Forests

Bill would shift state demonstration forests from logging to restoration

Sarah Stierch, MENDOCINO VOICE

A bill to change how California’s demonstration state forests are managed — placing greater emphasis on research, public access and forest restoration rather than logging — was introduced in the State Assembly on Friday.

Assembly Bill 2494 was introduced by Assemblymember Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa and co-authored by state Senator Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg.

According to Cal Fire, California has 14 demonstration state forests totaling 85,000 acres. Unlike state parks, they are working forests. Cal Fire manages the lands that are used to test and show forestry practices, conduct research, and harvest timber while remaining open to the public for recreation.

Two of the state’s 14 demonstration forests are in Rogers’ district: Jackson Demonstration State Forest in Mendocino County and Ellen Pickett State Forest in Trinity County.

Rogers introduced the bill with the goal of modernizing policies that he says haven’t been updated in decades and are not aligned with the state’s current climate initiatives.

Under current law, known as the State Demonstration Act, timber production is a key part of how demonstration forests are funded and managed. AB 2494 would shift that emphasis by stating that research, recreation and forest restoration are the primary purposes of the forests.

Read more at https://mendovoice.com/2026/02/bill-would-shift-focus-of-state-demonstration-forests-from-logging-to-restoration/

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Study ties particle pollution from wildfire smoke to 24,100 US deaths per year

Dorany Pineda, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chronic exposure to pollution from wildfires has been linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually in the United States, according to a new study.

The paper, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, found that from 2006 to 2020, long-term exposure to tiny particulates from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states.

“Our message is: Wildfire smoke is very dangerous. It is an increasing threat to human health,” said Yaguang Wei, a study author and assistant professor in the department of environmental medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Other scientists who have studied the death toll from wildfire smoke were not surprised by the findings.

Read more at https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-smoke-deaths-climate-change-pm25-0791cd732dc63198e7cc30c9bbbd2f4a

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Conservation group purchases historic Sonoma County family ranch

Sam Mauhay-Moore, SFGATE

A Santa Rosa-based environmental nonprofit recently purchased a historic Sonoma County ranch complete with a trout-filled creek and a 13-foot-wide, 1,000-year-old redwood tree.

Calvi Ranch, a 69-acre property west of Occidental, had been owned by the Calvi family since 1935. In November, the conservation group LandPaths purchased the ranch from the family with funding from the California State Coastal Conservancy and anonymous donations, the nonprofit announced in a news release Dec. 10.

The ranch operated as a sawmill when it opened, but only smaller trees were cut — allowing the property’s old growth and mature second-growth trees to remain, including the massive, thousand-year-old redwood. Giovanni “Rico” Calvi, the ranch’s former owner, once raised goats on the property, the Press Democrat reported.

“I will never forget my first visit to the incredible Calvi property,” California Coastal Commission vice chair Caryl Hart said in the news release. “Dropping down into the redwoods, to the creeks and the beautiful meadows. The idea that it could become a LandPaths’ preserve was like a dream.”

Read more at https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/calvi-ranch-sonoma-county-purchase-21253037.php

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Serious new threat to Sonoma’s oak trees

Sonoma Ecology Center

The Mediterranean oak borer (Xyleborus monographus, MOB) is a very small invasive beetle which originated in Europe and North Africa, in regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. In their natural habitat, the beetles serve an important ecological role by helping break down wood in trees that are already dying, aiding in the tree’s decomposition and the eventual return of its nutrients to the soil. In the United States, however, the beetle is a rapidly spreading invasive species, aggressively infesting both healthy and stressed trees alike.

Female beetles tunnel into the trunks and branches of trees to lay their eggs and in the process introduce a fungus which spreads through the tissues of the tree, blocking water and nutrient flow. Further damage from the beetles’ tunneling weakens and eventually kills the tree over time.

Infestations of oak trees in Sonoma County were first confirmed in early 2020, and as of 2025, MOB has already killed hundreds of thousands of oaks in Sonoma County. Local infestations are found primarily in valley oak and some blue oak, but Oregon white oaks are also susceptible.

