THIS THP HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN

Mitchell Creek THP

Suggested Comments:

How To Submit Comments on the Mitchell Creek Timber Harvest Plan

Cal-Fire has filed a 550-acre timber harvest plan (THP) for areas in the Mitchell Creek drainage. This plan is posted as single tree selection with areas of shaded fuel break, removing at least 30% of tree basal area—likely a good portion of the older redwoods and douglas fir. There are many areas of this THP that are on their way to late successional status—maturing second growth. Operations are scheduled to run from August of 2021 to November of 2022. Logs will be hauled out Mitchell Creek Road for a few weeks within that period, but mostly will go up Roads 510 and 511, then out Road 500 to Road 408 and Highway 20. The harvest plan has one ten-acre demonstration/research plot: an attempt to repopulate a pine/tanoak zone with redwoods.

The public comment period is now open and will close sometime in late January 2021. If you have an opinion on this harvest, we encourage you to submit a comment. However, it is crucial that your comment be as well-informed as possible. If you can take the time to research and include citations, your comments will be more valuable, but even a simple statement of objection from the heart is better than no comment at all. See below for suggestions. Send your email to:

SantaRosaPublicComment@fire.ca.gov

Also cc:

The Registered Professional Forester: Julie.Rhoads@fire.ca.gov

California Department of Fish and Wildlife: Jon.Hendrix@wildlife.ca.gov

California Coastal Commission (if your comments include items that could affect land, aquifers, or watercourses within the Coastal Zone: Bob.Merrill@coastal.ca.gov

bcc: mendocinotrailstewards@gmail.com

For your comment to be put into the record, the following MUST be in the subject line:

Mitchell Creek THP 1-20-00193-MEN

Some Suggested Areas of Commentary:

~Three contiguous THPs are planned for the coming three years: Mitchell Creek, Caspar 500, and Jughandle. Add to this that three or possibly four more THPs are planned for just over the ridge in the Big River Watershed. This is highly concerning for many reasons. Two contiguous plans being harvested at the same time create issues under the California Environmental Quality Act—an important body of regulatory law which unfortunately has no companion enforcement agency—as the cumulative impact of these harvests could be greater than the sum of their parts. The piecing out of so many adjoining plans makes them much more time consuming to analyze and fight. The amount of logging activity will turn the Western end of Jackson Demonstration State Forest into an industrial zone. This greater area is used by tens of thousands of people, is a refuge for locals and a large draw for recreational tourism, all of which will be heavily affected by thousands of logging truck and heavy machinery trips through the area.

~Most of the headwaters of Mitchell Creek will be encompassed by the THP, likely exacerbating the already existing erosion/siltation problem in a watercourse that has had salmonid species and is home to many amphibian species such as the Pacific Giant Salamander.

~This and the Jughandle THPs were presented and discussed at the Fall, 2020 Jackson Advisory Group (JAG) meeting which was closed to the public. These, according to the JAG Charter, and under the Brown Act of 1953 and the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act of 1967, was under law supposed to be open or at least accessible to the public, but, due to the pandemic, was closed; this also in spite of Governor Newsom’s series of orders in March of 2020 that such meetings remain open at least by teleconference.

~Presently stretches of Roads 500 and 408 do not have bypass routes for cyclists in spite of heavy use. This will be a problem during periods of timber harvest operations. Please allow for bypasses to be created and/or sanctioned, including along 508, Buck Fifty, Arrow, Chuck Hinsch, and utilizing logging spurs to the South of 408 to connect to Manly Gulch.

~Please work to create or allow for the creation of a bypass for hiker and bike traffic during the period of operations—Road 511 is used regularly by walkers, equestrians, and cyclists, but it will be closed for the duration.

~Please allow for the sanctioning of trails in the THP area after the fact—the THP area is heavily used but has no sanctioned trails within its boundaries.

~Please try to keep operations in areas close to residences of as short of a duration as possible—the timber harvesting will be audible at many of the residences on Mitchell Creek and Simpson Lane

~The operations could adversely affect the culvert on Mitchell Creek Road, the worst case scenario being its collapse, cutting off all residents of the upper mile of the road.