August 21st 1998

August 21, 1998

Russell Fieber
P.O. Box 1211
Mendocino, CA 95460


Dear Russell,

Thanks so much for your recent letter. In a moment of comedy, Hugh and Thomas almost forgot to give it to me, and they followed us with blinking bright lights to get us to pull over to make sure that I received your thoughts.

The purpose of our walk in the woods on Monday was to try and see if we could agree on an appropriate and sensitive way to remove the logs that have been downed in the woods Kaisan. We did not reach a final conclusion, but made some progress in our walk.

We are very focused on what we can do to operate the lands we purchased with a high degree of environmental stewardship while at the same time operating as a successful business. I treat these two goals with equal importance, and have been talking with people in the community to try and gain an appreciation for how we can satisfy both. While we have now been in business for just under eight weeks, I think we are making good progress. The single biggest issue that we have control over, our level of harvest, is something we have addressed directly - our harvest level of approximately 40 million feet is approximately 60% of a conservative estimate of our growth, and safely within a 2% to 2.5% percent of inventory harvest range (as you may know, our inventory is estimated to exceed 2 billion board feet).

Beyond the level of harvest, our on-the-ground practices are designed to accelerate the restoration of the conifer forest. I am seeking outside consultation on all of our on-the-ground practices, but I want to say a few things about our roads now. We are investing a lot of funds in our roads to reduce sediments in the streams. These funds are being used to relocate roads away from streams, to redesign existing roads (outsloping the road surface for instance), to rehabilitate problem roads (dealing with perched material, for instance), and repairing ordinary wear and tear (culverts). These practices will accelerate the reduction of sediments going into watercourses.

We are in the process of reviewing our roads in the Albion, and will be able to say more about your neighborhood later in the year, or early 1999.

Finally, you mentioned fish data that may have been collected in the past. I have been assembling all the fish data that I can put my hands on, and am trying to determine what we have and what the best way is to share it with the public. As a matter of policy, we will be sharing data with the public.

I appreciate your letter, and share your concerns about the environment. I believe that we can make a difference, and hope you will continue to support our efforts to balance stewardship of the lands with being successful as a business.

Best Regards,

Sandy Dean

CC
Tom Schultz
Hugh Dakers