Forest & River News GRASSROOTS CONSERVATION & RESTORATION IN THE REDWOOD REGION TREES FOUNDATION SPRING 2020 Building Resilience through Healthy Land Stewardship Grassroots Ecological Restoration Strategies on the Redwood Coast

D Salmon Creek Grassland Reclamation Project Brings In Biodiversity D PODs: A Solution to Fire in the Time of Climate Change D 30 Years Ago in May: The Bombing of Earth First! Activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney D New Column: Wildlife Notes Index Salmon Creek Grassland Reclamation Forests & All Creatures Project Brings In Biodiversity Salmon Creek Grassland Reclamation Project Brings In Biodiversity ...... 3 By Kyle Keegan Editor’s Note Climate Change, Forest Health, Carbon Sequestration, By Kyle Keegan, Fools Farm As articles began to flow in for this issue, so too and the Path to Resilience ...... 10 did the news of a global pandemic—like nothing Eel River Recovery Project Over a two-year period, two $10,000 we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Globally and locally, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service grants Broadleaved Stonecrop, Sedum spathulifolium ...... 19 Covid-19 provoked a rapid pivot to remote work Plant Notes by Cheryl Lisin, Friends of Lost Coast were awarded to the Fool’s Farm in the and virtual meetings as we shelter-in-place as Salmon Creek watershed, tributary of Neotropical Migrant Songbirds: A Miraculous Journey ...... 20 much as possible. Wildlife Notes by Kyle Keegan the South Fork Eel, to carry out local grassland reclamation. The project’s The coronavirus has revealed how truly Green Diamond to Log Sproul Creek ...... 21 Activist Corner by Sproul Watershed Advocates focus was to remove encroaching conifers interconnected we are in the web of life. on approximately 10 acres of historic It has also shown how quickly we can collectively Green Forest Certification Does Not Stand Up to the Timber Industry .....22 grasslands. e primary objective was to Activist Corner by Michael Evenson, Lost Coast League respond to a global threat that is more easily reclaim native prairie that still had high recognizable than the climate crisis. Moving Forward on Responsible Transportation. Join the Coalition! ...... 25 floristic diversity, while enhancing habitat Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities In this issue, you will find many stories about for grassland-dependent species. strategic grassroots restoration efforts to make Mendocino National Forest Backtracks on Logging Project Amidst Scrutiny ...... 25 Our cost share included collecting and forests, landscapes, and communities more Environmental Protection Information Center sowing native grass seed (approximately resilient in the face of the climate crisis. We hope it 8-10 lbs.). Seed was collected adjacent Two Klamath National Forest Timber Sales ...... 27 leaves you inspired to get involved and to support Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center to and on-site. Species collected were: the grassroots. Festuca californica, Festuca idahoensis, With luck, we can come out on the other side of Water, Rivers, & Fish Deschampsia cespitosa, Elymus glaucus, ALL PHOTOS THIS ARTICLE BY KYLE K EEGAN this disruption as a stronger and more connected Eel River Fall Chinook 2019–2020 Run Declines and Danthonia californica. Native environmental community, more committed Due to Variable Ocean Conditions ...... 7 wildflower seed was also collected Eel River Recovery Project than ever to the common vision of restoring adjacent to and on-site (approximately the area (35+ years ago) and remember no fires have burned in this area for at the ecological integrity of California’s legendary Redwood Creek Flow-Enhancement Efforts Focus 1.5 lbs.): Sisyrinchium angustifolium, observing Western Meadowlarks, as well least 70–90 years. Redwood Coast. There’s never been a more on the Marshall Ranch in the South Fork Eel River ...... 12 Perrideridia kellogii, Chlorogalum as White-tailed Kites, Red-tailed Hawks, Salmonid Restoration Federation The average age of the larger trees we important time. pomeridianum, Cirsium occidentale, and American Kestrels hunting on removed was approximately 25 years. SPAWN to Remove Central California’s Lupinus albifrons, Brodaiea elegans, the south end of the project boundary. For the Wild, Top-Priority Fish Barrier is Summer ...... 30 The oldest tree cut down was a 38-year- Salmon Protection And Watershed Network Achillea millefolium, and Lomatium I have strong childhood memories Jeri Fergus, Kerry Reynolds, and Mona Provisor old cedar. spp. Also included was the monitoring of watching these birds of prey hover Fire of test plots, photo documentation, and above the ridgeline. I also remember an The project was accomplished utilizing the building and placement of two kestrel abundance of wildflowers. The largest one lead sawyer, one sawyer/swamper, PODs: A Solution to Fire in the Time of Climate Change...... 14 nest boxes and eight bluebird/swallow Living with Fire by Joseph Vaile encroaching conifers were mostly knee to and two swampers. We formed a local nest boxes. chest high then. crew (my wife and I, along with friends and neighbors) to do the job. We wanted From My Perspective e site is from 1,300’ to 1,700’ in elevation; Aerial photos from 1942 show the project N/NE slope, earth flow (slow-moving to further our place-based skills in Diggin’ In...e Gienger Report ...... 16 area completely clear of conifers except By Richard Gienger, Restoration Leadership Project slide) with some ultramafic (serpentine) grassland restoration, while keeping for one small grove of Incense Cedars that influence on the soils. e area has intact good notes on various techniques we were established on a rocky knoll. (The colonies of native perennial bunch grasses, were implementing. Announcments presence of cedars is due to serpentine as well as high wildflower diversity where Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) feeding 30 Years Ago in May: soils.) ose trees are estimated to be 100+ Prior to the project commencing we on the nectar of Dichelostemma capitatum e Bombing of Earth First! Activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney...... 24 the conifers did not fully take over. (Blue Dicks) in the Salmon Creek watershed. Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters years old and have no fire scars. To our informed neighbors via a community BY KYLE K EEGAN Historical evidence indicates that the knowledge, after interviewing old-time Facebook bulletin board and phone calls, Summer Adventure Camp ...... 28 prairie was used for sheep grazing ranchers and fourth-generation residents, as well as installing an informational sign Cover photo: An Argiope aurantia in the Salmon Creek Friends of the Lost Coast watershed. Spiders symbolizes patience, creativity, several decades ago. As a child, I visited and looking at historic fire map records, on the road near the site. and growth—certainly relevant to these times. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the BY KYLE K EEGAN authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of Trees Foundation. www.treesfoundation.org Page 3 Martin, White-tailed Kite, American dispersal (snowing potash) possibly offset we were unaware of—the roughening/ cache acorns.) We have observed jays Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk, Barn Owl, the carbon loss from burning large piles dampening of wind velocities by conifers using rocks, logs, bushes, fences, etc., as Northern Harrier. of brush? can alter the wind dynamics needed for visual markers to remember where they birds of prey to hunt efficiently. Note: Grassland bird populations have Tree girdling using the “triple ring” method: hid their acorns. Many of the conifers we declined by more than 53% across North Trees that were not felled were girdled Stumps, acorn-caching Scrub Jays, removed had Tan Oak, Canyon Live Oak, America since 1970.2,3 The effects of and left standing to provide habitat for and oak regeneration: Our direct and Oregon White Oak seedlings under conifer encroachment on local grassland cavity-nesting birds. All trees were girdled observations and the documentation of them, confirming this observation. With bird populations needs further study. using a “triple ring” method that we have others have shown that successful oak this in mind, we intentionally left stumps, developed over the past five years. If done logs, and piles of wood in areas where Plant species composition under invading regeneration can be attributed to acorns correctly it has a 95–100% success rate 4 Scrub Jay-planted oaks might fare well in conifers: Plants found under encroaching being cached (buried) by Scrub Jays. with killing Douglas-fir. Most trees take at conifers varied from no species (deep (Steller’s Jays and Gray Squirrels also the future. least a year to die. shade) to up to five species: Honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula), Wild Strawberry Three rings are made with a chainsaw (Fragaria californica), Yerba Buena penetrating the bark and cambium layer (Satureja douglassii), Gold Back Fern (approximately 1/2” to 1 1/2”-deep cuts, (Pentagramma triangularis), Licorice depending on the thickness of bark) Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza), and Sword around the circumference of the tree. Fern (Polystichum munitum). ere were Cuts (rings) are made from 6” to 1’ apart. also several species of fungi, at least two Two rings can be effective on drier sites. It species of moss, and at least one type of is very important to make sure that each ground lichen. ring penetrates the cambium layer (into the wood) the entire circumference of Coyote Brush removal: Some prominent the tree in order to prevent any sap from male coyote brush (Bacharis pilularis) flowing up the tree. The process takes This Kestrel started kiting on wind currents after five days of removing conifers from were left on-site to provide cover for 2-6 minutes per tree, depending on the a ridge line. It had been over two decades since raptors were seen hunting in this songbirds and late-season nectar for location in this manner. For birds of prey trying to survive our cold wet winters, being steepness of the slope, the diameter of able to hunt efficiently can make the difference between life and death. pollinators. Female (seed-producing) the tree, and experience of the chainsaw coyote brush were removed. operator. This was the first time that we Project Notes of Special Interest Savannah Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Wildlife piles: Eight large wildlife piles used this method to kill cedar trees. ey Bird species observed on-site before project Song Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, were constructed. We used felled logs have been slower to die than Douglas-fir. began: Steller’s Jay, Western Scrub Jay, Spotted Towhee, CA Towhee, Hairy and poles from the project to build simple Conifer encroachment, wind dynamics, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Chestnut-backed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Dark-eyed structures (dens) that were then covered and raptors: As mentioned earlier, I have Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Junco, and American Robin. with large amounts of brush. Hermit Thrush, Varied Thrush, Dark- strong memories as a child of watching eyed Junco, Wilson’s Warbler, Raven, Note: A pair of American Kestrels began Gully repair: Three large gullies were birds of prey using wind currents to hunt California Quail, Wild Turkey, Spotted using the newly opened habitat only five packed with brush to mitigate erosion. (hover or kite) over the southern dividing days after conifer removal. They were ridgeline of this project. At that time there Towhee, Hutton’s Vireo, Winter Wren, Pile Burning = Snowing Potash: Burning Red-shafted Flicker, Hairy Woodpecker, seen hunting in the area for months after were no trees larger than six feet tall in the large piles of brush may have value in and American Robin. the project was completed. (American vicinity. The last time that we witnessed dispersing potash (nutrients/minerals) Kestrel populations have declined by 50% raptors hunting in this manner was Bird species observed in reclaimed 1 over grassland systems that have in North America since the late 1960s. ) almost 20 years ago when we first moved grasslands after project was completed: experienced a fire deficit for several to this property. American Kestrel, Red-shouldered Hawk, Target bird species for this project include: decades. Falling ash was found up to 1/4 Red-tailed Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Western Meadowlark, Western Bluebird, mile from the epicenter of the project site, After removing many of the trees (now Merlin (fly-by), Northern Harrier, Barn Grasshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and the areas adjacent to our project were 20–40’ tall) from the ridgeline, we saw the Owl, Pygmy Owl, Western Bluebird, Chipping Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, all dusted with potash. This raised the first raptor (American Kestrel) utilizing Violet-green Swallow, Raven, Steller’s Jay, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Western Wood Pewee, question: Could the long-term benefits wind currents to hunt there once again. Incense Cedar and the “Triple Ring” method. Cuts should be made deep Scrub Jay, Hermit rush, Bewick’s Wren, Lazuli Bunting, California Towhee, Tree of boosting plant growth and vitality in It revealed a potential impact of conifer enough to prevent sap from flowing to the canopy but not so deep as Winter Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Swallow, Violet Green Swallow, Purple perennial grassland systems via nutrient encroachment on grassland ridges that to compromise the ability of the dead tree to stand for years to come.

