ventura Avenue, Santa Rosa.

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2009, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Horicon Elementary School 35555 Annapolis Road, Annapolis.

The PRMD website provides a link to the project proposal and background information at:

http://www.sonoma-county.org/prmd/presranch/presranch.htm

Please attend and express your concerns. Or write to PRMD at: PRMD, Attention: David Schiltgen - File No. PLP06-0107, 2550 Ventura Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95403-2829.

DETAILS & ISSUES:

The "Preservation" Ranch proposal is the largest forest-to-vineyard conversion project ever proposed in California coastal forestlands.

Premiere Pacific Vineyards, Inc. has now started the formal applcation process for a permit to convert 1,681 acres of timberland to vineyard on an approx. 19,000 acre project in northwest Sonoma County near Annapolis. As a result, the Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) of Sonoma County has initiated the required Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process to publish detailed information on this proposal.

Forest conversion to vineyards is prohibited under current zoning. The core components of the proposal are: permanent rezoning from timber production use to rural residential development; use permits for 17 ridge top vineyard blocks; and “consideration” of other project activities.

Over 1700 acres of forest is proposed to be permanently deforested. The Initial Study describes a project that includes a 3 to 5 year construction period for ridge top vineyards, reservoirs, gravel quarries, internal road expansion and upgrades, drainage and water delivery systems, worker housing and renewed timber operations.

The current proposal does not appear to include any vineyard estate luxury homes, however past versions of the project proposed over one hundred such residences, and they might appear in subsequent proposals after initial permits are issued.

This land has been over-logged for decades, which is why it now looks profitable for a land conversion and this new use. Consider, what will the landscape look like in thirty years if this project goes ahead? Is there a better alternative than vineyard conversion for this property?

Potential adverse impacts and issues of the project include:

Water impacts: the project will affect tributary creek flows, requiring 40 new reservoirs to be constructed, each of 10 to 40 acre-feet capacity; will result in greatly increased agricultural water demand for irrigation and frost protection; over 10 miles of seasonal creeks are to be filled; the impacts on water quality and salmonid recovery for the Gualala watershed.

Forest impacts: invasive species spread; loss of the actual and potential carbon sequestration values of the landscape; permanent loss of 1700 acres of ridgetop forest and habitat through conversion; potential for piece-mealing of residential development and of future logging.

Habitat, wildlife and fishery impacts: over 85 miles of 8 foot high wildlife fencing are to be installed, resulting in habitat fragmentation and permanent wildlife hazards; the vineyard buffer zones will be adopted from the forest practice rules, providing inadequate protections.

Fire impacts: fire ignition risks due to agricultural and construction operations; and increased need for fire protection services. Current fire response time for this area is estimated to be about 45 minutes.

Road impacts: increased public road use; major road expansion in forestland; gravel quarry mining to be done on-site with gravel trucking from off-site.

Noise and permanent lighting impacts, both during construction and normal operations.

Vineyard impacts: soil fumigation for vineyards is not prohibited; the “sustainable” agriculture proposed may be unenforceable; there is potential for emergency pesticide spraying targets.

Tax impacts: the public would need to support greatly increased road maintenance, fire protection, and other infrastructure needs resulting from forty or more permanent workers and more than 200 seasonal workers serving the project.

The PRMD website provides a link to the project proposal and background information at:

http://www.sonoma-county.org/prmd/presranch/presranch.htm

What can you do?

Contact these groups of concerned citizens:

Friends of the Gualala Rriver website: http://www.gualalariver.org/default.html
Contact: Chris Poehlmann, poehlman@mcn.org, 707-886-5182

Sierra Club website: http://www.redwood.sierraclub.org/sonoma/Forest.html
Contact: Dan Kerbein, dkerbein@earthlink.net, 707-535-0326

View the video at YouTube: "Worse than a clearcut"

Attend one of the two initial public scoping meetings scheduled on the EIR:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2009, 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
PRMD Hearing Room, 2550 Ventura Avenue, Santa Rosa

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2009, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Horicon Elementary School 35555 Annapolis Road, Annapolis.

