Russian River Redwoods and Firs Threatened by Logging Plan

[Colin Baptie]

Hi everyone,

Did you know that 224 acres of carbon-removing redwoods and Douglas Firs along the Russian River could be logged this summer?  A major timber operator, Redwood Empire, has filed plans to log an area just south of Guerneville and within the Highway 116 scenic corridor.

A local community group, called the Guerneville Forest Coalition (GFC) has been fighting the plan for nearly a year but, despite more than 300 public comments objecting to the logging,  Cal Fire is expected to give approval as early as next Tuesday, June 15. 

Opponents claim the proposed logging, called the Silver Estates Timber Harvest Plan (THP) will inevitably impact climate because it removes the very trees that are most effective at directly removing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it for centuries. It is estimated that one coast redwood removes from the atmosphere 250 tons of carbon. A typical tree will sequester about one ton of carbon in its lifetime. So, just one coast redwood has the ability to absorb as much carbon as 250 "regular" trees.

The Silver Estates forester refuses to say exactly how many redwoods and Douglas firs will be cut down but the THP proposes a tree canopy reduction of up to 50 percent. 

As is often stated, short of burning fossil fuels, cutting down trees is the single worst thing we can do for climate change. Not only do trees directly remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it for centuries to millennia, the very act of cutting them down results in immediate carbon releases via felling, hauling, milling, and processing machinery that represents a “double hit” to the climate. 

There is a growing body of research that tells us that we need to rethink forestry in California. For example:

1. The largest trees in any forest are also the most fire resilient and their selective removal weakens the forest’s resilience as a whole to wildfire (Douglas et al. 2010). 
2. Selectively logging the largest trees opens the forest canopy allowing more solar radiation to reach the forest floor thereby drying out the underbrush and soils creating hotter, drier, and more flammable understory microclimates (Weatherspoon, 1996). 
3. Selectively logging the largest trees thins the canopy and stand allowing for greater in-canopy and in-stand wind speeds that fuel higher intensity fires (Banerjee, 2020). 
4. Across the entire western U.S., fires burned with less intensity on lands that had the highest protections from logging (Bradley et al., 2016). 
5. Weather and climate is the most important predictor of wildfire intensity with logging intensity being the second most important factor (Zald and Dunn, 2018). 
6. Forest mortality resulting from drought and temperature stress is expected to increase dramatically in the future with disproportionate effects to conifer species (McDowell and Allen, 2015). 
7. Mature second growth Redwoods are now more rare than old growth Redwoods due to the lack of any kind of protections for these trees (Burns et al., 2018).
8. Timber harvesting is the largest emitter of CO2 of any natural or human-caused forest disturbance type (Harris et al., 2016). 
9. Increasing forest protection is the lowest cost and the single most effective tool we have in meeting emission reduction targets (Moomaw, et al., 2019).
   

For more information on the Silver Estates Timber Harvest Plan and the efforts of the Guerneville Forest Coalition, visit the GFC website at guernevilleforestcoalition.org.

Thanks,  Colin

[Janus MATTHES]

WWW has been fighting this as well submitting over 20 organizations and 40+ individuals petition to stop this ill conceived plan along with Forest Unlimited who had even more signers to there action. There have been 7 postponements of the decision so far. As I understand, CalFire is meeting behind closed doors to try and figure this out. Guerneville Forest  has sited that the same man, Burch family, previously logged this area and still has alot of debris (fire fuel) never cleared.

 

This is directly uphill from alot of homes on Neely and below making it a tinder box. Also alot of water to keep the dust down, where is this coming from? DWR (Dept. of Water Resources) is prohibiting water diversions on alot of areas of the Russian River. 

 

Also our oldest redwood, the Clar tree is in the way of this and Burch, who is in court all the time with his logging plans said it will be protected despite obvious root damage to this tree. Public comments are closed now.  Forest Unlimited has been on top of this and working with the Guerneville people. Looks like it will take expensive litigation to stop this. 

 

Remember we would have had more clout with this had our supervisors taken lead agency on this. The County always defers to CalFire. The County has the authority to review and make decisions on logging but its a political hot potato. 

 

Thank you for putting this info out.

 

Janus

Wine & Water Watch

 

 

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