Landowner under fire for post-Walbridge salvage logging violations

On April 12, Kreck informed Cal Fire he intended to quit, saying Bareilles had ordered him to remove required erosion control devices from the roadway in advance of forecast rain so he could show his property to prospective buyers. Kreck then was forced to hastily reconstruct them on the eve of wet weather.

Kreck wrote that Bareilles “(i)s negligent and running rogue with no regard to my LTO License (Licensed Timber Operator) responsible for his actions.” His letter was temporarily posted on Cal Fire’s Cal Trees website and later removed.

Kreck also rescinded his family’s permission for Bareilles to haul redwood logs across their Mill Creek Road property. That forced Bareilles to use the narrow, Felta Creek Road, a private lane that winds through the creek canyon.

Kreck declined to be interviewed beyond confirming the contents of the letter, citing his attorney’s advice. “I like to do clean work,” he said.

But Bareilles, who has since taken over as licensed timber operator of record, said he basically assumed the role last September after Kreck ran short of money and equipment. He said Kreck was new to the field, had gotten in over his head amid high demand for timber operators and then “everything he touched...turned to dog poop.”

In October, a record-breaking storm dumped more than 10 inches of rain on the area in 24 hours, leaving mud and debris flowing down the hillside, some of which got into Felta Creek. Cal Fire filed one notice of violation citing Kreck, whose responsibility as timber operator included specific erosion control measures.

Then Bareilles was cited in November for trying to fix the situation by using heavy equipment on a saturated landscape.

“If I would have anticipated the amount of rain we were going to get, I would have made sure they were in right,” he says now.

He said his registered forester, who assembled the timber harvest plan, also led him into two violations, as well. The forester, Randy Jacobszoon of Ukiah, was unavailable for comment because he was on vacation.

Bareilles said that accruing violations is just something that happens, though he disputes their legitimacy and will challenge them in court, if it comes to that.

“I’ve been sued by the (district attorney) a couple of dozen times for logging violations, but those are correctable,” he said. “You correct them and move on.”

Bareilles is only allowed to log his Felta Creek property because of the lightning-sparked Walbridge Fire, part of the LNU Lightning Complex that erupted across five counties beginning Aug. 17, 2020.

(Forested Sonoma County enclave laid bare by Walbridge fire — and now, by salvage logging)

Three years before the fire, neighbors tried to stop him — and eventually succeeded — when he first filed plans to log most of 160 acres he and his wife, Linda, had purchased for $2.5 million in 2015.

The property is zoned for timber production, and they planned to make money off the stock of redwoods and Douglas firs, then resell the land for home sites, Bareilles said in 2017.

But neighbors and environmental interests put up a fight, citing the steep grade at which some of the logging was to be performed above Felta Creek, a cold, clear stream that provides spawning grounds for coho and threatened steelhead trout.

Critics also had concerns about public safety and wear and tear on narrow Felta Creek Road, which connects Bareilles’ hillside property with Felta Road and, beyond, to Westside Road.

The graveled road, after more than a year of logging, is covered in several inches of fine, pulverized soil like talcum powder on the final stretch to Bareilles’ land. It follows Felta Creek, crossing it at several points as it winds between redwood trees and steep banks that drop away abruptly to the water below.

Bareilles uses it to haul equipment to his logging site aboard a trailer as wide as the road, nicking and scarring several redwood trees along the way and damaging the edges of the road at a few places.

Parents and neighbors recently protested at West Side Elementary School on Felta Road when Bareilles resumed hauling logs passed the grade school in May.

The nonprofit Friends of Felta Creek forced Bareilles to revise his initial Fox Meadows timber harvest plan and then sued to stop it once Cal Fire approved it. Members worried about preservation of the private road and public safety, particularly for children and families at pickup and drop-off at West Side Elementary.

But they also were deeply distressed by the potential environmental impacts in an area of stunning beauty and ecological value.

“The whole reason we’re up in arms about this is Felta Creek is one of the last places you can find spawning fish,” said Lucy Kotter, a leader in Friends of Felta Creek.

