Lawsuit filed to block logging project near Healdsburg

Neighbors and other opponents of a plan to log a wooded 160-acre parcel outside Healdsburg in a small watershed that provides refuge for endangered coho salmon are suing Cal Fire over the agency’s recent approval of the planned timber harvest.

The state agency improperly green-lighted the plan for remote Felta Creek canyon, logging opponents claim, despite a range of potential impacts for threatened fish species, water quality, traffic congestion and safety on winding Felta Creek Road.

“This is a place that needs to be treated with kid gloves,” said one-time forester Lucinda Kotter, a neighborhood resident and spokeswoman for Friends of Felta Creek, a nonprofit formed when the timber harvest proposal was made earlier this year.

Cal Fire approved the timber harvest plan Nov. 17 after two rounds of public review and revisions designed to buttress safeguards against hillside erosion, environmental damage and other harms, said Dominik Schwab, a regional forester and resource manager for the state forestry department.

He highlighted removal of very steep slopes from the logging plan, restrictions on wet weather yarding and hauling, plans to run logging trucks outside of daily hours at Westside Elementary School on nearby Felta Road and use of pilot cars to clear traffic from the roadways when needed. Plans to construct a logging road on very steep, unstable hillsides have been abandoned, as well.

Schwab also underscored the protections offered by standard forest practice rules, including prohibitions on significant discharge of runoff or sediments into the creek, restrictions on activity adjacent to water courses, and required inspections during and after cutting operations to verify all requirements are met.

“Those are all in place to ensure that the landowner complies with the rules and that we protect the forest resources,” he said.

Part of the vast Russian River watershed, Felta Creek is a cold, clear stream that joins Mill Creek near Westside Road and runs through a canyon filled with ferns and redwood trees. A narrow, partly private road follows the waterway, crossing the creek several times as it winds past rural homes, the grade school and vineyards.

The boulder-strewn creek provides critical habitat for the region’s imperiled populations of coho salmon and steelhead trout. It was a stronghold when coho stocks bottomed out a decade ago and only a handful returned to the watershed to spawn.

In 2006 and 2008, it was the only stream in the entire Russian River watershed where fish were found, coho specialist Mariska Obedzinski, who monitors local populations, said earlier this year. The National Marine Fisheries Service has designated the creek a critical coho area.

But the property, bought two years ago for $2.5 million by Eureka attorney, logger and developer Ken Bareilles, is zoned for timber production. Bareilles once said he thought his crews would be felling redwoods and Douglas fir trees by last June, with hopes of selling the property for rural residential development afterward.

His plan drew widespread concern from neighbors, lawmakers and resource agencies who weighed in on everything from potential impacts on roads, school-yard safety and chemical use intended to keep the gravel road dust-free.

Bareilles, who was unavailable for comment this week, has agreed to hold off on any logging activity on the property through at least Feb. 1, according to a stipulated order filed Nov. 21 in Sonoma County Superior Court. Opponents, in the meantime, are asking a judge to void the plan’s approval.

Schwab said the revised version is sufficient to address the concerns raised throughout weeks and months of public comment, though Bareilles still needs to produce an engineering report evaluating the ability of one of the bridges to carry 40-ton logging trucks and forestry equipment.

Attorney Tom Lippe, who represents Friends of Felta Creek, said the timber harvest plan overlooks the critical status of the resource and fails to consider the impact of the proposed logging on habitat and fish populations that already are substantially degraded.

Cal Fire’s “blanket assumption that the rules are going to work is not enough,” Lippe said. “There needs to be more in-depth analysis, and there just wasn’t enough.”

In Humboldt County, Bareilles has twice been convicted of running afoul of regulations intended to safeguard waterways and wildlife habitat, among other things.

“He’s played fast and loose before, and that’s troubling to us,” Kotter said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.