A Needed New Paradigm for State Demonstration Forests
You can help get this very important bill to the finish line! It is now making its way through the California State Legislature. The next stop for AB 2494, the State Forests Management Bill is the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where serious challenges are expected. Let’s meet those challenges with the current reality and with an ecological mindset.
That Committee will meet in early May to vote on AB 2494, so the time to send a short message is NOW!
Buffy Wicks is chair of the Appropriations Committee. You can write a short message to the committee to express support for AB 2494: Say “I support AB 2494” and urge a YES vote for this bill, because it is good for forest health, wildlife, climate resiliency, indigenous cultural values, and rural jobs in restoration and tourism.
Our Demonstration State Forest system contains precious old growth redwoods and maturing second growth trees that deserve protection. AB 2494 redefines management of State Forest lands to include prioritizing climate resiliency goals, enhanced outdoor access, protection of biodiversity, compatible research efforts and Tribal co-management. Under AB 2494, the sale of timber and other forest products is allowed only when the harvest occurs for ecological restoration or research purposes.
Bringing the policies and approaches to smart forest management into the 21st century is necessary, since some of the logic behind the current management harkens back to the 1940s, and there has not been a full environmental review since 2007.
Check out this AB 2494 Demonstration State Forest Bill Fact Sheet
What the bill does:
- Redefines and updates the priorities of Demonstration State Forest system management, by removing a requirement for commercial logging, (put in place in the 1940s), shifting priorities to those outlined above.
- Ensures protection of ecological integrity, wildlife, old growth and mature second growth redwoods within Demonstration State Forest lands by prioritizing these lands for restoration, recreation and research.
- Sequesters and stores carbon to buffer the effects of climate change
- Introduces Tribal co-management and Traditional Ecological Knowledge into California’s State Demonstration Forests to make systemic changes in land management.
- Encourages research around wildfire resiliency, watershed restoration and old growth redwoods.
- Supports rural economies by transitioning away from dwindling extractive economies, instead enhancing ecotourism and restoration jobs.
- Permits the sale of timber only when the harvest occurs for ecological restoration, fire management or research purposes, as defined.
- Allows funds from the Timber Regulation and Forest Restoration Fund to be used to maintain Demonstration State Forests.
See the Legislative text: AB-2494 State Forests: Forest Management
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2494
ALSO-Sign the AB2494 petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/help-pass-the-state-demonstration-forest-legislation-ab-2494/
Thank you for standing with the forest!
