April 28, 2004
This spring, Sanctuary Forest completed a major road decommissioning project in the Mattole headwaters that spanned more than two years and cost well over 700 thousand dollars. The work took place throughout the headwaters on lands owned by members of the Upper Mattole River and Forest Cooperative, a partnership of non-profits, public agencies, and private landowners who together own or manage about 4,000 acres containing much of the Mattole's remaining old-growth forest and salmonid habitat. The project was designed to reduce the damage being done to salmon spawning and rearing grounds in the headwaters by removing much of the sediment being delivered from abandoned logging roads and stream crossings.
A great deal has already been accomplished by this project. A total of twelve miles of eroding roads were decommissioned and mulched, and 141 stream crossings were removed, resulting in a net savings of about 50,000 cubic yards (or 5,000 dump truck loads) of sediment that would otherwise have clogged the Mattole and its fish-bearing tributaries. A corollary benefit of the project is the richer relationship with the upper Mattole community that resulted as community members received training and volunteered their time for a variety of monitoring tasks designed to assure that the work holds up well and accomplishes our goals successfully.
2004 marks the return of Sanctuary Forest's long running education outreach, the Summer Hike Program (see page 12 for schedule). A new class of docents is now completing a training course that will allow them to lead a series of fun and educational hikes through the old-growth forests, streams and ridgetops of the Mattole headwaters area. Each hike is an intimate journey of discovery guided by these knowledgeable docents and interpreted by expert local naturalists, covering such subjects as Native Herbs, Birding, Scat & Tracks, and Stream & Forest Restoration. We invite North Coast residents and visitors to join us and experience the magic of the Mattole River headwaters and the diverse plant and animal life it supports. The hikes run from Mother's Day through mid-August. For more information or to make a reservation, call 877-986-HIKE or e-mail us at sanctuary@asis.com.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2004