Craig Blencowe on Jackson Forest Harvest Plan

Jackson State Forest (Mendocino, California) has proposed a Timber Harvest Plan in Whiskey Springs using "cluster selection", 1/4 acre clearcuts centered on a clump of trees that grow up around the old-growth tree stumps. The plan is to remove about one-half of all of the clumps in this area that has regrown without major disturbance since it was initially logged 80 years ago.

When I first reviewed this as a member of the Jackson Forest Advisory Group, I became concerned that this was a wrongheaded approach to forest management (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVYV6edd1TA).

Craig Blencowe, a local forester with long experience in managing redwood forests to obtain high productivity while maintaining their natural forest quality, agreed to come and review the plan with me. Here are his comments.

In summary, cluster selection will cut down all the growing trees in a clump, the good and the bad, rather than selectively cutting in the clump so that remaining good trees have a chance to grow larger. The untouched clumps will remain overcrowded. This is bad for future profits from the forest. Equally important, the proposed heavy use of cluster harvesting will make for an ugly forest with a combination of mini-clearcuts packed with sprouts and overcrowded, undergrown clumps of trees.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Craig Blencowe
• Jackson Forest
• Jackson State Forest
• JDSF
• redwoods
• logging
• Mendocino
• clump selection
• cluster selection
• redwood silviculture

[mbanchero]

I'm very glad to see a forester taking a more long term conservative view towards harvesting redwood. The question that this video does not address is, should we be cutting trees in Jackson State Forest for timber purposes only? Maybe the questions should be how do we restore the forest to have old growth characteristics? Can we make this forest more fire durable? How do we improve water shed values? Can we make the forest more spiritually inspiring from a many uses recreational standpoint?

[vtaylor100]

@mbanchero Your questions are the same ones I keep asking at the meeting of the Jackson Forest Advisory Committee. There is some positive progress in the directions we would like to see, but there is still substantial resistance from a number of people.

[EmeraldTriangleNews]

Save Jackson State Forest!