Page 4 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 5 Is conifer encroachment possibly playing a enough to expose the underlying soil costs way less than commercial eco-bar part in oak regeneration?: e observation and our direct seeding success was oil.) This may be good news for future Eel River Fall Chinook 2019–2020 Run of jay-planted oak seedlings growing high. Learning from this, we decided to restoration projects in our region given Declines Due to Variable Ocean Conditions under encroaching conifers brought up experiment with some of our 2019/20 the potential impacts of petroleum-based another question about a possible pathway plots by creating dense lop-and-scatter bar oils on amphibians, terrestrial forest Eel River Recovery Project for regeneration and establishment of oak piles over areas where conifers had killed snails, soil organisms, aquatic life, etc. Times are changing in the world of salmon woodlands: Could conifer encroachment the grasses. We will let these brush piles assessment on the Eel River as technology set up the conditions for acorns to be cure for a season and then conduct small A project this scale needs to be maintained provides more accurate counts than cached by Scrub Jays that use the invading broadcast burns during the fall/winter with fire: ere is no way we would take people can, with sonar in the river and trees as markers, to later then be followed months in hopes of burning off the on a project of this scale again in the same drones in the sky. But the data does not by fire which kills the young conifers duff layer left by the conifers. Seeds will area 20 years from now. The amount provide good news about fish-run trends. but allows for the young oaks to basal then be sown directly in the burned of embodied energy (fossil fuel), human The 2019–2020 fall Chinook Salmon sprout and establish new territories? areas in hopes of re-establishing native calories, time, and money it took to do escapement (the number of salmon that (Of course, fire suppression would not grassland species. what fire could have done in a matter of “escape” ocean fisheries and return to the facilitate this process.) A well-timed and planned treatment of minutes has us thinking that we must river to spawn) was the first to dip below Reclaiming “conifer balds”: Encroaching prescribed (Rx) fire would be the most use prescribed fire to maintain these 10,000 fish since the Eel River Recovery conifers can create bald areas where no efficient means of reclaiming these reclaimed meadows in the future. Project (ERRP) began assessments in 2012. grass or flowers are growing. Many of conifer-encroached “dead zones.” But in In this report we describe this year’s run, these areas can accumulate duff and situations where land owners are facing The Follow-up look into what is causing the decline, and mycelial mats that are 2–4” thick. These challenges from adjacent neighbors, or do We are currently in the process of make suggestions about what we can do areas need to be raked or burned to not have an ideal location for using Rx fire, consulting with local prescribed fire to help Eel’s Chinook Salmon survive in a changing world. remove conifer duff to expose bare soil for the method described above could be an advocates and practitioners to help planting seeds. It quickly became apparent alternative option. make this dream a reality. We have The California Department of Fish that raking was a foolish endeavor given Live bunchgrass plug planting: We planted tentative plans to conduct our first 5-acre and Wildlife (CDFW) has operated a the scale of this project. a total of 1,850 live plugs over the two- prescribed fire treatment during the fall Dual Frequency Identification Sonar We have observed that if conifers are year period. Three species were planted: of 2020. (DIDSON) device on the main Eel above removed and no action is taken to Festuca californica, Festuca idahoensis, Dyerville for the last two years. They establish natives, the bare areas are and Deschampsia cespitosa. e live plugs Fire is not currently being used as a estimated that 4,110 Chinook Salmon mostly colonized by exotic grasses and were mostly planted in conifer balds and land-restoration tool in the Salmon migrated past that point between thistles, even if native species already burn-pile scars. Plugs were planted 1.5’ Creek watershed. As public education November and early January 2020, versus exist nearby. We believe that this is due to to 3’ feet apart. Some grass and flower and awareness of Rx fire increase, 3,844 the year prior. CalTrout operated annual grasses producing seed faster than seeds were also spread in these areas. e surrounding neighbors may become a similar unit on the lower South Fork the nearby native perennials and/or that survival rate was very high (98%) for the more supportive of this practice. In the Eel River and found only about 2,000 exotics may be present in the existing soil 2018/19 season. meantime we will continue to gain Chinook in 2019–2020, versus 3,800 last seed bank. ese observations tell us that year at the same site. Canola oil as chainsaw bar oil: In the last knowledge and direct experience with Rx “grassland restoration” requires more than two weeks of the project we experimented fire. is is where our Humboldt County Early fall Chinook counts in the lower just removing the conifers. with using canola oil as a chain lubricant Prescribed Burn Association comes in. Eel River were a harbinger. Since 2015, An experimental approach to dealing with after doing some prior research on its And yes, we are members! Eric Stockwell has conducted stand-up Chinook Salmon school holding in shallow water in the lower Eel River. BY DAVE S OPJES conifer balds and seeding: In the areas use in European countries. So far it has paddleboard surveys of the lower Eel where we had burn piles in the conifer worked perfectly and if bought in bulk Kyle Keegan and his family have from late August until rain boosts flow developed for estimating water fowl CDFW and CalTrout found that the stewarded land in the Salmon Creek in October or November and the fish balds, the duff layer was consumed costs less than standard bar oil. (It also numbers from photos. main pulse of Chinook Salmon occurred watershed for more than 23 years. They begin their migration to the headwaters in association with the rain just after Cited Sources: operate the “Fool’s Farm,” specializing to spawn. David Sopjes, a retired Ferndale Eric and Dave estimated that 1,500 anksgiving, but there was no late pulse 1) https:// www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Kestrel/lifehistory in land restoration and consultation as High School teacher, mastered drone Chinook Salmon were holding in the 2) “Remaining large grasslands may not be su cient to prevent grassland bird declines,” well as workshops and tours focusing photography of the lower Eel River lower Eel River on October 29, 2019. By of new fish as additional rains came. Kimberly, A., Anthony W. King, William E. Jensen (YEAR), Biological Conservation, on biodiversity, land stewardship, and Some fish spawned below Dyerville in the Volume 141, Issue 12. [[Ideally you’d have the page numbers too]] over the last two years and got precise way of comparison, on October 27 in 2012, 3) https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/ permaculture design. Kyle can be reached salmon counts from his photos in 2019 an ERRP dive team counted 5,036 salmon main Eel River starting in late November, 4) Oaks of California, Pavlik, Muick, Johnson, Popper. Los Olivos, CA: Cachuma Press, 1991. at (707) 943-1504 and [email protected] using DotDotGoose software that was in this part of the river. but at very low densities and they likely

