FORT BRAGG, CA., 8/12/26 — Opponents of logging in Jackson Demonstration State Forest will rally at Fort Bragg Town Hall on Saturday, calling on Cal Fire to halt a recently approved timber harvest plan and on lawmakers to pass a bill that would change how the forest is managed, according to the event’s announcement.
The rally is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. at 363 N. Main St. and is “organized in solidarity by tribal nations and allies,” the announcement said.
Organizers object to the AMEX timber harvest plan, which they say Cal Fire approved in December for nearly 500 acres near Chamberlain Creek before the forest’s updated management plan was finalized. The announcement says the approval broke a commitment the agency made to pause new logging after protests in the forest from 2020 to 2022.
The group is calling for an immediate halt to the plan and all further logging in Jackson before several conditions are met: a management plan, a tribal co-management agreement and Assembly Bill 2494 are in place; a road maintenance and cultural site protection plan are instituted; an independent archaeological survey of the forest is planned; and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature is on the bill.
AB 2494, brought by State Assemblymember Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa, whose district includes the Mendocino coast, would shift management priorities for the state’s demonstration forests toward ecological restoration, climate resilience and tribal co-management. The Assembly passed the bill in May, and it’s now pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
I know that we have had some horrific fires over the years. It doesn’t matter how they were started but it’s usually people. Sometimes dragging chains. They are devastating to everyone. In the forest area they are devastating to the animals and the wildlife there can I clear trees and everything else that grows on the ground. I think that a lot of times things are corrupt here in a sense that everybody talks the big talk but nobody actually walks to walk. We do need some clearing in the forest whether you think we do or not. We need to have brakes through the forest so that if there is a fire the fire Crews can get through there. So many times florists have been completely demolished because fire crews could not get through to fight the fire. Everybody Talks big about how we can’t cut down the trees but most of the time they give absolutely nothing about what happens when there’s a forest fire. I believe that probably in the 60s we had a better plan in place than we do now. A lot of you people weren’t even born and didn’t understand the forestry management that we had in place. As children in school we actually grew red red trees so that the Forestry Department could come and get them and plant them where trees were being harvested. For every tree, 10 were planted and out of those 10 at least three lived to mature. A lot of you don’t even know that. Check back in our history of the county and it will tell you. I can’t always drive all the way over to Fort Bragg so it’s almost like my voice does not count but I can tell you we enjoy the forest between Willits and Fort Bragg very often throughout the year as a family and I want to continue to enjoy it. I think there are too many bureaucrats involved and telling us what’s going to be done with the forest yet all you people that we used to call tree huggers have a tendency to talk to Big Talk Like I said but they can’t walk the walk and all they do is rely on bureaucrats to do what they want done but I can tell you right now if you think about over the years that has just not happened. I urge you to wait and check into things really well without paying some bureaucrats flunky to come in and check it out. Find out everything you can about the soil the trees the ferns and the animals before you start talking about leaving the forest alone and not cutting any trees. That can be a very bad thing.
Sorry, but I didn’t read or hear anything in this piece that was suggesting that no trees should be cut; it sounded to me that the point was just to ask for a pause, until the new plans for JSF were worked out.
I’m confused how “thinning out” a rainforest makes it safer from fires. These forests are supposed to be dark and wet and have millions of trees raking in the fog. Taking down trees (not in all ecosystems- but definitely the redwood ecosystem) increases fire risk. It increases sunlight and decreases moisture. It’s not rocket science.
That’s because the new plan is designed to stop them from cutting any trees essentially.
I am not against logging I worked in the industry. There is a huge difference between the way it was done back in the 90s compared to now. Now a days when they log they go in and cut down the trees they want to log but when it’s time to pull them out they push over all of the other trees around the area where the trees they fell are at by the time they are done there are trees left laying all over the hillsides. They leave them there to just rot away. So many trees that didn’t need to be taken out gone for no reason. They never go back and plant any new trees to replace the ones taken. They won’t even allow anyone to go in and cut any firewood out of the trees that they just left laying there. They push up huge slash piles out of the trees they don’t want that got brought to the landings. What grows back in these logged areas is nothing but brush that eventually become so think that nothing or no one can get thru them. This brush is bigger fire problem than what it was before they logged it. You say that you enjoy the forest between willits and Ft. Bragg but how can you do that when all of the roads that we use to be able to travel on are all locked up with gates now. There are only about 10 percent of the roads open to drive on. Their reason for closing these roads is because they don’t want to take the time to maintain them but they will make sure that they are in excellent shape use them for logging. What they are doing has nothing to do with making a good access in case of a fire. You should drive out and check out the areas they log and see if you feel the same way as you do in your comment
Active Forrest Management includes thinning the forest:
https://ofic.com/science/study-finds-forest-thinning-dramatically-reduces-wildfire-damage-and-boosts-drought-resilience/
https://calmatters.org/environment/2018/08/california-forest-management-fires/
You folks do not have a clue