August 23rd 2000

By Mike Geniella
The Press Democrat
August 23, 2000

UKIAH -- In an agreement hailed Tuesday as a statewide model, Trout Unlimited and a Mendocino County timber company announced the start of a long-term project to restore coho salmon habitat along the south fork of the Garcia River.

It's the largest stream restoration project yet for the North Coast, and possibly in the state, according to Trout Unlimited.

"This is no public relations stunt," said Steve Trafton, a spokesman for a national organization that's a recognized leader in restoring coldwater fisheries across the U.S. Trafton said as partners Trout Unlimited and Mendocino Redwood Co., new owners of 230,000-acres of heavily cut Mendocino County industrial timberlands formerly owned by Louisiana-Pacific Corp., will spend at least $500,000 to either upgrade or remove logging roads to reduce the flow of sediment into streams critical to coho. Decades of logging and networks of hastily constructed access roads have sent tons of sediment pouring into tributaries of the Garcia, clogging gravel spawning areas and rendering salmon reproduction nearly impossible, according to Trafton.

Trafton said Mendocino Redwood is the first major timber company to cooperate on such a broad level. "You've got a major timber company partnering with a conservation group like Trout Unlimited, lending full access to its lands, its data, its employees and its equipment and footing a good part of the bill to boot," said Trafton. The company has agreed to put up $100,000 toward the project, he said.

Craig Bell, a Mendocino Coast fisheries consultant and longtime advocate of salmon habitat restoration, said Mendocino Redwood's cooperation was key to establishment of what's being called the "North Coast Coho Project." Although initially focused on the south fork of the Garcia River, Bell said the partnership between the company and Trout Unlimited will expand to other company-owned watersheds, including the Noyo and Hollow Tree Creek, a major tributary of the Eel River.

Bell said the agreement should serve as a blueprint for future salmon restoration partnerships with other private timberland owners.

Not unexpectedly, the deal came under fire from local environmental activists who are waging a national advertising and boycott campaign against the owners of Mendocino Redwood. The critics have specifically targeted The Gap Corp., founded by Fisher family members who are the single largest investors in Mendocino Redwood.

"Despite the hoopla, we believe the company's pace of logging is still unsustainable, and is threatening endangered species," said Mary Pjerrou, president of the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance.

Bill Heil, an Albion River activist, said Tuesday that while the Garcia River project may be a good start, "The fact remains that Mendocino Redwood's harvest rate is out-of-balance."

Pjerrou, Heil and others continue to promote a national protest against Mendocino Redwood despite praise for the company's practices in many environmental quarters.

Fisheries consultant Bell, who's worked for 15 years to halt damaging logging practices in coastal watersheds and will oversee the Garcia River work on behalf of Trout Unlimited, on Tuesday praised Mendocino Redwood's cooperation.

"They've done more in the past six months than 10 years of talks with L-P," said Bell.

Bell said the company's cooperation should lead to recovery of Mendocino County's primary coho salmon habitat. The company's timberlands historically have been the site of the highest coho populations, said Bell.

"It's the first time any restoration effort has been launched on this scale with full cooperation of the landowner. I think this is a very big step in the right direction," said Bell.