Serious efforts by the state to improve water quality and restore salmon led to a “historic” meeting at Fort Bragg Town Hall last week between two former rival state agencies.
The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and the North Coast Regional Water Board met together, the boards, lawyers and staff filling up Town Hall. Almost everybody made a long drive to get together and meet in Fort Bragg.
There was much optimism that more can be done to improve serious erosion problems in the grand forests and actually bring back the coho salmon.
“It”s great to be together up here,” said J. Keith Gilless of the Board of Forestry.
“The degree of overlap in our interests and the need for us to make sure that we are on the same page, the way both of our boards are trying to do, calls for really capitalizing on the overlap of our mission and the interpersonal connections,” Gilless said.
The two agencies historically have often been at cross purposes. While the Water Board is an environmental agency concerned with water quality, the Board of Forestry traditionally was more business-oriented. Appointed by the governor, the nine-member forestry board consists of five members from the general public, three from the forest products industry, and one member from the range-livestock industry.
The meeting went forward despite many of the foresters being very busy elsewhere with forest fires. While fire protection and efficient logging are still key goals of the Board of Forestry, new legislation and goals have made the agency much more environmentally active.
Board of Forestry
George Gentry, executive officer of the Board of Forestry gave the history of the board back to 1885 when it became a ground-breaking regulatory agency. He said that the current move toward more environmental concern began in 1970, picking up speed over the past few years.
“While you may hear some things that are negative, I think it”s really important to focus on how far we have come, especially in the last 20 years. I think we have made tremendous progress,” Gentry said.
A new goal of the modern Board of Forestry is to restore salmon populations to the point that threatened and endangered salmon (such as the North Coast”s coho) can be delisted. This is a very ambitious environmental undertaking. Modern timber companies spend much of their effort on repairing the damage from legacy logging. Many of these problems involve erosion and are a major water quality issue. Water Board officials said they need to do even more.
Restoration
A one percent tax on all forest products sold at the retail level in California which became law last year pays for a new forest restoration fund. That program is just getting going.
The money from this tax will be spent on problems with roads (a key erosion issue), high risk areas and cumulative effects. One effect on local landowners could be that timber harvest plans are approached differently, as the forestry board grapples with new laws and new goals.
The California State Water Board was created in 1949, along with the nine regional water boards that still exist in boundaries set by drainage of water, not politics.
“After World War II there was an increase in population and pollution problems,” explained Fred Blatt of the Regional Water Board.
The two agencies plan to work together and seek greater public input as this process goes forward.
Matt St. John, executive officer of the Regional Water Board, agreed much progress has been made but more needs doing. Regulations must be adaptable and not inflexible, he said.
“Our agencies must continue to remove the regulatory hurdles and streamline the permitting process for the restoration process. … The timber companies and private landowners must embrace restoration as a fundamental component of their business,” St. John said.
“Current forest road rules must be expanded beyond timber harvest areas, onto other timber lands and … private ranch roads,” St. John said.
Representatives from both agencies said they must work and meet together in the future to restore California”s forests and water quality in more open and more factual data based than in the past.
An Internet video of the entire meeting is available at the Mendocino TV website. The second day of the two-day event included a tour of Jackson Demonstration State Forest.
