San Francisco YMCA Timber Plan Update II

Posted December 5, 2006 / Updated February 22, 2007

• What’s happening    
• What you can do    

Thanks to an outpouring of comments from people who spoke up against the San Francisco YMCA’s proposed logging in perpetuity the YMCA held a public meeting on Sunday, December 3rd. The meeting was well attended with standing room only to hear about the YMCA’s plans for the Camp Jones Gulch property. Although this was not an official public hearing, this meeting was a tremendous opportunity for the YMCA to hear directly from YMCA counselors, former campers/counselors and many others about how important it is to develop a real stewardship plan for Camp Jones Gulch, a plan that will enable the forest to recover from past logging.

NPR carried a great story by Half Moon Bay’s David Gorn about the YMCA’s logging proposal. David did a terrific job. You can listen to the archived story from the California Report site: www.californiareport.org/domains/californiareport/

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What’s happening
To learn more about the history and background of this project, please see our previous action alerts posted on in November and in September. You can also read the comments submitted by Lennie Roberts, our San Mateo County Legislative Advocate about the potential impact of fire from logging redwood forests on our blog.

Committee for Green Foothills has met with representatives of the Camp and YMCA on several occasions this fall to attempt to resolve the concerns raised by the permit application. We believe that the YMCA should craft a broader forest stewardship plan that looks at the need to reduce fire hazards and improve forest health and then decide the most appropriate permits to obtain. CGF is hoping the YMCA will withdraw the NTMP permit and create the Stewardship Plan in partnership with interested stakeholders. A key component of this Plan could be a Conservation Easement on the forested areas that could provide funding to the YMCA for infrastructure improvements. There are many other state and federal grant sources that could also help with maintenance and restoration of legacy logging roads, removal of invasive fire prone brush, and improving fisheries habitat. We will let you know if progress is made in this regard.

What you can do
The public comment period remains open. California Department of Forestry (CDF) will be making a decision on this plan soon after the close of public comments. Once this plan is approved, it is in effect forever.

1. Please write, fax, or email CDF by March 15 and ask them to deny this plan. Send your comments to:
Ms. Leslie Markham, CDF, 135 Ridgeway Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Fax: (707) 576-2608
Email to: SantaRosaPublicComment@fire.ca.gov
Important! Be sure to reference Timber Plan #1-06NTMP-014-SMO

2. Please write, fax, or email also to YMCA Camp Jones Gulch and ask them to withdraw this commercial logging plan and to explore other alternatives. Send your comments to:
Bill Worthington, Camp Jones Gulch, 11000 Pescadero Road, La Honda, CA 94020
Fax: (650) 747-0986
Email: BWorthington@ymcasf.org

3. Please download the flyer and sign the petition.

4. See our most recent update on this issue.

For more information
To read the timber harvest plan, see: ftp://thp.fire.ca.gov/THPLibrary/North_Coast_Region/ which is in several pdf files. You can also find comments from agencies here under the file named 20061107_1-06NTMP-014SMO_PHI-CDF.pdf.

Thanks for speaking up — your voice does make a difference!

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