Headwaters Fund and other grants sought to pay for management plan
By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel
Humboldt County Supervisors voiced their unanimous support this morning for the creation of a Humboldt Bay Region Community Forest along the eastern border of Cutten and Myrtletown.
Although occasionally tied in with more controversial plans to turn a part of the McKay Tract of forestlands into a high-end housing and strip mall development site, the idea of a county-owned public forest has brought together the landowner, Green Diamond timber company, the Trust for Public Land, a national non-profit land conservation group, and various local stakeholders.
Along with a 2,000 acre publicly-owned forest envisioned for phases one and two, phase three would provide for a 5,500 acre conservation easement east of Ryan Creek, allowing Green Diamond to continue timber harvesting under the understanding that the land could not be subdivided and converted to non-timberland use.
The proposed Humboldt Bay Region Community Forest
“This is a wonderful opportunity for Humboldt County to provide,” Byrd Lochtie of the League of Women Voters told Supervisors. “I heartily support a community forest and I’m glad to hear that most of you do too.”
The move would triple the size of lands currently under the County Parks and Trails system managed by the Department of Public Works, but their director, Tom Mattson, claims that the acquisition wouldn’t impact the county’s General Fund.
“Public Works believes the next step is to develop a management plan that provides the framework for an economically self-sustaining community forest based on robust community engagement and input,” Mattson stated in his report to the Board.
To this end, his department has already submitted a concept proposal to the Cal-Fire Urban and Community Forestry Grant Program to develop this plan, and Supervisors also backed his move to seek support from the Headwaters Fund, whose members the Board also appoints.
As the county hasn’t completed their study to ensure that they could manage the proposed community forest in a revenue-neutral way, Mattson pointed to TPLs work with the Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc. to serve as interim owner of the 640-acre phase one of the project. RFFI already manages the 50,000 acre Usal Redwood Forest in Mendocino County, and they’ve offered to be the applicant for funding from the state River Parkways Grant Program.
While State Fish and Game was on hand to offer their full support for the community forest as a means to protect the Ryan Creek watershed and help recover populations of threatened Coho Salmon, more strident enviros sounded a note of caution as to Green Diamond’s larger agenda.
Jeremy “Farmer” Jensen from Earth First! noted that some of the proposed areas were downstream from currently operating tree sits in the McKay Tract in Cutten, put their by his “affinity group” to prevent residential and commercial development.
“There are some areas that are so significant that they need to stand on their own,” Jensen said. “I don’t feel like anybody feels like they’re giving in to preserve this forest.”
In giving the green light to the concept and the applications for outside funding, Supervisors also formed a working group with Public Works, Community Development Services, County Counsel Wendy Chatin, County Administrative Officer Phillip Smith-Hanes, the Humboldt County Forestry Review Committee and the University of California Cooperative Extension Forest Advisor’s Office.
Third District Supervisor Mark Lovelace of Arcata, whose district encompasses the Myrtletown area, asked to be the direct Board representative to this working group. First District Supervisor Jimmy Smith quickly shot down this idea, as he pointed out the immediate impacts this proposal would have on development plans in the Cutten area of his district, not to mention the water and environmental quality implications downstream in Virginia Bass’ Fourth District in Eureka. The adopted motion clarified that the entire Board will liaise with the working group.
If implemented, the Forest Review Committee, made up of Community Development Director Kurt Girard, Assessor Mari Wilson and seven voting members appointed to four-year terms by the Board, would oversee management of the community forest. All seven public members are required to be registered professional foresters.
Outstanding report. This is the first article I’ve seen comprehensively addressing the idea of a community forest in Eureka after the BOS meeting today. Thank you for the update and information.
Thanks for this detailed story, Charles. This was a huge step to move forward with this project. I really appreciate Green Diamond offering this opportunity to the County, and I’m glad they’re working with TPL, who I’ve worked with in the past. There is still a long way to go, but all the right players are on board.
While Jimmy did note the relationship between the forest and his District, he did ultimately support appointing me to the working group, at least during this initial phase while we are working on the funding and acquisition.
In a related action, this afternoon our Board amended our State and Federal legislative platforms to include support for policies and funding that we will need to make this project happen.
Good job on getting this story out! I’m glad to see things moving in a positive direction. I was a little nervous, so maybe I mumbled, but to clarify the statements attributed to me, what I said was that these groves stand on their own in terms of ecological significance and that no one should feel like they’re giving in by preserving them. In fact, it would be a huge show of goodwill on the part of Green Diamond for these groves to become preserves. It would be net benefit for all parties. It’s true that some of the area has been re-zoned and is now vulnerable to future residential development, but the threat common to the few remaining mature groves is clear-cut logging.