Section 23 Timber Harvest Plan

The Section 23 timber harvest plan (THP 1-25-00052-MEN) was filed by Gualala Redwood Timber (GRT) on April 16, 2025. The plan calls for logging redwood and Douglas fir trees in 71 acres near Elk Prairie, adjacent to the confluence of the North Fork and Little North Fork Gualala River.

CalFire rejected the initial filing on April 24, after reviewers (from CalFire, Fish & Wildlife, and CA. Geological Survey) identified 26 questionable items which needed to be addressed. GRT resubmitted the plan on May 7.

The plan includes a large (24 acre) clearcut, partly on unstable slopes, as well as 28 acres of mini-clearcuts up to 2.5 acres each (known as “group selection”).

GRT plans to use heavy equipment on skid trails in the WLPZ (“watercourse and lake protection zone” aka floodplain), which is generally prohibited by the Anadromous Salmonid Protection rules (in the Forest Practice Rules), but which GRT often proposes and CalFire regularly approves.

This plan replaces the part of the withdrawn Elk THP north of the North Fork Gualala River. GRT plans to submit a new plan within five years for most of the withdrawn Elk THP south of the North Fork, much of which is in the river’s floodplain.

Agency review team, chaired by CalFire, recommended plan approval on June 12, 2025. Director’s Decision (final approval) was published on June 30, 2025.

Section 23 THP location

The documents for the final approved version of the Section 23 timber harvest plan (THP) are available below.

Note: CalFire’s standard procedure is to print out the plan documents, scan them, and post the images to their publicly accessible database, CalTREES. As a result, it is impossible to search for text in the documents, because there are no words in the documents posted, only images of words. In order to make the documents more useful, we have used optical character recognition (OCR) on the documents posted below, so that you can search them.

Section 23 Timber Harvest Plan documents

Section 23 THP Section 1 – [2 MB, 8 pages] Legal description: Cover pages, signatures.

Section 23 THP Section 2 – [8 MB, 87 pages] Operations: Silviculture, Yarding, Erosion Hazard Rating, Winter operations, Roads & landings, Watercourse & lake protections, Alternative Watercourse & lake protections (in lieu of standard rules), Wildlife observances & enforceable provisions, Maps

Section 23 THP Section 3 – [3 MB, 35 pages] Supporting materials: General Site Description, Analysis of Alternatives, Discussion and Justification of Section I & II items: Silvicultural Methods, Ground-based equipment on steep slopes, Water Drafting, Roads, Landings and Skid Trails, Archaeological survey methods and procedures

Section 23 THP Section 4 – [11 MB, 173 pages] Cumulative Impacts: Past, present and future projects, assessment of cumulative watershed effects, soil productivity, biological resources, recreational, visual, traffic, greenhouse gas impacts, wildfire risks, noise

Section 23 THP Section 5 – [14 MB, 237 pages] Attachments: Including soil erosion hazards, Erosion Control Plan, botanical surveys, road work, Northern Spotted Owl information.

Section 23 THP Section 6 – [0.1 MB, 1 pages] Archeological information: (confidential)

Section 23 THP location detail

All documents regarding this logging plan are available in the new CalTREES system.

Unfortunately, CalTREES is not easy to use, so FoGR has compiled some
basic instructions for use of CalTREES to help you navigate the system.

To download additional documents for this logging plan,
if you want to follow the back & forth as agencies ask questions and the RPF replies,
visit the Section 23 THP page on the CalTREES website.

The public comment period has ended. Below are instructions on how to submit comments during the public comment period.

To submit your comments on a logging plan, email your comments to: santarosapubliccomment@fire.ca.gov
or send your comments via U.S. Mail to:

Forest Practice
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
135 Ridgway Ave.
Santa Rosa, CA 95401

In the subject line of your email message, or at the top of your letter,
be sure to reference the THP number and name, for example:
THP 1-25-00052-MEN “Section 23”