Guerneville Logging Plan: An example of Cal Fire’s Incompetence and Bias

As we continue to wait for Cal Fire’s decision to approve or deny the 224-acre Silver Estates logging plan near Guerneville, Forest Unlimited’s executive director, Rick Coates, explains why the plan is an exemplar of Cal Fire’s incompetence and bias.

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The original Silver Estates Timber Harvest Plan (THP), written by a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) hired by the landowner, Roger Burch, and submitted to Cal Fire for review, was replete with 51 serious errors and omissions. Cal Fire returned it to the forester as unacceptable for filing with extensive analysis of the errors and omissions, essentially doing the forester’s work for him at the public’s expense. It should have been summarily denied and the evidence turned over to the Board of Forestry’s licensing body with a recommendation for disciplining the forester.

On the RPF’s second attempt, Cal Fire filed the THP, which started the public and agency review process required by the Forest Practice Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Guerneville Forest Coalition with the aid of Forest Unlimited began reviewing the plan. Here is what we found but Cal Fire (we believe intentionally) failed to……

Missing Wildlife Surveys

Required surveys for endangered species were missing. When some, but not all, were supplied, we noted that they were in error or failed to follow proper protocols. Some had to be redone. Cal Fire did not discover these errors. The public did. For example, the second Northern Spotted Owl survey, done by the forester, found but one nesting pair just outside the THP boundary. This despite the fact that the adjacent Bohemian Grove property has many. There have been no surveys yet for the red tree vole or marbled murrelet, other endangered species.

Mischaracterized slope stability

The Geology report mischaracterized the stability of the steep slopes above the Russian River and Neeley Road. A major slide area was far more extensive than admitted, possibly endangering Neeley Road, the only escape route for residents during fire or flood and the only access route for emergency vehicles. As it is, Neeley Road is too narrow to meet the Board of Forestry’s safety requirements. After initially resisting and attempting to justify the original geology report, the Forester requested a response from the original geologist be submitted to the record. Some minor but inadequate adjustments were made.

Violation of Clean Water Act

The Regional Water Quality Control Board noted that a culvert under Neeley Road is damaged and incorrectly installed and is a violation of the Basin Plan and the Clean Water Act. It illegally discharges sediment to the Russian River when it rains. Initial discussions between the landowner and the County over replacing the culvert have been suspended. [Part is on Burch property, part on the County’s.] A logging plan in violation of the Basin Plan cannot be legally approved. But that has never stopped Cal Fire from doing so.

Use of Subjective Data

The logging plan will reduce carbon storage sorely needed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change. The forester disingenuously claims that there will be no net loss because the trees will regenerate. Unfortunately, we do not have 40 years to wait until the trees mature enough to sequester sufficient carbon. Nor does this factor in carbon lost to the atmosphere when slash and sawdust left over from logging and milling rots. Nor does it count the carbon dioxide produced by heavy equipment during logging or transport of the logs to the mill. Or the lumber transported to customers.

No Visual Assessment

Citizens and businesses objected to the inadequate protection of the State Scenic Highway 116 designation. More than 90 percent of the THP is within the official Scenic Highway Corridor. The proposed logging methods include “group selection”, another name for small, scattered clear cuts. The forester provided a cursory, biased and unprofessional scenic assessment. Sonoma County is legally charged with protecting the Scenic Highway Corridor and the scenic elements listed in the Scenic Highway Report that formed the basis for the State’s designation. The County subsequently requested a professional assessment by a qualified landscape architect. We await Cal Fire’s response.

Clar Tree Be Damned

The tallest redwood in Sonoma County, the Clar Tree, was given a minor and scientifically indefensible protection zone.  When the public documented the inadequacy, the zone was increased but not enough. Furthermore, many of the surrounding redwoods were targeted for removal, destabilizing the root system and exposing the Clar Tree to greater wind throw which could topple it. Bodega Land Trust has requested a meeting with Roger Burch, the landowner and owner of Redwood Empire Sawmill in Cloverdale, to explore the possibility of a conservation easement protecting the Clar Tree. This is a feasible alternative, which, under CEQA, must be studied for superior environmental mitigations. We are awaiting a response from Mr. Burch and his forester. If Cal Fire follows its usual (illegal) practice, it will not request the required analysis.

Water Pipes At Risk

Sweetwater Springs Water Department recently informed Cal Fire and the forester that many old and fragile metal and asbestos pipes are beneath Neeley Road, some nearly 100 years old, that supply water to residents on Neeley. They requested that the the pipes be located and that they be protected from heavy logging trucks. The forester responded incorrectly that they are entitled to use the road because it is a public road and that they are not responsible for the safety of the pipes.

Increased Fire Risk

Lastly, logging so close to populated communities will expose them to greater fire danger. Contrary to Cal Fire propaganda, the science is clear that many logging practices actually increase fire danger. Removing the large fire-resistant conifers, like Redwoods and Douglas firs, increases wind speed, increases drying and heat, creates more dry grassy areas and promotes fire-loving species like tanoak and bay laurel. The town of Paradise in northern California was not protected by extensive commercial “thinning”. Rather, fire raced through logged areas faster and burned more intensely in those area.

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All of the errors and false information listed above are grounds for immediate disapproval of the THP and referral of the forester for discipline. Instead, Cal Fire will continue, at taxpayer expense, to help the forester to fix the plan hoping to harden it against lawsuit. Not one of these errors were discovered by Cal Fire.

This is not surprising because the system is inherently corrupt. The bias at Cal Fire results from hiring foresters and Deputy Directors from industry and from rules promulgated by a Board of Forestry dominated by the industry.  Cal Fire does not write THPs, nor do they hire RPFs to write them. Project proponents do. Because foresters are independent business owners and because they are in competition for the business, they attempt to maximize the return to the landowner who hires them. Couple that with the Board of Forestry’s lack of serious enforcement of the licensing standards, and one can expect the rules to be bent or broken and false information to be present in THPs.

Without CEQA, the errors and omissions discovered by the Guerneville Forest Coalition would likely have been ignored by Cal Fire, which is biased toward logging. Yet in the last few years the legislature has passed legislation creating various exemptions from CEQA review. Exemptions require no public review and Cal Fire cannot deny them. As a consequence, since 2015, 119,271 acres have been cut under these exemptions!