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Appeal upheld: Lompico headwaters logging denied
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Scientific reports were
critical to winning this appeal.
Photo - Kevin Collins
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On April 7th the California Board of Forestry upheld Santa Cruz County's
appeal of the Lompico headwaters Timber Harvest Plan (THP), thus denying
this logging plan in a critical watershed. The controversial logging
plan closed public comment on September 20th 2001 and was extended
43 times until its approval on October 30th 2003. The Ventana has
been covering this issue for several years. [Vol. 42, No. 6, Vol.
40, No. 3.]
The Lompico Watershed Conservancy submitted several scientific letters
and reports into the administrative record. The National Marine Fisheries
Service (before the Bush takeover) called for extensive changes to
the plan to protect endangered steelhead and coho salmon. Coho were
driven locally extinct in the San Lorenzo basin by about 1986 but
the river is still critical habitat by law.
The Lompico Watershed Conservancy helped convince the Board of Forestry
that the cumulative impacts of the proposed logging on this already
impaired creek could be significant contrary to the analysis in the
THP which concluded that the logging would not adversely affect the
creek. A geology report commissioned by the Conservancy and other
scientific reports were critical to winning this appeal.
Opposition by the Lompico County Water District and the hundreds of
letters by local residents opposing the timber harvest plan also had
an effect on the Board.
The Lompico Watershed Conservancy has been trying to arrange a sale
of this property since 1997, but the owner, Redwood Empire, has not
been a willing seller.
Victories against the California Department of Forestry are rare.
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