An area within the Cuddy Valley logging project site.
Earlier this month, the Forest Service quietly approved a large commercial logging project at the base of Mt. Pinos in the Los Padres National Forest. The controversial 1,200-acre project was fast-tracked and approved without preparation of a standard Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement, despite the requests of hundreds of mountain residents and forest visitors who want to see the area better protected. The approval paves the way for the first commercial timber sale in the Los Padres National Forest in several decades.
The Cuddy Valley project, originally billed as a “thinning” project, specifically calls for the commercial harvesting of trees of any age and size through a subsequent timber sale to logging companies. In his decision, Forest Supervisor Kevin Elliott states that commercial timber contracts would be used to make the project cheaper.
According to the supervisor’s decision, the project would consist of removing large trees using feller bunchers and rubber-tired or track-mounted log skidders and loading them onto logging trucks at cleared areas called landings. Smaller trees and shrubs (up to 90%) would be masticated. The leftover slash would be tractor piled along with post-logging machine piling and pile burning. The activities would repeat every 3 to 7 years as needed.
An example of a tree that could be harvested during the project. Larger trees can also be commercially removed.
The project represents a shift in how the Forest Service approves large tree-removal projects in the Los Padres National Forest. Since 2006, officials have only approved such projects after rigorously evaluating their environmental impacts in an Environmental Assessment that is made available for public review and comment prior to approval.
Other projects that have been described as thinning operations have generally included a limit on the size of trees that can be removed. For example, a Frazier Mountain thinning project that was approved in 2012 included a 10″ diameter limit on trees that could be removed. To envision the size of such a tree’s trunk, think of the diameter of a basketball. Normally, anything larger than this would be left in place as countless scientific studies have highlighted the importance of retaining large, fire-resistant trees to reduce the risk of high-intensity fire. However, the recently-approved Cuddy Valley project would allow a timber company to remove massive, old-growth Jeffrey pines in addition to various other types of conifers.
Wildfire science has demonstrated that logging does not reduce the risk of wildfire, and it may exacerbate the risk. The recent, tragic Camp Fire burned intensely and quickly through a large logged area in the Plumas National Forest and across private lands that had been subject to timber harvesting before it devastated the town of Paradise.
Wildfire scientists have long-stated that the most effective vegetation management should take place directly around the home and immediately adjacent to communities. The Forest Service followed this model in planning two such projects in 2007 to establish defensible space directly adjacent to homes abutting national forest land and construct two fuel breaks directly adjacent to Frazier Park and Lake of the Woods. ForestWatch formally supported both of these projects. However, more than ten years later, the Forest Service has still not completed all of the approved fuel break work.
The science has also repeatedly shown that community-focused measures are more successful and cost-effective than landscape-level vegetation treatment. These measures include retrofitting existing structures with fire-safe materials, improving early warning and evacuation systems, and curbing development in fire-prone areas.
Another area that will be logged as part of this project at the base of Mt. Pinos.
The Cuddy Valley project was proposed simultaneously with another logging project along Tecuya Ridge nearby. The Forest Service received over 600 comments regarding both logging projects from the public, with more than 99% of the comments in opposition. ForestWatch submitted technical and legal comments highlighting several issues with the projects in partnership with the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity, and another letter requesting that the projects undergo standard environmental review joined by the California Wilderness Coalition, Kern Audubon, Sequoia ForestKeeper, Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club, TriCounty Watchdogs, and Earth Skills.
A decision for the Tecuya Ridge logging project has not been issued. You can still submit a comment to the Forest Service with your concerns about this proposal — which could severely impact endangered California condor roosting sites along the ridge — by clicking here.
ForestWatch is evaluating the Cuddy Valley project decision to determine our next steps for this precedent-setting logging project.
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