Redwood Reader

http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2202026,00.html?search=filter
The wheels of capitalism grind n in the Mattole watershed. Palco's plan to log their Douglas fir lands in the Mattole generate predictable outcomes in the light of glomalin activity. According to the Habitat Conservation Plan, these lands are steep, erosive, unroaded and in extremely high rainfall zones. Douglas fir does not stump sprout like redwood so that cutting these trees en masse means cutting soil loose en masse. Why? Because the trees are no longer capable of feeding the fungi. Air and sun and running water will destroy the glomalin and areas in high gravity situations will fail when the disaggregated soil becomes waterlogged.
A certain amount of dust will be created as well. Dust is a source of fine sediment in creeks and streams. It accumulates in the watershed all summer, and gets washed down into the water course early in the winter, filling in spaces in gravel beds, and later burying fish emerging from eggs laid in the gravel. Dust is created when glomalin's conditions are not met. When bare soil is exposed, the clumping action of the fungi ceases. Wind, rain, and traffic all cause unattached soil particles to move. WInd and traffic cause dust while rain carries mud into watercourses.
Of course, all this is contrary to the twenty-plus year efforts to restore Mattole fisheries. Countless hours and quite a bit of money has been spent repairing this one small watershed. It in fact still needs considerable help. One problem is the estuary, filling in with silt and becoming dangerously warm for salmonids waiting to go to sea. The location of the Palco lands directly threatens to do immense harm to the entire river system by releasing large amounts of sediment in high rainfall areas close to the mouth of the river. The long process of land destabilization that occurs after Douglas fir clear cuts and road building means the estuary will be impacted for decades, and making many efforts further up stream pointless. A 1996 BLM booklet on anadramous fisheries in the West decried private ownership of lands they wanted to restore for fish, saying they needed control of entire streams to adequately do the job, and that private owners were too disparate in outlook and economic concerns.
Now BLM is the lead agency at the mouth of the Mattole, they have just drafted their twenty year plan, they are acquiring (through donations) more wild lands in the Mattole Valley. The lack of other major industrial timber owners in the valley might have sparked a concerted effort to purchase the steep and unstable lands. Douglas fir land is cheap compared to redwood. Last year rumors of an acquisition surfaced, and action was not taken in fears of the talks collapsing. People are bitter over this since the talks were abandoned and the trees came down with no one defending them. A willing buyout for the lands in the Mattole would be the last assurance needed for the recovery of the valley in our lifetime.
Many people feel the regulatory process has failed them. In fact, the regulatory process changed when the Habitat Conservation Plan went into effect. The plan places the land under supposedly more stringent restrictions than state law. Right at the time of Headwaters purchase, CDF began complaining to the DA’s office about logging violations. People protested to various state agency offices. They were surprised when their old enemies in CDF began agreeing with them and talking like compatriots. Now we know Palco maneuvered the agencies out of the loop, while protesters spent many hours complaining to the wrong people.
Pacific Lumber was founded by men who saw devastating logging operations in Maine and the Great Lake States. They recognized that a controlled rate of cut kept the forests intact, yielded perpetual income and kept a sustainable resource in good maintenance while many other companies depreciated their timber assets and disappeared. The very qualities that made them a profitable company were what the takeover specialists consider “undervalued” assets. If only they could take the profit out of there, like every other timber company has ever done…
Palco continues to cry economic burden about every objection to their plans. They have sold PL farmland in the Central Valley, the PL building in San Francisco, the welding shop, the assets of Mills A and B and about 7800 of their 193000 acres for nearly $50,000 an acre, and bought tens of thousands of acres at considerably less; Douglas fir land is closer to a thousand an acre, so they could buy 50 acres for every one they sold. Regionally this is bad for the environment. Areas will be needed to create the timber and fiber society needs, but those areas will eventually be restricted to less risky sites that are also far more profitable.
The timber issue will get a good review when glomalin is understood by society. A basic understanding will create legislation that protects this vital ingredient of landscape health. Palco will have plenty of management to do a regular supply of its own small stuff. The real good news is that understanding glomalin will allow the National Forests to develop management schemes with regular thinning providing small wood for a long time, and gradual increase in the number of larger saw logs from commercial thinning as part of landscape stabilizing management schemes. Other benefits include better rainfall retention and management, providing more water later in the year in springs and creeks. Private lands will provide some small stuff as well. Select cuts will mean more people favoring longer-term management options, again providing for an increased base to draw material from. This more intensive management resulting in more small stuff will create jobs and have much less impact if carried out with glomalin preservation as the first priority.
We ask our legislators and regulators to become aware of glomalin and its properties, and to protect the public interest by acting on those findings, so once and for all we can end the landscape degradation accompanying so much modern land use.