Page 6 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 7 abundant in this watershed in several years Eel River Fall Chinook Trends 2012-2019 since 2012, the 2019–2020 run was weak by all accounts. Flow of the Van Duzen 50000 X River at Bridgeville rose to nearly 100 cfs on November 27, initiating migration, but 45000 then dropped to 30 cfs the next day as 40000 snow blanketed the watershed, possibly stranding some fish. ERRP volunteers saw 35000 no live fish or spawning fish from Carlotta 30000 X X to Bridgeville. Eric Stockwell and others 25000 found extremely light spawning in Yager X and Lawrence creeks, which usually have 20000 X X some of the highest Chinook Salmon redd 15000 X X concentrations in the Eel River watershed. X X X X The total run for the Van Duzen River 10000 X X X sub-basin appears to have been as low as X 5000 500–1,000 fish. 0 Fall-run Chinook Salmon migrating up the South Fork at Piercy on Nov. 29, 2019. BY A NN C ONSTANTINO However, good news came from the Middle Fork, where the river rose to greater 2012 2013 2014 20152016 2017 2018 2019 numbered just a few hundred. Later- in 2019–2020. This contrasts with with excess sediment and there was no than 1,000 cfs and late-run Chinook season surveys of lower Eel tributaries like 1985–1988 escapement of 3,500–5,000 spawning in tributaries above Willits; Salmon were able to get over Coal Mine * Red indicates ERRP downward revision from 15,000 – 22,500 to 10,000-15,000 in 2018 Howe Creek and Bear Creek found no Chinook Salmon. Recent field reports and only one adult salmon was sighted by Falls after December 7, 2019. is allowed spawners and no redds (salmon nests). noted that there was so much excess ERRP volunteers the entire season. access to prime spawning beds upstream Chinook Salmon survival. Banks must population trend on the South Fork Eel sediment that pools were filling and riffle as far as the Eel River Guard Station, and In the South Fork Eel River basin, the be stabilized and cottonwood gallery River, ERRP is hopeful that CDFW will areas moving, which means that bedload e Van Duzen River is a large Eel River in Williams Creek and the Black Butte run was delayed by low flows, and most forests restored to narrow the floodplain favorably consider our re-application movement is likely limiting salmon egg sub-basin, joining it just above the ocean. River. It is likely that many of the Chinook Chinook fish spawned in the main South and scour deeper pools for holding and for strategic removal of large adult survival. Outlet Creek also has problems Although Chinook Salmon have been Salmon bound for the Middle Fork with Fork upstream of Leggett. Flows were too riffles for migration. We need to improve pikeminnow to improve survival of native earlier spawn timing laid their eggs in the late to expand distribution into upper the habitat for Chinook Salmon between fishes, including Chinook Salmon. reach below the falls, or in the main Eel Tenmile Creek, which has some of the the Potter Valley Project dams too. Join us downstream of Dos Rios. ERRP fall-run Chinook trend estimates most productive spawning areas in the Eel in promoting Salmon Parks in the lower from 2012 to 2019 show a robust River watershed. Late-run Chinook use A new major factor limiting Eel River and upper Eel for the salmon and for local population at the beginning of the Bull Creek, below where CalTrout set up Chinook Salmon survival is ocean community health and quality of life. period and a decline to 2015, followed by the DIDSON in 2019, but several surveys productivity in the area off northern We need to control watershed erosion a rebound in 2016–2017. Unfortunately, by Eric Stockwell found very few live fish California where these animals feed for more recently the population has again or redds. several years before returning to spawn. through road improvement and declined, at least in part driven by ocean The National Oceanic and Atmospheric decommissioning, and to restore It was not until December 1, 2019 that conditions. This will be the last year Administration (NOAA) found that watershed hydrology to limit damaging the first Chinook Salmon ascended the that ERRP produces a fall-run Chinook the nearshore ocean has not recovered flood peaks and improve baseflows. ladder at the Van Arsdale Fish Station, fully from the anomalous warm water Restoring forest health could go a long Salmon assessment due to the capacity to and only 154 total Chinook Salmon conditions in 2015. Krill, an extremely way in meeting the latter objective. generate more precise data by CDFW and migrated over Cape Horn Dam in the important source of food for salmon, are its non-profit partners. e ERRP estimate 2019–2020 season. Garcia and Associates Young salmon have now emerged this fewer in number and smaller in size, and of the 2019–2020 run is 7,100 to 9,000 have assumed monitoring responsibilities March from their gravel nests and are this is likely limiting growth and survival fish and serves as a wake-up call in terms associated with the Potter Valley making their way to the estuary. Low of Eel River Chinook Salmon. of the need to accelerate conservation Project for PG&E, including conducting flows aided their survival in the nest, as no measures that improve freshwater habitat spawning surveys of Tomki Creek. ey So, what can we do to improve freshwater bedload shift occurred, but now low and to help prevent species loss. found a total of only 40 redds in Tomki habitat to help Chinook survival? As a clear conditions will work against them Creek, which indicates that only about Eroding bank at Worswick Pool above Fernbridge is causing pool filling priority, we need to fix lower Eel River as they face predation by the invasive a For more information: 120 Chinook spawned in the watershed that leads to poor habitat and salmon stress. BY ERRP habitat that constitutes a major threat to Sacramento pikeminnow. Given the dire www.eelriverrecovery.org

Page 8 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 9 Climate Change, Forest Health, Carbon Sequestration, and the Path to Resilience Eel River Recovery Program The recent county decision to reject the large-scale Terra-Gen wind project caused a lot of soul searching in the environmental community of Humboldt County, but it was the right thing to do from an environmental and social justice perspective. Discussion that surrounded the decision focused largely on one part Ron Lincoln Sr. (r) explains forest health from a Native American perspective to of the climate-change equation: how we Sarah Reith of KZYX, as tribal elder Ernie Merrifield (far left) and others listen. BY ERRP can help slow or reverse climate change through alternative energy production. windows after rain or snow, maintaining the Eel River has changed since European However, our community might have open meadows for the deer and elk while colonization. Douglas-fir can form its greatest impact through carbon keeping oak woodlands thriving in order magnificent old forests on north-facing sequestration, and we could restore Eel to increase acorns for themselves and for slopes in wetter parts of the Eel River River watershed ecosystem function the animals. By preventing the landscape watershed, but it can also invade meadows along the way. from becoming choked with dense and over-top oak forests, if not controlled. Streeter Creek watershed with Douglas-fir over-topping oaks, lessening food for the animals, increasing fire risk, The resources are becoming available vegetation, traditional ecological practices This is undesirable from a biodiversity and decreasing baseflows, which makes this watershed a high-value target for forest health implementation. for forest health planning for carbon maximized water yield and promoted perspective because grasslands and sequestration, and a whopping robust stream baseflows. We are lucky oak woodlands provide a lot of food for Initiative funds. Pilot project funding from and foresters can all come together in watershed and Round Valley, and in the $550 million per year is available for to have living knowledge of local forest animals. No benefits are accrued from a the Wildlife Conservation Board and this effort. ERRP is currently involved heart of the Eel River watershed between implementation from the Cal Fire health and restoration—by comparison, timber production perspective because the North Coast Resource Partnership in helping residents of the Tenmile Dos Rios and Dyerville. Climate Change Initiative (CCI) fund. is available to assist with helping land in Germany the Black Forest is dying, but the invading Douglas-fir is usually Creek watershed in their efforts to plan By making each property fire safe by Luckily the knowledge of how to reshape owners develop forest health plans, and forests there have been so altered for so small diameter, and not merchantable. for forest health implementation and to implementing forest health measures, one our forests is available in the living many centuries that no one knows how to Douglas-fir can disrupt natural watershed for communities to organize a labor obtain major funding for this work. e memory of indigenous residents, whose land owner is secure, but when we make restore the natural ecology. hydrology by encroaching on springs in force so that subsequent implementation Tenmile Creek Watershed Council has ancestors sculpted the landscape using progress at a landscape scale, we help our meadows, diminishing water for the phases can boost local employment. formed and expressed interest in forest fire. is is often referred to as traditional As another resource for forest health ecosystem re-adapt to fire and make our adjacent grasslands and stream baseflows. ecological knowledge (TEK). Natives planning, we have excellent scientific Organizing around forest health and fire health, and it may become the fulcrum whole watershed safe. Surface water is also decreased when burned in the appropriate climate documentation of how the landscape of safety galvanizes communities. Hippies for implementation. Grassroots interest a Call Pat Higgins if you want to talk forest Douglas-fir over-top and replace oak in the hills, Native Americans, ranchers, is also sprouting in the Middle Fork Eel health strategy at (707) 223-7200. woodlands or grow too densely after old- growth logging. The Eel River watershed is ideal for organizing the work of ensuring forest Forest health meeting attendees at Harwood health because it is 85% private land, and Hall in Laytonville on land owners have considerable flexibility. January 25, 2020, Chris Heppe of BLM talks including members of the about recreational access People are mobilizing in different parts newly formed Tenmile and forest health at the jump of the Eel River watershed as funding Creek Watershed off for the Cahto Wilderness becomes available for pilot projects, and Council, who hosted the Trail on August 5, 2019. ALL meeting. Article author PHOTOS THIS ARTICLE BY together we are becoming sufficiently and fisheries biologist Pat PAT H IGGINS , UNLESS NOTED organized to access Climate Change Higgins kneels in front.

Page 10 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 11 project due to the following factors: 1) it Redwood Creek Flow-Enhancement Efforts Focus on the is a broad area with gentle topography, 2) the site is not within the Redwood Marshall Ranch in the South Fork Eel River Watershed Creek floodplain or within the potential Redwood Creek channel migration corridor, 3) there are no watercourses, By Salmonid Restoration Federation summer flows. The company prepared e Marshall Ranch, where the proposed wetlands, trees or other sensitive plant Since 2013, Salmonid Restoration conceptual designs for off-channel project is situated, is a rare example of species within the proposed pond footprint so environmental impacts Federation has been conducting low- rainwater catchment ponds that could a large, contiguous land holding in the are minimal, 4) the pond site is located flow monitoring in Redwood Creek, a improve water security for individual Redwood Creek watershed. The 2,942- at an elevation with enough pressure critical tributary to the South Fork Eel parcels but would require wide and acre ranch comprises 34 legal parcels coordinated participation in order to head to deliver the entire pond volume River. With funding from the Wildlife under one-family ownership. e historic measurably improve flows. After much ranch has been managed sustainably to Redwood Creek by gravity, and 5) the Conservation Board and the California research and reconnaissance, the SRF for timber production and livestock Marshall Ranch LLC (landowner) is fully Department of Fish and Wildlife, SRF and Stillwater project team determined since the 1880s while also providing supportive of the project. and Stillwater Sciences have been that the greatest opportunity to improve extensive habitat for fish and wildlife as exploring the feasibility of various Due to the size of the project and nearby streamflows was to work cooperatively evidenced by the presence of Coho, streamflow enhancement opportunities downslope neighbors, the project team By midsummer, Redwood Creek streamflows become so low that flow monitor, with the Marshall Ranch, the largest Chinook, and Steelhead. Katrina Nystrom, measures flow with the bucket and stopwatch method. has conducted detailed analysis of site in Redwood Creek. Stillwater Sciences private parcel in the watershed. This Disconnected pools strand juvenile salmonids. If funded, this flow enhancement conditions, pond design features, and project would release 50gpm for the 5-month dry season. ALL PHOTOS THIS ARTICLE BY SRF conducted a feasibility study in a segment land has been stewarded by the Marshall The proposed Marshall Ranch Flow potential failure mechanisms. During of the watershed that helped to identify family since the 1800s and is now fully Enhancement Project is being designed priority projects that could improve protected under conservation easement. to significantly improve Redwood Creek the initial CEQA public comment • Installation of a pond liner, French will be a public hearing scheduled for dry-season conditions. A 15.5-million- period, downslope landowners raised drain, and subsurface restrictive barrier. any interested parties to attend. SRF gallon off-channel pond is proposed concerns about the long term safety • Grade control structures will do our due diligence to notify to store winter runoff and release of the proposed pond and associated in central gully downstream landowners and the approximately 50 gallons per minute of grading and infrastructure, especially Slope stability analyses indicate that Redwood Creek community about cool clean water into Redwood Creek during the rare case of a large rainfall incorporating the proposed design the public comment timeline and the during the five-month dry season. event coupled with a large magnitude modifications is expected to lower the significance of this project. Modeling suggests that this would earthquake. Based on these concerns, risk of slope instability that could impact enhance flows from Redwood Creek additional analyses have been conducted The South Fork Eel River is considered the downslope landowners compared to to the confluence of the South Fork including further assessment of potential one of the highest priority watersheds in current conditions. is is a result of the Eel River, a significant 5.5 mile stream pond failure mechanisms and seismic the state for flow-enhancement projects. proposed project significantly lowering length. This water input is expected to slope stability analyses under worst-case, Forested tributaries like Redwood Creek the water table within the upper terrace have a significant and measurable benefit current, and proposed conditions. Based provide refugia habitat for threatened to salmonids and other aquatic habitat on these analyses, several significant and stabilizing the central gully. juvenile Coho Salmon but suffer from in Redwood Creek. A fire suppression design revisions are being considered Proposed design modifications will be the cumulative impacts of legacy logging component is also being designed into that will greatly reduce risk associated reviewed by technical advisors from and unregulated water diversions. “ is the project. e pond will be accessible with pond berm and spillway failure. e the California Department of Fish project could help save the Coho Salmon for helicopters to dip their buckets and probable design modifications include and Wildlife, North Coast Regional population in this watershed, improve a fire hydrant near the Sommerville– the following: Water Quality Control Board, NOAA fire safety conditions, and build climate Old Briceland Road intersection is also • Lowering the pond elevation by Fisheries, and the State Water Board; change resilience during this era where eight feet will significantly reduce being proposed for access by fire engines and shared with the broader community. we are experiencing longer dry seasons,” The site is a unique geomorphic feature within the Redwood Creek watershed since it is during emergencies. the weight on the existing terrace stated Dana Stolzman, Executive Director a Pleistocene fluvial terrace (between 10,000 to 2 million years old). The geotechnical Once input is integrated, design below current conditions. of Salmonid Restoration Federation. evaluation for the project confirmed this finding with boreholes consisting of hard shale Selection of the off-channel pond site has revisions and technical reports will be • Relocation of the pond spillways bedrock overlaid by sandy gravel deposits (old sediment from when Redwood Creek was resubmitted to Humboldt County for flowing on the terrace approximately 80 ft higher in elevation than the current creek been guided by office- and field-based and changing the initial culvert a For more information: calsalmon.org level). On top of the pre-historic creek deposits, 10 to 20 feet of alluvial fan material assessments of a significant portion of spillway (in the previous design CEQA review. At that time, the County has been slowly deposited over the last >10,000 years from the upgradient hillslope the Redwood Creek watershed. Based will notify downstream neighbors of a and small swale. These multiple lines of scientific evidence supporting terrace stability phase) to a rock-lined spillway will provided the basis for the pond design prepared in September 2019 and accompanied on these assessments, the proposed increase longevity and reduce 30-day public comment period. After initial CEQA application documents. pond location is uniquely suited for the long-term maintenance costs. that 30-day comment period, there

