When the State Board of Forestry was forced by litigation to adopt regulations providing for long-term sustained yield of forest products, it chose three options -- A, B, and C -- which owners could choose for timber harvesting. Option C is the one usually taken for smaller THPs, and it is the least strict about long-term yield forecasting -- doesn't require any. The big owners -- 50,000 acres or more -- were to use either Option A or B, after the end of this year. Some tried Option B -- the SYP, or Sustained Yield Plan, but it's a huge project to do, including both inventory of timber and of public trust resources, wildlife habitat and such -- and the public gets a crack at reviewing it.
Now, all are going to Option A. This can be a sort of master plan like the SYP, but much shorter and with only timber resources considered. It can be for their ownership, or for just part of it; it primarily tells what they now have in standing timber in various ages and sizes, what they plan to cut, and what they project as future timber stand components. Some owners may choose to include more than the pure inventory issues, including what they plan to do about oak woodlands, or elements more directly related to water and wildlife issues. But the public has NO chance to review and comment, or file a legal challenge, except as described below. And even if we did have this chance, the owner has the right to withhold "proprietary information" -- all that inventory and related information. What is left that IS available can be very limited indeed, if the owner chooses to conceal .Some generalizations and a title page? Simpson Timber Company, one of the state's largest, and a large owner of redwood, chose to conceal. Sierra Pacific, the state's largest landowner (over a million acres), is traditionally close-mouthed, and predictions are that it, too will conceal.
So how does the public figure out WHAT is in an Option A? Each NEW timber harvesting plan (THP) filed at CDF in 2000 and later will have to refer to the Option A, and will probably attach it. So when plan after plan comes in, the public may be able eventually to DEDUCE what is in the underlying document. How this meets CEQA requirements for disclosure is not known, and may well have to be tested in court. In fact, CDF may be changing to a policy requring more release of information.
BUT THERE'S ONE BRIGHT SPOT ANYWAY -- one of the big owners, and one which is under intense scrutiny here in Sonoma County; in keeping with its policy of openness, is voluntarily disclosing its Option A, proprietary information and all. This information is attached to a THP currently received at Santa Rosa. The company is the Mendocino Redwood Company, which owns 235,000 acres, (12,000 in Sonoma County). This should be a help in reviewing the THPs of other big companies, because it could give the public an insight into the kinds of information being withheld by other companies, hence questions to ask on each successive THP. ( Click here for Mendocino Redwood Company Option A).
Helen Libeu, December 07, 1999
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