We have scheduled our Headwaters Reserve field trips that we emailed you about previously and hope you can make the dates we have chosen (based on feedback).
These site visitations and discussions with the BLM people overseeing
management of the Headwaters Reserve and with local watershed activists will be an opportunity to witness an old growth redwood forest coming back–healing from
excessive logging and bad corporate management. Sites to visit include forest and stream areas under restoration,recovering Marbled Murrelet and Coho habitat, and logging roads
being “put to bed”.
Please let us know if you can join us.
The dates are:
Sat., Sept. 26 and Sunday, Sept. 27
Information about logistics, including car-pooling, places to
stay, etc. will follow. We are planning with BLM staff and others as to which activities will take place which day, so watch for subsequent emails.
We plan discussions with watershed activists about the state of the watershed the Headwaters Reserve lies within, and with biologists and other staff from the Arcata office of the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees management of the Reserve, purchased from Pacific Lumber and protected in 1999. BLM has been carrying out restoration of the cut-over portions of the Reserve over the last decade.
* Over 10 miles of old Pacific Lumber logging roads, many poorly
constructed and sending silt into watercourses have been
decommissioned
* In 2008, over 5,000 redwood seedlings were planted in areas
previously heavily logged by Pacific Lumber, after thinning of
dense Douglas fir regeneration.
* Removal of invasive non-native species, like pampas grass and
English ivy, opening the ecological door for recovery of native
species and restoration stream bank stability
* There is on-going monitoring of at risk species, like Coho salmon and marbled
murrelet and monitoring of marbled murrelet predators (corvids) to
assess risk to the threatened murrelet. In 2008, two new pairs of
spotted owls were detected in the Reserve, bringing the known
population to four pair.
We will present an orientation for those planning to participate
in the field trips, to bring you further up to date and answer any
pre-trip questions you might have.
Please let us know if you can help with the planning and logistics.
You can access more information about the Reserve by clicking on
the Headwaters Forest Reserve button on the front page of our
website: www.HeadwatersPreserve.org.
We hope to hear from you soon! It would be helpful if you include
your phone number.