Bill Heil Presentation Jackson State Forest EIR scoping session in Ft. Bragg, February 27, 2004

I am Bill Heil, owner of portable sawmill for 19 years, member of the former Jackson State Forest Citizens Advisory Committee, and I believe in possibility of sustainable forestry. It is time to fashion a new management plan for JDSF, one that is no longer based on the industrial forest management model. Times have changed, the new management plan must take into account ecological and environmental issues, changes in demographics, and changes in the timber industry, especially the closure of large mills and the specialization of the mills that have survived. The present practice of selling large blocks of standing timber is no longer in the economic interest of the State, the best interest of the environment and only to the advantage of the few large sawmills with the wherewithal to raise the large amount of money necessary to bid on the sales. Try as I might, I can not understand what desirable practice selling standing timber to the highest bidder who in turn hires the lowest bidder logger demonstrates. On the other hand most large landowners hire the logger they think will do the best job, supervise them closely, and then sort and sell the logs to the appropriate mill. I am one of many owners of portable sawmills that have become popular in the past two decades. These mills are efficient and have created both jobs and lumber for local residents. In my years of sawing I have sawed only one load of logs from JDSF, the other small mill owners and I have been shut out of buying logs by the present system. What I would like to see is sorted logs sold by the truckload. If the logs were certified as meeting sustainable standards such as those of the Forest Stewardship Council, value would be added for everyone, including the non-human inhabitants of the forest. _______________________________________________________________________ [Letter to the Board of Forestry following the scoping meeting and the subsequent field trip and tour of Jackson State Forest conducted by the California Department of Forestry (CDF)] Dear Board, Thank you for holding the scoping meeting in Fort Bragg. I trust it was helpful to the Board to understand the importance of Jackson State to the people of the North Coast. I found the process helped to clarify for me what I feel are the issues that need to be addressed in an adequate management plan for JDSF I was impressed by the emphasis that CDF placed on the demonstration and research and the lack of attention that was paid to the recent harvests in the forest. None of them were visited on the field trip and none of them contained any significant demonstrations other than the ability to create jobs and make money by harvesting timber. I believe that this disconnection between timber harvests on the one hand and demonstration and research on the other is at the heart of the dissatisfaction with the present management of JDSF. The present practice of selling large blocks of standing timber is no longer in the economic interest of the State, the best interest of the environment and only to the advantage of the few large sawmills with the wherewithal to raise the large amount of money necessary to bid on the sales. Try as I might, I can not understand what desirable practice selling standing timber to the highest bidder who in turn hires the lowest bidder logger demonstrates. On the other hand most large landowners hire the logger they think will do the best job, supervise them closely, and then sort and sell the logs to the appropriate mill. Several demonstrations that should have been included in the timber harvests in JDSF come to mind. Why is there no demonstration of the Santa Cruz special rules, which might have helped in the present discussion about older larger trees? The idea of certified sustainable forestry has been in existence for over a decade yet no part of JDSF is managed according to such principles. And carbon sequestration as a demonstration has never even been proposed. I believe that if the mandate of demonstration took precedence over economic exploitation in all harvesting of timber in JDSF that much of the current discontent with management could be addressed.