The city’s request to log redwood trees and other timber at Grizzly Flat, a section of the city’s watershed in the Santa Cruz Mountains, has entered the regulatory pipeline, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection confirmed.

“The permit has just come in for review. Best-case scenario it could be approved within 45 days, but that hasn’t happened in 25 years,” said Rich Sampson, division chief in charge of resource management and forest practices for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire.

“Realistically, we’re looking at three months for the review process,” Sampson said Friday.

Watsonville Public Works Director David Koch was more optimistic. Last week, he anticipated a start to logging this summer.

The timber-sale area at Grizzly Flat is a 200-acre parcel near Corralitos that slopes from Eureka Canyon Road through the Corralitos Creek watershed.

Nearly 12 years ago, the city logged the unit.

It’s a project that Koch described as a “light harvest.”

“What this harvest is meant to do is be a sustained harvest at set intervals,” Koch said.

Opponents, who unsuccessfully challenged the 1997 sale at Grizzly Flat in court, said logging endangers the city’s water supply and removes large trees that provide a canopy, effectively eliminating the cover that shelters the forest floor from fuel build-up.

“I don’t really see how you can possibly go in every 12 years ... it just doesn’t make sense. There aren’t that many trees in there now,” said Betsy Herbert, a consultant from Bonny Doon who fought the 1997 Grizzly Flat sale.

“They took quite a bit of timber out of there the first time. Now, 12 years later, there aren’t going to be that many great big trees that have grown back in 12 years,” Herbert said in an interview Friday. “The trees are just going to get smaller and smaller and smaller. Every time they go back in, the trees are going to get smaller.”

  In a letter about Grizzly Flat, Herbert added, “I think that the City of Watsonville is ill-advised to proceed with yet another logging plan in the same manner as before, without including the public in a discussion of how to best manage this property. This public discussion should include a post-mortem fire report for the Summit Fire, which partially burned the Grizzly Flat property.”

Koch said the logging plan is designed to maintain a steady rate of tree regrowth, meaning that the city should be able to repeat similar harvests over time without reducing the net amount of timber.

“We think we can do it in a very environmentally sensitive way and (make it) sustainable,” he said.

Matt Dias, a registered professional forester for Big Creek Lumber, said selective harvests can reduce fuel loads and curb the risk of catastrophic fires.

Others scoff at this argument, saying that logging typically targets large trees rather than the brush that builds up on the forest floor.

The debate over whether logging makes forests more susceptible or more resistant to destructive fires has raged for years. In the case of Grizzly Flat, it’s not just a theoretical discussion. The Summit Fire of mid-May burned into part of the timber-sale area. Several redwoods marked for cutting bear burns from the fire, although officials said the damage was minor compared to fire damage to other parts of the 4,270-acre fire area.

Watsonville’s 2008-2009 budget — approved last Tuesday by the City Council — mentions the Summit Fire and its intrusion into Grizzly Flat. One of the city’s largest sources of anticipated revenue is this timber sale, according to a budget summary.

“The plan ... includes $252,000 in short-term resources related to Grizzly Flat harvesting. ... The Grizzly Flat revenues, although not permanent, are projected to be available for the next five years. Fortunately, the recent Summit Fire only caused minor damage to the inventory of harvestable material,” the city reported in its budget document.

“The redwood trees apparently did not have any significant damage,” Koch confirmed in an interview last week.

“There may be some trees that are selected because of fire damage ... it may affect the selection of the individual trees,” he said.

Koch expected logging to occur over two summers.

Sampson warned, however, that state forestry personnel are buried in work related to fighting the more than 1,200 wildfires burning in California.

“Right now, the way our agency is tapped out on fires, fires come first,” he said.

A gauntlet of regulatory review faces the city’s permit application — a 10-day completeness review; a 10-day period for Cal Fire (if the application is deemed complete) to schedule a field tour for on-the-ground review of the plan; and a 25-day period for the agency to make a recommendation.

“It’s going to take a while for that permit to work its way through the system,” Sampson said.

“I don’t see them being able to do anything until next spring,” he said.

A county environmental health representative on the state’s review team can choose to schedule a public hearing, based on anticipated public interest, Sampson said. In this case, he said a public hearing seemed likely.

Officials will post a copy of the timber plan online, so the public can read the whole document on the CDF Web site (http://tinyurl.com/3o736h).

•••••••••••••••••••••

(Published in 6/30/08 edition)

Share on Facebook