Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it
A presentation by Ethan Arutunian in February, 2024, hosted by the Forest Protection Forum of Sierra Club California’s Stop Clearcutting CA Campaign.
In this talk, Ethan Arutunian describes how a grassroots campaign by Friends of the South Fork Gualala (FSFG) completely stopped the 283-acre Bootleg timber harvest plan (THP) in the Gualala River watershed. They defeated CALFIRE, and a wealthy and reckless timber company, at their own game using the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), without losing a single tree to the plan.
The primary agency responsible for approving and overseeing Timber Harvest Plans in California — CALFIRE — believes in one mandate: to uphold the Forest Practice Act and the Forest Practice Rules (FPRs). They constantly reference those rules when approving logging plans and when responding to the public’s significant concerns about environmental impacts. What CALFIRE fails to mention is that timber harvest plans are also subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and CEQA trumps the FPRs!
Ethan discusses the steps taken, from highlighting concerns in public comments, filing a CEQA lawsuit, temporary restraining order, and preliminary injunction, to winning the case, as well as experience dealing with CALFIRE’s review team and attorneys. The uncontested rulings issued by Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Bradford DeMeo shut down CALFIRE’s approval of the plan in four different and significant ways. He goes over the rulings in detail and identifies how each argument can be used in public comments and lawsuits to take on just about any logging plan today.
For more information, see:
Ethan Arutunian is Director of Friends of the South Fork Gualala (FSFG) and on the Board of Friends of Gualala River (FoGR). He is also a software engineer with a background in data analytics and geographic information systems (GIS) mapping. As part of his work on the Gualala River watershed, Ethan has developed a software application that models what sustainable logging practices look like in every watershed in California. The application was applied to the Bootleg plan and has already produced over a dozen highly detailed analyzes of other recently proposed timber harvest plans throughout California.
The attorney in the case, Daniel Garrett-Steinman, has been practicing environmental law since 2010. He has litigated against other high-profile defendants such as Chevron, Westlands Water District, and was involved in the litigation against Keystone.
