Kimberly Baker inspecting logging within the Orleans Community Fuels Reduction project.

I work with the Klamath Forest Alliance and EPIC to protect and defend our North Coast Watersheds. Our organizations strongly support the Traditional Ecological Knowledge and cultural management techniques of the Tribes. This is a very brief rendition of a very heated story. The Orleans “Community Fuels Reduction” Project (OCFR) is a tangled mess of broken assurances. Four years ago the Orleans Ranger District on the Six Rivers National Forest came to the community and the Karuk Tribe with a map and a Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) plan. Forced collaboration from the start got this project off on the wrong foot. After hundreds of meetings, field trips and discussions it has proven to be worse than we all imagined.

The OCFR plan consists of treating over 2,500 acres-1,404 acres of hand thinning and commercial logging on 1,179 acres. Within the Panamniik World Renewal Ceremonial Area, which is culturally and spiritually significant to the Karuk Tribe, 941 acres of treatments are proposed.

It is hard to know where to begin listing the violations of laws and promises. Each purpose and need spelled out by the agency has run counter to their word in the Environmental Impact Statement.

1) Reduce hazardous fuels and promote restoration of fire-adapted ecosystem functions.

A 10-foot width limit was identified in the EIS for skyline logging corridors and on average they are 20-40 feet wide. Most of these corridors seem to target the largest, most fire resistant trees, many over 4 feet in diameter. Collectively these swaths of open forests will lead to increased brush growth, which increases the fire risk. Canopy closure in these stands is now less than the 60 percent that was pledged.

2.) Enhance cultural values associated with the Panamniik World Renewal Ceremonial District

In order to secure logging equipment, cables (guy-lines) are wrapped around large trees and in effect these trees are mortally damaged. Large tan oak trees that are in very sensitive areas have been damaged. Logging equipment has been parked in spiritually sensitive areas. The EIS promised the use of different equipment in these logging units so this would not happen. Furthermore, non-local crews did hand thinning with no regard to cultural interests, including slashing hardwoods.

3.) Improve forest health and promote stand diversity

Throughout the EIS the Forest Service emphasizes the importance of hardwood species not only from a forest health perspective, but also from a traditional ecological perspective and it assures hardwood retention and protection. However there is an economic incentive for cutting these trees for firewood and that is what this logger has done. Hundreds of “protected” hardwoods have been cut. Not only is this devastating to forest health but will also increase the risk of fire.

It doesn’t end there. Tyrone Kelly gave his word in the EIS and in person that “Multiparty monitoring would be an effective way to build trust and collaborate with local communities and diverse stakeholders including interested citizens and Tribes. As contracts develop, we will continue to work with collaborators to establish priorities for implementation and monitoring.” Well, up until a couple weeks ago, because of pressure from bad press, Tyrone said that he would not allow or take any part in monitoring. He said it was a conflict of interest. The collaborative group was supposed to have access to files, contracts and basic information. We had to send in formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the project file (minus the culturally and endangered species information), which any citizen in the country is allowed access. Even then thy have denied our request saying that it was not specific enough. Where will it end?

“The timber industry’s effort to force delisting was always ludicrous, basically exactly the opposite of what conservation science has been telling us about the murrelet’s actual status,” said Scott Greacen, EPIC’s executive director. “What’s needed now is for USFWS to stop responding to the industry’s cynical, anti-science agenda and start taking concrete steps that will actually improve the murrelet’s chances of survival.”

The threatened marbled murrelet is a small seabird that flies inland to nest on the mossy limbs of old-growth trees. During the past century, California’s murrelet population dropped from 60,000 to approximately 4,000 individuals. Humboldt Redwood Company’s (formerly Pacific Lumber) ancient redwood groves in Humboldt County are one of three remaining nesting areas in California.

Read the USFWS press release on the marbled murrelet’s threatened status.

