FAQs, Part II: Other benefits of a PTEIR for the Mattole
Why is the Mattole Forest Futures Project a particularly good idea now?
Over the last two decades, a changing regulatory climate has greatly increased the cost of securing timber harvest permits in California. Non-industrial forestland owners who prefer to log with a lighter touch have been particularly hard-hit by these changes. The cost of permitting has made light harvests less feasible, creating economic pressures to either subdivide large land holdings, log more intensively than landowners would prefer, or leave the forest unmanaged, thereby allowing a hazardous build-up of fuels.
We want landowners to be able, through light-touch timber harvest, to accelerate the return of previously logged forests to ecological maturity, to have the means to upgrade their roads so they are not dumping sediment into the river, and to have an incentive to retain their lands instead of subdividing them. Further, we hope light-touch logging will make possible a modest, sustainable harvest of timber that could support a moderate level of forest-based livelihoods in the Mattole.
Where did the MRC get the idea for the Mattole Forest Futures Project?
The Mattole Forest Futures Project -- to be implemented through a PTEIR -- was conceived at the California Forest Futures conference in Sacramento in 2005, the brainchild of then-MRC executive director Chris Larson, along with Richard Gienger (involved for many years in restoration and the reform of forestry regulation in the Mattole and nearby areas) and Sally French (Mattole timberland owner, and member of the board of Forest Landowners of California).
The project grew out of the recognition that the high cost of a THP increases the pressure to harvest more than would be ecologically beneficial, and that THPs focus their environmental analysis tightly on a single harvest, missing the effects on the broader landscape. At the same time, with second-growth timber across the Mattole beginning to reach harvestable age, the pace of logging is apt to pick up soon, making these issues more pressing than they have been in recent years.
Over the last two decades, a changing regulatory climate has greatly increased the cost of securing timber harvest permits in California. Non-industrial forestland owners who prefer to log with a lighter touch have been particularly hard-hit by these changes. The cost of permitting has made light harvests less feasible, creating economic pressures to either subdivide large land holdings, log more intensively than landowners would prefer, or leave the forest unmanaged, thereby allowing a hazardous build-up of fuels.
We want landowners to be able, through light-touch timber harvest, to accelerate the return of previously logged forests to ecological maturity, to have the means to upgrade their roads so they are not dumping sediment into the river, and to have an incentive to retain their lands instead of subdividing them. Further, we hope light-touch logging will make possible a modest, sustainable harvest of timber that could support a moderate level of forest-based livelihoods in the Mattole.
Where did the MRC get the idea for the Mattole Forest Futures Project?
The Mattole Forest Futures Project -- to be implemented through a PTEIR -- was conceived at the California Forest Futures conference in Sacramento in 2005, the brainchild of then-MRC executive director Chris Larson, along with Richard Gienger (involved for many years in restoration and the reform of forestry regulation in the Mattole and nearby areas) and Sally French (Mattole timberland owner, and member of the board of Forest Landowners of California).
The project grew out of the recognition that the high cost of a THP increases the pressure to harvest more than would be ecologically beneficial, and that THPs focus their environmental analysis tightly on a single harvest, missing the effects on the broader landscape. At the same time, with second-growth timber across the Mattole beginning to reach harvestable age, the pace of logging is apt to pick up soon, making these issues more pressing than they have been in recent years.
© 2010 Mattole Restoration Council