Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest
Click here to support EPIC’s bill to save state forests!
Tribal governments, EPIC, and allies in the Save Jackson Coalition have been working to improve the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)'s management of State Demonstration Forests to conserve the forest’s biodiversity, fight climate change, and protect local tribal sacred sites. Jackson Demonstration State Forest is California's largest state forest at nearly 50,000 acres, located in Mendocino County on the unceded, ancestral Northern Pomo and Coast Yuki territory.
Since 1947, CAL FIRE has been managing the forest as an industrial timberland, “demonstrating” commercial timber harvests for California’s timber companies. The problem stems from a mismatch between the decades-old legislative mandate for the forest, which promotes commercial logging, and a worsening biodiversity and climate crisis. In 1947, when the legislation that governs JDSF was first enacted, there was no consideration given to biodiversity loss, climate change, or Indigenous cultural values. As a result, early State management of the forest entailed clear-cutting nearly 20,000 acres of the remaining old-growth groves; today, only 450 acres remain. The effects of cutting this old growth are seen to this day in lidar maps of the forest, especially of the east end.
Map showing “virgin timber” lands before state ownership of JDSF, primarily on the eastern side of the forest,
courtesy of JP O’Brien.
Map showing eastern side of JDSF today, with little to no mature trees left. Courtesy of JP O’Brien.
JDSF is an extremely important forest and should be conserved for several reasons.
First, Jackson houses culturally significant sites and biological resources for the Northern Pomo and Coast Yuki peoples that are threatened by ongoing timber harvesting. Preserving Jackson would also help preserve Indigenous cultural heritage. Moreover, Jackson is already state-owned land, so no acquisition is required to conserve almost 50,000 acres that residents and tourists alike love for outdoor recreation.
Additionally, JDSF is home to endangered northern spotted owls and marbled murrelets, so conserving this forest would have considerable biodiversity benefits. Finally, because coast redwoods are the dominant species in Jackson, preserving this forest will have uniquely beneficial carbon sequestration impacts, as coast redwood trees sequester more carbon dioxide than any other tree on earth.
In order to accomplish this, EPIC has partnered with local and national organizations such as the Mendocino Trail Stewards, Jug Handle Creek Farm & Nature Center, Forests Forever Foundation, California Native Plant Society, Mama Tree Mendo, Fortunate Farmland, Standing Up For Racial Justice Mendocino, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Mendocino County Youth for Climate.
We are also working with the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council to ensure that our advocacy is respectful of these Tribes' connection to their ancestral land. Since time immemorial, Northern Pomo and Coast Yuki Peoples have fished for salmon in the rivers and gathered food, basket-weaving materials, and medicinal plants from the coastal forest.
In May 2021, local climate scientist, JDSF lover, and EPIC board member John P. O'Brien wrote a position letter outlining his vision for more climate-friendly management of JDSF.
Together, we are all committed to changing the way CAL FIRE manages JDSF for the better. That means focusing on wildlife conservation, carbon sequestration, recreation, and reverence — not industrial logging.
Subscribe to our email list to receive updates about our fight to preserve JDSF and ways you can help.
Timeline of JDSF Advocacy
EPIC is just one group in a long line of advocates to push for changing the industrial logging mandate on state forests.
2023
-
July 31 — in anticipation of the next Jackson Advisory Group (JAG) meeting, EPIC published an action alert asking our supporters to tell CAL FIRE that the revised JDSF management plan needs CEQA environmental review.
-
July 5 — CAL FIRE announced that they will be shirking environmental review when writing the new management plan they promised for JDSF. Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), environmental review is required for all "projects" approved by the State of California, defined as “an activity which may cause either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment…” (Pub. Rec Code § 21065). CAL FIRE has decided not to perform a CEQA review as they rewrite the management plan, effectively limiting public participation and oversight of how this publicly owned forest will be managed in the future, and stating that the new management plan won’t really change (or improve) the physical environment in JDSF.
-
June 5 — EPIC published an action alert asking our supporters to urge California State decision makers to protect JDSF as an Indigenous cultural landscape.
2022
-
February 7 — EPIC published an action alert asking our supporters to write to state representatives demanding an immediate moratorium on logging in JDSF
-
January 18 — EPIC issued a cease and desist order to CAL FIRE, demanding that they not allow Trouette to act as private security on the public property of JDSF.
-
January 10 — CAL FIRE issued its first arrests against protestors in JDSF, which were particularly notable because the protestors were first placed under a “citizens' arrest” by loggers at the direction of Lear Asset Management’s Paul Trouette, who has supposedly been hired by logging companies to act as a safety manager, when he is in fact acting as private security on public lands.
2021
-
October 2021 — forest defenders peacefully protesting in JDSF were faced with threats of violence, and EPIC authored a letter to California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Secretary Wade Crowfoot, urging him to call for a moratorium on logging in JDSF until CAL FIRE could ensure safety.
-
June 2021 — CAL FIRE refused to agree to halt logging in JDSF during negotiations, and tree sitters in JDSF heard "fast and furious" chainsaw work, prompting EPIC to publish an action alert urging a moratorium on logging in J
2020
-
In response to the destructive Caspar 500 timber harvest plan, the Save Jackson State Forest Coalition was formed in 2020, and forest defenders successfully blocked operations from moving forward.
Early 2000s
-
The Campaign to Restore Jackson State Forest, headed by Vince Taylor, joined with Forests Forever and Senator Wesley Chesboro to introduce a bill that would have changed the focus of the state forests from timber production to a mix of uses, including restoration, education, and recreation.
-
SB1648 passed the Assembly and the Senate, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger returned it to the legislature unsigned on Sept. 16th, 2004
-
In 2008, the JDSF Advisory Group (JAG) was formed to make recommendations on long-term management of JDSF to CAL FIRE and the Board of Forestry.
