April 23rd 2015
by Adam Randall 04/23/2015 Ukiah Daily Journal Mendocino Redwood Co. President Mike Jeni defended its ‘hack-and-squirt’ processes Tuesday in front of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, which was unable to reach a consensus on a resolution seeking limitation of the practice. Supervisor Dan Hamburg’s agenda item asked timber companies to voluntary suspend hack-and-squirt procedures for no more than six months so the county could commence an independent fire analysis of the potential dangers of the practice. Hack-and-squirt, or frilling, is a timber process where an operator makes a cut in an unwanted tree, typically a tanoak, and sprays a chemical in it so it dies, where it is left standing. Besides the concern of using herbicides, county officials, including local fire departments, and area residents alike are fearful thousands of dry decaying trees left standing may pose a fire risk. Out of approximately one million acres of commercial forest lands, Mendocino County estimated between 2012 an 2014, 22,000 acres of hardwood trees have been killed and left standing, which represents a rate of 1.5 million trees per year. Mendocino County Supervisor Dan Gjerde said he wanted Jeni to take it back up the company chain-of-command to find out the potential uses of the deserted hardwoods rather than just leaving them in the woods to rot.
Jeni said in his opinion, leaving trees on site to decompose could have a beneficial effect. Specifically, holding moisture in the soil longer. “I don’t want to send the message that the timber wars are back on,” said Supervisor Tom Woodhouse. “We need to listen to them and hear what they’re going to do about it.” Jeni informed the board he didn’t believe the treatment of tanoaks has led to a fire hazard, and didn’t give specifics on how MRC would work with the county in achieving a middle ground, something he said he expressed interest in prior to the resolution’s defeat. “I’ve seen studies that show that treated forests are highly flammable, but haven’t seen ones that back up your analysis,” Hamburg said to Jeni. MRC has been at the center of the debate, and county agricultural data suggests the company uses the most chemicals of any timber operator working in Mendocino County. “The idea of a moratorium isn’t so easy to implement since we have plans in progress,” Jeni said. “We go through a great deal of long term planning replacing tanoaks with conifers, which is a big part of that plan.” The public in attendance, during several hours of discussion, urged the resolution be changed to an ordinance and adopted immediately, while some demanded a stronger resolution. Gjerde commented that passing an ordinance wasn’t immediately feasible since the item was on the agenda only as a resolution. Hack-and-squirt processes aren’t considered new, Hamburg noted Tuesday, saying the Board of Supervisors in 1994 considered a similar resolution.