Your Friday Paper: Coast Leaders and Coast Lovers urged to attend Saturday tour on restarting logging after four‑year pause + Whale monitor + Suzi’s art classes
We call on all five members of the Fort Bragg City Council — several of whom have deep knowledge of forestry and local history — and at least County Supervisors Bernie Norvell and Ted Williams to attend Saturday’s tour. If attendance isn’t possible on such short notice, we urge them to stay engaged in the review process now underway.
We toured the site Friday with Cal Fire and two scientists from the University of Nevada–Reno, taking a second look at the proposal to remove roughly a million board feet of second‑growth timber — a volume that, based on what the scientists described, represents about 1,200 to 1,600 trees, the range most foresters use for redwood country.
The Saturday tour runs from 9 to 11 a.m. and offers a look at how in‑depth studies by the University of Nevada have shaped a timber harvest plan to be carried out by Two Brothers Logging Company. The firm won the competitive bid at a steep discount compared with what that volume of lumber would normally bring. But there’s a significant caveat: the company must follow an extensive set of scientific requirements — including roughly half a dozen different methods applied across more than 300 separate study areas.
We have a lot of fascinating material to publish in the coming days, but we needed to make sure you were invited to something of real importance. These tours have often drawn environmental activists, many of whom oppose logging. But on the last tour, the largest contingent of environmentalists to attend a JAG meeting and field visit engaged directly with Cal Fire — a discussion that, based on post‑interviews, proved eye‑opening for both sides.
We have been watching the JDSF process far longer than anyone currently at Cal Fire and longer than most environmentalists still attending meetings. Logging on the JDSF was halted from roughly 2001 to 2009, when a compromise — signed by both local loggers and environmentalists — created the Jackson Advisory Group (JAG). For a few years, the JAG provided genuine local input on timber harvests. That changed when the California Board of Forestry stepped in, effectively undoing the agreement, reducing the JAG’s authority, and shifting decision‑making back to Sacramento.
Logging resumed until 2020, when a second wave of environmental opposition emerged. The Caspar 500 sale near Caspar was stopped that year, though some deeper‑forest harvests already underway were allowed to finish. Since then, no new Timber Harvest Plans have begun. In the years following 2020, Cal Fire has conducted numerous in‑depth field tours. The tour for this harvest took place two years ago and ran for eight hours, ending only at twilight as everyone walked back down a remote logging road. It was the most substantive exchange between environmentalists and foresters I have witnessed, led by environmentalist Naomi Wagner and Cal Fire’s Jeremiah Teuterman. Wagner and several others continue to oppose all logging as a statement about planetary destruction and the accelerating impacts of climate change.
We understand that point, but we disagree politely on stopping all logging. We all live in wood houses. Cal Fire’s headquarters once promised a model of scientific forestry with genuine local input, and the agency fell short of that commitment. But that is past. After roughly 50 hours of field tours over the last six years, we believe studying timber cutting is more valuable to understanding climate change — and improving forestry practices — than halting all cutting here. If logging stops on the JDSF, the same amount of lumber will be cut somewhere else, without any scientific study and likely with fewer safeguards. The work done here, under scrutiny and with data, has the potential to inform better forestry far beyond Mendocino County.
Please read Frank’s previous article in the AVA; things have changed since then, but it remains useful for understanding how this plan came together.
If only environmental activists show up, the forest could end up shut down again. This tour is a chance to learn what is actually happening — your best chance. We’ll have more videos and reporting in the coming days, and we welcome input from all viewpoints. The Timber Harvest Plan (THP)process — the state’s formal review system that determines whether a logging proposal can proceed and under what conditions — badly needs more local participation. Some environmental groups strongly support a new bill now moving through the Legislature, but our concern is that it may centralize decision‑making even further in Sacramento. Continued dialogue is essential. We need concrete ideas for how to build a truly local, responsive process for reviewing THPs, and we are nowhere near that yet. We think this plan can work in a previously harvested area, but we invite you to come on Saturday and see for yourself.
Naomi Wagner has followed this process with me, and we hold different views. She is one of the most intelligent and compassionate people I know, and she provided this letter after the last JAG meeting.
We also believe Cal Fire should be open to offering a second tour of this property in about a week. After that, the contracts are already in place to bring in road graders to upgrade the road for logging equipment. And once the harvest ends for this year on Oct. 15, the public should be allowed in to see the impacts on the forest. It is, after all, our forest.
Check back to this article — we will be adding videos and information steadily through the weekend. We hope to hear from local leaders as well. Some will likely raise concerns about the short notice for this tour, and that would be a mistake. We strongly encourage people to come out and engage in dialogue if you can.
Cape Mendocino lighthouse now being used to monitor whale migrations
Here is an interesting news account of the first West Coast effort to monitor whales by a group that operates more than 60 acoustic monitoring stations on the East Coast, many of them housed in old lighthouses. The new West Coast station is inside the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse at Shelter Cove, where researchers are beginning to track whale movements using underwater microphones that can detect calls from miles offshore. The East Coast network has been used for years to monitor endangered North Atlantic right whales and other species, and this Shelter Cove installation marks the start of a similar long‑term effort here. It’s a small room in a historic lighthouse, but it represents a major step toward understanding how whales use our coastline — and how changing ocean conditions may be affecting them.
From Redwood TV, new whale monitor system debuts
Enjoy Art with SUZI- classes available with view of the harbor
Scribble & Splash — Suzi Long’s beginner‑friendly art classes at the Blue Pelican Gallery send everyone home with a small finished piece. You’ll pick up simple perspective tips and easy techniques in a relaxed, encouraging setting, with supplies available at the gallery if you need them.
Thursday, Friday, or Saturday through December 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Blue Pelican Gallery 401 N Harbor Dr. Fort Bragg, CA 95437
Fort Bragg City Council filings begin Monday, fire tax on ballot
Fort Bragg City Council filings begin Monday, opening the window for candidates to formally enter the November race. The FIRE TAX measure will also appear on the ballot, giving voters a chance to weigh in on long‑term funding for local fire protection.
Fort Bragg press release on elections
County Road Tax process continues
There is so much going on that we can’t follow it all. Here are some recommended articles by others:
And so the week closes with a forest tour on short notice, a FIRE TAX headed for the ballot, City Council filings opening Monday, whales being quietly tracked from a lighthouse above Shelter Cove, and beginners turning out small masterpieces at the Blue Pelican Gallery. It’s a lot for one Friday, but it’s Mendocino: forests in debate, oceans speaking through hydrophones, artists scribbling and splashing, and a town getting ready for another election season. Check back through the weekend as we add videos, updates, and whatever else this coast decides to hand us next.
