Half Moon Bay Review
December 7, 2006

Skeptics cut down YMCA logging plan

By Nick Casey

A proposal to begin logging operations at Camp Jones Gulch in La Honda has become a public relations nightmare for property-owner YMCA of San Francisco.

Many La Honda residents fear that the nearby forest will be irreparably harmed by the long-term plan. More than 300 complaints are now filed with the California Department of Forestry — a stack reportedly three inches thick. And on Sunday, 200 people turned out to voice their opposition to the project as YMCA officials attempted, with limited success, to calm a growing storm.

“The reaction to this process was certainly a surprise to us,” said Bill Worthington, YMCA vice president of property development.

At the root of the controversy is the YMCA’s application for a non-industrial timber management plan, a much-revised, highly technical document known as an NTMP that could determine the fate of the forest for decades to come.

According to the YMCA, only 350 acres of forestland would be thinned. The reason for the management plan, Worthington said, was to decrease fire hazards and other safety risks in the educational camp used by hundreds of children and adults annually.

However, if approved by state forestry officials, the plan would allow the YMCA to significantly alter the full 904 acres of Jones Gulch for the construction of roads, the removal of tan oaks and brush, and the logging of up to 40 percent of trees over 18 inches in diameter.

It is the potential scope of the plan which critics say concerns them.

“What they have is a commercial timber harvesting plan for this property,” said Lennie Roberts legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills.

Roberts said her committee wants the YMCA to withdraw the plan and return to the table, possibly in consideration of a conservation easement.

“Logging begets more logging,” she said. “The potential income here may be hard for the YMCA to resist.”

Worthington declined to provide the Review with information regarding the amount of timber revenue at stake. Previous reports have estimated its value at $4.3 million, a figure Worthington said was inaccurate.

The YMCA appears to have made a determined effort to keep the public apprised of the process. Officials recently met with members of the CGF and the Peninsula Open Space Trust to discuss alternatives to the project. The Sunday meeting was hosted voluntarily by the YMCA and went beyond agency requirements.

“We are not sure what’s going on,” said Worthington. “The purpose of the NTMP was to provide a long-term, sustainable management plan we had hoped would interest the public.”

However, its sustainability, too, appears to be a matter of debate.

“It’s likely that the NTMP will undo the fire protection goals that the YMCA says are at the center of the project,” said the Sierra Club’s Jodi Frediani who has reviewed timber harvesting plans at other sites since the 1980s.

Frediani said specific techniques called for in the plan might increase erosion and fire hazards in La Honda. A process known as “hack and squirt,” whereby hardwood trees would be killed with herbicide and left to desiccate, creates increased fuel during the period before the dead trees are eventually removed.

A second process, known as “constructed layout” would involve bulldozing the soil around fall sites to keep timber from cracking upon impact. According to Frediani, the process could have impacts on erosion mitigation for years to come.

Rich Samson, of the California Department of Forestry, said that the “hack and squirt” process was rarely used locally and that “constructed layouts,” also rare, were a source of CDF concern about the project. These concerns, he said, dealt with the extent of the land alteration. The YMCA has since provided more specific details to the CDF.

“Like any plan, the revision process is extensive,” said Samson. “Public opposition is often to earlier versions of a plan.”

The YMCA has made numerous revisions to the NTMP to accommodate agency and public objections. Most recently, the association reduced the maximum harvest from 60 percent to 40 percent of trees.

Frediani, however, worries that additional revisions may continue to take place after the management plan has been approved.

Through a system known as “major or minor amendments,” property owners may make significant changes to their foresting plan, provided that they are met with CDF approval. These amendments, unlike the NTMP, require no public comment period.

Worthington admitted that the NTMP process was imperfect. He said the long-term management plan was preferable to short-term logging options which allow more trees to be harvested. Jones Gulch was logged under these plans during the 1970s and 1980s, according to the CDF.

“In trying to impose responsible limitations and think about long-term stewardship, we appear to have hit a snag with the public,” said Worthington.

While the YMCA maintains that the purpose of Jones Gulch Camp is primarily recreational, those who have enjoyed the forest's splendor appear seduced by its natural beauty.

“That’s the place I learned to love the Redwood trees,” said Patty Mayall, who began attending the camp in the sixth grade. “What the YMCA taught me was to protect and value the forest. They’ve taught many other people the same lesson. If anything, the opposition is a testament to just what great work they did there.”

Page last updated September 13, 2010.