Current Status:
8/2/2017 – California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection withholds approval of the current version of the Timber Harvest Plan. Cal Fire requests additions, revisions and further study related to traffic impacts, bridge integrity, updated stream inventory and potential cumulative impacts on the coho salmon habitat.
Once revised, the plan will be open for a minimum of 30 days of public review. Link to article.
Proposal
A Timber Harvest Plan has been filed with CalFire that would open up a core section of the Felta Creek headwaters to logging. Felta Creek is the only
Russian River tributary in Sonoma County that still supports wild Coho Salmon.
The plan does not disclose or limit the number of logging trucks or time of day that logging will use Felta Creek road, at the bottom of which is West Side School, with over 170 students who use the road to attend class. It also does not address environmental impact concerns.
Impact
We are concerned about the impact of soil erosion and stream water pollution into Felta Creek and the resulting harmful effects on the wild Coho salmon, listed in 1997 as a federally threatened anadromous fish (meaning it is a born in a small freshwater tributary, migrates to the ocean and later returns to that tributary to lay its eggs).
Coho salmon are among the most threatened of Sonoma County’s fishery resources, due to a proliferation of land uses that have diminished flows and polluted the water in streams tributary to the Russian River.
Site slopes on the property range from 10-80% gradients and mapping has identified dormant and active deep-seated landslides underlying the plan area according to the California Geological Survey.
We are also concerned about safety in the region along this dangerous one-lane road depended on by school children and local residents.
What you can do!
We will send an action alert to members once the revised plan is available and the public comment period reopens. Stay tuned!
Comments and concerns can be sent to:
Cal Fire <santarosapubliccomment@fire.ca.gov>
CalFire Chief Ken Pimlott < ken.pimlott@fire.ca.gov>
With the THP number in the subject line 1-17-017SON
