December 6th 2012
by on Dec 6th, 2012 MENDO SUPERVISORS Dan Hamburg and John McCowen have invited Mendocino Redwood Company President and Chief Forester Mike Jani and Forest Operations Manager John Ramaley to make a presentation on the Mendocino Redwood Company’s Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and related documents that are currently available for public comment and review. HCPs are intended to provide landscape-wide, long term plans for forest stewardship and production. Approval of the proposed HCP, a Natural Communities Conservation Plan (NCCP) and the associated Timber Management Plan will authorize the take of protected species incidental to otherwise lawful timber operations over the 80-year life of the HCP. The stated intent is to create mature, multi-storied forests using selection harvesting while maintaining old-growth trees and facilitating habitat development for rare, threatened and endangered species. The plans project increases in stocking over the 80-year period from a current level of 13,500 to 29,000 board feet per acre while improving habitat for protected fish and wildlife species and reducing the amount of sedimentation entering streams. The plans also project increased conifer inventory and thus, increased forest productivity. Public meetings on the referenced plans will be held at the following dates, times and locations: (1) December 11, 2012, 7pm to 9pm, Redwood Empire Fair Fine Arts Building, 1055 N. State Street, Ukiah, CA; and (2) December 12, 2012, 7pm to 9pm, C.V. Starr Center, 300 S. Lincoln St., Fort Bragg, CA. Comments may be submitted in writing to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection before 5:00 PM, February 21, 2013. MRC’S PRESENTATION TO THE BOARD of Supervisors is a very simplified overview of a very complex, long-term document in which MRC uses 16 full-color Power Point slides (the primary ones are shown below) to convince the public that their logging plans for the next 80 years will be positive and problem free. It does not address pesticide use, or provide any specifics about logging plans, sediment reduction or other activities in MRC’s vast Mendocino County holdings. The discussion is “information only” — the Board of Supervisors will take public input but does not plan to make any decisions on the subject.

THE MRC REPS can be reached at:

Mike Jani, President & Chief Forester, (707) 463-5114 — mjani@mendoco.com John Ramaley, Forest Operations Manager, (707) 463-5129 – jramaley@mendoco.com