Page 12 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 13 LIVING WITH FIRE PODS: A SOLUTION TO FIRE IN THE TIME OF CLIMATE CHANGE

By Joseph Vaile, KS Wild the question: “How do we build a better Before we can fix a problem, we need in northern California, many groups While all of us are focused on the relationship with wildfire?” to first understand it. Historically, fire are working with age-old cultural fire- was a part of life in the forest. Fires were management tools to change the way COVID-19 virus and the widespread First, we must recognize that forests are started either by random occurrences that forests are managed. To do just that, impacts on our lives and communities, adapted to fire. It is impossible to stop of lightning, or when indigenous people there is increasing interest in different we know that fire season is looming all fires, and total fire exclusion is not a intentionally set them to encourage approaches to landscape planning. on the horizon. While our lives feel at a good idea. Most of the forests of northern the growth of certain plants for food, One such approach is to plan based on total standstill, nature continues onward. California are dependent on frequent fire materials, and medicine. This practice potential wildfire operational delineations, Wildfire season will come this summer, for seed propagation, nutrient cycling, left forests more resilient to successive or PODs, which are areas identified and we will be much better off if we and habitat maintenance. For millennia, fire because these fires burned in mosaic and drawn on a map using boundaries prepare our communities and address the lightning storms and indigenous cultures patterns and removed much of the smaller such as roads and ridges. Fire-safe land Once implemented, the treated areas are drying out. Research shows us that shortcomings of our current approaches have ignited blazes that maintained the vegetation around large trees. ese fires management strategies such as targeted around each POD could be used to the moisture levels are related to the to wildfire before the sparks begin to fly. unique plant and wildlife communities left openings where forest fuels were thinning and prescribed fire are then help scale up the use of prescribed fire temperature, and that persistently high that define the region. We obviously need to do something diminished, creating a patchy landscape planned for the perimeter of each POD. inside the compartment. In addition to late-summer temperatures are drying different. e last decade of fire seasons in Our forests are also key to our future. that would not carry treetop crown fires PODs are a hopeful concept, as they the benefits to the forest, prescribed fire out vegetation and fueling big fires. We northern California has taught us that we Finding a balance with fire is so important as easily. would steer land managers like the U.S. carried out in the right conditions can are guaranteed big fire years in the future, must better prepare and react to wildfire. because the forests of California and the Contrast this with more recent times. Forest Service to prepare for wildfire reduce smoke impacts on communities. and how we prepare and react will only We know that as a result of climate change, Pacific Northwest store millions of tons of For decades we have actively managed through their vegetation management Setting fires when the atmosphere is become more crucial as temperatures rise. past logging practices, development carbon. Forests are key in helping keep the programs. Right now, the Forest Service unstable allows smoke to rise up and away our forests, logging our biggest trees and Like the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfire patterns, and the suppression of burning planet cool. Even after throwing billions continues to be driven to produce timber from communities, rather than being putting out fires that would have removed often feels like a terrifying, overwhelming for the last 100 years, fire seasons in the of dollars at fire suppression every year, and treat fuels on a targeted number of trapped near the ground. By intentionally small trees and brush. Today’s forests have threat. However, let this pandemic be west are growing in their impact on we won’t be able to entirely control fire acres as a measure of its success. Instead, setting fires during wetter times of the too few big trees with thick bark that have a lesson to us as we inch closer to fire communities. As the climate warms in forests. But there are conservation and the restoration of fire-adapted forests at year, we can reduce the likelihood that withstood fires for hundreds of years, and season: that there are real and actionable and dries, we will only experience more management actions we can take to better a landscape scale should be the target. more severe fires will happen in the dry too many small, thin-barked trees that are steps we can all take to prepare for fire severe fire in years to come. We must ask prepare and react to wildfire. To do that, the Forest Service should season. Native cultures have practiced highly flammable. and find a balance with our fire-adapted embrace approaches like PODs as a better burning for millennia, and we need to forests. Like all natural processes, we can’t So, what about thinning out the small way to do business. allow this burning again and at a much trees? Focused thinning near homes greater scale. continue to fight against fire and expect and communities—if followed with If PODs were the management and that we can entirely control the outcome, Thinning and prescribed fire projects prescribed fire—is shown to reduce the suppression strategy, fires that escaped but PODs might help us learn to better don’t necessarily produce direct likelihood of fire reaching a residence or the initial effort at suppression could be live with fire. economic profits, and so many politicians sacrificing other resource values. Many more easily suppressed in areas where and industry representatives don’t always tree plantations are now crowded with strategic thinning and prescribed fire With a background in wildlife and conservation support the approach. But the truth is that dense, planted trees that can be thinned. treatments were already completed. e biology, Joseph Vaile joined KS Wild in 1999. He smaller trees along strategic roads and This is important work, but we don’t integration of these strategic roadside has stewarded KS Wild’s conservation policy and and ridgetop fuel treatments with fire ridges could be removed to help manage advocacy programs, helping secure protection have the resources to thin the entire suppression would allow fire crews to fires into the future. Some of these trees for thousands of acres of threatened roadless landscape to restore forest resilience in more safely contain a fire inside the will have commercial value. We need our areas, groves of ancient forests, and hundreds of the backcountry. We need to intentionally miles of wild rivers. Joseph launched KS Wild’s compartment created by the linear leaders to invest adequate funding, as set fires and use natural ignitions to Climate Program in 2019 to advocate for climate PODs treatments. PODs won’t stop all these projects will not pay for themselves. accomplish a lot of this work for us. smart conservation and forest management, and wildfires, but they could be a huge help Most importantly, we know for certain policies that recognize the important role that Photos of prescribed fire along a U.S. Forest Service road. e Forest Service’s mission must shift to to firefighters and allow fire to restore that climate change is real. Our world forests play as carbon sinks. He can be reached at COURTESY OF A SHLAND F OREST R ESILIENCY better preparing for fire. On public lands forests in a coordinated manner. is warming and the forests of the West [email protected]

