Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it
Conservation easement
to protect 14,000 acres
of Gualala River Forest
The Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has scheduled consideration of the proposed $19M conservation easement for the Gualala River Forest for its meeting on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 in Sacramento.
The easements will be held by The Conservation Fund, which already holds similar easements protecting large parcels in the nearby Garcia River, Big River & Salmon Creek watersheds and the Usal Redwood Forest.
The easement will permanently protect this working forestland from fragmentation and development. The forest will be managed in a protective way, with the goal of rehabilitation of over-logged lands to make them productive, to recover old growth type characteristics, and to recover and protect water quality and wildlife habitat values.
The WCB is a state agency whose primary purpose is to approve funding for wildlife habitat protection, restoration and wild-oriented public access projects. In this case, the funds are from Proposition 84, which was approved by voters in 2006.
Send a Message
Please contact the WCB and tell them of your strong support for the Gualala River Forest conservation easement. If you do this today, we are confident that your effort will help secure the funding for the protection of an important part of our watershed.
Send your message to: JDonnell@dfg.ca.gov
and send a copy to: Senate.Natural.Resources@senate.ca.gov
Message
| Subject: Approve Gualala River Forest Conservation Easement
Dear Wildlife Conservation Board and Legislative Advisory Committee members: Please approve funding for the Gualala River Forest Conservation Easement (item 19 on the Wildlife Conservation Board’s agenda for September 13, 2011). In addition to harboring numerous endangered and sensitive plant and animal species, the Gualala River Forest includes the headwaters of the North Fork of the Gualala River, which has been identified by the California Department of Fish and Game and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration as a very high priority for coho salmon habitat protection and restoration. However, as reported in the Los Angeles Times’ August 25th story “Redwoods versus Red Wine,” there is unprecedented pressure to clear-cut redwood / Douglas fir forests and plant thousands of acres of vineyard in the immediate vicinity of the Gualala River Forest. In addition to the permanent conversion of forest habitat to intensive agriculture, vineyard development and rural subdivision of forestland degrades terrestrial habitat, increases sedimentation and diverts surface and groundwater flows essential to the recovery of coho salmon and steelhead trout. The threat of conversion of the Gualala River Forest to incompatible non-forest uses is very real. Protecting the Forest and the headwaters of the North Fork of the Gualala River from subdivision and conversion represents an important and cost-effective fulfillment of the voters’ intent in passing Proposition 84 that authorized funds to “promote the ecological integrity and economic stability of California’s diverse native forests for all their public benefits through forest conservation… of productive managed forest lands….” This important project deserves your support and we respectfully urge its approval at WCB’s upcoming meeting. Thank you very much. |
Gualala River Forest
