Redwood Reader

The Summer/Fall issue of the Mattole Restoration Council's newsletter updates many of the issues I have written about here and has a few new things. At the same site the Gilham Butte Community Management Plan is also available for viewing. Past newletters are also available in the archives at the same site along with a wealth of other information.
The lead article concerns Sudden Oak Death reaching the Mattole watershed. A careful look at our prescriptions for glomalin enhancement to restore water storage and prevent landsliding also shows how seamlessly it fits into BMP's for disease control of this particular pest. We have advocated for the growing of large trees, particularly conifers, and reducing fuel loads and competetion through management practices. This is exactly the method being used in the State Park and other sites in southern Humboldt to control the disease, altouogh it appears to be spreading faster than previously identified. Chris Larson in his ED column reminds us as landowners we are still moving from restoration to active management.
Ali Freedllund's article on Palco's Watershed Analysis relates the opportuny given MRC by PALCO to visit and study their Mattole holdings,which had been off-limits for as long as I know. Ali is MRC's Forest Review leader and has commented on many THP's in the area, including all of PL's. She points out how well the larger stream buffers in the Habitat Conservation Plan look compaared to sites cut under California Forest Practice rules, although the history of thw watershed analysis is that they are used to reduce the buffers in future THP's. MRC has also hired a third party geologist to study landscape instability. Here is where a lack of understanding of the biological effects of glomalin on landscape stability will become apparent.
An article about the Good Roads Clean Creeks Project reiterates my earlier postings this year about the success of the work after a heavy winter. The damaged areas mentioned in the article are not in the area by our land and we were very pleased, and hope this project is not only completed throughout the Mattole, but is exported to other heavily impacted areas looking to diminish sediment influx into their streams and prevent landsliding.
Several items mention removal of invasive plants- Japanese knotweed and Scotch broom in particular. While these plants are a problem, the bigger problem is the land disturbance that allows them to thrive. Shade from trees and competition from subsoil microorganisms are known methods of reducing many invasive plants.
A very dood article on Madrone dieback is writtewn by a concerned landowner, Andy Chittick, and he gives good references for more information. This is apparently not a condition caused by the sudden oak death vector but has been here as a antive disease the trees have some resistance to, although the leaf dieback is a symptom in madrone.
Continuing in the "more you know" vein is Amanda Malachesky's article on learning to avoid avian alarm calls iwhile in the field, thus enhancing your opportunity to see more wildlife while disturbing them less. Valuable insight for fieldworkers and landowners.
This year the tree planters put out 47,000 mostly Douglas fir seedlings. Encountering all kinds of weather obstacles, including snow, they planted extensively in the upper Mattole, Middle Mattole and the Honeydew Creek burn area. Many trees were planted along roads put to bed and around restoration points from the Good Roads Clean Creek project.
JJ Hall writes about sweat insurance - fire insurance obtained by clearing land of fuel loads around dwellings. It only pays off in lack of destructive fire but is the best insurance a rural dwweller can have. It merges with our responsibilities on the land to improve conditions ooutlined by the ED's report.
A generouds donation of eighty acres of land along the Mattole Estuary was given to MRC by John Winzler and Ken Dunaway.It is good to see MRC in financial position to accept these types of gifts as they have not acted as a land trust before. They have the option to sell the land or manage it themselves. One of the factors in starting the Middle Mattole Conservancy was that there was no land trust in the middle or lower Mattole, apparently there is now. Congratulations to MRC on a very impressive year.