Page 14 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 15 Growing up in places like upstate New Diggin’ In York, lake country in Ontario, Canada, forested mining lands in Pennsylvania, The Richard Gienger Report and Virginia piedmont farmland gave me plenty of opportunity to observe adversely Sure gets tough making sense of so much to develop and literally cultivate what is I recommend as required reading Mark altered landscapes and some “passive all at once and over lifetimes. Right now needed; and utilizing technological skills Arax’s article about the Camp Fire and recovery” when human pressures left or we are in the beginning throes of dealing that are valued and rewarded. Of course, Paradise (https://story.californiasunday. slackened. Moving in 1971 to the Mattole with a virus that already is affecting there is a heterogeneous and variable com/gone-paradise-fire) and Mark River headwaters and adjacent to the coast millions around the world with not blending of these modes—with often- Arax’s latest book, The Dreamt Land, and South Fork Eel River watersheds, I and many others traversed a lot of just threat of sickness or death but the contentious conflicts within and amongst www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc- forestlands that had been incredibly and disruption of multiple layers, numbers, human groups with ranges of aspirations review-mark-arax-dreamt-land-water- grossly impacted from the tractor logging and types of relationships and supply and conditions. california-20190530-story.html. To get primarily in the 1950s and ’60s and even chains that humankind depends on. is down to a regional Southwestern United Don Allan of the Salmonid Restoration Federation (SRF) at an abandoned North Coast There is a huge body of historical Railroad bridge over Outlet Creek—the photo looking upstream toward Little Lake and extending into the 1980s. is was huge context is daunting for moving forward States-heavy history and complex overlays Willits where there are tributaries that are key for survival and abundant recovery for documentation, much of which is widely motivation for protection of original forest on “Diggin’ In” #63. that more broadly apply, I recommend: Coho Salmon. ALL PHOTOS THIS ARTICLE BY R ICHARD G IENGER available—and much of which competes remnants, and restoration/recovery of the Aside from this immediate emergency, e ree-Cornered War—e Union, the for our attention every day—that presents maybe even hope for the future, but the move to the music of economic necessity region’s forests and watersheds. each of us has experiences both directly Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the explanations and perspectives going “way reality situation examined at a variety as dictated by those who gained control of and indirectly via what we incorporate Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson. In the late 1960s, Redwood National Park back,” but for the sake of this discussion, of scales, with the regions of California most of the land has been overwhelming. through observation and learning from was established, followed by the heated let’s just focus on the last 500 years (more Now I need to take a few over-simplified as case studies, is massive depletion of There has been some resistance, with an incredible array of verbal, written, struggle over its essential expansion or less) and the ventures and migrations jumps to get us to conditions in what resources, burgeoning populations, no real conservation and protection achieved and sound stimuli, and visual history in the early 1970s and amalgamation to empower and enrich various types Dwight Yoakum refers to as “The Late conservation ethic, and a devil-take-the- from time to time in large areas of the and art. My particular “tilt” has been with earlier California State Redwood of imperial interests, capabilities, and Great Golden State”—a catchy song hindmost economy based on real estate Klamath and Trinity, some coastal strongly affected by forest, water, and Parks. Public awareness and outrage cultures with the resources and cultures accessible on YouTube. I can’t begin to and other speculation and exploitation. areas like the King Range and Sinkyone soil connections and learning some over extreme impacts by logging of the Western Hemisphere. is dynamic address all the nuances and un-nuanced Now I don’t want to offend the Ayn Rand Wilderness, and other areas like the of the positive and negative human exacerbated by the 1955 and 1964 “100- is more widely expressed over the rest of progression of the colonial and plantation- “Fountainhead” powerbrokers that control relationships to those connections Heath and Marjorie Angelo Coast Range year” floods led to a whole era of forestry the world and over a much larger period of oriented dominant paradigms sweeping so much these days, but a re-thinking and spatially and over time. Reserve in the headwaters of the South reform, including stronger regulation, time. Among literary explanations for the West from colonies to revolution to re-acting for difficult and positive courses Fork Eel River. required oversight by professional To simplify three categories or modes of last 500 years in the Western Hemisphere civil war to world stage imperialism is necessary. Ironically, in some ways, relationships I have observed, experienced, is the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by inconsistent with democracy and on to responding to the coronavirus pandemic or learned about: moving seasonally Jared Diamond. Another perspective World Wars I & II and repeating boom points the way to making changes that over the landscape to meet needs and is described in 500 Years of Indigenous & bust cycles. There are some positive seriously slow down the runaway fossil inspiration; staying mostly in one locale Resistance by Gord Hill. and inspiring aspects along the way, and fuel juggernaut economy: stay home and get self/group-sufficient. OK, I’ll calm down and describe some specific examples that stand out for me. The big deal professed these days—now from almost all quarters—is achieving the “triple bottom line” or the three “E”s: Economy, Environment, and Equity. Our regional reality sure went heavy on the economic, sacrificing environment and social equity. Conquest and displacement, overgrazing, overfishing, over-logging and related impacts continued from 1850 A Northern Spotted Owl Grove on Rainbow Ridge was saved only because the owl was Representatives of conservation organizations touring the spectacular 540-acre Outlet Creek Ranch, as Pacific Forest Trust is looking discovered during active operations by Humboldt Redwood Company. It obviously should to donate the property to another conservation nonprofit to continue land management and stewardship. Ridgetop and hillside prairies right on up to today. ere has been very have been protected as High Conservation Value Forest under Forest Stewardship Council mixed with recovering and remnant forests extend down to a major salmon and steelhead tributary of the Mainstem Eel River. little “middle ground,” and the pressure to Certification. Note the black spray paint covering up blue cut-markings.

Page 16 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 17 C

To Get Involved PLANT NOTES C Richard Gienger [email protected] 707-223-6474 Broadleaved Stonecrop, C EPIC wildcalifornia.org C Sedum spathulifolium Forests Forever By Cheryl Lisin, Friends of Lost Coast www.forestsforever.org/ C Institute for Sustainable Forestry Did you know that there are many www.instituteforsustainableforestry.com succulents native to California? My C Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc. favorite is broadleaved stonecrop, a lovely www.rffi.org little plant with rosettes of gray-green, C Sanctuary Forest waxy leaves that become tinged with red sanctuaryforest.org due to stress, such as from drought or C e Conservation Fund freezing weather. Like many succulents, www.conservationfund.org broadleaved stonecrop roots easily from C Why Forests Matter its stems, spreading to form low mats whyforestsmatter.org of foliage about four inches high and Broadleaved stonecrop in bloom, growing on the roots of a Douglas-fir tree up to two feet wide. Sprays of bright in the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. ALL PHOTOS THIS ARTICLE BY C HERYL L ISIN Meanwhile, Pacific Forest Trust is looking yellow flowers appear in spring, rising for another conservation-minded 501(c)3 four to six inches above the plant. In the Elfin, Callophrys/Incisalia mossii, is fairly plants and send them to markets overseas. nonprofit to take over ownership and wild, broadleaved stonecrop prefers to common and never far from sedum; Rather than collect in the wild, it is best to purchase plants from nurseries or get stewardship of 540 acres along Outlet grow on coastal bluffs, riverbanks, and Rocky Mountain parnassian, Parnassius cuttings from a friend. Creek, a tributary to the Eel River that rocky outcrops, where it forms hanging smintheus, is only found on sedum at gives access for salmon and steelhead, mats of foliage. Seeking moisture with high elevations. In addition to being Ranging from British Columbia to notably Coho traveling to Little Lake its roots in winter, it survives our dry beneficial to insects, the plant has human Southern California, broadleaved Valley and the Willits area spawning and summers by retaining water in its fleshy uses, including treatment of sore gums, stonecrop is most abundant in Northern Spectacular view across the Rainbow Ridge Forest and West over the rearing tributaries. stems and leaves. The grayish waxy constipation, and nerves. California’s Coast Ranges and the western Mattole Valley to Cooskie Mountain, Prosper Ridge, and the Pacific Ocean. coating of the leaves reflects sunlight and Sierra Nevada. The scientific name is The fight continues by Why Forests In the garden, broadleaved stonecrop is a foresters, and multidisciplinary planning Winter 2019 Forest and River News. is another mechanism for the plant to Sedum spathulifolium and it is in the Matter and Forests Forever to get nice, neat, small-scale groundcover for sun and monitoring. Seeing how Humboldt Redwood survive dry summers. plant family Crassulaceae, which also adequate standards and incentives for or shade, requiring little or no summer Company keeps saying “Come See for contains jade plant, hens and chicks, Continuing this thumbnail sketch: A Broadleaved stonecrop is pollinated by water. It looks just as fabulous spilling Yourself,” a bunch of us did—mostly from truly healthy and high-quality forests of and many other well-known, garden- stage characterized by more public bumblebees and other native bees, who over the side of a flowerpot as it does on the Mattole Restoration Council, together multigenerational nature—not just forests variety succulents. The species name, involvement and the importance of use the flowers for nectar and pollen. a rocky outcrop! Unfortunately, native with some others including Paul Hughes thinned for five years. spathulifolium, refers to the spoon or social mores developed in the late 1970s Larvae of two butterfly species use the succulents can be at risk from poachers from Forests Forever, two HRC foresters, C spatulate shape of the leaves, spatil being and on through the 1980s to the present. at’s it, folks, food for thought. leaves and flower buds for food: Moss’ who denude whole embankments of the and me. Big issues, folks—and thank Please help out where and when you Greek for spoon and folium being Latin Protection of the Sinkyone Wilderness goodness the discovery of a spotted owl can. Check out the workshop & tour for leaves. coast and Headwaters Forest are two occurred during the logging operation, programs and other information for notable examples. A major element was Cheryl Lisin is a native plant and what was an area that should have Sanctuary Forest, ISF, and EPIC. enthusiast, landscape designer, and the acquisition of depleted forestlands by been designated High Conservation Since arriving in the Mattole Valley President of Friends of the Lost Coast non-profit conservation organizations Value Forest ended up with obliterated of Humboldt County in 1971, Richard (formerly Lost Coast Interpretive Gienger has immersed himself in such as the The Conservation Fund and “cut marks” and now we have a Northern Association) whose mission is to homesteading, forest activism, and inspire passion for nature in the the Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc. Spotted Owl grove. Virgin ungullied watershed restoration. Richard’s column Lost Coast Region. She is currently covers a range of issues including prairies were gouged with a haul road working on a native plant garden at Getting myself too deep into an fisheries and watershed restoration and leading to steep forest and inner gorges. the King Range BLM office for the introduction for a book—I’ll present forestry, plus describes opportunities education and enjoyment of all. You some short notes now: At play here also is the Lost Coast League’s for the public to make positive contributions in the administrative can contact her at Cheryl@lostcoast. Please check out my comments and Forest Stewardship Council grievances. and legislative arenas as well as in their Broadleaved stonecrop loves to grow in the cracks on rocks. org. Special thanks to Pete Haggard editorial about Rainbow Ridge in the See Michael Evenson’s article on page 22. own backyards. Here it is growing in the King Range National Conservation Area. for the information on insects!

