Discussion on Strawberry Rock Logging

We've written our responses to some of the main comments from the Strawberry Rock Logging Plan post on the Humboldt Herald. We mainly chose statements critical of our position.





Comment: The area has been logged before. So have many, if not most, of the areas around here.


Response: Yes, 98% of the Redwood forest has been logged, do we give it up as a lost cause? No. The forest will recover given the chance, and we can help it with restoration projects. This does not mean 'no logging'. It means a holistic approach to forestry that enhances our environment. The rare areas where 100 year old Redwood trees have re-grown, and remain standing, deserve special attention.


Comment: The reason this is an issue is that people hike to the rock for the view, and remember Green Diamond is not in the park business.


Response: Yes, when this type of logging happens where the public can see it for themselves, many people become saddened and/or outraged.


Comment: Why should we care since they're not our trees?


Response: This is just as much our forest as the ocean is our ocean. We have an obligation to protect it.


Comment: If Green Diamond can’t log then they will sell those properties for residential development. The best way for us to ruin that forest is to prevent logging.


Response: We are not against logging. We are for community forestry that focuses on habitat restoration and credible sustainability. We believe that Green Diamond could improve their practices but doesn't want to.


Comment: The people that go up there are trespassing onto private property. If they want to hug the trees and be symbolic, let them buy the land or hey; shut the f up!



Response: Saying the land is private property is no excuse for destroying our natural heritage. This is not a persons house, it is part of the Pacific Northwest temperate rain forest.


Comment: Yeah, don’t bitch or they’ll turn Strawberry Rock into another quarry.


Response: The community opposition to quarrying Strawberry Rock is what has kept Green Diamond/Simpson from doing it. That won't change because of this.


 
Comment: A community forest would be the best for the area around Strawberry Rock. I imagine most of the protesters are against the clear cut, not logging in general. If the area around Strawberry Rock became a community forest, then logging would still occur, although with an extremely lighter touch.



Response: Right on point!



Comment: Be glad that Green Diamond/Simpson has tolerated the tresspassing for this many years. Just as they seem to do in other areas of their ownership (McKay Tract, McKinleyville, Gas Wells, etc). Make a f-----g big deal about it and you ruin it for many others who have been respectively tresspassing for years. Idiots!


Response: The big deal is that Green Diamond prioritizes one thing- maximizing short term profits, mainly by clear-cutting Redwood - a bad case of tunnel vision that threatens our forest and communities.

Imagine what it would be like to maximize long-term production of high quality timber products, which is whats called for in the Ca. Forest Practice Act. This would mean restoration forestry, clean and cool water, big old trees all over the place, and plentiful habitat for forest dwelling species. Not to mention an ever-increasing supply of high quality wood in perpetuity, instead of the diminishing returns we have now.

It would cost too much money to guard all the places you mentioned.


Comment: The trail is completely contained within private land where no trespassing signs are posted on the property lines.


Response: Yet everyone hikes up there because they enjoy the place so much. I'm sure it brings money into the town of Trinidad too.


Comment: This THP has been in CEQA review for many weeks now and this is the first publicized response to the harvest plan, which closed for public comment YESTERDAY. Nice timing folks.

Response: Apparently Green Diamond didn’t do a good job of notifying the public so we had to do it ourselves. The timing was sub-optimal.


Comment: The trail to Strawberry Rock can be rebuilt by the community. If anyone doubts that Green Diamond tolerates the daily trespassing just go ask someone who has run into their security guy. Not a fun encounter! Any idea why the bald head guy isn’t sitting at the entrance to the trail with security guards or deputies?!?

Response: The trail can be rebuilt, but the trees will take 100+ years to re-grow.

It’s too expensive to guard everywhere people hike on GD land, so they only do it in isolated incidents. Remember how they tried to cut off access when they quarried those two smaller rocks by Strawberry? Their blockade didn’t last very long.


Comment: You think these clearcuts are bad? You think California forestry practices are harmful? Has anyone been to any other state or country on this planet and observed their respective laws? Green Diamond is no PALCO. They never have and they never will be. The injustices of the past decades should never be tolerated, but the stance the Trinidad forum is fronting is superficial, ignorant and intolerant. At best it is transparent in its reactionary stance. At worst this tactic is the same used in the ultra-conservative movement that everyone so loathes.

Answer that and be fashionable.



Response:

Yes, these clear-cuts are bad.

Yes, the Ca. Forest Practice rules are failing us.

Yes, we’ve seen logging in other states and countries that is worse, and some that is far better. Worse logging elsewhere doesn't justify bad logging here.

Agreed that GD is not Palco. They show a greater ability to improve. Whether or not they continue to improve will be seen.



Thanks for your comments!

photo tour of the logging plan

Here is a photo tour of the latest logging plan near Strawberry Rock. We appreciate your feedback!

Clear-cutting planned on Strawberry Rock Trail

Update post on 3/21/11

Green Diamond, owners of around 400,000 acres of forest in the northern Redwood belt, plan to log at least one rare pocket of century old Redwoods near Strawberry Rock in Trinidad, California. The proposed clear-cut would decimate the forest and bury the main trail to Strawberry Rock in tangled debris. Other areas of forest would be clear-cut in the area surrounding of the popular megalith.

This logging plan includes 84 acres of clear-cutting and 25.5 acres of "selection" logging.  The main trail up to Strawberry Rock passes through a grove with trees over 100 years old, this is marked on the maps as "Unit E". 18 acres are slated for clear-cutting in that patch. 6.5 is marked for selection. There are very few trees left in the Trinidad area even close to 100 years old. The forest on the west facing slopes and terraces uphill from Trinidad was mostly clear-cut in the early 1900's and later burned in a huge fire in 1945. It was then logged again, the timber company (companies?) took most of the remaining big trees. Green Diamond aims to take some of the very few that remain, a grove that holds significance for many people who visit the rock and the forest.

Maps and other details here. Scroll down to the bottom of the document for maps.

This file contain the forest description, or "stand description",  from Green Diamond.

If you want to send in a comment letter on the plan to regulatory agency Calfire, today is the last day they will accept them as far as we know. Calfire has already recommended the plan for approval. Their email address is: santarosapubliccomment@fire.ca.gov

The logging plan is #1-10-137

We are hoping to start a public discussion this. Please leave messages or comments, thanks!