EPIC and our allies look forward to hosting a public forum in February on the issue and will host a number of activities before the final Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Assessment publication, expected at the beginning of March. Once the final proposal is released, the agency has indicated it will not accept further comment on the plan. Charlie Fielder, Director of District 1 Caltrans, reported to EPIC that planners have made major changes to the original proposal. Last week Humboldt Supervisors Mark Lovelace and Cliff Clendenen attended a private tour of the proposed changes within the grove. These changes have not been made public and local southern Humboldt media coverage shocked even those close to the issue.

Stay tuned! Sign up on EPIC’s Save Richardson Grove Listserv here. You can donate to EPIC’s Richardson Grove campaign here.

We hope you enjoy the billboard.

EPIC wants to offer special thanks to all of the volunteers that made this project possible, including Aliana Knapp-Prasek, Jefferson, Bob Slayton, Bruce Edwards, Barbara Kennedy and local sponsoring businesses who supplied the materials.

After two years of working with EPIC, I am so excited to see the swelling enthusiasm of our small but dedicated team of activists and organizers. EPIC’s work over the years has ebbed and flowed from an epicenter of information based in the heart of the struggle to defend redwood forests in Garberville to sparse offices in Eureka and skeleton staff with board leadership. Our totally redesigned website is a step into a new era for the organization, but we haven’t lost sight of where we came from.

EPIC’s roots go back to a time when the office was located inside a potato chip delivery truck out in Ruby Point and peaked when we had an annual budget exceeding a half of a million dollars a year. The organization now boasts a lean but committed staff and works out of a 500 square foot office just a block off of the plaza in downtown Arcata. Our priorities include monitoring all of the projects across four national forests, protecting the Tolowa Dunes to the north, advocating for public policy across California in Sacramento, working to protect Richardson Grove State Park and remaining old growth redwood groves, and fighting for sustainable forestry.

These days, most of EPIC’s staff works normal business hours, supplemented by evening meetings, fieldtrips to proposed projects, and occasional flights over our vast region. With the foundation built to increase EPIC’s capacity, our near term future will focus on a public outreach campaign to once again provide our community with a clearinghouse of information and resources.

The announcement of our Brews & Views weekly discussion marks the first new event planned to reach out to the North Coast. EPIC staff and community can discuss pressing environmental issues impacting our region each Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at Humbrews in downtown Arcata. We look forward to gradually increasing our constituency and gaining valuable insight for our program work.

We realize that the function of our globally connected ecosystems face immediate threats of unpredictable degradation. Our region could provide a globally significant reserve for carbon and refuge of biodiversity if we can defend our water, forests and air in Northern California.

EPIC staffers including myself, Scott Greacen, David Lawlor and Natalynne Delapp will contribute to the blog regularly and include timely information to engage the EPIC community. If you like the new website and the organization’s exciting plans for 2010, please consider making a donation to help us protect our unique bioregion and keep Northern California wild.

Thanks for visiting!

Kerul Dyer, Outreach Director

We must now amp up the campaign to Save Richardson Grove, as the agency prepares to release their final plan in just six weeks. Even with widespread public outcry in opposition to the project, the agency plans to release their final proposal without time for additional public comment and with consideration to only the most destructive alternative to reach their transportation goals in this sensitive forest ecosystem.

In preparation for the release of these final documents and Caltrans refusal to host adequate public forum, EPIC and our allies are planning an independent public forum in Eureka and Garberville in early February, so that citizens of our region can get all of the facts. Enter your email address at the top of this page to get updates about the public forum and other updates on the project at Richardson Grove. We’ll also keep you updated with additional blog posts.

In addition to these events, EPIC volunteers in southern Humboldt are painting a billboard on Highway 101 reading “Save Richardson Grove”. The billboard will be installed over the next few days, just south of Standish Hickey State Park. In addition to the billboard, we also have Save Richardson Grove t-shirts, color posters and postcards that can be used to get the word out. If you’d like to get your hands on a t-shirt, poster or postcard email us at epic@wildcalifornia.org.

So far, EPIC has gathered over 2,000 postcards from individuals opposed to the project, and hopes to get many more signed during the critical weeks ahead. Please consider supporting our campaign by donating, getting involved, or taking action. Every voice counts!