MENDOCINO CO., 9/19/26 — On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 2494, which would have changed the management priorities for Jackson Demonstration State Forest and California’s 13 other demonstration state forests.
“I am returning Assembly Bill 2494 without my signature,” Newsom wrote in a veto message his office posted Friday. The message is dated Sept. 18. His deadline to act was Sept. 30.
Jackson lies between Willits and Fort Bragg. It covers 48,652 acres, according to Cal Fire, which runs the demonstration forests. That’s more than half of the system’s roughly 85,000 acres.
The veto leaves existing law in place. Under that law, managing the forests means achieving “maximum sustained production of high-quality forest products,” with consideration for recreation, watershed and wildlife.
The bill, advanced by Assemblymember Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa, would have replaced that definition with a list of public benefits. The list includes biodiversity and habitat, durable onsite carbon storage, climate resilience, ecosystem function, recreation, watershed health, wildfire resilience and research.
Logging would have remained legal for three purposes: research, demonstration and restoration. The bill also would have authorized the state natural resources secretary to enter co-management agreements with California tribes.
Newsom objected to the list of benefits. “By narrowing the management of these forests to a limited set of public benefits, this bill risks the State’s ability to fully demonstrate the best science-based practices,” he wrote. “At a time when California is racing to keep pace with a rapidly changing climate, we cannot afford to lose the flexibility needed to safeguard our forests for future generations.”
His message doesn’t mention Jackson, tribes or timber. It describes the forests as “living laboratories for research, recreation, and the demonstration of sustainable forest management.”
Mendocino County supported the bill. The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Sept. 1 to ratify a letter of support to send to Newsom, according to the meeting’s draft minutes.
The Rural County Representatives of California asked for the veto. Mendocino is one of the Sacramento association’s 40 member counties. On Aug. 28, the association posted a call to action on its website. It said it was asking Newsom to veto the bill, and it asked counties to send veto letters of their own.
The bill would replace “established, scientifically-based forestry concepts with new and uncertain terminology,” the association wrote, and would “eliminate the self-sustaining fiscal model currently in place.”
Tulare County also opposed the bill, according to the Senate’s floor analysis. That analysis lists others as opposed unless the bill was amended. They include the state Department of Finance, Cal Fire Local 2881, Mendocino and Humboldt Redwood Companies and Willits Redwood Company.
The same analysis lists the Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata as the bill’s sponsor.
A rally in support of the bill was held Aug. 15 at Fort Bragg Town Hall. Supporters said the rally was organized “in solidarity by tribal nations and allies.” It called for the bill’s passage and the governor’s signature. It also called for a halt to logging in Jackson, including a timber harvest plan near Chamberlain Creek that organizers say Cal Fire approved in December.
The bill wouldn’t have changed that plan. It wasn’t retroactive and said nothing about plans already approved. The center’s executive director, Tom Wheeler, said in an email in August that the bill “does not stop any existing THPs,” using the shorthand for timber harvest plans.
The Senate approved the bill 29-10 on Aug. 26. The Assembly agreed to the Senate’s amendments 58-19 the next day, according to the recorded roll calls. Every vote for the bill came from a Democrat and every vote against it from a Republican.
Overriding a veto takes two-thirds of each house. That is 27 of 40 senators and 54 of 80 Assembly members. The bill passed with more than that in both.
Rogers’ office hadn’t posted a statement on the veto to his Assembly website as of Saturday morning.
I never thought I would say this, but thank you. Gavin Newsom for keeping Jackson state forest, a working forest. It was never meant to be a park. It’s open to the public now for hiking hunting camping. And it proces jobs and logs for our Mills.
