No timber harvesting in Mendocino County’s Jackson State Demonstration Forest in 2024, charter revision on May 8 advisory group agenda

CASPAR, 5/4/24 — With one roaring exception, all the usual sounds of spring have returned to the Jackson Demonstration State Forest in Caspar.

The woodpeckers whoop their exotic songs, the swallows dive and chirp while making their nests, the bears lumber through brush, the hikers, bikers and mushroom hunters (with permit) explore favorite trails that have become new again. While much of the huge forest exists permanently in a kind of cathedral like silence, the oppressively wet winter blossomed and birthed millions or billions of bugs, birds, mammals, amphibians and even a reptile or two.

But there is no sound of chainsaws and falling trees, and there is no chance of more tree-cutting for profit until 2025, possibly even later. A timber harvest plan that uses pre-burning and other environmentally favored techniques will be on the agenda of the Jackson Advisory Group (JAG) on Wednesday, May 8 at Fort Bragg Lions Hall on Redwood Street. Even if approved, that harvest would not begin before 2025.

May 8th JAG Meeting – Coalition to Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest

The May meeting will feature a new chairperson, Amy Wynn, and several members who have been reappointed. Pleas for new members put out widely last year by Cal Fire only drew applications from current members. The agenda includes a discussion of revamping the JAG charter, which could result in restructuring the JAG to solve the most vexing problem the advisory group faces, that of co-management. California Governor Gavin Newsom has pushed for Tribes to be part of managing the forest resources. Three local Indian Tribes are now involved in co-management. However, that  co-management is not public, and at least some involved want it to stay that way, according to reports by Cal Fire representatives. This leaves the JAG and the public in the dark, but solutions are expected to be discussed at Wednesday’s meeting.

Over the past two years, Cal Fire was pushing hard to get a list of timber harvest plans approved until protesters charged into the process once again, intent to stop all cutting. Cal Fire’s own facilitator quit, accusing Cal Fire management of excessive pressure to harvest without needed deliberations and debate. After a chaotic JAG meeting last fall accomplished none of its goals and featured hours of confusing and repetitive public and JAG discussion, the state fire chief, Joe Tyler, and the California Board of Forestry intervened. The state bosses insisted the group follow meeting protocols and California laws for openness such as the Bagley-Keene Act (not to mention Robert’s Rules of Order). Meanwhile several people with Cal Fire, which advises the JAG, retired or were transferred. Also, George Hollister stepped down as chair; he will be replaced at the May 8 meeting by Amy Wynn, a Fort Bragg business owner who has served on the JAG since 2011. Hollister will continue serving as a JAG member. 

A special presentation for advisory group members on the pertinent California law governing public process and openness is the first item on the agenda. The Bagley-Keene Act presentation will be by Jamie Sammut of Cal Fire’s legal office. Facilitating the meeting will be Emily Smith, who was appointed an assistant chief in 2023 to head the administration aspects of JDSF and is the liaison to the JAG.

Newly promoted CalFire JDSF advisor will facilitate Wednesday’s JAG meeting • The Mendocino Voice

Although the current cacophony in the forest is all from nature, it would be an exaggeration to say there will be zero chainsaws in the woods in 2024, said Smith in an interview this week. 

“We do not plan to operate any new Timber Harvest Plans in 2024 but may do some work to expand our fuelbreak network or salvage dead and dying trees for public safety or forest health purposes [such as the windthrow from strong March winds or hazard trees around campgrounds and trails].”

Another possible activity is removing downed logs. “There are downed logs on the Soda Gulch Timber Harvest Plan in the area west of the Soda Gulch watercourse that are deteriorating and causing forest health concerns,” Smith said. “We may move these logs from the forest to the road in 2024 for a public firewood sale before they lose all value and cause damage to the forest ecosystem.”

Last fall, there were two timber harvests on the table. When the JAG could not be unanimous on one project, that timber harvest plan (THP) was tabled indefinitely. This was unprecedented in JAG history, where every THP has been given a green light. A second timber harvest plan, using fire in a new way both before and after the harvest, was the subject of a tour last fall.

Jackson State Demonstration Forest Advisory Group members engage in rare dispute

Smith said the earliest a harvest could happen from that plan, using a pyrosilviculture technique, is 2025, if it is approved at next week’s meeting. Smith says that plan is part of the Coastal Adaptive Management Experiment, a long-term research project to increase the resilience, resistance, and adaptation of coastal redwood forests to climate change. 