Page 18 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 19 Wildlife Notes Neotropical Migrant Songbirds Green Diamond to CTIVIST A ORNER A Miraculous Journey C Log Sproul Creek

By Sproul Watershed Advocates By Kyle Keegan, Fools Farm of insect activity during our spring and As the days become longer and the summer months. During this short period, Green Diamond recently acquired 9,400 storms of winter pass, each year brings the explosion of insect life provided acres in the Sproul Creek watershed, extending from near the Garberville the promise of an ancient ritual that by temperate ecosystems is virtually airport to Ettersburg Junction to the has taken place on the North Coast unparalleled, allowing migrant birds to ridges south of Whitethorn. This land Green Diamond clearcuts adjacent to Redwood National and State Parks for millennia—spring migration. Oak coexist with our local resident species once belonged to Barnum Timber, which woodlands, forests, and meadows that while capitalizing on the highly nutritious was infamous for phenoxy herbicide were virtually silent during winter food. Research also suggests that breeding and trucks will exit at Ettersburg caltrees. Unless you are submitting success may be higher here than in the spraying in the 1970s. months come alive with the songs and Junction. Forest & River News readers something, you do not need a login. At tropics where parasites and predators are antics of some of our most colorful and Sproul Watershed Advocates (SWA) was know that Sanctuary Forest is protecting “Search” you can enter the THP number, more prevalent. vibrant bird species: Western Tanagers, formed to keep an eye on their plans. the ecologically significant Van Arken the record type “THP,” and “submit.” With Black-headed Grosbeaks, Lazuli Buntings, A Dangerous Journey Washington-based Green Diamond (GD) watershed in cooperation with Lost some patience or help, you can also access Vireos, Warblers, Hummingbirds, and inherited two approved Timber Harvest Coast Forestlands. The GD lands are a list of newly submitted THPs to review. Migration is inherently dangerous. A male Rufous Hummingbird during Swallows. Some of these birds who just Plans (THPs) from the former owner, also important for the recovery of Coho Neotropical migrants must travel over migration feeding on the nectar It may be possible to get information of Pedicularis densiflora in the and the company re-submitted a revised Salmon and other species. weeks before may have been foraging mountains, deserts, forests, vast expanses from the CalFire office in Fortuna, in jungle canopies alongside Howler Salmon Creek watershed. Rufous Gibson Ridge THP, 1-20-00024-HUM, on of industrial monocultures, and urban Hummingbirds winter in Mexico and SWA members can assist others in 707-725-4413, Resource Management staff. Monkeys and Toucans now find March 19, 2020. sprawl during their northbound journey. breed as far north as Alaska studying and commenting on this and in the summer. For their size, Sproul Watershed Advocates has met themselves in a temperate world—among Many species fly by night. Some birds This is a revision of a THP that was future THPs. Comments on this THP they make the longest journey of any several times and maintains an email Gray Squirrels and Steller’s Jays. such as the Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon bird in North America. submitted on Feb. 7, 2020 and returned will be due as early as April 27, 2020. e BOTH PHOTOS THIS ARTICLE BY KYLE K EEGAN list. e group held a meeting with seven pyrrhonota) come from as far south as by CalFire because it was seriously many documents comprising the THP Why Leave the Tropics? Green Diamond employees, including the the Amazon Basin in Brazil, while most flawed. is THP borders the Van Arken can be viewed at CalFire’s new website, Why do these small birds leave the tropics Vice President, in which GD represented other migratory species winter in Mexico Despite the risks, great numbers of them watershedTHP1 near-20 Whitethorn-00024 Junction,-HUM, https://caltreesplans.resources.ca.gov/ “Gibson Ridge” in the first place, risking their lives on this and Central America. During this journey arrive each spring to serenade us amidst Green Diamond, Sproul Creek that its “openings” (clearcuts, usually) long journey? Scientists theorize that the they use a complex array of strategies to blooming wildflowers and lush green would average 15 acres, with scattered greatest draw to neotropical migrants navigate. Over their lifetime neotropical landscapes as they quickly get to work “leave trees”. However, the Gibson Ridge is the brief yet spectacular abundance migrants learn the “sky map,” using the establishing territories, finding mates, and THP as submitted in February included stars and sun as a travel guide. ey also building nests. 201 acres of clearcuts, in approximately utilize topographical landmarks and Linking Landscapes and Culture 30- to 40-acre units. Members of SWA wind directions, as well as subtle cues expressed their hopes that herbicide use Neotropical migrant songbirds comprise from the magnetic field of the Earth. e could be minimized, and GD said it would over half of the species that we hear singing course they take is a learned one, shaped no longer use glyphosate (commonly during the spring and summer months on over evolutionary time and passed on by the North Coast. Their presence serves known as Roundup) but listed many their elders. as an indicator of the health of our North other chemical herbicides that it plans to During the extended journey they may be Coast ecosystems, as well as the health use. ey said they tend to harvest 45-55 threatened by storms, pesticides, house and integrity of their tropical winter lands. year old trees, generally. e company has cats, collisions with windows, wind Linking the landscapes of Humboldt to also taken SWA members on a tour of its the far-off territories of Latin America, holdings, including two active THPs near The Western Tanager is perhaps our turbines and high-rise buildings, and, most colorful neotropical migrant. increasingly, the erratic weather caused these well-traveled little songbirds are this new THP. It winters from Mexico, south to by climate change. A freak frost or a spate a unique example of cultural and Costa Rica, and in summer it can Topographic image from USGS Briceland Quadrangle map, showing Gibson Ridge, where Green a People wishing to make contact with be found breeding as far north as of prolonged cold, wet weather can cause ecological interconnectedness. Diamond plans to clearcut 201 acres in 7 units. This ridge is the major hydrologic divide between SWA can do so by contacting Richard western Canada. large numbers of migrants to perish. Originally published in e Redwood Times the Sproul Creek Watershed and the Upper Mattole. Whitethorn School is in the lower left corner. Gienger at [email protected].

Page 20 Forest & River News a Spring 2020 www.treesfoundation.org Page 21 Soon after, though, HRC replaced Jani Green Forest Certification Does Not with management from Sierra Pacific Stand Up to the Timber Industry Industries who refused to honor the CTIVIST commitment to cooperatively study the A ORNER …And It’s Especially Impotent When It Comes to Emphasizing basin; and draft a management plan C that would include the restoration from the Role at Forests Play in Combatting Climate Chaos legacy impacts; and allow for harvests that would contribute to watershed recovery of By Michael Evenson, Lost Coast League and economic interests.” The image for-profit businesses, the reality is that ecological function. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) of a three-legged stool was promoted large logging companies can afford to Mattole stakeholders, in 2018, led by was created when environmental, social as symbolizing a cooperative venture put more resources and staff hours into the Lost Coast League (LCL), formally justice, and wood-working groups came among the three entities interested FSC membership working groups. . ese challenged certification of HRC under together in 1993 with a common goal. in forest management. For this inherent conflicts of interest has led to FSC Principles and Guidelines. The e sustainable certification scheme was sustainability model to work, however, widespread “greenwashing” in the name intricate, difficult-to-navigate legalistic each leg of the stool must be of equal of sustainability, but the reality is worse— intended to nudge the timber industry process appeared to work when length or the results will be unbalanced. it is a cover for harmful and destructive to adopt practices that protect the public the complaint was found to “have practices. e public is being defrauded. trust when state regulatory agencies fail to It is increasingly evident that the merit” in regard to the cutting of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF) as An old-growth Douglas-fir on the slopes of Taylor Peak that was not considered in a High enforce environmental law. In particular, economic leg is being given far more Another significant, perhaps fatal, flaw of Conservation Value Forest by Humboldt Redwood Company’s THP. BY L OST C OAST L EAGUE this green certification was a response to consideration in the FSC process than the FSC certification program is its failure well as on the grounds of HRC’s excessive the Timber Wars of the late 20th century. the environmental and social legs. ere to amend the FSC Principles to account herbicide use (practices that run counter scientists—all of whom found the FSC Director General Kim Carstensen It was embraced by those in Humboldt is strong pressure for the FSC to bow to for the climate-change impacts of forest to FSC Principles and Mattole community plans to be rationalizations for cutting has taken notice of the Mattole/HRC industry financial pressures, and that runs operations and how forest communities mores). As a result, HRC was forced to County who formed the Institute for wherever there were large, mature trees. conflict (www.ethicalcorp.com/standoff- roughshod over serious environmental (thinking globally, acting locally) strive to draft a plan to assess where HCVF exist Sustainable Forestry around sustainable HRC ignored the reviews without even a rainbow-ridge-northern-california-tree- issues and local community concerns. protect the carbon-sequestering abilities on their lands, as well as a plan to phase certification principles. discussion of their merits. e FSC again protesters-take-aim-fsc-and-home-depot). This “drift” of the FSC has exposed a of their homelands. out the use of poisons to kill native trees. paid no attention. LCL raised the alarm According to the FSC website (fsc.org), serious conflict of interest, for the FSC The relationship between the certifier The Mattole community interaction Controlling the use of herbicides has within the FSC system, filing a second the governance of FSC is based on “a receives funding from industry in the form who depends on the client (timber with FSC-certified Humboldt Redwood widespread public support in northern three-chamber model, guaranteeing of membership dues and certification fees. formal complaint at higher levels. When companies such as HRC) to fund the Company (HRC) on Rainbow Ridge California. Neighboring Mendocino balanced, multi-stakeholder decision- While nonprofit social and environmental logging operations commenced in June, certification program presents a conflict reveals that here, HRC’s economic County voters overwhelmingly passed making across environmental, social, groups have lower membership dues than 2019, Lost Coast League and other groups of interest that can easily lead to the concerns are subverting those of the a ban on all herbicide use. Yet HRC began organizing direct action efforts unbalanced-stool situation while the environment and the forest community. continues its use and the FSC takes no to halt the logging and bring public old trees fall, compounding climatic At first, HRC pledged to be the industry action other than to request that HRC attention to HRC’s failure to comply with effects that constitute an assault against leader in environmentally and community draft a new herbicide plan. FSC standards. Protestors were roughed all living creatures. friendly practices and received FSC In June of 2019, HRC began logging on up by para-military security forces, tree- certification in 2009. It was greeted in The March edition of Ethical Corp Rainbow Ridge despite failure to adopt sitters’ lives were put in danger, and elders Humboldt as a relief from Hurwitz’ rape- focuses on deforestation. Here are the an HCVF Assessment or Vegetative were arrested. cut of Pacific Lumber Company forests. links to articles on certification, and on Management Plan (long form for herbicide LCL finally appealed to the international Rainbow Ridge: www.ethicalcorp.com/fsc- The Mattole community participated use). When Lost Coast League objected, FSC body in Bonn, Germany, to honor certification-worth-paper-its-printed; and in FSC review of HRC practices in the the FSC simply looked the other way. the process. They are considering the www.ethicalcorp.com/standoff-rainbow- watershed (2012) and found inadequate Only after the logging was well underway appeal and promise an “appraisal” by the ridge-northern-california-tree-protesters- protections on Rainbow Ridge. Mattole did HRC file the required plans, but it did end of March. take-aim-fsc-and-home-depot; as well Stakeholders reached agreement so without noticing the LCL, contrary to as the magazine in its entirety: events. (October 2014) with HRC’s President and Meanwhile, the FSC clings to its FSC dictates. ethicalcorp.com/reports/docs/589646/ Chief Forester Mike Jani to re-do their complicated legalistic framework, unsure March-2020.pdf Watershed Assessment by incorporating e Lost Coast League was given just two how it can address climate chaos—a community expertise acquired from weeks to review these plans. Undaunted, specific issue brought forth by LCL and a For more information: lostcoastleague.org, Rainbow Ridge with the Douglas-fir hardwood forest draining steeply more than 40 years of watershed-wide LCL submitted detailed comments for which there is no category in the FSC’s [email protected], to the Mattole on the left side. BY THOMAS B. D UNKLIN assessment and restoration activities. along with those by published research well-lawyered Principles. International and fsc-watch.com

