August 31st 1998

August 31, 1998

Mary Bull and Robert Krebsbach
252 Frederick Street
San Francisco, CA 94117

Dear Mary and Robert,

As I am managing the Fisher Family's investment in Mendocino Redwood Co, your letter of August 19th to the Fisher Family has been passed along to me. Mary, thank you for taking the time to join me on the coast in Mendocino County to look at some of our forest lands. We are determined to help anyone who has an interest in what were doing here gain as much first hand knowledge as possible.

We certainly respect your right to petition and raise your views among those of like-mind.

But, let me respond specifically to the points raised in your letter of August 19, 1998:

  • MRC expects the health of the forests to improve under its stewardship.
  • MRC uses a significant amount of selection management in its harvesting (taking some trees while leaving others), uses significant cable yarding in its harvesting (which minimizes ground disturbance), and is harvesting in some manner only about 3% of its total acreage each year.
  • MRC expects to annually harvest 2% to 2.5% of its merchantable inventory in the next several years (harvesting 2% of inventory is generally deemed to be a conservative harvest rate).
  • MRC has practices in place to protect endangered species on its land.
  • MRC expects to demonstrate that the wildlife habitat on its lands will improve over time.
  • MRC approach is intended to substantially improve the health of the forests and the standing inventory of trees over time. One measure of this is the average inventory of trees per acre. MRC expects this number in three or four decades to be 300% of what it is today.
  • The area that we toured together is particularly heavy to hardwoods (which were not originally present in such a high proportion as they are today). Our approach will accelerate the re-establishment of a healthy and well-stocked conifer.

It's true, a CDF plan reviewer did recommend that one green tree per acre be left on a specific plan. The recommendation was motivated by a desire to recruit "large woody debris" for wildlife in the area. This area already contains more than enough large woody debris for any wildlife needs. When CDF also learned this they agreed that recruiting additional large woody debris was unnecessary.

As we talked about in the woods, based on the size parameters of the trees we harvest in a clear cut, we generally leave trees that are less than 20 years old. Therefore, it is likely there will be numerous green conifer trees left when we are finished.

With this said, we know it's important that each of us in forestry participate in the powerful symbolism necessary to encourage ethical approaches in forestry. Perhaps this is an area of mutual interest and future discussion between us.

The Fisher family has invested in productive, growing forest land and related businesses as a good long-term investment and an opportunity to practice environmentally sound forestry. This investment was made with the understanding that we'll have a lot of explaining to do and that a great deal of trust will be placed in us to carry this out in a manner consistent with the public expectations of the Fisher family. We care about this forest. We care about the environment.

This forest will actually grow and mature better under our management. We'll generally harvest less than in the past and preserve more. We believe that those who know us and the Fishers, and those who come to know us and the Fishers, will understand our motives and intentions and will judge us based on what we accomplish in the forest. We hope you will too.

Thank you for writing. We will continue to stay in contact with you as we make progress toward our goals.

Sincerely,

Sandy Dean