Kathy Bailey

The California Board of Forestry approved the Jackson Demonstration State Forest Management Plan on November 6, but conditions it placed on the approval were a strong rebuke to the California Department of Forestry (CDF), which created the Plan for the 50,000-acre forest near Ft. Bragg. A strong showing of opposition was made during the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) review in which more than 4300 conservation minded comments opposing the Plan were received, along with hundreds of pages of expert comment opposing specific elements of the plan. Comments opposing the Plan outnumbered comments in favor by approximately 100-1. The Board action represents a victory of sorts, but continued vigilance will be essential to make sure there is meaningful follow- through. In addition, financial support for pending litigation on the Jackson Plan is urgently needed.

Representatives from the Campaign to Restore Jackson Redwood Forest, Forests Forever, and Sierra Club reviewed for the Board some of the major problems with the Plan: It allows commercial logging in most of Jackson's 10,000 acres of 80-110 year old second growth redwood groves, some of the last in Mendocino County; and in spite of CDF publicity to the contrary, widespread clearcutting is also allowed hiding behind the guise of so-called "variable retention" logging. Other major problems include stream protections much less than those recommended by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and failure to implement recommendations made by the federal Recovery Plan for marbled murrelets.

The Board was clearly upset with CDF for bringing such a controversial plan to them for approval. Under the leadership of Senate President Pro-tem John Burton (D. San Francisco), the Senate Rules Committee had held up confirmation in 2002 of most of Governor Gray Davis' appointments to the Board, resulting in one appointee failing to be confirmed during the required time period, a second resigning from the Board, and a third member in limbo, with his confirmation put over until January 2003. In the weeks leading up to the election, Governor Davis made two new appointments that were viewed favorably by most in the environmental community: David Nawi, an attorney with a background in environmental regulation, and Dr. Susan Britting, a PhD forest ecologist who is Board President of the California Native Plant Society. Sierra Club was instrumental in encouraging the Legislature to closely scrutinize Davis Board of Forestry appointees.

Those familiar with the Board's long history of rubber-stamping anything brought to them by CDF were pleased with the conditions placed on the Plan's approval:

• Prior to logging two already-approved Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) in a particularly sensitive part of Jackson's older redwoods, CDF must explain to the Board the future conditions they are striving for and compare the THPs to operations that would be conducted in other groves slated for acceleration of old growth conditions. This report provides the Board with the means to provide additional direction on these THPs.
• CDF must bring to the Board a specific list of demonstrations and experiments proposed for the near-term. Although the forest is theoretically a "demonstration" forest, this function has long been subsumed by commercial timber production that generates revenue for the state budget.

• CDF must provide a detailed explanation of how it intends to implement "variable retention" in Jackson's even-aged management units. Neither the Plan nor EIR contained information on this crucial point.
• CDF must create a mechanism to allow for communication between Jackson's managers and the local community. A Citizen's Advisory Committee that had been established by Governor Pete Wilson's CDF Director had been disbanded under the Davis Administration leaving no on-going feedback mechanism.

Long-time member Bob Heald, who has been the Board's environmental conscience for a decade, took the lead in crafting the conditions with strong support from Kirk Marckwald, and new member Sue Britting.

Meanwhile, litigation proceeds. State law requires litigation challenging the sufficiency of any EIR to be started within 30 days of EIR approval. In late October, the Campaign to Restore Jackson Redwood Forest and Forests Forever sued CDF for its approval of the Jackson EIR alleging that the EIR had no cumulative impact analysis and had not adequately responded to public comments. The suit asks that no THPs be implemented prior to a ruling on the litigation. Although not named plaintiffs, Sierra Club supports the litigation and has been providing non-monetary assistance.

In another development in late October, Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Richard Henderson ruled against the Campaign's request for a fee award in their previous litigation that stopped logging at Jackson prior to completion of the updated Management Plan. The Plan had been last updated in 1983. In spite of issuing a preliminary injunction that stopped logging, and a settlement agreement between the Campaign and CDF, Henderson inexplicably ruled that the Campaign's suit had not provided a public benefit, one of the tests required in awarding attorney's fees. Campaign attorney Paul Carroll is determining whether to file a motion for reconsideration or to appeal the ruling. Although Sierra Club was not a named plaintiff in that litigation, both the Redwood Chapter and SC California strongly supported it because our repeated requests to CDF to halt logging until a new Management Plan was completed had been refused. Without the litigation it is extremely unlikely that CDF would have ever completed a new plan.

Legislation may be introduced next year to update Jackson's management mandate to require a stronger focus on environmental values. Meanwhile, working with our allies, we will continue to advocate for strong protection for forest resources at Jackson Demonstration State Forest.