JDSF is NOT 30x30 - Yet

Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF), located between the cities of Fort Bragg and Ukiah in Mendocino, is a place to recreate and find solace for many community members. It also comprises important cultural landscapes for the Coast Yuki and Northern Pomo tribes. At 48,652 acres of coast redwood forest, it is the largest forest owned and managed by the state for demonstration purposes. It is home to the endangered northern spotted owl, and within pockets of old growth and rare second growth forest, it provides potential habitat for species such as marbled murrelet and Humboldt marten. In addition to the habitat provided, the forest also contains watercourses that are home to some of Mendocino’s last remaining endangered coho salmon. Yet despite all of these sensitive features that require careful protection and stewardship, the California Department of Fire and Forestry (Cal Fire) manages the land as commercial timber lands, and it is far from being a place for wildlife and habitat conservation. The largest hurdle to better management is the legislative logging mandate for state forests, which states that all state forests must be managed to achieve "maximum sustained production of high quality forest products.”

Right now, JDSF is qualified as GAP 3 under the state’s quantification system of conservation. According to the Final Pathways to 30x30 Strategy, California’s 30x30 initiative to conserve 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030 only counts qualified lands as GAP 1 and 2. GAP 1 describes areas that have more permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover and a mandated management plan in operation to maintain a natural state within which natural disturbance events can occur without interference or are mimicked through management. GAP 2 areas have permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover and a mandated management plan in operation to maintain a primarily natural state, but which may receive uses or management practices that degrade the quality of existing natural communities, including suppression of natural disturbance like wildland fire or native insect outbreaks. Lands that are qualified as GAP 3 have permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover for the majority of the area, but are subject to extractive uses such as logging, OHV recreation, or localized intense uses like mining. Although these types of lands maintain protection to federally listed endangered and threatened species throughout the area, they still allow ecologically harmful activities, and therefore do not count towards the state’s 30x30 goal. California has the strongest definition of conservation in the nation with its GAP code system.

JDSF is not currently considered “conserved” under the 30x30 initiative because it does not have adequate protections for biodiversity, equity, recreational access, or climate resilience. Commercial timber operations have been ongoing in JDSF since its creation in 1947. The historic mission of JDSF has been to “demonstrate” timber production for California’s private timber companies. Cal Fire used to harvest old-growth trees, and has thankfully stopped, but they still harvest mature second-growth trees - some of which are more than 100 years old. Every year, CAL FIRE writes timber harvest plans (THPs) and sells them to private timber companies that conduct logging on this state-owned land. Data compiled by climate scientist JP O’Brien shows that since 1980 alone, 9 billion board feet have been harvested from Mendocino County. In JDSF specifically, only 461 acres of the original 20,000 acres of old-growth forest remain. And this is not just a practice of the not-so-distant past. 

In 2020, Cal Fire shocked the public by proposing the Caspar 500 THP, which would have cut down large second-growth redwood trees, some of which were over 70 inches in diameter at breast height, added new roads, harmed a tribal sacred site, and impacted a popular hiking trail. Luckily, due to community protests and tribal leadership, Caspar 500 was shut down. Most recently, the Camp 8 South THP proposes timber harvesting over 500 acres of late seral forest areas meant to be managed to develop old growth structure and wildlife habitat, constructing over 2 miles of new roads, and allowing damaging tractor yarding near sediment-impaired streams like the North Fork of the South Fork Noyo River. Incredibly rare mature second-growth trees are some of California’s best hope for creating new old-growth coastal redwood groves that can begin to replace the magnificent forests that were destroyed by logging. If they were allowed to grow, these trees would sequester carbon at an astonishing pace and help us fight climate change.

Large trees marked for cut in the latest Camp 8 South THP at JDSF.

Cal Fire has also failed to protect tribal cultural landscapes within JDSF, according to a confidential report commissioned by Governor Wilson in 1999. This report demonstrated that many archaeological sites had been either damaged or destroyed primarily due to the extensive logging road system within JDSF. Luckily, improvements seem to be underway for tribal cultural landscape protection in JDSF with strengthened tribal government consultation and oversight by the Tribal Advisory Committee. However, these improvements have not been formalized in any way through official Cal Fire policy - and many members of the public are eagerly awaiting to see if these improvements will be included in the draft of the updated Management Plan for JDSF.

Presently, under the Management Plan for JDSF the only protected landscapes consist of 461 acres of remaining old growth redwoods and 903 acres of Pygmy/Cypress groups, totaling 1364 acres, which represents only 2.8% of the forest. Late Seral Development Areas and Older Forest Structure Zones are still actively managed for timber according to the JDSF Management Plan, and thus are still subject to extraction, and are therefore NOT protected. One only has to compare Cal Fire’s own forest allocations to the map of past and proposed harvest in JDSF to see that these designations are hollow when destructive logging is still allowed to continue. 

This is exactly why JDSF received a GAP 3 land classification and is considered unprotected under 30x30 guidelines.

In order for JDSF to count towards 30x30 it would need to be permanently protected from commercial logging, which would require a simple yet effective legislative change to the state forests code. To be clear, not all types of logging or management activities are incompatible with GAP 2 status and many parts of JDSF would benefit from restoration forestry, thinning, prescribed fire, and cultural fire. In fact, JDSF would be an excellent location to demonstrate actually sustainable logging that restores a forest to a healthy ecosystem. It would also be a great opportunity to demonstrate tribal co-management among several different tribal governments. JDSF has the potential to provide low-cost outdoor recreation and education opportunities to visitors from around the State by improving the forest’s existing trails and camping areas. Demonstration forests like JDSF provide a timely opportunity for the State of California to accelerate 30x30 by using these public lands to support California’s commitment to biodiversity, equitable access to nature, and Tribal sovereignty.