"Preservation" Ranch - We Propose a Better Plan.

The "Preservation" Ranch project materials are still being submitted to Sonoma County Permits and Resource Management Department, after which the EIR phase will begin. The Redwood Chapter has been following the progress of this project for several years. This Premier Pacific Vineyards investment in deforestation, funded by CalPERS, is being made to support a non-essential agriculture, the production of luxury, high-end wines. Furthermore, the investment bodes to become an exemplar of how our overlogged forests are treated in the future; it is precedent-setting since it is the largest-scale attempted conversion of forest in No. California. In the present political and financial times, when the public and the world are learning the 'inconvenient truths' about global warming and at the same time the world is threatened with grave financial collapses, we do not think CalPERS should be financing such work. Here is our latest letter to the CalPERS Board, in which we suggest that, rather than deforestation, there are other options for managing and restoring over-logged timberlands, such as those employed by the Nature Conservancy for their Garcia River Forest Climate Action Project.

For more, please see:

Latest Update: BOHEMIAN GROVE LOGGING: GOING SOMEWHERE?

Second review for the Bohemian NTMP was held March 30th and a recommendation was made that the plan be approved if five additional mitigations were accepted by the proponents. They have now been accepted. The close of public comment is May 11. The Chapter has submitted comments (here)and the public is also urged to do so.

Previously - An initial second review team meeting for the Bohemian Grove NTMP ended inconclusively yesterday (Friday, April 20, 2007) with major unresolved differences between the Grove's representatives on the one hand and the agencies and environmentalists on the other. The Bohemian Club was represented at the hearing room with club members as well as a lawyer.

The tone of the Bohemian Club's representatives was generally to deny that it had earlier hidden from the agencies the existence of several remnant old growth redwood and Doug-fir stands on the property, resist any further clarity or safeguards to be imposed in the plan and to suggest that opponents of the club's plan may have "hidden agendas" or are incapable of reading a forest plan. To demonstrate that the Bohemian Club's has nothing to hide the Chair of the Grove Committee, invited people present at the second review to a special "County Day" at the Grove on May 11th.

The major issues at the hearing included agency concerns that long-delayed emergency road work had still not been completed on the property which could lead to serious water quality problems, lack of adequate protection for old trees and related wildlife habitat, questions about the impacts of increased logging on forest structure and so forth. The CA Dept of Fish and Game continued to be critical of the plan and its negative impacts on the forest.

The Sierra Club's Forest Protection Committee submitted extensive comments raising concerns about the negative impacts of commercial logging on such a unique and distinctive property as well as questioning the underlying rationale that logging mature redwood stands will reduce fire danger.

Members of another environmental group, the Bohemian Redwood Protection Club (BRRC), emphasized that this NTMP will be a permanent document and thus it is extremely important that the public have access to all necessary information to evaluate the plan because there will never be another opportunity. The second review team leader made note of the fact that a geologist's report raising concerns about slope instability at the Grove and a letter from the BRRC's attorney had been received prior to the meeting. BRRC is particularly concerned that there has been an inadequate examination of cumulative impacts from greatly increasing the timber harvest level and that there is virtually no analysis of alternatives to this proposal which would have less impact on the environment. Both of these analyses are required by law.

The next projected date to resume the second review is Thursday, May 3 presuming that major issues have been worked out by then. The public's right to comment on this plan will extend until 15 days beyond that date.

Earlier update on the Bohemian Grove NTMP. A non-industrial timber management plan was submitted last year to the California Dept. of Forestry. The plan proposes to aggressively log 2,470 acres of the Bohemian Grove property in Monte Rio, under the rubric of “a Healthy Forest Initiative” - ostensibly but dubiously in order to reduce fire danger. This logging plan will eventually first double, then triple, the historical rate under which the Grove has been logged until now - to 1.1 million Board Feet/year immediately and eventually to 1.6 million BF/year. The Bohemian Grove represents one of the most remarkable remnant stands of old- growth and late successional redwood and fir forest within Sonoma County – the Redwoods on the Bohemian Grove property “...comprise one of the two finest stands of virgin timber in the lower Russian River area.” (from “Walking Bohemia’s Home: Introduction to the Redwoods”). As a result of its relatively pristine character, the Grove has significant wildlife habitat for threatened and sensitive species, including Northern Spotted Owl. Ironically, the Bohemian Club's mascot is the owl.

