California: New thinning plans for Jackson State not as bad as before
On the visit, Marc Jameson, Manager of Jackson Demonstration State
Forest, explained the way in which the new mark was made. [The blue
lines on trees are from the prior mark. These marked trees were
scheduled for harvest. In the new harvest, only the trees with yellow
dots will be harvested.] The heavy breathing of the camera person (me)
is because I had to hurry up the slope to catch up after lagging
behind to take photos on the way up. You will notice that not many
yellow dots are visible in the video.
As we walked through the plan
area, Mike Anderson of Anderson Logging, Fort Bragg, asked Marc how
the volume of timber to be cut in the new mark compared to the
original cut. Marc said that the prior volume would have been 40-50%
of the stand. The goal for the new mark is no more than 30% of volume
(actually “basal area”, which is reasonably related to volume). Thus,
the relative volume in the new mark would be 60-75% of the prior
volume. As we continued our walk and looked at the currently marked
trees compared to the prior ones, Mike Anderson offered that it looked
like the cut would be down by at least 50%, if not more. Marc then
said that they were marking conservatively, aiming at 25% in order to
allow for trees that weren’t marked but that would be cut as part of
the logging operation in order to remove the trees (primarily for
cable corridors). My own impression of the new mark was very
favorable. When I saw the aftermath of a brief but intense logging
that occurred in 2004 (in 5 days between court ordered prohibitions on
logging in Jackson Forest), I was horrified. This time I was very
happy to be able to feel that this was a harvest that would not
destroy the forest values that have accumulated during 100 years of
undisturbed growth.
http://jacksonforum.org/blog/2009/01/10/brandon-gulch-trial-mark/
— Posted to http://forestpolicyresearch.com via gmail to posterous and
also to forestpolicyresearch@yahoogroups.com