CalFire

Controversial Jenner logging plan withdrawn after more than a year of review

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A Sonoma County family’s logging plan for more than 1,000 acres of forest near the mouth of the Russian River has been withdrawn amid opposition from nearby community members and heavy state scrutiny.

The plan, initially proposed by landowner Bruce Berry in early 2025, encountered sharp pushback from local residents and environmental groups worried about the impact timber harvesting could have on a watershed that supports imperiled salmon runs and supplies drinking water for the village of Jenner.

On June 6, following numerous rounds of plan reviews with input from multiple state and regional agencies, as well as a significant pile of public comment letters, Berry withdrew his proposal for a nonindustrial timber management plan.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/06/18/sonoma-coast-jenner-logging-plan-withrdrawn/

Forests, Water, , , , ,

California again delays ‘zone zero’ wildfire protection rules for homes

Todd Woody, BLOOMBERG

A California state agency won’t meet Governor Gavin Newsom’s year-end deadline to finish long-delayed regulations to protect homes from wildfires, rules that experts say could have limited the destruction of the January Los Angeles firestorms.

At a meeting of the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection on Monday, chair Terrence O’Brien said officials would wait until March 2026 to continue work on regulations to require ember-resistant zones, called Zone Zero, around some 2 million houses in high-risk wildfire areas. That means it could be mid-2029 or later before any mandate takes effect for existing homes.

O’Brien cited continued disagreement on how strictly to enforce the Zone Zero requirement to remove plants, wood fences and other combustible material within five feet of a home for the ongoing delays. A 2020 law enacted after a series of devastating wildfires originally mandated a January 2023 deadline to complete the regulations. “That continues to be the challenge we face,” he said at the meeting.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/10/california-again-delays-zone-zero-wildfire-protection-rules-for-homes/

Land Use, , , , ,

New state fire maps bring new hazard designations — and building mandates — to region

Marisa Endicott, PRESS DEMOCRAT

CalFire Fire Hazard Severity Zone Viewer

State officials released the latest round of highly anticipated fire hazard maps Monday, covering Northern California coastal areas from the Bay Area up to the Oregon border, including Sonoma and Napa counties.

The new maps will add 1.4 million acres of land statewide into higher fire severity categories, accompanied by stricter building and local planning code requirements for property owners.

The increase in “very high” hazard areas is significant in many — though not all — areas.

Unincorporated Sonoma County saw its “very high” hazard area grow from 11 acres to 7,555 acres, with an additional 9,149 acres designated “high” hazard.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/wildfire-danger-hazard-maps-sonoma-napa/

Climate Change & Energy, Forests, , ,

Opponents likely headed to court to block newly approved timber operation between Guerneville and Monte Rio

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Cal Fire has approved plans for selective logging of redwood and Douglas fir trees on 224 acres above the lower Russian River between Guerneville and Monte Rio, raising the prospect of legal action by opponents who hope they still might prevent the Silver Estates harvest from going forward.

The state agency granted approval late last week after months of public scrutiny, plan revisions and state delays that critics say reflect the proposal’s fundamentally flawed nature.

But in a Nov. 17 letter, Eric Huff, staff chief of Cal Fire’s Forest Practice Program, said the final version — some 500 pages of reports, descriptions, maps and other information — conforms with state Forest Practice Rules. The decision authorizes landowner Roger Burch and his family to carry out its provisions any time over the next five years.

What happens next appears to depend in large part on whether Burch and his representatives decide to begin operations this winter, within the restrictions permitted for the traditional wet weather season.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/opponents-likely-headed-to-court-to-block-newly-approved-timber-operation-b/

Forests, , ,

One of California’s tallest redwoods is 2,000 years old. Inside the fight to keep it safe

Gregory Thomas, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

See Guerneville Forest Coalition “The Clar Tree” for more information.

Standing on the side of Highway 116, which winds through the dense forests of western Sonoma County, John Dunlap looked across the Russian River into a stand of tall trees and pointed out one old redwood in particular.

“It’s really a hidden gem here that’s kind of out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t deserving of our attention.”

