Gualala Redwood Timber’s 375-acre Noce Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-26-00147-SON) is located in northern Sonoma County, east of the South Fork Gualala River and north of Annapolis Road, near Noce Road. The South Fork Gualala River, Wheatfield Fork of the Gualala River, and Buckeye Creek receive drainage from the proposed timber harvest plan. Noce Timber Harvest Plan documents Submitted on …
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by Roger CoryellSeptember 7, 2026 The Mendocino Voice [Excerpt:] Dutch Charlie Creek drops over moss-covered rock west of Laytonville, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. The state has spent more than $1 million since 2012 pulling legacy roads out of the watershed to keep fine sediment off the gravel where coho spawn. (Philip McGarvey/Friends of Dutch Charlie Creek via Bay …
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The North Coast Water Board has changed the date of the adoption hearing for the Gualala Roads Assessment Order. Previous announcements indicated that Order adoption would be proposed at the December 2026 meeting of the North Coast Water Board. To provide North Coast Water Board staff sufficient time to meaningfully consider the significant volume of public comments received from landowners …
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Standing Up for the Gualala River Friends of Gualala River (FoGR) is working hard to protect our watershed from a new round of logging proposals and complex regulatory shifts. From challenging timber harvest plans (THPs) in court to tracking regional water quality rules, our small team is bringing every tool to the table to defend our local ecosystem. In this …
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Gualala Redwood Timber’s 167-acre Card Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-26-00021-SON) is located in the floodplain on the west side of the South Fork Gualala River, from confluence of the North and South Forks, down past Buckeye Creek. The plan was submitted to Cal Fire on February 20, 2026, but Cal Fire determined that the plan was unacceptable due to required …
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HRRR = Harold Richardson Redwood Reserve The 129-acre HRRR Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-26-00099-SON) is located between Tin Barn Road and Haupt Creek in the Haupt Creek watershed of the Gualala River basin. The majority of the acreage (102 acres) is designated “fuel break / defensible space.” The plan was submitted to Cal Fire by the Save The Redwood League on …
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by Sonoma Resource Conservation District January 31, 2026 The primary purpose of this report is to create a baseline of watershed conditions to support the Gualala TMDL Action Plan Implementation program. The program will utilize this report to then develop a framework for prioritizing subwatersheds based on their contribution of sediment loading within the Gualala River Watershed, and the creation …
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Gualala Redwood Timber’s 269-acre Little Pepperwood Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-26-00076-SON) is located in southern Mendocino and northern Sonoma Counties, approximately 3 miles east of the town of Gualala. Surface flow from the THP drains into Big Pepperwood Creek, Little Pepperwood Creek, and several tributaries to Big Pepperwood and Rockpile Creeks. The plan was submitted to Cal Fire on June 16, …
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by Peter Baye published in the July & September, 2017 issues of The Calypso, newsletter of the Dorothy King Young Chapter of the California Native Plant Society reprinted with permission Part 1 – Wigeongrass and Sago pondweed Last April (2017), our local public radio station (KZYX) ran an excellent “Ecology Hour” program interviewing world-renowned oceanographer John Largier from University of …
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Presentation to the Washington Department of Ecology: 6PPD-Q State of the Science Forum on December 9, 2025 Presented by Laura Baker, Friends of Gualala River, and Timmarie Hamill, CA Urban Streams Alliance-The Stream Team Abstract In 2022, CA Urban Streams Alliance-The Stream Team (The Stream Team) expanded its long-standing watershed monitoring program and began collaborating with Friends of Gualala River …
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November 18, 2025For immediate release from Friends of Gualala RiverContact: Laura Baker, 510-684-4572, Lbake66@aol.com With the return of fall storms, Friends of Gualala River in partnership with The Stream Team and other volunteers have launched their second season of testing Gualala stormwater for a potent toxic chemical found in tire grit. The chemical is extremely hazardous to salmonids, especially coho …
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Tires treated with 6PPD (which becomes 6PPD-Q) will be with us for a very long time before manufacturers find new alternatives and old tires are removed from the environment. These toxic compounds will continue to affect human health and the health of the environment for decades to come. But in the meantime, here are a few simple steps that you …
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by Dylan Freebairn-Smith, Conservation Analyst One of the first projects that Dylan has tackled is analyzing the TMDL program for the Gualala. Summary The Gualala River has been listed as impaired under the federal Clean Water Act due to elevated sediment levels since 1993 and has exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of sediment since 2001. …
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We counted 180 – 200 participants, with dozens of spontaneously prepared hand-made signs and artwork. Speakers included Jeanne Jackson, Eric Wilder, Charlie Ivor, Larry Hanson, Peter Baye and Noreen Evans. See also, video: Jeanne Jackson speaks at the Rally for the River
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by Larry Hanson, Sonoma County Gazette, May, 2013 Now that the coastal forest area called Preservation Ranch has been officially saved, there will be some backslapping and congratulating going on over this success. And there should. The effort of changing some twenty thousand acres from a land development project into conservation status takes the work and love of many individuals …
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Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it