Both lots were recently purchased by out-of-area owners…people who don’t live here, or intend to live here…and who appear to be ignorant of local environmental protections. Both have applications to raise these original summer cabins along the river using FEMA flood mitigation assistance funds. Both contacted Clear View tree service to remove a few trees they considered a fire hazard, and in their way of intended construction.

Jason Winamaki, owner of Clear View, has operated a tree service in the area for some time, and recently obtained certification to be a “Licensed Timber Operator” (LTO). He told at least one of the owners that harvesting their redwoods would pay for the tree work they originally wanted.

This could be accomplished by obtaining a “timber harvest permit exemption” from Cal Fire, the agency responsible for monitoring tree removal that involves selling the trees for lumber. CalFire considers this riverfront neighborhood of small lots “Timberland” because of the number of trees in the area. This “grey area” in the law attempts to cover home-owner fire prevention needs on forested land.

Alarmed Neighbors

When we saw the number of trees stripped of their branches, calls and emails went out to Permit Resource Management Dept. (PRMD), North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, Fish and Game (F&G), and the Gazette for media oversight.

All agency responses were sympathetic to saving the trees on the river, but none had jurisdiction to intervene. F&G said they were limited to oversight when stumps were removed along the river bank that might cause erosion (this was disappointing as F&G had previously cited property owners for cutting trees on the river).

How was it stopped?

Community input, persistence, and response from Kimberly Sone, the Forester at Cal Fire who had permitted the tree removal project by designating it a timber harvest with an exemption for structural fire protection, changed this job.

When I called Cal Fire to get information and express my opinion about what was happening, I learned that Kimberly Sone had received numerous similar calls. When I called Forest Unlimited for help, I found they were already at the sites taking pictures. When I called Vesta of the Gazette, she was soon at my door, and we took more pictures to document what was happening, and sent emails out to more agencies to get their attention.

We needed someone who understood laws to evaluate what we might accomplish, so Vesta contacted Jeff Rebischung of Fine Tree Care to evaluate both sites. Jeff is a very knowledgeable and experienced LTO, and pointed out several violations that were in progress. This gave us the language of the law we needed to gain credibility to our request for intervention. The most important is that there are specific laws pertaining to cutting trees within 150’ of our river, and this timber harvest was violating those laws because many of the tress are in what is called a Watercourse Protection Zone.

On October 22nd I was able to meet Kimberly Sone at the sites. She told me that Jason Winamaki had been told that further removal of trees would be a violation of watercourse practices. Due to community input, she increased her oversight of this timber harvest, and ultimately stopped the harvest within the watercourse protection zone. Additional review of the damage is pending.

The remaining redwoods, stripped and topped in preparation for removal, will regrow limbs, and in time, once again provide shade for our river and fish. However, these trees will need more maintenance as time goes on than if they were never limbed.