Redwood Reader

Director Brodderick
Calfornia Department of Fish and Game
Dear Sir:
I am writing to you today in support of restoring and preserving trout and salmonid fisheries. There is more to do than funding hatcheries in order to make a statewide improvement in fisheries. I think your department spends too much time fixing parts of problems that need better information to be totally effective, and that that information is now at hand in the form of knowledge of the fungally produced soil glue glomalin.
I have been restoring a badly damaged wild land property for a long time, and sediment is my number one problem. Decades after clear felling landslides and debris flows continue whenever we hit a certain amount of rain. Replanted areas seem to stabilize the landscape and we all know it will eventually grow back but some areas have eroded into vertical banks that will take either many, many years or massive land forming to correct.
When we learn glomalin destruction is at the heart of sediment mobility and how to avoid that we come to some clear conclusions- clearcuts are never ok, select cuts are almost necessary to prevent fuel loading, carbon storage is occurring and should be compensated, watersheds are reduced in their ability to absorb and store water leading to summertime river drying, new woods technology with less impacts on the forest floor are needed, like walking feller bunchers, preserved lands need this treatment as well, paid carbon storage lands maintained for minimal risk and optimal growth expand wildlife habitat greatly while providing water for fisheries.
Glomalin was discovered by USDA in Beltsville and is well known in crop science. Not much has come from forestry yet although I have a blog devoted to this issue and I have written quite a few folks about this over the last year.
Glomalin is an amazing example of new science changing our outlook. A simple concept but difficult to detect, it ties the carbon and water cycles together by biological deposition of this material that causes aggregation and pore creation in soils. It shows us CO2 is a blessing and that revegetation is the surest way to capture the healing properties of it. It also tells us massive amounts of CO2 are in the atmosphere from our destructive land practices that are being blamed exclusively on emissions.
I am trying to inform decision makers about this revelation because it is the heart of sustainability, and will continue to operate in this manner long after our species has disappeared. I have been advocating for a high level study to read these few USDA reports and check out the advantages of increased CO2 on plant growth and glomalin production. Glomalin allows us to estimate opportunity cost of any development vs glomalin production and water storage. Glomalin means restoration should be a quick fix that rights the train back on its tracks and not an industry or career, simply good management can maintain it indefinitely. We just won’t do it if people remain ignorant or fixed on the immediate bottom line. We may take some hits getting up to speed but after that we should be able to reopen the National Forests to TSI and fuel reduction that provide smaller trees modern mills are geared toward.
The Northcoast culvert project is an example of why hatcheries are needed even in wildland areas. Many miles of spawning habitat have opened in the last few years that haven’t had fish in years. Some fish are finding them but a few years of stocking them would produce more fishing a lot quicker. Also the poor showing in the Klamath from the fish kills and poor production in the Colombia this year indicate some fish should be added until conditions stabilize. Which brings me back to glomalin.
On the Northcoast, sediment is practically the only pollutant we are dealing with. Sdiment reduction inventories and Redwood Sciences lab indicate roads contribute forty percent of sediment even in clearcutting. Projects like Good Roads Clean Creeks in the Mattole attempt to remediate some of the private road problems but we really need innovative solutions like wheelless transportation or permeable, durable road surfaces and deep rooted but short vegetation for gluing down fills by landscaping the glue back into the ground.
In our efforts we have recommended a commission to study these few documents and see how they apply to all manner of habitat and water issues. The critical factor is how to intercept, direct and store precipitation for year round use and in times of drought. Nature has it worked out, and has now told us how she does it. Glomalin is the key to many big California restoration projects like the lower Colorado, Owens River, Aqua Caliente and Upper Klamath and ongoing efforts in the Eel and Mattole Rivers. First stop the sliding, then build storage capacity to replace what has been lost. Watersheds grow and we should take advantage of that. There is also a point of no return we must protect against when sprawl comes to new areas, or we should write them off from the beginning and create a different plan for that region. Hatcheries for keeping fished streams at a level of recreation is an earmark of urban stream fisheries and an important component of introducing urban youth to nature through fishing at the local river.
I support hatcheries as part of the restoration effort, which should be short lived. It has the potential to create enough local fishing to make further operation unnecessary in ten or so years, given a generalized effort to stop unleashing sediment in the watersheds.
Glomalin is searchable in Google. Many sites don’t mention it, even the PNW mycorhizzia team and Redwood Sciences lab come up empty. My blog is at www.redwoodreader.blogspot.com and contains many links as well as articles explaining, illustrating, demonstrating glomalin in forests and the need for new forest practice rules allowing operations on more acres while providing habitat and water. New science makes better decisions easier. It is doable. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Rich McGuiness