Gualala logging dispute heats up after state’s green light

by Mary Callahan, The Press Democrat, April 19, 2018

[excerpt:]

A controversial plan to log miles of Gualala River floodplain, including nearly century-old redwood trees just outside Gualala Point Regional Park, is back on track, setting the stage for a showdown in court or perhaps among the trees themselves.

Charll Stoneman, forest manager for Gualala Redwood Timber, which owns the land, said logging won’t begin until at least mid-May — after completion of final surveys required to ensure the absence of breeding Northern spotted owls, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“Ultimately, the expectation is that, in time,
we’ll harvest. It’s just a matter of when.”

– Charll Stoneman, Gualala Redwood Timber

. . .

But opponents — after thwarting attempts to log the area once already by convincing a judge the timber harvest plan failed to analyze environmental impacts fully — sued Cal Fire again this month, just days after the agency renewed its approval.

. . .

“We were prepared to protest, if necessary,” said Charlie Ivor, president of Friends of the Gualala River, the chief plaintiff. “This is an egregiously organized timber harvest plan that is unprecedented, and it’s the community’s last chance to save these trees.”

. . .

“It isn’t the number of trees” being cut, said Jeanne Jackson, a Gualala nature writer and vice president of Friends of the Gualala River. “It’s how you get them out, and you extract them by dragging them along the ground. And this is the floodplain, with all the attendant beneficial creatures that live there.”

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Disputed Gualala logging plan earns second approval from state