Timber harvests already approved and underway were shut down by protesters in 2020 and 2021. Could any of the old harvest plans that were interrupted resume? 

“All the contracts for our existing Timber Harvesting Plans have expired, [but]  the Timber Harvesting Plans are still valid and operations may resume at an unknown date,” Smith said.  “These projects will be discussed at public JAG meetings before resuming operations.”

Lingering contentions and suspicions may haunt May meeting

Despite challenges from environmentalists, John Anderson, Mendocino Redwood Company’s director of forest policy, John Anderson was reappointed to the JAG. Mendocino Redwood has been involved in a suit with Cal Fire over delayed harvests in JDSF. Anderson participated in the JAG approval process for those THPs. Critics confront state forestry board over Jackson Demonstration State Forest process during heated meeting

The JAG canceled the first scheduled meeting of 2024 as it attempted to make changes to its charter. That too frustrated some of the many people who participate regularly. 

 The timing of the current agenda and release of public materials also has raised questions. “It concerns me that CalFire did not release any draft changes to the JAG charter before public comments were due April 30, yet they have these charter changes on the agenda for May 8,” said Andy Wellspring of Fort Bragg. “This after they changed the meeting date. Both are actions to keep the public from being able to participate. If they can’t share documents for an agenda item before the public comments are due, the topic should not be allowed on the agenda.” Wellspring said he is a member of the Coalition to Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest but on this matter is not speaking for the coalition.

Smith offered the following response to Wellsprings’ concern.

“At the request of members of the JAG, the May JAG meeting date was adjusted by one day to ensure attendance of the JAG members. The JAG charter has been added to the agenda as an Introduction of the revision of the charter to the JAG for discussion. There is time within the agenda for public comment and the public comment submission date was adjusted to April 30,” Smith explained. “We are hopeful to release the revised charter publicly this Friday evening after a meeting with Cal Fire and the Board of Forestry,.”

More information on this issue and materials for discussion next week are found here: Materials for JAG meeting

Smith said nobody new applied to be on the JAG last year despite public pleas for more members. She said there may be an effort to recruit new people following next week’s meeting. Ideas that have been discussed have been expanding the JAG to include users from outside the forestry community, such as native plant, biking and hiking enthusiasts. Other ideas include increasing or decreasing the size of the JAG, meeting more often and adding a second Native member with a special role related to Newsom’s push for co-management. Current JAG member Reno Keoni Franklin  is the chairman of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians and Vice Chairman of the Sonoma County Indian Health Project. He has no duties beyond what other JAG members have.

If new categories of JAG members are added or the JAG charter changed, the state wants Bagley-Keene Act training to happen first, along with full knowledge of what is expected of public boards under California law. That is also on the agenda for next week’s meeting. New members would be added armed with the knowledge of how meetings should be conducted.

“We want to make sure that the JAG members are on-boarded in the future correctly. Not that they haven’t been, but we just want to provide a little bit more guidance and to come together and collaborate,” said Smith.

Open Meetings | State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General

Around the same time as the pandemic hit, approved THPs in the JDSF led to the most activity ever in this nearly 50,000-acre forest created to demonstrate and test scientific logging techniques. Loggers set upon many areas that were close to where people live adjacent to the state forest, which residents had come to enjoy as a near wilderness. Loggers were followed by protesters, tree sitters, road blockers and people willing to risk their lives going into active tree-cutting areas. The protesters of Redwood Summer in the 1990s were joined by newcomers, who also linked themselves to a growing Native land reparations movement.

The meetings of the JAG were as loud and raucous as the in-forest confrontations. Cal Fire allowed some timber plans underway to complete, while ending other harvests, especially the controversial Caspar 500 harvest close to town. Protesters climbed second growth redwood trees included in the plans, several sitting in the trees around the clock to prevent the redwoods from being cut. All those trees still stand.

The Jackson Demonstration State Forest is the largest by far of the state’s demonstration forests. Launched in 1949, it runs from both sides of Highway 20 starting about eight miles from the coast, all the way to the outskirts of the Fort Bragg, Caspar and Mendocino areas, with the heart of the forest accessed in east Caspar.

Finding out who was on the JAG was difficult in the past. Now there is a list newly posted: LIST OF JAG MEMBERS

The direction of the JAG as to future timber harvests under Wynn as chair and Smith as deputy chief and liaison to JAG remains to be seen.

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