A tributary of Mill Creek, Felta Creek was the only stream in the Russian River watershed where Central California Coast coho were found in 2006 and 2008, according to the Russian River Salmon and Steelhead Monitoring Program.

It has hosted naturally spawned, young coho in all but two of the last 11 years, though the drought left its lower reaches dry by spring this year. Last year, as in 2014, there were no young coho counted, and in 2020, only six were found.

Sediment and suspended soil can threaten the health of fish in the creek in a variety of ways, including suffocating young fish and preventing oxygen from reaching eggs laid in gravel, and making it difficult to find aquatic food, said Don McEnhill, executive director of the nonprofit Russian Riverkeeper organization.

“It is harmful to every single life cycle of salmonids,” he said.

The Friends of Felta Creek got the timber plan suspended in 2017. Bareilles submitted a revised version in 2020 but refused Cal Fire’s request that he extend the July 31, 2020 deadline for its review, so it was rejected.

Less than three weeks later, the Walbridge Fire started.

The situation effectively rendered the efforts of neighbors and environmentalists moot. Bareilles is now allowed to harvest trees under a formal “Emergency Notice” filed Oct. 21, 2020.

Cal Fire does not have the discretion to reject or to impose conditions on an emergency notice, 65 of which the agency has issued Sonoma County since the Walbridge Fire, according to Kim Sone, Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit forester.

Operators still must abide by rules and regulations contained in the state’s Forest Practice Rules, including watershed and watercourse protection measures. And Cal Fire and sister agencies still have responsibility to inspect the operations.

But the multilayered review and public comment period that precedes regular timber harvest plan approval does not exist for emergency timber operations, given the urgent need to remove excess fuel and log salvageable timber before it becomes unusable.

McEnhill, at the Russian Riverkeeper, says Bareilles’ logging effort is prime evidence of the flaws in that approach.

“I mean, this guy’s racked up so many violations in the last 12 months or whenever he was able to start, and yet the state is telling us they’re powerless to revoke his permit,” McEnhill said. “I mean, what a joke. It just goes back to the reality that Cal Fire is not about protecting forests or watersheds. Everything is tilted toward getting the timber out of there … and the current fire hysteria is not helping.”

And yet, it was Cal Fire Unit Forester Sone who first discovered last June that Bareilles’ team had spanned Felta Creek with the beginnings of an unauthorized bridge in hopes of hauling logs across it. She organized a joint inspection about a week later involving water quality and fish and wildlife personnel that would play a role in their regulatory actions.

Sone has now documented at least 16 inspections of Bareilles’ operations, issuing five notices of violation in the latter half of last year and another Tuesday following weekend rain, when regulators found erosion control measures missing again and felled trees and other logging debris deposited in creek channels.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued two violations, both last year. And the regional water quality control board issued a cleanup and abatement order in January, citing past offenses, and a notice of violation in March, in part for failure to produce an interim cleanup plan on time. Bareilles could be subject to fines of $1,000 a day. Most of the notices cite multiple code infringements.

Sone said “additional enforcement action may be pursued,” but said she could not say more.

Bareilles appears unperturbed by that news.

“Big f--king deal,” he said “Everybody that works is still under investigation.”

Bareilles describes himself as “a huge environmentalist,” however, and says regulators will ultimately realize he’s done no real harm to the creek bed. He said he expects to finish logging within weeks and then get the property all cleaned up to sell.

But people like Richard Hay, who regularly walks in the neighborhood from his home on Westside Road, wonders how it’s possible for Bareilles to have gotten this far, given his history and the number of times he appears to have violated the rules on his current job.

He recalled a few months back encountering state Fish and Wildlife personnel rescuing young fish from a section of Felta Creek upstream from where it had gone dry so they could be delivered to the Russian River in hopes of their survival.

“It makes no sense,” Hay said, reflecting on the effort and investment put into fish and watershed health over time and the apparent inability or refusal to stop Bareilles from furthering harm.

“Why do have all these regulations,” Hay said, “if they’re not going to be enforced?”

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