What you can do:
MOB spreads by natural dispersal of the female beetles and through the movement of infested firewood, untreated wood products, and yard waste or mulch. The beetles are extremely difficult to detect because they are approximately 1/10th of an inch, about the size of a sesame seed. Firewood in particular is one of the easiest ways invasive species like MOB spread. When it comes to procuring firewood, always try to follow the guideline “buy it where you burn it.” Ask your firewood seller where the wood is from and if it isn’t local, or the origin is unknown, consider obtaining your firewood somewhere else. Similarly, avoid bringing outside oak mulch or untreated oak products onto your property–ask what kind of wood your mulch is and where it was sourced.

Read more at https://sonomaecologycenter.org/serious-threat-sonoma-oak-trees/

Forests,

Op-Ed: In Mendocino forest, Cal Fire undercuts climate efforts

Evan Mills and John O’Brien, PRESS DEMOCRAT

In these times of climate denialism in Washington, some look for signs of reason in California.

Sadly, one particular agency can’t see the forest for the trees.

Cal Fire, the state’s chief fire agency, has a little-known side hustle managing 14 state-owned forests, totaling 85,000 acres.

To pay those bills, Cal Fire logs the public’s trees in its largest holding – Jackson Demonstration State Forest – which spans 50,000 acres in Mendocino County. The agency also wields absolute approval power for logging on California’s vast private lands.

Trees are about half carbon by dry weight. Coastal redwood forests contain more of the stuff than any other, storing it for more than two millennia if undisturbed. Highly resistant to rot, insects and fire, old redwoods provide an extremely durable carbon piggy bank storing up to 1,300 tons per acre. At odds with California’s climate goal of achieving zero-net carbon pollution, logging and milling wastes promptly release half a tree’s carbon into the atmosphere. The rest resides for a time in lumber, which in the case of redwood is mostly used for picnic tables, fences and decks that all too soon decay and release the remaining carbon.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/09/20/mills-and-obrien-in-mendocino-forest-cal-fire-undercuts-climate-efforts/

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Seasonal ban on outdoor burning begins Monday across Sonoma County

Marisa Endicott, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County officials announced a seasonal ban on all outdoor burning in the unincorporated county starting Monday.

The residential burn permit suspension was set in response to a similar burn ban set by Cal Fire, according to Permit Sonoma’s Fire Prevention Division.

Burn restrictions will remain in place until Cal Fire declares the end of peak fire season.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-cal-fire-burn-permits/

Forests,

Op-Ed: Fixing Forests

Teri Shore, PACIFIC SUN

I just visited the redwood country and wilderness forests that stretch from the cool coastal range to snow-topped alpine ridges in the interior mountains in Northern California. Hiking through groves of redwoods adorned with bouquets of trillium and along clear rivers ringing with birdsong from tiny hidden warblers, I felt at times like I was in paradise.

But then I’d come upon massive redwood stumps that were cut generations ago still standing. Heading into the famed Headwaters Preserve, the newer growth didn’t hide the past devastation. The fragmented groves of ancient redwoods in the national parks often felt like tree museums. In fact, the Tall Trees Grove on Redwood Creek requires a permit for entry past a locked gate.

Heading into the Smith River, Scott River and Trinity Alps, I was taken by the rugged landscapes and powerful waters but overwhelmed by the miles of burned lands. Some places were recovering with green and wildflowers. Other expanses were spoiled by salvage logging where giant scorched logs were abandoned and massive slash piles left behind.

After seeing all this, I realized the urgency of halting the Fix our Forest Act moving toward passage in Congress. The bill authorizes more logging and less environmental protection in our forests and is key to the log-baby-log mantra coming from The White House.

We need our State Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff to oppose this bill and rally their colleagues to defeat it. If not, they will allow the beauty of our forests to be finally and forever turned into the beasts of industry.

Source: https://pacificsun.com/your-letters-may-21/

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