‘David and Goliath’ Timber Lawsuit
by Kia Murdoch
The Battle Creek Alliance, a small nonprofit organization based in the Battle Creek watershed that straddles Tehama and Shasta counties, is taking CalFire to court, demanding that the agency adhere to the California laws that require CalFire to make cumulative environmental impact assessments before approving logging requests (known as Timber Harvest Plans). This ‘David versus Goliath’ lawsuit, filed in Tehama County, demands that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (known as CalFire) fully investigate the potential environmental impacts — such as wildfire danger, watershed damage, and harm to aquatic habitats — before approving clearcutting in California’s public forests. You can help fund this important lawsuit to hold CalFire accountable by donating here.
In 1989, when Battle Creek Alliance founder and director Marily Woodhouse first moved to the area, the Battle Creek watershed had been virtually untouched forest since the early 1900s. The watershed teemed with life, both aquatic and terrestrial, supported by diverse forests, with the picturesque slopes of Mt. Lassen rising to the East. By hiking and horseback riding through the watershed, Marily fell in love with the forests of airy Grey Pines and arching Blue Oaks (found only in California), which gave way to towering Ponderosa Pines and graceful Black Oaks at higher elevations. Back then, she could hike or horseback ride along the tributaries of the watershed and look up to see an enormous, elegant Golden Eagle soaring along the coursing creek, with a wingspan so vast it appeared to stretch from one bank of the creek to the other. Her deep, humble appreciation for the trees, plants, and animals became a passion for conservation and activism in the mid 2000s, when giant timber corporations came to the area and began wreaking havoc on the habitats of the watershed with relentless logging. In the mornings, the birdsong was drowned out by the constant drone of huge logging trucks lumbering past her home, on their way into the forest. The beautiful hillsides of pine and oak forests began to show huge scars of naked dirt and downed trees, with freshly amputated, forsaken stumps rising only a few feet in the air, and the once-diversely-forested floor now devoid of any flora. The eagles and other raptor birds began to disappear from the area, as their habitats were destroyed.
Timber Harvesting in the Battle Creek Watershed
Between 1997 and 2016, CalFire approved Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) that clearcut over 61,000 acres in the Battle Creek watershed, leaving large swaths of the forest more susceptible to fire and fragmenting the habitat for many species. Furthermore, the clearcuts left the dirt on the forest floor loose, and the subsequent 2012 Ponderosa Fire escalated erosion from the clearcut into rivers and streams. The increased sediment significantly harms water quality not only in the area of the clearcut, but downstream throughout the watershed, especially during the rainy season when the loose dirt is swept into the streams. Increased levels of sediment in the water supply destroys holding pools in the spawning habitat for native Chinook salmon, and increases the water temperature which adds additional environmental stress on the fish.
CalFire’s Harmful Patterns of Practice
CalFire is required by state regulations including CEQA, FPA, and Forest Practice Rules to fully investigate the potential environmental impacts of each Timber Harvest Plan. However, CalFire has consistently abused its discretion in the Battle Creek watershed by severely limiting the geographical scope of its environmental impact assessments, which masks the harmful environmental impacts THPs have downstream in the greater Battle Creek watershed, particularly on native salmon spawning habitats. This is particularly harmful when CalFire approves numerous THPs in the same watershed, and fails to assess the environmental impacts that multiple THPs will have downstream and throughout the watershed.
Watching CalFire approve THP after THP in the Battle Creek watershed, without holding the private corporations accountable for the cumulative environmental impacts multiple THPs had on the area, Marily Woodhouse was tired of being “David” fighting to stop a a Goliath” timber company from destroying her beloved Battle Creek watershed, aided by CalFire’s harmful pattern of approving environmentally damaging THPs. With a passion for the environment, the strength of her conviction, and environmentally-minded allies, Marily created the Battle Creek Alliance to stand up for the watershed and stand against CalFire’s enabling of corporate timber greed. Battle Creek Alliance has been fighting a ‘David versus Goliath’ battle to protect the Battle Creek watershed from damaging THPs for over 15 years. Where CalFire has government attorneys readily at their disposal, Battle Creek Alliance has struggled to afford attorney representation in court. To this day the members and allies of Battle Creek Alliance have worked tirelessly to gather large amounts of data linking the destruction caused by THPs to the damage the watershed is suffering from.
As demonstrated in the aerial photo, the forest surrounding the watershed is a checkerboard of clearcuts. Furthermore, the watershed becomes murky with sediment after storms wash the loose dirt into the waterways, which harms the aquatic habitats where salmon spawn. Armed with published work in scientific journals, and after the particularly difficult wildfire season of 2020, it is the perfect moment for Battle Creek Alliance’s renewed fight to hold CalFire accountable.
Additional Harmful Effects of Clearcutting
Clearcutting is only one method of timber harvesting among many, and it is well-documented as one of the more environmentally harmful methods. The wanton destruction of clearcutting treats our beautiful forests like nothing more than a resource to be extracted and exploited, as if the Northern California forests have no value aside from the potential to make private industry money. Most importantly, not only is clearcutting ugly, it is harmful to the life and longevity of our forests and watersheds, and ultimately to us as Californians.
Trees are the lungs of the earth, converting carbon into the oxygen we need to breathe. Clearcutting our older trees has a snowball effect on various aspects of climate change. It removes all trees from a designated area — old and young — and clears the flora of the forest floor with toxic herbicides that leave traces in the exposed sediment that remains, which is then eroded into the watershed during the rainy season, polluting the water and aquatic habitats. When large areas of older trees are clearcut, significant amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the air, and the clearcut area will take many years to regain the carbon-neutral air quality.
Even if a plantation of trees is later planted in the clearcut, plantations are trees of the same age and same species. Young trees ignite easily, and burn fast and hot, leaving huge areas of our forests extremely vulnerable to wildfire. In addition, replacing a diverse forest with a single species of same-size, same species pines leaves the area less resistant to disease and insect infestation, diminishes the diversity of food for wildlife, and destroys the complex ecosystem links between different plants and animals that are crucial for healthy forests.
How You Can Help
Battle Creek Alliance’s lawsuit challenges not just CalFire’s failure to address the impact of this particular plan’s proposed logging, but their long-standing “pattern and practice” of not upholding the rules. Everyone is needed in the fight against climate change, and you can make a difference right here in California by supporting the Battle Creek Alliance with this crucial lawsuit. Compelling CalFire to implement more rigorous patterns of practice in reviewing THPs will not only help the Battle Creek watershed area, but it will impact all California forests. This lawsuit, if successful, will compel CalFire to fully uphold its legal duty to comprehensively review the cumulative environmental impacts of every THP proposed in California.
You can be a Forest Protector by helping Battle Creek Alliance win this critical lawsuit in the fight to save our California Forests, one of our greatest protections against Climate Change. Battle Creek Alliance is a small organization, under the 501(c)(3) umbrella of SOL Communications, Inc., which helps small environmentally-minded organizations access 501(c)(3) tax benefits.
Battle Creek Alliance needs to raise $30,000 for attorney representation fees in this important lawsuit, a small amount to ask to save our forests from CalFire’s harmful patterns and practices of ignoring environmental concerns when approving clearcuts. Any amount you are able to give will aid Battle Creek Alliance in this important fight. Please click here to help us win. Together we will hold CalFire accountable to prevent future wildfires, minimize habitat fragmentation, and protect our watersheds.
As a 501(c)(3), all donations to this project are tax-deductible. We are grateful for your support.
