South Fork Mountain: One Ridge. One Irreplaceable Corridor. One Chance To Stop The Destruction.

They Call It Fire Safety. We Call It What It Is.

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing roughly 1,200 acres of commercial logging along 40 miles of the South Fork Mountain ridge under the banner of "fire safety," while also constructing 141 new log-landing clearings and opening nearly 15 miles of “temporary” roads across some of the most landslide-prone slopes in California. This ridge is the only continuous overland wildlife corridor linking the Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel and the Trinity Alps Wilderness. The rivers, forests, and wildlife of South Fork Mountain deserve a fire strategy grounded in ecology, not driven by timber extraction.

A Wild Ridgeline Like No Other

South Fork Mountain is the longest continuous north-to-south ridgeline in the western hemisphere, a 40-mile spine straddling the Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity National Forests. It is the only continuous overland wildlife corridor linking the Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel and the Trinity Alps Wilderness. It provides a vital linkage for all kinds of plants and animals at a moment when climate change is pushing wildlife to seek higher ground and new refuge.

On the western slope, the Mad River begins its run to the Pacific. On the eastern slope, the Wild and Scenic South Fork Trinity River shelters coho salmon and one of the last self-sustaining wild spring Chinook salmon runs in California. For thousands of years, this ridge was tended by the Nongatl, Wiyot, Lassik, and Wailaki peoples.

What the Forest Service Is Proposing

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing roughly 1,200 acres of commercial logging along this ridge under the banner of "fire safety," while also constructing 141 new log-landing clearings and opening nearly 15 miles of “temporary” roads across some of the most landslide-prone slopes in California. The agency is invoking emergency authority to fast-track the project and bypass public review, and it wants to amend the Forest Plan to allow heavy machinery on slopes far too steep for logging.

Why This Project Gets It Wrong

The fire-safety framing doesn't hold up to scrutiny. The trees targeted are old, large, and fire-resistant, exactly what ecologists say should be protected, not logged. The agency's own scientists flagged the terrain as highly unstable, yet the project would scrape 141 clearings, one every fifth of a mile, into those same landslide-prone slopes. The environmental review covers only 16% of the project area for rare plants. Northern Spotted Owl surveys are a decade out of date. And the water quality analysis is missing miles of roads and all 141 landings from its calculations.

We Support Real Fire Safety

We are not opposed to fire management. Thoughtful, targeted work like clearing brush near homes, reducing ladder fuels along roads, and carefully prescribed burning can genuinely protect communities and ecosystems alike. The Trinity County Collaborative has outlined this kind of shaded fuel break approach for South Fork Mountain. That is a project we can support ¾not a commercial timber sale dressed up as a fuels project, rushed through under emergency rules, on one of California's most ecologically sensitive ridges.

What You Can Do Right Now

The Forest Service is accepting public comments until May 13. Your comment matters. Even a few sentences count.

CLICK HERE to send a letter