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Home / Publications / Forest & River News / Summer 2007 /
Please Welcome Our New Partner....
Central Coast Forest Watch

by Jodi Frediani of Central Coast Forest Watch
August 22, 2007


Central Coast Forest Watch (CCFW) is the new kid on the block. Formed in 2007, CCFW is just getting its feet wet in local forest issues. CCFW's staff person, Jodi Frediani, a long-time forest advocate, has kept busy this season on a number of projects.

Cemex, the Mexican-based, international corporation, logs thousands of acres adjacent to its cement plant in the coastal town of Davenport north of Santa Cruz. Both conifers and hardwoods are harvested on an on-going basis in the San Vicente Creek watershed, which provides drinking water for the town of Davenport as well as supports a population of threatened steelhead and endangered coho salmon. San Vicente Creek was recently listed as impaired for sediment. Efforts to amend a 535-acre timber harvest plan (THP) in the watershed that provides drinking water for the town of Davenport have been amazingly successful. Frediani worked with Davenport residents, met with the county timber harvest review team member and the Davenport Sanitation District liaison and managed to get CalFire (previously CDF) to twice rescind approval of the THP (in January and May 2007). This multi-pronged approach ultimately led Cemex/RMC, the international landowner, to agree to remove winter operations between October 15 and May 1.

Cemex 535-acre timber harvest plan.
Photo: Jodi Frediani
In efforts begun in 2004, Frediani was successful this year in getting San Vicente Creek, the source of Davenport's drinking water, 303(d) listed by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and the U.S. EPA. Based largely on turbidity data from Davenport's treatment plant, as well as a Department of Fish and Game (DFG) report documenting poor spawning conditions in the stream, the listing should help provide additional protection in the watershed. For the past several years, citizens of Davenport have either had water trucked in during the winter or been under a "boil water order" because of excessive turbidity. Testimony from Davenport residents at a SWRCB hearing helped clinch the listing.

Citizens of all ages testified at the CalFire public hearing in February 2007.
Photo: Jodi Frediani
    
On another front, Frediani has continued to work with a local citizens group, Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging (NAIL), in their protracted efforts to keep the proposed San Jose Water Company 1000-acre Non-industrial Timber Management Plan (NTMP) from being approved. More than 500 people attended the CalFire public hearing in February and the majority spoke passionately and intelligently against the plan. Frediani's education efforts paid off, bringing a community up to speed on the Forest Practice Rules, the problems the plan presents for water quality, slope stability, increased fire danger, disruption of neighborhood ambiance from extensive helicopter operations, and impacts on federally threatened California red-legged frogs and the plethora of bird species in the watershed, including nesting osprey and golden eagles.

The plan runs six miles upstream from the Lexington Reservoir along Los Gatos Creek. Hundreds of homes line one ridgetop while the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve hugs the northern side of the watershed. The San Andreas Fault zone runs the length of the proposed in-perpetuity harvest proposal. The logging is proposed by the largest private water purveyor in Santa Clara County-- which gets 10% of its supply of drinking water from the creek, as well as additional water from the downstream Lexington Reservoir. A small public water utility and a small private water company also rely on the creek for their drinking water.

    
Young protester outside of corporate offices of San Jose Water Company.
Photo: Jodi Frediani
Frediani also continues to send out monthly Forest Updates to an interested forest advocacy list and works closely with other environmental groups.

For more information please email: jodifredi@aol.com


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