HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We hope this is a good year for wild places everywhere and all of our fellow species!  Take action to make it so.

Thirteen years after the historic transfer of the largest groves of ancient redwoods left on Maxxam/Pacific Lumber’s ravaged land to public hands and protection as Headwaters Forest Reserve, other companies in the mold of Maxxam/PL are nipping at the edges of that precious forest.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has done a stand up job over the last decade to protect and start to restore the 7,500 acre
Reserve, but has no control over other impacts adjacent to the protected Reserve, or along the Elk River Watershed.  BLM has removed many miles of logging roads, removed non-native species, and has managed for multi-age forest, ripe to evolve into a larger chunk of ancient redwood forest. If you look at a map of the HW Reserve the long “arm” of protected land runs along the South Fork Elk River out from the groves, and in that stretch McCloud Creek flows into the Elk River from the south.

It is on McCloud Creek that Green Diamond Timber Co. (formerly Simpson) has filed a new 99 acre Timber Harvest Plan (THP) that would clearcut more than 70 acres, which can be expected to receive herbicide applications after clearcutting, according to Green Diamond’s current practices. The Elk River watershed in its entirely has been hammered over the last couple decades, causing significant loss of forest habitat, invasive species, devastating flooding and landslides.  Moreover, clearcutting and herbicide use run absolutely counter to restoration efforts. A request to extend the 2 week comment period has been filed—if granted we will direct comments to Cal Fire, the state Dept. of Forestry agency responsible for approving THPs.  The state agency has already shown itself to be perfectly willing to give the green light to Green Diamond’s intensive management practices of clearcuts and poisoning the land and water, even in sensitive habitat areas like Headwaters, effectively turning recovering forest into homogenous tree plantations.  We will let you know if the comment period for “McCloud Creek #5 East” THP is extended.

The Kangaroo Roadless Area in the Klamath National Forest, one of the largest intact wild lands in the state is threatened with logging after a 2012 summer forest fire that left trees standing, burning primarily undergrowth.  This is the way fires used to burn for millennia in a way that helped, rather than damaged forest ecosystems. The Forest Service is looking at helicopter logging the largest old growth snags (standing, burned trees) in the name of “forest health.”

You can take action on this unnecessary incursion into California’s precious wild country by going to a link on our colleague EPIC’s site here.

We always need donations to keep our small organization going.  You can help by sending a donation (check made out to Ecology Center/BACH) to Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, 2530 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, CA 94702 or donation securely on-line at www.headwaterspreserve.org.  We appreciate every bit of support, and so do the trees.