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30 Years Ago in May: her analysis that helped evolve radical the significant local transportation- at local events, on the radio, and in The Bombing of Judi Bari: thinking, philosophy, and strategy. Her related issues of the day, from Regional regular publications like this one. We’ve The Bombing of Earth booklet “Revolutionary Ecology,” where Transportation Plans to zoning codes to even started working with interns First! Activists Judi Bari 30 Years Later she discusses biocentrism in the context major development projects. We bring a from Humboldt State University. of radical social change thinking (e.g., unique, data-driven perspective to all of Mendocino County Remembers And there remains so much more to and Darryl Cherney Biocentrism Contradicts Capitalism, these topics, motivated by the urgency nd th be done! In 2020, we plan to continue Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters May 2 – June 7 Biocentrism Contradicts Communism, of the climate crisis and the bike and **Schedule may change. Check with the museum.** our strategic engagement in local and Biocentrism Contradicts Patriarchy), pedestrian safety crisis to find the ways On May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb planted transportation and land use planning, Programs can be found at the link www.judibari. that work to reduce driving and increase in the car of Earth First! activist Judi as well as expanding programs such as Saturday May 2nd: Redwood Summer 1:00–3:00 org/revolutionary-ecology.html. active transportation and transit use. Bari exploded, sending her and fellow our bike valet and research initiatives. Friday May 8th: Remembering Judi. Guest speaker Alicia Littletree 5:00–7:00 activist Darryl Cherney to Highland You can also check out the history, And we get results. We have had an Saturday May 9th: Film screening with guest Darryl Cherney, a Hospital in Oakland—Judi with life- many photos, and a lot of other impact on numerous local plans and To find out more and to “Who Bombed Judi Bari?” 1:00 join the Coalition, visit threatening injuries. Despite the location information at www.judibari.org. projects, resulting in improvements to transportationpriorities.org. Sunday May 17th: Building Bridges: Timber-workers and Earth First! 1:00–3:00 of the bomb—hidden under her driver’s bike and pedestrian design that will be rd e world around us changes, sometimes seat—the FBI proceeded to blame Judi Saturday May 23 : The Car Bombing of Judi Bari? felt for decades to come. For example, at breakneck speed. e context of and Darryl for the bombing. e FBI’s Guest speaker Darryl Cherney 1:00–3:00 our comments on the current Del Norte Mendocino National th movement building is always in flux and allegations of affiliation with violence, Saturday May 30 : Who Bombed Judi Bari? Film screening with guest Darryl Cherney Regional Transportation Plan were so Forest Backtracks st demands that we diligently evolve our “matching nails,” and the location of the Sunday May 31 : Judi Bari and the FBI: comprehensive that the agency in charge bomb (police told media at the time Discussion with the legal team panel 1:00–3:00 thinking and strategic organizing. At hired a consultant just to respond to on Logging Project the bomb was in the back seat, even Friday June 5th: Remembering Judi through Song: Live concert 5:00–7:30 the same time, it is valuable (and smart) them. In the end, the Plan was changed Amidst Scrutiny while their own photos revealed its true to weave in institutional memory and to address the climate crisis more 1,284 Acres Spared from location) were later found to be fabricated not lose the wisdom embodied in the realistically, and to remove any mention Logging Under Revised Plan and Judi’s estate won a civil rights lawsuit Maxxam–Pacific Lumber’s rapacious or misrepresented when Darryl Cherney revolutionary thinking of our compañeras of projects catering to extra-large trucks. Environmental Protection filed against the FBI and Oakland Police cutting of old-growth redwood forest; who are no longer around. Viva Judi. Information Center in 2002. In 2005, the City of Oakland by the campaign also challenged Louisiana- Our advocacy around better pedestrian decree declared May 24 to be “Judi Bari Pacific and Georgia-Pacific’s liquidation a For more information: design in Arcata resulted in the creation Another EPIC win: In response to Day.” Judi died in 1997 of breast cancer. logging. Many believe the attack was HeadwatersPreserve.org of the Arcata Plaza Improvement Task criticism by the public, the Mendocino meant to stop the campaign. But people Force, which is now recommending that National Forest has drastically scaled A planned exhibit will mark this came—thousands, from all across the the City Council consider pedestrianizing back proposed logging in the “Green 30th anniversary at the Mendocino country—and carried out forest defense Moving Forward some of the surrounding streets. And our Flat Restoration Project.” Originally County Museum in Willits, scheduled on a scale previously never seen. on Responsible engagement in revisions of the Humboldt planned for 1,534 acres, the Forest for May 2 – June 5, 2020. With the County zoning code led to significant Service is now proposing to cut 250 Judi and Darryl’s legal victory against the Transportation. rapid changes in current events and improvements to the new Mixed Use acres. e agency was criticized for FBI is an important and unprecedented everything else evolving daily, make sure Join the Coalition! regulations, which will allow more its apparent attempt to characterize mile marker to remember, as is the to check in May to see if the exhibit is Coalition for Responsible walkable development in McKinleyville logging activities as other more benign bombing itself. We commemorate it 30 still on schedule. Details are above. Transportation Priorities and other local town centers. actions, such as “reforestation.” e years later because it is necessary that downsizing of the project proves that e bomb attack took place on the eve we never forget, and that we remember e Coalition for Responsible We also put an emphasis on public even in the age of Trump, large public of Redwood Summer, planned as a to never give up and to maintain a bold Transportation Priorities is about to education, because we know that the outcry can still influence government summer-long effort to stop or slow down resistance to strong-arm tactics, as celebrate five years since our founding in status quo car culture won’t change if decisions. In addition to EPIC’s lengthy liquidation logging in coastal Northern well as to assaults on Mother Earth. 2015. In that time, we’ve accomplished people don’t understand its impacts on comments, 528 members of the Judi Bari gives the raised fist California by the multinational timber But what Judi Bari brought to the forest- a lot that we’re proud of on California’s our environment and our communities. public sent in comments through an salute outside the Oakland Federal companies operating at the time. e protection movement and to Earth North Coast. Browsing through Hundreds of local residents read e Courthouse after winning a round in action alert opposing the project. her lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland mass organizing sought to bring people First! goes far beyond the challenge to the Reports & Analysis page on our Collector, our weekly North Coast Police. March 3, 1995. to the North Coast in the midst of the the FBI. She brought lessons from her website, you’ll find dozens of comment transportation news roundup. And we e Green Flat Restoration Project BY X IANG X ING Z HOU , FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE SAN F RANCISCO DAILY J OURNAL Headwaters Forest Campaign opposing background as a labor organizer, and letters and research reports on all reach many more through our presence was proposed in response to the 2018

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announcing it would only pursue a (unless the fine fuels produced by logging smaller 250-acre commercial logging are removed), and it retards natural operation. Further, the Mendocino regeneration of the forest. For wildlife, NF indicated that it would reduce the post-fire logging removes the complex number of living trees logged by taking woody structures necessary for so many trees that were estimated to have a 70%+ species. Many species, including northern chance of dying in the near future. spotted owls, will continue to use post- fire forests if they remain unlogged; once “Post-fire forests are ecologically sensitive logged, it is often without habitat value. and respond poorly to intensive logging— that’s why only smaller projects are In response to the Ranch Fire, the allowed to utilize a categorical exclusion. Mendocino National Forest has Simply renaming logging something else aggressively tried to increase logging in the to bypass the rules was clearly illegal and fire footprint. e “restoration” project was the Forest Service was caught,” said Tom one of nine projects that the Mendocino Wheeler, Executive Director of EPIC. NF put forward, all through categorical exclusions. e Mendocino NF’s over- “It is clear to see the agencies’ disregard Dense fire-suppressed young forest stand in the Klamath National Forest. Aerial view of Ranch Fire footprint. BY K IMBERLY BAKER OF EPIC use of categorical exclusions appears to BY K IMBERLY BAKER OF EPIC for science and ecology by prioritizing be a tactic of the Trump administration Ranch Fire. e project quickly elicited coined as “forest health treatments.” the extraction of large trees while it to reduce process and paperwork and of the sales involves old growth logging small-diameter thinning project that controversy because it appeared that Both fuels reduction and forest health leaves the smaller vegetation to fuel laws in order to expedite logging. In on unstable landslide-prone slopes is often supported by stakeholders the Mendocino National Forest was the next fire,” said Kimberly Baker, treatments were effectively logging. In its October, EPIC filed litigation to challenge in the back country; while the other across the ideological spectrum. attempting to characterize commercial Public Land Advocate for EPIC. comments on the project, EPIC outlined numerous logging projects pursued consists of second-growth plantation logging under other names to more easily that this renaming of activities to fit Post-fire logging is inherently harmful through misapplied categorical exclusions. thinning near communities. Both could Getting It Wrong: e facilitate environmental review of the under a categorical exclusion is illegal. to the environment. Logging adds more be logged soon and KS Wild intends to Crawford Timber Sale project. Nearly all federal projects are a disturbance to the disturbance caused For more information: challenge the old growth logging project Nearly a decade ago the Happy Camp subject to the National Environmental On March 11, the Mendocino National wildcalifornia.org by the fire. is results in increased while encouraging the proposed small- District Ranger began the Crawford Policy Act (NEPA), which demands that Forest withdrew the proposed project, sediment pollution, increased fire behavior diameter plantation thinning effort. timber sale process by asking his planning they be evaluated to consider potentially staff to identify dense second-growth significant environmental impacts Two Klamath National timber plantations located near the as well as alternatives and mitigation Getting It Right: e ompson Forest Timber Sales Plantation inning Project existing road system that might benefit measures to reduce impacts. A small One Is an Old-Growth Timber In early 2020, the Klamath National from thinning. Initially the project looked subset of actions—so-called “categorical Grab, e Other Is a Legitimate Forest released an initial proposal to promising, but as District leadership exclusions”—are exempt from this longer Plantation inning Project thin dense second-growth Douglas-fir came and went the project silviculturalist environmental review process. e Forest Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center tree plantations near the town of Happy (forester) took control of the planning Service has defined what types of activities Camp. e “ ompson Plantation in” effort and added in a number of old- can be pursued under a categorical ese days many Forest Service timber logging units are composed of uniform growth timber sale units to help “float” exclusion. ese include post-fire logging planners like to call everything they planted stands that were the result of the sale of economically marginal of 250 acres or less and “reforestation.” propose “restoration,” regardless of the decades of clearcutting during the Forest plantation units in the backcountry. In impacts to wildlife and watersheds. So In January, the Mendocino National Forest Service logging heyday in the 1960s other words, the forester wanted to log it’s always a good idea to get out on announced the initial project. In a letter and 1970s. e extensive network of old growth in order to help pay to fix the ground and make sure that the soliciting public comment, the Mendocino logging roads is well established, and the damage that previous old-growth agency rhetoric matches reality. National Forest proposed 250 acres of the proposed logging units are generally logging had caused. Additionally, many post-fire logging, 1,066 acres of “fuels On the Klamath National Forest we are at low elevation and near homes and of the proposed Crawford logging units reduction” associated with reforestation, monitoring two timber sales that both private property. ompson Plantation are located on steep unstable headwater and 218 acres of commercial logging EPIC’s Kimberly Baker inspecting marked tree in timber sale. BY A MBER JAMIESON purport to be restoration projects. One in is the type of second-growth slopes designated as dormant landslides

