Mountain Resource Group

The fight to protect our neighborhood continues.

SJWC has resubmitted their plan to log the forest. The plan was published on the California Department of Forestry's website 6/5/06 and is available for viewing at the following locations. ftp site: ftp://thp.fire.ca.gov/THPLibrary/North_Coast_Region/    Folder title is 1-06NTMP-012SCL

Residents of Santa Clara County reacted strongly in opposition to the San Jose Water Company’s resubmitted plan to log 1,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest in the Los Gatos Creek watershed. The plan, originally submitted to the California Department of Forestry in the fall of 2005, was withdrawn in December, 2005.  Over 3,500 citizens in mountain and valley communities have signed petitions in opposition to the plan. The logging plan – called a Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan or NTMP - allows for logging to occur in perpetuity without any further public or agency review once approved by the California Department of Forestry.

Opposition to the plan centers on three points.

-         Water Quality Protection. Over 100,000 Santa Clara County residents draw their drinking water directly from intakes in Los Gatos Creek within the logging zone. Commercial logging is so incompatible with retaining drinking water quality that San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Santa Cruz, East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and Marin County-virtually every large west coast municipality-expressly forbid commercial logging in their watersheds.  Santa Clara County residents desire the same protection for their water.

-         Fire Protection. The mature redwood canopy acts as a shaded fuel break, protecting the lives of residents and the security of their homes. The largest, healthiest, most fire resistant trees in the forest are slated for cutting – 40% of redwoods over 36” in diameter. Destruction of the forest canopy will allow sunlight to reach the forest floor and create new ladder fuels and fire hazards adjacent to thousands of homes. As the forest canopy is opened, fire-prone invasive species will proliferate. The plan also calls for a 12 inch deep layer of dried twigs and broken branches (logging slash) covering 1.6 square miles of forest floor. The slash will not be removed and poses a serious fire hazard for thousands of residents.

-               Quality of Life.  Thousands of citizens live beside the logging zone. Logging operations will occur adjacent to homes, churches, schools, day care centers and playgrounds. Helicopter landings will occur within 150 feet of homes. Helicopter operations are slated for 24% of the logging zone. The plan calls for logging 12 hours a day. Special permission has been requested by the SJWC to conduct operations 12 months a year. Noise levels as described in the plan exceed Santa Clara County’s noise ordinance. Residents will be faced with an expected decline in property values as chainsaws and logging trucks will invade residential neighborhoods.

Over 200 residents have formed N.A.I.L (Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging) to fight the plan. Experts in logging, fire hazards and hydrology have been hired by the group. Legal actions are being contemplated should the plan be approved by the CDF. The Sierra Club has joined local efforts in opposition to this irresponsible logging plan.