Two Very Different Tours of Jackson Forest

Spirits were high in the Forest in the last few weeks, as Michael Hunter, Tribal Chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, hosted four community tours in Jackson Demonstration State Forest. The tours drew hundreds of people from around the state, including Yurok Tribal Vice Chairman Frankie Myers. Pomo people from tribes all around Northern California showed up to offer prayers, and to drum, dance and sing to honor the People’s Forest and a vision for tribal co-management of JDSF. Plenty of lively discussion took place regarding the (mis)management of the California Department of Forestry (CalFire).

Thank you, Hunter Family, and all who attended in support of tribal co-management and a better future for all of us. Watch a highlight from the tour here:

Chairman Hunter performing a Pomo traditional dance in Jackson State Forest on February 27, 2022

Meanwhile, CalFire has been holding their own guided tours of the hotly contested Caspar 500 Timber Harvest Plan, which was halted last summer by direct activists. Many members of the Coalition to Save Jackson have attended the meetings to ensure the public gets both sides of the story. Vince Taylor, founder of the original Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest in the 90s, and an original member of the Jackson Advisory Group (JAG) was onhand at one of the meetings to set the record straight. Watch the video here.

Two more CalFire tours are on the docket: Saturday, March 12 from 1:00-4:00, and Tuesday, March 29 from 1:00-4:00 at the Scales Parking Lot in Caspar.

While we appreciate that Cal Fire is attempting to reach out to the public, we wonder if this is a genuine avenue for input or just an infomercial for the continuation of business as usual. We do not accept the legitimacy of any timber harvest in Jackson until the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo's Government to Government consultations have come to an agreement satisfactory to all parties. We further do not believe that timber harvest, road building, or THP development should continue under the current outdated Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

Climate change is the most pressing issue facing humankind, and timber harvest has been shown to be one of the most substantial contributors. Moreover, climate change threatens forest health itself, exacerbating forest mortality and decreasing carbon storage, forming a dangerous positive feedback loop. Meanwhile, in the 900+ page EIR conducted in 2005, just a paltry five pages discuss climate change, with only a few minor addendums added since. We believe that updating the nearly 20-year-old EIR to reflect the environmental imperatives of our time and prioritizing Governor Newsom's Executive Order to seek opportunities for Tribal co-management of State lands should be the Top priorities for Jackson, not doubling down on business-as-usual practices, which have delivered us squarely to where we find ourselves today.

We encourage you to attend these tours in order to hear firsthand what CAL FIRE has planned and to express your beliefs about what is an appropriate use of public lands in general, and Jackson in particular.

MCYC Goes to EarthX in Dallas

Red Tail THP Ongoing Carnage