The Departments of Fish and Game and Water Quality have raised issues of great concern to us in their comments upon the plan. For example, DFG states: "The presence of old trees... was not disclosed in the NTMP. Well into the NTMP review period, a map showing additional stands of mature forest was submitted to DFG by a member of the public." DFG continues “As seen through the NTMP’s 100-year harvest stratum analysis, the number of large old trees will decline over time. The reduced availability of large old forest habitat elements within the plan area may adversely impact wildlife populations... contiguous stands of larger (and older) trees will be reduced in size and become highly fragmented... These effects may reduce the availability of habitat elements below functional levels for some species, especially those associated with dense mature forest such as marbled murrelet... the conversion of large portions of the NTMP area from large, old dense canopy conifer trees to smaller, younger more widely spaced conifer trees could have adverse short-and long-term effects on the terrestrial wildlife community.... significant reductions in the abundance and density of large trees will occur as a result of this project.” [DFG letter to CDF, Dec. 1, 2006]

The Sierra Club is continuing to comment upon and to track the progress of this plan, which is currently still undergoing agency review. Concerned citizens may wish to contact the Calif. Dept. of Forestry to review the plan and to comment themselves. Or they may wish to contact Jay Halcomb (halcomb [at] sonic.net) or John Hooper (HoopArb [at] aol.com), a Sierra Club life-member and former member of the National staff who is active in critiquing this plan. The 2700-acre Bohemian Grove belongs to the San Francisco Bohemian Club, a famous men's club with members like George Bush, Jr., Dick Cheney, and a host of other well-to-do male members. John Hooper was a Bohemian member but has resigned over the Club's logging of the Grove; the Club's previous forester has also resigned.

Initial S.C. comments

Forest Conversion Resolution. After having been previously adopted by the Redwood Chapter, the following version of the Forest Conversion Resolution was approved by the Nevada/California Regional Conservation Committee on March 11, 2007.

"With the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 in California, climate protection strategies will become increasingly important in California, including forest conservation. The Nevada/California Regional Conservation Committee strongly supports the adoption of State laws and local ordinances, General Plan amendments, and zoning ordinances that prevent environmentally detrimental conversion of forestland, encourage carbon sequestering, and protect the State's waters, according to the best scientific practices."

Press Release

IN THE NEWS

Media often fail in their global warming coverage, says climate researcher "The U.S. has to walk the walk if they expect to talk the talk and convince China and India and Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico ... into following suit. We have to clean up our own act... "

Garcia River Forest Climate Action Project -- A better way.

Australian Broadcasting Company -- Good forestry can help fight climate change

Sacramento Bee, Sunday, August 5, 2007-- CalPERS vineyard venture attacked: North Coast project will worsen global warming, critics say

Healdsburg, California (PRWEB) April 5, 2007 -- Organic vineyard & winery uses solar power as integral part of sustainable business.

A forest landowner in Mendocino County was recently assessed a fine of $105,600 dollars

Environmentalists fight vineyards' spread

Why local forests deserve protection

Gualala River Steelhead Studies - Website of a fisheries biologist "The River's future hangs to a large degree on [the vineyard] issue. Any future conversions of the landscape to vineyards inevitably comes at a cost in terms of Juvenile Steelhead habitat, as the watershed's hydrodynamics are inextricably altered."

Wine country casualties

Grape-eating bears killed as vineyards' territory expands (SF Chron). Wildlife is often the loser as vineyards steadily creep into the hinterlands.

Timberland-to-vineyard rules before supervisors

What's Wrong with "No Net Loss"?

Nowhere Near No Net Loss

Pursuing the Perfect Grape

Pinot craze sows seeds of conflict

ARCHIVES

Letter to BOS (12/13/05)

Sonoma County Timberland Ordinance

Sonoma County General Plan Update

SC and SCCA Press Release, 12/09/05