Don’t they realize that the trees they are cutting down are the same trees that would help the most against climate change they take in the most carbon and produce the most oxygen and they support the most micr climates they the oldest tallest living trees in the world and they want to cut them down for what reason to replace them with no native plants that they think will help the climate. They talk about how jackson is open for public use camping hiking and horse back riding let’s see camping is open for just a couple of months the campgrounds are right on the highway 75 % of the roads have locked gates on them so it has major restrictions for use by the public. Back when I was growing up you could drive on all the roads in jackson camp where you wanted to and basically do whatever you liked to do in the great outdoors now that’s almost all taken away from the public. Our governor is real piece of **** he will protect plants and wildlife unless there is big money to be made yeah and you southern people keep voting him because the people in the north are out number by so much we really don’t have much to say when it comes political and other things need to split this state in half before the northern part is ruined
Forests are not a real carbon sink. Even the redwood forest which has a life cycle of a least 2,000 years is not going to be able to meaningfully reduce the carbon that we’ve put into the atmosphere over just the last 100 years. And certainly not in our lifetime. That carbon, mainly from gas and coal sequestered from the atmosphere over 100,000,000 years ago, took before that hundreds of millions of years to sequester through millions and millions of life cycle sequestrations. But math has never been a strong suit of residents in Mendocino County.
I guess you never go out there if you did you would notice most of the trees out there are in decline.
Gavin Newsom is the dumbest governor this state has ever suffered. RCRC is a Republican organization that takes money from 40 counties to screw the Democratic majority. How many of the 40 counties have these demonstration forests? How many even have paid attention or made their independent statements on the issue? RCRC makes a republican move based purely on imagined economic interests because that’s all the GOP does now- think about money over everything else. And because Newsom is a closet conservative who wants the conservative vote when he runs for president he makes up some lame bs statement using terms like climate change and flexibility to play both sides of the fence. But what should we expect from a loser like him who courts racist Nazis and fascists like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon for his dreadfully stupid podcast. He has no actual beliefs of his own and exists purely in a land of political wind chasing.
Newsom groveled to the rural right. Let’s see if the legislature can overrule him. (May be what he really wants)
This is the only good thing this guy has ever done. Anybody wanting to change a working forest that creates private industry jobs to a taxpayer funded restoration project doesn’t understand modern forest management or how an economy works. Some people have to work to support public recreation projects and people that refuse to work.
Very disappointed in Newsom’s decision to veto this bill that actually would’ve provided more and better, safer jobs in the woods in restoration work ran under the private logging companies. Also, more revenue to the County from increased tourism, as Supe Ted Williams has shown, instead of providing welfare for the private timber industry. Of course the industry and Calfire opposed it. Why should the public subsidize your job and not someone else’s?
there is no conflict between logging and environmental stewardship
in fact we logged our way to mismanagement
amd now we need to log our way back to a healthy forest
it can not be done without mechanized logging amd perscribed buring in the winter seasons
wingnuts on the far left like Naomi
and pliticians who grovel to industry and right wingers ( looking at you Greasy)
are why the moderate middle
which is more than 60% of the popularion gets stuck with the twisted ignorant positions of
entitled boomers like
Naomi Wagner, and Gavin Newsom
you two are exactly the same
rigid in position and willfully ignorant
so now we are all fucked
thanks fuckers
The bill wanted carbon storage, aka capture? Do people not realize the danger in carbon storage? We live in an earthquake zone. https://www.npr.org/2023/05/21/1172679786/carbon-capture-carbon-dioxide-pipelinehttps://energytheory.com/problems-with-carbon-capture-and-storage/
I guess sucking up to PG&E (and the other IOUs) and killing access to affordable local energy generation for Californians wasn’t enough to fuel Newsom’s presidential ambitions; he apparently requires significantly more corporate cash.
Dear “carbon emmissions cannot be undone”. Thank you for educating us. No need to be rude while you do it. 😉
Another Guest
Not enough Balls to put your name on what you spew?
Speaking from a purely democratic perspective, it appears Newsom’s “flexibility to safeguard our forests for future generations” by cutting them down will be over-ridden next time AB2494 comes up for the vetoproof vote. We are grappling with the consequences of a special-interest President. We certainly don’t need another one. Very chameleonesque. No offense to chameleons.