Leslie Markham
Review Team Chair
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
135 Ridgeway Ave
Santa Rosa, Ca 95401
3/20/00
Dear Ms. Markham,
Enclosed are photographs representative of recent logging activity in the Gualala River watershed. Included is a map of the area where most of the photos were taken. The recent THPs 1-96-373 Men ("Powerline") and 1-97-392 Men ("Buckwheat") are prominent. Aerial photos of logging along several river reaches are included.
Starting at the turn of the century, this watershed has suffered much degradation and loss of biodiversity due to land use practices. Logging and accompanying road building were the main culprits. Subsequent waves of activity in the forties, fifties, and sixties each added their damage. Unsustainable practices continue today, as you will see from these photos.
One of the biggest and most active of the private timber owners has been using forestry techniques which warrant great concern. Gualala Redwoods Inc. (AKA Sonoma Coast Associates and Russian River Redwoods) aggressively clearcuts on the steep slopes in their holdings. Since it has under 50,000 acres in holdings (29 thousand), GRI is not required to submit a sustainable yield plan.Most rough estimates put its harvest rate well over the 2% which is generally recognized as sustainable for this region. WLPZ ("Watercourse and lake protection zones") have been burned, and potential LWD ("large, woody debris") trees, essential for healthy fisheries, have been taken.
Compounding this clearcutting on steep hillsides directly adjacent to 303d listed streams, is GRI's use of broadcast burning. These hot fires are often started using napalm dropped from helicopters. This causes intense, complete burns which destroy all habitat, for living things large or small, above and below ground. These burns have little in common with the natural and manmade fires which are normally associated with coastal forests. Historical burns were much less damaging due to the size of the standing trees, timing during the season, etc. The torching of large areas of disturbed, rutted, and clearcut hillsides which are denuded of trees and covered with downed fuel, cannot be considered "imitating nature", as GRI's head forester has proclaimed.
Further compounding the damages of this practice are the company's broadcast spraying of herbicide. Usually Dupont's chemical OUST is used. OUST will prohibit all botanical growth for up to a year after one application. This area sometimes has rainfall of over I00 inches yearly; these extreme slopes, when burned in this manner, subsequently undergo severe erosion due to the lack of any plant cover and root stucture. What are the effects of this herbicide and where does it go? The chemical has not been tested on salmon to date, nor is there is good evidence as to effects upon soil organisms. Other herbicides are used as well. The State Department of Agriculture, which oversees applications of these chemicals, has never conducted an inspection in this watershed, either in Sonoma or Mendocino Counties.
To even an uneducated eye, these photographs immediately raise questions about cumulative impacts and loss of biodiversity, about salmonid recovery, about water quality, and about sustainability of the forest. With a loss of ecosystem viability will come loss of the land's future value for timber production -- and corresponding pressure for conversion to other uses, such as grape-growing and housing.. As you read this, plans are still in the works, in and near this watershed, to convert 10,000 acres to grape production from timberland which was previously overcut and degraded. The loss of this coastal forestland will be tragic if it occurs.
Please feel free to use these photos for reference to aid in the protection of this area of great natural resource.
Sincerely,
Chris Poehlmann
Gualala River Improvement Network
P.O. Box 61
Annapolis, CA 95412
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