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Coalition letter on Logging Plans on the Lower Gualala River

Coalition letter on Dogwood and Apple THPs

Letter — signed by Sierra Club Redwood Chapter, Center for Biological Diversity, Madrone Audubon Society, California Native Plant Society (Dorothy King Young Chapter), Friends of the Gualala River, Forest Unlimited, and Northern California River Watch — commenting on Timber Harvest Plans THP 1-15-042 SON (Gualala Redwoods Inc. “Dogwood” THP) and THP 1-15-033 SON (Gualala Redwoods Inc. “Apple” THP): Click on …

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Letter from hydrologist Greg Kamman re: Gualala River Logging Plans

Greg Kamman's letter on Dogwood and Apple THPs

Technical comments on the “Dogwood” and “Apple” logging plans from Greg Kamman, a hydrologist with over twenty five years of technical and consulting experience in the fields of geology, hydrology, and hydrogeology. The data analysis in Kamman’s letter concludes that GRI’s consultant’s 2010 “analysis is flawed and grossly underestimates the potential impacts on steelhead summer rearing habitat in the river …

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Ask your elected representatives to urge Federal Agencies to Comment on Logging Plans on the Gualala River

Gualala River floodplain redwood forest

Update: August 6 Thanks to efforts by Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, Mendocino County Supervisor Dan Hamburg, State Senator Mike McGuire, Congressman Jared Huffman and others, the deadline for public comments on THP 1-15-042 “Dogwood” has been extended for at least 30 days on grounds that CAL FIRE found “discrepancies” in the plan. Dear Friends of the Gualala River, You …

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FoGR Comments on Dogwood and Apple THPs

FoGR Comments on Dogwood and Apple THPs

Friends of Gualala River An affiliate of the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance P.O. Box 1543, Gualala, CA 95445  GualalaRiver.org July 20, 2015 Cal Fire – Forest Practice Program Manager 135 Ridgeway Ave. Santa Rosa, California 95401 santarosapubliccomments@calfire.ca.gov SUBJECT: THP 1-15-042 SON (Gualala Redwoods Inc. “Dogwood” THP) THP 1-15-033 SON (Gualala Redwoods Inc. “Apple” THP) Dear CAL FIRE: Friends of the …

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Massive floodplain logging plan for lower Gualala River threatens wetlands, rare plants & endangered wildlife

Gualala River floodplain

by Peter Baye, Friends of Gualala River The lower Gualala River has a wide meandering floodplain rich in wetlands, mature productive riparian redwood forests and highly diverse riparian habitats supporting many special-status plant, fish, and wildlife species. “Flood prone” redwood forests are supposed to be protected by avoidance of logging disturbances under special salmonid protection rules under the Forest Practices …

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Letters from Forest Unlimited on Gualala River Logging Plans

Comment letters from Dr. John W. Cruz, Forest Unlimited Logging Review Program Manager, regarding the “Dogwood” and “Apple” logging plans: Click on the image above to download a pdf version of the letter.     Click on the image above to download a pdf version of the letter.

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Water Wars in California’s Coastal Wine Country

[excerpt] …California’s ongoing drought has hit the region hard, reducing grape yields and depleting the vast aquifer that most of the area’s vineyards and rural residents rely on as their sole source of water other than rain. Across the region, residential and vineyard wells have gone dry. Those who can afford to — including a number of large wineries and …

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Family timber firm buys Gualala Redwoods lands

Gualala Redwoods, Inc. (GRI) said Tuesday it signed a definitive purchase and sale agreement to transfer the majority of its timberland holdings in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties to the Burch family of San Jose. According to Henry Alden, senior vice president of GRI, under the terms of the agreement, GRI will sell approximately 29,000 acres to the Burch family, representing …

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Tues, April 14: “Russian River: All Rivers” at Arena Theater

The Russian River: All Rivers

Friends of Gualala River is proud to sponsor the new film “Russian River: All Rivers, The Value of an American Watershed” on Tuesday, April 14th, 7:00 PM at the Arena Theater, 214 Main Street, Pt. Arena, CA. Come meet the film makers and hear their story at this showing and be a part of an event that has been co-sponsored …

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Our river runneth over

South Fork Gualala River at Twin Bridges, Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Here are two photos of the South Fork Gualala River at Twin Bridges, taken two days apart: Monday, December 1, 2014 (before the recent rain) and Wednesday, December 3, 2014 (after some much needed rain)

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An End of the Year News Update and a Request

December, 2014 It has been a productive year for FOGR with its mission to stand up for the river and its source – the 300 square mile Gualala River watershed. In the afterglow of our victory to stop the Preservation Ranch project, this year saw the successful conclusion of FOGR’s campaign to halt the forestland conversion proposed by the 324 …

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Gualala Redwoods Inc. puts 30,000-acre property up for sale

Gualala River estuary

by Mary Callahan, The Press Democrat, November 25, 2014 [excerpt:] Nearly 30,000 acres timberland straddling the Sonoma-Mendocino county border and stretching across the mouth of the Gualala River have been put on the auction block, creating what conservationists are calling a prime opportunity for a landmark preservation deal that could permanently protect and restore a giant swath of forest, allow …

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Protect Threatened Salmon & Steelhead: Support Improved Low-Flow Closures

Action Alert: The native, Endangered Species Act-listed salmon and steelhead of the drought-stricken Gualala River, in California, need your help. Thanks in large part to the pressure that [fishermen] put on the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) a year ago, the CDFW is finally taking action to fix the critically flawed low-flow closure system on the North Central-Coast …

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FoGR Files Lawsuit over Sonoma County’s Vineyard Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance (VESCO)

2014 Reservoir above Haupt Creek

Friends of Gualala River (FoGR), along with Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, has filed a suit against Sonoma County to close a major regulatory loophole. This time it’s not our typical campaign to stop destruction of redwood forest. It’s to fix a serious problem in a Sonoma County permitting process that is allowing developers to circumvent the California …

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Wine industry resists rising tide to regulate groundwater as California drought deepens

Wheatfield Fork, Gualala River, upstream of the Annapolis Road bridge at Skagg Springs Road, August 17, 2013

State legislation to regulate the depletion of groundwater is moving forward as the current historic drought continues and reservoirs draw precipitously down. State water agencies support legislative proposals to monitor and regulate groundwater in the public interest as the drought threatens both surface and below-ground water supplies. But North Coast grape growers and the wine industry are opposed to this …

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Protect state’s groundwater and the public interest now!

Wheatfield Fork Gualala River, August 2013

Friends of Gualalal River (FoGR) is a member of the North Coast Stream Flow Coalition, which supports rational management and regulation of groundwater to protect streamflows. FoGR endorses Chris Malan’s policy analysis and recommendations in her op-ed essay, below. Protect state’s groundwater and the public interest now! by Chris Malan Chair, North Coast Stream Flow Coalition Op-ed published in the …

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Keep Gualala Estuary in Marine Sanctuary

Gualala River estuary

Friends of the Gualala River is astonished to learn that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the federal agency responsible for the recovery of coho salmon and steelhead, is PROPOSING TO REMOVE THE GUALALA RIVER ESTUARY (our beautiful lagoon from the beach upstream through the regional park) from the Marine Sanctuary. Incredibly, they are proposing the same for the Russian …

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