From the audience Danielle Bradfield, Registered Forester, referenced the FoWP proposal and noticed commercial logging was listed as a threat. She stated the proposal stated it would entertain proactive fuels management, which commercial logging is. She wanted a level of clarity on forest management and stated the proposal was difficult to support but sees the intent. She asked who the coalition partners were. Schrammel stated coalition partners were Native Plant Society, Cal Wild, and Greenville Rancheria which is the first tribe to endorse the plan. Natural Resources they invited to partner with were Feather River RCD, SPI, Plumas Corp, Sierra Institute, UC extension, Maidu community, and Forest Service. He added some were against this proposal. Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher said he heard a lot of talk about protecting the area and asked if there was any discussion of law enforcement. He stated they have issues with OHV’s going off trail, illegal or abandoned campfires and Sierra County and Plumas County sheriff’s offices are limited and have a limited budget. Fisher stated it was great to have all the rules and regulations but who was going to pay and enforce them. Schrammel stated they were not done with focused engagement with local law enforcement. Rancher Rick Roberti believed they were opening a “big can of worms”. He stated they were going through enough hoops to get projects done without having to go through more. He was afraid a lot of environmental groups would jump on this proposal. G4 Environmental COO, Patrick Gayner, stated he’s involved in forestry management and been a part of the aftermath of some big fires. He said many of the these fires have one thing in common and that’s forestry management. He said there’s a misconception that logging is raping the lands and added without commercial logging we are rearranging fuels to change fire behavior. His biggest concern is the health of watersheds, healthy forests, and wildlife habitat improvement. He worried about what layers would be added to prevent the Forest Service from Stewardship projects and stated no commercial logging further hinders protecting national forests.
Jeff Holland President of CTL Forest Management, has had a logging company over 44 years. He has put in over 50,000 acres in fuel breaks and knows one of his fuel breaks saved South Lake Tahoe from the Caldor Fire. Holland believes monuments are just another extension of NEPA and stated NEPA has tied their hands and burned over 10 million acres of forest over four years. He’s been on four of the major fire clean ups and stressed they cannot not manage. The Forest Service has already created 6 million acres of monument that they refuse to cut because of NEPA. Holland told the Board to fight this and if it gets very serious, FoWP will mark off 100,000 acres and it will stop any projects and take 9-12 years before any management will begin again. He didn’t want to see anymore land not managed.