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Here we explain our perspective on logging regulation and policy for the Santa Cruz Mountains and for California.
Some context:
Logging on private land in California is regulated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF). The new name for this agency is CalFire. CDF or CalFire is divided into two parts, firefighting and what they call "Resource Management". Resource Management is CDF's name for commercial logging or "timber harvest".
A permit to log on private land is call a THP (Timber Harvest Plan) or an NTMP (Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan) though there are now more permits that supposedly involve reductions in fire risk that have other names. Despite their official names, all these permits involve similar techniques and the use of heavy equipment like tractors, log loaders etc.
There are hardly any federal lands on the coast of California that are commercially logged, so it is CDF that regulates logging in all the redwood forest lands of California. CDF also controls private land logging in the Sierras, the Klamath-Trinity, the Cascade Mountains and other areas of the state.
The rules and regulations that CDF is supposed to follow are written by the California Board of Forestry. This nine-member board is appointed by the governor and approved by the state senate. Three members of this board are legally mandated to represent timber interests. They tend to be the retainers or board members of large California logging companies like Sierra Pacific Industries. There is a "Range" seat that ostensibly represents the cattle grazing industry in regard to fire protection. These four board members tend to vote as a block. The board has five "Public" members who are supposed to represent the general public interest and not have a financial connection with the wood products industry. However in practice these members can be connected with the timber industry by being forestry professors from colleges and universities or by being retired CDF officials or have other personal and professional connections with the industry. There has never been a conservation majority on the CA Board of Forestry. As a result, the California forestry rules tend to be weak and full of exceptions to their own rules.
The biggest "exception" is the use of something called "in-lieu practice". This means, as an example, that if the forester cannot get a road into a particular area without violating some regulation, like a limit on cutting roads over very steep slopes, all he has to do is claim that he is mitigating the damage by using some extra erosion prevention technique. These mitigations may be unrealistic, but CDF will virtually always allow them. Other agencies like CA Fish and Game may object, but they will never actually prevent the logging plan from being approved. By law CDF can essentially ignore objections from other state agencies. This is why endangered species like salmon, certain song birds and and other rare plants and animals are not protected during commercial logging.
Salmon Protection Regulations
In the fall of 2009 the Board of Forestry wrote new regulations for logging in the range of endangered salmon species.
In Santa Cruz County the forestry regulations actually became weaker, allowing more logging closer to streams than before. This is right at the moment in time that coho salmon are going extinct in the Santa Cruz Mountains and all over California!
The Lompico Watershed Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups strenuously objected, but we were ignored. It is frightening how few conservation advocates try to deal with the CA Board of Forestry. If more citizens who cared about Calfornia's forestland were willing to engage with this state body, the posiblity of reform might be better. However any permantent solution has to come from the state legislature, and despite decades of effort, little has changed. In the case of the salmon protection rules, the Board of Forestry moved chess pieces around but did not effectively improve the conditions for these highly endangered animals. Salmon are going extinct and the Board of Forestry did what it does best, they faked it.
To be continued… |