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restoration, and work to halt damage to enough to give instant gratification our watersheds and wildlands. We stand to the teachers. However, when you with you and appreciate your efforts. factor in their intelligent questions, their concern for the future, and their a For more information: kswild.org curiosity about life cycles and beyond, it becomes exponentially rewarding Summer Adventure Camp for all involved. It is so much fun and so educational to have nature as your Field Activities for Kids in classroom, and the children thrive when Southern Humboldt and they are in an outdoor learning space. Northern Mendocino Friends of the Lost Coast Summer Adventure Camp 2020 will visit several new locations to explore different Summer Adventure Camp (SAC) is aspects of our area and introduce a variety a science and nature day camp for of new projects in which the children will children 4–13 years old. A program get involved. Some places that we will re- of Friends of the Lost Coast (formerly visit are Richardson Grove, Hidden Valley, Lost Coast Interpretive Association), 7- to 9-year-olds hiking north in Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. BY M ICHELE PALAZZO the Southern Humboldt Community Park, SAC has been providing outdoor Shelter Cove, Bridge Creek, Avenue of the opportunities for children in Southern Friends of the Lost Coast has developed Camp utilizes. At the native plant garden, Old-growth forest canopy within a Crawford timber sale logging unit. Giants, e King Range, Benbow State BY K IMBERLY BAKER OF EPIC Humboldt and Northern Mendocino a native plant garden in Whitethorn that children are able to learn about native Park, the Mattole River, and Sinkyone counties since 2014. SAC takes place continues to expand and has the benefit plants and pollinators, help in the garden Wilderness State Park. All these places by the Forest Service. As timber sale that attempt to bring in stakeholders and for five weeks during the summer, with of having two barns that provide teaching by sheet mulching or potting up plants in have a variety of hikes and areas to planning progressed, the agency added in communities, the Klamath National Forest participants divided into three different space and storage space. In conjunction the nursery, create arts and crafts projects explore that appeal to each of the age with BLM, Friends of the Lost Coast is more proposed logging road construction is particularly averse to public engagement. age groups (4–6, 7–9, and 10–13). in the education barn, and enjoy Bridge groups, plus some of them have splashing creating a wonderful learning center for in the backcountry. Finally, just weeks Creek, which is adjacent to the garden Legitimate second-growth plantation A variety of diverse ecosystems in and swimming opportunities as well. the community that Summer Adventure before issuing a decision to approve the down a flight of stairs through the forest. thinning projects like the ompson Southern Humboldt and Northern Crawford timber sale, Forest Service Plantation in could receive a shot in Mendocino counties provide wonderful timber planners hastily threw in a large e dates and times for Summer locations to explore and learn about the swath of ridgeline old-growth logging the arm if Klamath planners were willing Adventure Camp 2020 are as follows: natural world. e teachers continue • Week 1: June 22–26, ages 4 - to 6, that involves the “take” (death) of two to meaningfully engage with local tribes, to scout new locations to introduce to 10 am – 3 pm reproducing Northern spotted owl pairs. conservation interests, and impacted communities. Similarly, the negative the children to keep things fresh year- • Week 2: July 6–10, ages 7- to 9, impacts of timber sales like Crawford to-year. By hiking in forests, meadows, 10 am – 4 pm e Klamath National and mountains; observing the life in Forest Is on Autopilot could be largely avoided if the Forest • Week 3: July 13–17, ages 10- to 13, and around creeks, rivers, and the 10 am – 4 pm with a possible As Forest Service budgets get tighter and Service had been willing to include ocean; being introduced to restoration overnight from Friday to Saturday tighter and many core agency positions community and conservation values into projects; performing service projects; • Week 4: July 20–24, ages 4- to 6, remain unfilled, projects can take on its planning effort and project layout. and journaling and doing nature- 10 am – 3 pm a life of their own that leaves science, inspired arts, crafts, and games, the collaboration, and communities behind. Stay Involved • Week 5: July 27–31, ages 7- to 9, children are exposed to a plethora 10 am – 4 pm is is especially true on Forests in KS Wild recognizes and supports all the of experiences that broaden their which District Rangers have a high rate conservation, tribal, and community e cost for each week is $150–$250 on a perspectives of the environment. of turnover and where the agency has no efforts to influence Forest Service sliding scale, and there are scholarships appetite for collaboration or community planning for the better in Northern e excitement that children share available. Summer Adventure Camp engagement. While surrounding National California. Please keep at it! Visit and the wonder they exhibit when is supported by the Monroe Tobin Forests have project planning mechanisms proposed projects, encourage real having adventures in the wild is 4- to 6-year-olds climbing in an oak tree in Hidden Valley. BY M ICHELE PALAZZO Family Fund, a fund of the Humboldt

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“A restored creek channel and expanded breeding sites for mosquitoes and a home riparian zone will provide unimpeded for invasive bullfrogs. In addition, the passage for Coho, Steelhead, Lamprey, pools cut off access for young fish moving and other fish through the watershed upstream and downstream of the site. at all times of the year,” said Preston Brown, SPAWN’s director of watershed In a collaborative effort beginning in conservation. “Other wildlife including 2012 with the Lee Family, the previous nesting birds, deer, bobcats, and more owners of the former San Geronimo golf will benefit from a larger and more course, SPAWN secured grant funds to intact riparian area. A larger forest of design a functional restoration of the creek trees and riparian plants will allow channel through the Roy’s Pools reach, more opportunities for wildlife to hunt, where a natural channel would replace forage, nest, rest, and find refuge along a the metal and concrete structures. In 7-to 9-year-olds enjoying the Eel River at Richardson Grove State Park. BY F O LC naturally-flowing and healthier creek.” 2012, SPAWN began the design process roughout the construction process, and hosted community meetings where Area Foundation, as well as the Bill floodplain corridors for terrestrial wildlife SPAWN will lead tours of the restoration neighbors gave input on the project and Graham Foundation of the Jewish movement, and greatly increasing the area and host workshops on topics such as Volunteers learn how to plant redwoods to restore salmon habitat toured the site with the engineering team. Federation and Endowment Fund. amount of trees for nesting birds, the on the former San Geronimo golf course property, as part of one of the many stream bank stabilization, bioengineering, “Roy’s Pools Fish Passage and Floodplain important habitat restoration projects that SPAWN and other local groups The SPAWN team is looking forward and native plant restoration. Once have worked on for many years on the property. BY SPAWN a To register, call or email to continuing progress on the project Michele Palazzo at 707-223-0112, Restoration Project” will replace a construction is complete, volunteers, this summer. [email protected], or Reta failing pedestrian bridge with a new students at partner schools, and other area, which will ultimately result in more to Roy’s Pools helped in getting adult fish Willmore at 707-223-1927, reta@ prefabricated bridge, linking trails and a lostcoast.org. ere is also information organizations will help plant thousands trees at the site than there are now. over the dam, the Pools became traps For more information: at lostcoast.org and on the Friends offering fish viewing over a wider, more of additional native plants and trees to https://seaturtles.org/our-work/ “ is project will be an excellent for young fish. Stagnant water created our-programs/Salmon/ of the Lost Coast Facebook page. complex, and stable creek channel. jump-start revegetation of the riparian opportunity to learn about stream restoration and get involved SPAWN to Remove with a local project within our Central California’s community,” Brown said. Top-Priority Fish e Roy’s Pools Fish Passage and Barrier This Summer Floodplain Restoration Project is a collaborative project made possible by Salmon Protection And Watershed Network the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Restoration Grant e Salmon Protection And Watershed Program, NOAA National Marine Network (SPAWN) will manage another Fisheries Service Restoration Center, large-scale restoration project on the and the members and volunteers of former San Geronimo golf course Turtle Island Restoration Network, this summer to remove the highest- SPAWN’s parent organization. priority fish passage obstacle in central In 1998, NOAA Fisheries developed California, which currently limits the designs for a series of pools composed migration of endangered Coho Salmon of metal sheet piles, concrete, and large and threatened Steelhead Trout and boulders to help get fish over the former creates poor habitat conditions. Roy’s Dam. is effort resulted in the SPAWN will remove this large obstruction of sheet metal, concrete check dams, and fish In addition to providing critical habitat A Coho Salmon jumps through Roy’s Pools right after it was constructed in 1998. Roy’s Pools structure we know today. ladder (known as Roy’s Pools) that currently limits migration and creates poor habitat for young salmon, making valuable BY R EUVEN WALDER /SPAWN Although the conversion of Roy’s Dam conditions for endangered Coho Salmon and threatened Steelhead Trout. BY SPAWN

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