Sierra Club
Redwood Chapter Newsletter
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Sonoma County's Old Growth Forest Linda Perkins | |
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Would it surprise and delight you to learn that there still exists in Sonoma County - just four miles northeast of Salt Point - an ancient redwood forest of over 800 acres that has never been harvested? A stand that rivals in magnificence and beauty any redwood forest found in California? Would it dismay you to find out that the integrity of this old forest is threatened by logging? Logging in the only intact old growth redwood stand of this size left between Humboldt and the Bay Area? Both are true. These old growth trees have hugged for hundreds of years their steep slopes that drain to the Gualala River. And now the landowners, the Richardson family, propose to cut 55 acres of the ancient giants. California Water Quality staff did an on-site inspection of the plan to assess its potential impacts to the coho and steelhead salmon found in this already-impaired river system. The photographs that are part of their report provide a grim lesson in what this harvest might mean. Those photos taken within the bounds of the ancient forest are of beautiful old trees and a pristine creek, with clear water bubbling over rocks and past mossy, fern-covered banks. Other pictures - taken in adjacent logged-over areas - depict the sad effects of cutting these huge trees from their steep slopes; landslides have occurred and there are gullies a dozen feet deep. Both have contributed so much sediment to the creek that it has gone underground. The photos show, instead of a creek, only a "road" where vehicles now drive. A plant ecologist's evaluated the plan and wrote this: "a regionally rare prehistoric remnant of native vegetationin western Sonoma County [it is] "unique"[and includes] rare intact soil profiles, seed banks, clonal herb populations, and insect population. Uncommon to rare extinction-prone populations of amphibian and invertebrate taxaare likely to be concentrated [in] the THP area." |
For the imperiled marbled murrelet, this loss of habitat will be devastating. Radar surveys have detected mamu flying into the plan area. Unfortunately, their nests - given the low numbers of remaining birds - have been impossible to find. Biologists say that the most critical element in achieving the recovery of this species will be in providing habitat in the counties between Humboldt and Santa Cruz to link up the mamu populations in these two counties. This high quality old growth habitat in Sonoma County is one such critical and irreplaceable link that must be preserved. We can't afford to lose that which can never be replaced; we can't allow even one of these trees to be lost. We must save this remnant forest and the rare species that only it can harbor. What you can do:
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