TAKE ACTION: Logging planned for 900 acres of Jackson Forest

With the California Department of Forestry (CDF) set to log 900 acres of valuable habitat in Jackson State Forest, your voice is urgently needed to stop the cutting.

Please contact state Sen. Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata) and Assemblymember Patty Berg (D-Sebastopol) and urge them to actively seek to halt the “Brandon Gulch” and “Camp 3” timber harvests. Jackson lies entirely within Chesbro's and Berg's districts.

If you live outside of Chesbro’s and Berg’s district and have the time, please also write the legislators in your own district. Encourage them to support legislation changing Jackson’s mission to restoration and habitat preservation. Forests Forever is working on legislation to change the forest’s legal mandate from logging demonstration to restoration.

The Brandon Gulch and Camp 3 timber harvests planned for Jackson threaten the forest’s oldest stands. Forest advocates believe the cutting would deal a heavy blow to wildlife and water quality in 50,000-acre Jackson– California’s largest state-owned forest. The harvests could begin as soon as May.

Background:

Located between the towns of Mendocino and Ft. Bragg, Jackson is the only state-owned forest home to a significant percentage of second-growth trees.

At 80 to 100 years old, these trees provide precious habitat for species dependent on large, older redwoods for survival. If restored, Jackson could return to conditions mirroring an old-growth forest. Instead CDF in recent years has logged the forest, generating an annual $15 million for the agency’s coffers.

CDF originally acquired Jackson to demonstrate that logging second-growth could be profitable. At the time, there was no market for second-growth redwood, and there was considerable doubt that such a market would appear. It has long since been proven that second-growth timber harvests are profitable. Yet CDF stands by Jackson’s 1940s-era mandate to justify continued logging, using outdated and destructive practices.

TAKE ACTION:

Please contact state Sen. Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata) and Assemblymember Patty Berg (D-Sebastopol) and urge them to actively seek to halt the “Brandon Gulch” and “Camp 3” timber harvests.

In addition, please write your state assemblymember and senator and urge them to convey to Chesbro and Berg their support for legislation that will change Jackson State Forest’s mission to restoration and habitat preservation. The purpose of our state forests need to reflect the changing times and place more value on recreation and wildlife areas than on logging for profit. We want our representatives to take a stand and make Jackson the leading example of how California’s state forests should be managed.


Write to:
Senator Wesley Chesbro
POB 785
Ukiah, CA 95482
phone (707) 468-8914
fax (707) 468-8931

Assemblymember Patty Berg
104 West Church St.
Ukiah, CA 95482
phone (707) 463-5770
fax (707) 463-5773

If you live outside Chesbro’s and Berg’s district, you can look up your own state legislators’ contact information at www.leginfo.ca.gov. Click on “Your Legislature.”

Thank you for doing your part to help protect one of California’s most valuable ecological resources– Jackson State Forest.