August 4, 2001
On May 18, 2001, acting on a lawsuit brought by the Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest, the Superior Court of Mendocino issued a Preliminary Injunction prohibiting the California Department of Forestry (CDF) from logging in Jackson State Forest under the long-outdated 1983 Management Plan.
Judge Henderson found that ?Even a casual review of the [1983] Plan reveals that the conditions on which it was developed 18 years ago have changed dramatically,? and that further logging was likely to result in ?substantial and possibly irreparable harm? to the environment.
Apparently immediately after the decision, CDF and its oversight body, the Board of Forestry, began plotting to undercut the court ruling. No public notice was given of their discussions until two items with this clear intent were posted on the agenda for the Board of Forestry meeting of July 12. The unseemly haste to undercut the court is purely mercenary: the court order halted the flow of logging profits slated to fund a slew of state forestry programs.
The Board ignored all requests, including one from Assemblyperson Virginia Strom-Martin, to delay consideration of the two items. But the impassioned testimony of Kathy Bailey of the Sierra Club, combined with CDF miscues and Board time constraints, caused the Board to defer until August a vote on the most indefensible and damaging action ? a resolution to authorize continued logging under the 1983 plan.
Right after the July Board meeting, the Campaign obtained and released internal CDF documents written by senior CDF staff in 1994. These dramatically undercut the Board and CDF?s argument that there is no harm in continued logging under the 1983 plan. Whether because of the release of the documents or because CDF and the Board realized their efforts could not withstand public scrutiny, the resolution to authorize continued logging in Jackson State was withdrawn from the August Board agenda.
Jackson State will not be safe until legislation is passed to make restoration to old growth the primary goal for the forest.
You can join our
Campaign and view the internal CDF documents at www.jacksonforest.com.
More Information About
Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest
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- by Vince Taylor, Executive Direstor
- about Political/Lawsuits
- by Campaign to Restore Jackson State Redwood Forest
TOC for Forest & River News, Summer 2001