KS Wild has made our presence felt over the past ten years in the Rogue and Klamath River watersheds. We have consistently contested bad federal timber sales and won, whether on legal or policy grounds, or thanks to the advocacy of our members. We our proud of this record and we believe that our efforts, and yours, have helped keep our corner of the world the special place it remains today.

It’s easy to forget, however, that timber harvest on private lands accounts for the majority of timber production in our area. And while there is a brace of federal laws that, when applied conscientiously, help to mitigate the impacts of logging on federal land, logging on private land is largely unregulated.

In 1971, Oregon became the first state in the nation to attempt state regulation of private timber harvest. While well intentioned, the Oregon Forest Practice Act has an Achilles’ heel: only the state board of forestry has the power to enforce its provisions. Unfortunately, when the citizenry is not permitted to enforce environmental standards, the law is quickly rendered ineffective by special interest lobbying. As a result, many parcels of state-regulated timberland resemble moonscapes more than healthy forests.

In 1973, California passed its own Forest Practice Act. Perhaps learning from Oregon’s experience, California permits citizen review of timber harvest. California also has state endangered species and environmental quality acts, all of which broadly apply to timber harvest on private lands. The Forest Practice Act requires nearly all industrial timber harvest projects to prepare a “timber harvest plan,” a document that is the rough equivalent of an Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act. It must analyze direct and cumulative impacts, consider alternatives, ensure compliance with applicable state and federal law, give notice to the public and allow for informed comment. And, of course, when it fails to meet these standards, the public may sue.

Despite these relatively strong legal tools, there’s a lot of slack in the system. In the absence of sustained and dedicated oversight by public watchdogs, the timber companies have enjoyed free rein when they cut on private land. There are many reasons for this: the Timber Harvest Act is not well known or understood; the parts of Northern California where it is at most issue are sparsely populated and heavily invested in extractive industry; these projects take place on private land to which the public frequently has no legal access; federal projects tend to overshadow private projects in the eyes of most environmental advocacy groups.

Starting this year, KS Wild is rededicating itself to forest watch of private timber harvest in Siskiyou County. We have already begun monitoring and commenting on Timber Harvest Plans in Northern California. For example, we have submitted comments on a plan that proposed to harvest in winter using ground based yarding on slopes up to 65%, and we commented on a plan that proposed to land timber within feet of a steelhead bearing waterway.

The most stunning abuse we’ve encountered is the Sierra Pacific (SP) Underwood Road project. The U.S. Forest Service proposed to build a logging road to service a private SP inholding in the Six Rivers National Forest. During NEPA review, the Forest Service evaded the entire process by building the road, ostensibly on an emergency basis to fight a forest fire. This despite the fact that Sierra Pacific’s Timber Harvest Plan has expired and the company has no current legal right to log this forest.

Over the years, we are happy and proud that you have come to rely on KS Wild to oversee and combat dangerous projects such as these, but we’d love to have our membership do more. Timber Harvest Plans (THP) are public documents and the public is encouraged to review and comment on them. New plans are announced on the California Board of Forestry website. They may also be ordered from the Redding office at $0.10 cents a page.

Take Action: 

If you learn of a THP in California that concerns you, please contact our new Legal Director, Christopher Len, at (541) 488-5789.

To all Oregon residents, please call your state representative and ask that Oregon add a citizen suit provision to its Forest Practices Act and adopt a state environmental policy and endangered species acts. All our forests deserve protection and thoughtful management, and together KS Wild and you will make it happen.