Who Speaks for the Trees at Tannery Gulch?

A field trip, a marked forest, and a question for our members

Tannery Gulch Campground could look very different by fall. Last week, EPIC joined Forest Service staff; members of the Trinity County Collaborative; Trinity RCD; and about a dozen concerned campers, including a camp host with her two children, who's worked there for 15 years; and campers who've been coming for more than 50 years and have spent every summer of their lives here with their whole family. At one point, standing near one of the marked trees, the camp host told the Forest Service they should read The Lorax. It was a way of saying what a lot of people on that walk were feeling: they love this campground, and most of them left worried about what's planned for it.

The Forest Service has marked trees throughout the campground for cutting as part of a larger project to thin multiple campgrounds around Trinity Lake and remove hazard trees across roughly 1,464 acres of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. On the walk, District Ranger Tara Jones explained the reasoning tree by tree. Many mid-sized and smaller trees were marked for general forest health. The largest trees marked, including one cedar over 55 inches across that is hollow inside, were marked as hazard trees. Photos from the trip show why people are paying attention. Campers hang their hammocks between these very trees, and shade like this is part of what makes a campsite worth returning to summer after summer.

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  A large cedar at Tannery Gulch, marked for cutting, Sept. 4, 2026 field trip.

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  At breast height of said Cedar.

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  Nice healthy tree in center of camp used for hammock

People on the trip kept bringing up Hayward Campground, the first site cut under this same project last year. Today, Hayward has little shade or privacy left between campsites. Slash and log piles still sit near the lake, and the ground in some campsites is uneven from the work. No one on the walk wanted to see Tannery Gulch end up the same way. That worry is part of why this next decision matters so much, and it is one reason we think our members should weigh in before the logging becomes final.

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There is more going on here than what is visible from the road. Records show that a pair of northern spotted owls, a species already struggling across this region, has shifted its nesting area closer to the campground since the last time federal wildlife biologists looked at this project. That shift changes how much of the planned cutting actually overlaps the owls' core nesting area, and requires reconsultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Separately, the Forest Service's own paperwork says the project will keep the campground looking largely the same, even though its own numbers describe years of visible stumps, bare ground, and slash piles, which is a bigger change than that finding accounts for. Neither of these problems is obvious on a walk through the campground, but both raise real questions about whether this plan has been fully thought through.

There is still time to have a say. The district ranger seemed genuinely open, on the walk, to marking select trees to be spared from cutting if the public raises concerns. But logging could begin this fall, so that window will not stay open long. We want to hear directly from our members, campers, and anyone who cares about this place before we decide how hard to push and on what. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions below.

Some of the largest trees marked for cutting are being cut as "hazard trees," even though they might safely stand for many more years. Should they be cut?

• No, let nature take its course
• Yes, if they're really a hazard
• Not yet, they should be monitored
• I have no opinion

Should the Forest Service also cut healthy, living trees in the campground for general "forest health" reasons?

• Yes, thinning is important for forest health
• No, never cut any trees
• I have no opinion
• Maybe, but fewer trees to keep forest canopy for shade

After seeing what happened at Hayward Campground, how important is it to you that Tannery Gulch keeps its shade and privacy between campsites?

• Very important
• Neutral
• Not important

Thank you for sharing your opinion on what should happen in Tannery Gulch. The ranger seemed willing to spare more trees if enough members of the public ask. If you have specific areas of the campground that you think should be spared, please send us an email at epic@wildcalifornia.org with as much detail and photos as you can.