Up from the riverbank near Guerneville is the county’s tallest tree, an estimated 2,000-year-old, 340-footer known as the Clar Tree. Once thought to be the highest tree in California, it carries the name of a timber family that lived in the area back when it was a logging capital. It is easily identifiable by its dead, forked crown — the result of a lightning strike some years ago.

Passersby wouldn’t be able to glean the tree’s significance at a glance — its prominence is somewhat camouflaged by its brethren — yet the Clar is at the center of an impassioned dispute over how best to care for California’s iconic, old-growth coast redwoods, the towering titans that have inspired generations of naturalists but were nearly cut to extinction during California’s frenzied development 150 years ago.

The tree stands at the edge of a 224-acre property of redwoods, firs and oaks that has been logged in pieces for decades and is considered a “high fire hazard severity zone.” The Cloverdale timber company that owns the land, Redwood Empire Sawmill, is intent on harvesting redwood there “sustainably” and as soon as possible.

Read more at https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Sonoma-redwood-tree-California-forest-17331172.php?

Forests, , , ,

Guerneville Forest Coalition and residents lobby for more Clar Tree protections, mitigation measures for proposed logging operation

Katherine Minkiewicz, SONOMA WEST TIMES & NEWS

The Guerneville Forest Coalition — a nonprofit group of Guerneville community members, business owners and landowners — is raising concern over a proposed 224-acre Timber Harvest Plan and logging operation in the Silver Grove area near the 2,000-year-old Clar Tree, an ancient redwood that is the tallest tree in Sonoma County.

And while the Timber Harvest Plan (THP) for the proposed logging area has protection measures in place for the tree, including a 75-foot buffer zone, many believe the great tree would be insufficiently protected by the allotted buffer zone.

There are also other concerns with the operation, including increased fire risk, flooding, erosion and landslides, Russian River sedimentation and the effect on local flora and fauna.

“In June 2020, a plan was filed with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) by a major timber operator to log 224 acres of redwoods and Douglas firs near the banks of the Russian River,” according to the Guerneville Forest Coalition.

Since then, the group and concerned citizens in the area have been vocal in their opposition toward the plan and have been lobbying for more protective measures for the Clar Tree.

Read more at https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_west_times_and_news/news/guerneville-forest-coalition-and-residents-lobby-for-more-clar-tree-protections-mitigation-measures-for-proposed/article_38fa6700-928b-11eb-b2ff-1b888a8118af.html

Forests, , ,

Costly new wildfire suppression won’t prevent catastrophic fires

Dan Silver, SONOMA COUNTY GAZETTE

A wildfire suppression plan adopted at the end of 2019 by the California Board of Forestry could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars but will do very little to actually reduce fire risk for communities in Sonoma County and throughout the state. Fire safety experts and environmental protection advocates filed suit on January 28 to block the new Vegetation Treatment Program (VTP) from going into effect.

Proposed by CalFire, the state’s fire management agency, the VTP will not provide protection against wind-driven fires. Yet it is wind-driven wildfires that caused the devastating loss of life and property seen in the state in recent years. The Kincade Fire of 2019, which was the largest fire in Sonoma County recorded history, burned almost 78,000 acres and destroyed almost 400 structures. Similarly, the Tubbs, Nuns and Pocket Fires of 2017 burned more than 85,000 acres in Sonoma and Napa Counties, destroyed 7,000 structures and killed 25 people.

Across the state, 87 percent of the destruction of homes in 2017 and 2018 was caused by only six fires, all of which were wind-driven. Yet the methods to be used by the VTP would not have prevented those six catastrophic fires.

The VTP calls for removal of native forests, sage scrub and chaparral on a grand scale – on the order of 250,000 acres each year – at enormous financial and ecological cost, including releasing more carbon into the atmosphere. This approach does not stand up to scientific scrutiny and in many locations would actually be counterproductive by promoting the growth of highly flammable weeds. In addition, the VTP does not properly differentiate between what might work for northern forests versus chaparral and sage scrub in Southern California; these habitat types require very different management approaches when it comes to wildfire safety.

Read more at https://www.sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma-county-news/californias-wildfire-suppression-effort-won-t-prevent-catastrophic-fires

Forests, Habitats, Wildlife, , ,
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