OP‑ED Save Jackson Forest coalition demands halt to logging and passage of AB2494
Editor’s note: We attended this rally and found the coalition’s press release to be an accurate reflection of what we observed. We are publishing their statement as an op‑ed.
Rally to Stop Logging in Jackson State Forest
Pass AB 2494 to Change Outdated Mandate
Fort Bragg, CA — On Saturday, close to seventy people rallied at Town Hall following the weekly Peace protest, carrying signs reading “Pomo Land Back,” “Hands Off Jackson State Forest,” “Stop Logging,” and “Sign AB 2494.” The crowd filled the lawn and sidewalk in front of the historic building, a mix of prominent elders in the local environmental community and younger generations — parents, teens, and toddlers. Representatives of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, and Round Valley Indian Tribes were present.
The rally’s message was clear: they are demanding that CalFire halt a 500‑acre timber harvest plan near Chamberlain Creek until an updated Forest Management Plan is completed, an equal co‑management agreement with affected tribes is in place, and AB2494 — the bill intended to shift the current “mandate to log” — can take effect. Speakers also called on Governor Newsom to sign the bill in September.
Addressing the disastrous effects of climate change, Buffie Campbell, a Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians member, acclaimed weaver and current Executive Director of the Sinkyone Intertribal Wilderness Council, a consortium of ten tribes, spoke about the importance of TEK, (tribal ecological knowledge) in healing today’s ailing planet for the good ofall people. “We see our job as making sure the things that are needed for a healthy life, the trees, the sky, the water, are available to all people”, said Campbell.
Polly Girvin, partner of the late Coyote Valley leader Priscilla Hunter, credited the “unity of purpose” within the Save Jackson movement for helping the coalition move past cultural divides and work together. That unity, she said, has strengthened the effort and consolidated its gains — including gathering more than 6,000 signatures on a statewide petition to change the 1947 mandate requiring Jackson to produce “high quality timber products,” i.e., logging. The petition drive culminated in AB2494.
The historic bill — sponsored by EPIC (Environmental Protection and Information Center) and carried by Assemblymember Chris Rogers and Senator Mike McGuire — would modernize the mandate by shifting Jackson away from industrial logging and toward restoration, recreation, and Tribal co‑management. Thinning for fuels reduction that may have commercial value would still be allowed. AB2494 would apply to all Demonstration State Forests, a total of 85,000 acres.
“We have to give credit to Gov. Newsom for the reparative justice policies that he has established that enable the tribes to assume co-management of state-owned lands in their ancestral territories. Under his direction, the California Natural Resources Agency has committed to returning 7.5 million acres of state land under tribal stewardship. They are doing so because this would have been the number of acres that the tribes would have received had their treaties been honored. Co-management of JDSF is a first step in Land Back”, said Girvin.
Coastal resident Anna Marie Stenberg — a well‑known activist who was arrested for civil disobedience during the 2020–2022 community protests in Jackson that led to a logging “pause” endorsed by Rogers and McGuire in spring 2023 — reminded CalFire of the community’s commitment to environmental and social justice. She pointed to the protection of sacred and cultural sites found throughout Jackson, extensive enough to constitute a “Native cultural landscape” under CEQA definitions.
“Why can’t CalFire wait until after AB2494 becomes law?” asked long time activist Naomi Wagner from inland Mendocino County. “The AMEX (Adaptive Management Experiment) THP being pushed forward by CalFire is unwise and untimely. It breaks the promise of the Pause. The plan lies within an un-surveyed cultural landscape. The experiment itself is being conducted by scientists from the University of Nevada and would run for twenty years, locking in current management practices, locking out TEK”.
Water protector and organizer Nikcole Whipple, of the Round Valley Indian Tribes and a descendant of both Yuki and Pomo peoples, spoke in support of the bill and expressed solidarity with the Coalition to Save Jackson Forest. Drawing parallels to the fight to free the Eel River from its dams, she emphasized the need for expanded Native control over ancestral lands and waters.
The rally ended on a celebratory note with the announcement that AB2494 had passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee and advanced to a floor vote. The Governor has until mid‑September to sign it. Editor’s note: The bill has not yet passed the full Senate.
Editor’s note: A full news story on Saturday’s protest — including a deeper look at claims about the forest and about AB2494 — is under active investigation and in the works for publication this weekend. Read the bill here. We think you’ll be astonished when you compare its actual language with what is being said about it.
https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab2494
