Bid to rejuvenate salmon will protect trees near streams

BROWNSVILLE – Little-known Honcut Creek is the one place where imperiled California salmon might be able to make a comeback.

It's also where new logging rules soon will restrict how many trees can be cut on private land along this Feather River tributary, even though there aren't any salmon in its forested reaches.

The goal is to protect potential salmon habitat by preserving shade along the creek – to keep the water cool – and to prevent erosion that could destroy spawning gravels downstream.

The new logging rules were approved last month by the California Board of Forestry in a rare unanimous vote.

The rules are full of new language asserting the duty of landowners to protect salmon and their habitat at all times – a major difference from old rules in which lumber production was the primary concern.

"This is a sea change," said George Gentry, executive officer of the Board of Forestry. "We are absolutely putting forward stewardship as a primary principle."

Starting Jan. 1, private landowners in the Sierra Nevada will not be allowed to cut down trees within 30 feet of streams known to provide habitat for salmon and steelhead.

In a second zone, 30 to 70 feet from streams, only 30 percent of the tree canopy can be removed. The seven largest trees on every acre must also be left standing. Slightly different buffer zones apply in coastal forests.

It's a major change from old rules, which allowed landowners to remove half the tree canopy right to the waterline.

The Soper-Wheeler Co. owns about 320 acres bracketing Honcut Creek near the town of Brownsville in Yuba County. On a recent visit, company forester Paul Violett stood beside the creek and contemplated the rules.

Violett estimates his company will be unable to harvest about 10 percent of the trees on this property because of the new rules. The company planted many of the conifers along the creek years ago as seedlings specifically to cut them down later to sell as lumber.

In other words, he said, the new salmon protections cost the company at least 10 percent of its investment.

"That cedar is a very valuable tree, and it's not available for harvest under these rules," Violett said, noting a 5-foot thick tree within 30 feet of the creek. Then he pointed out five more big trees nearby that also must be left standing. "Taken in its total, there's going to be an impact on our long-term yield. It's not insignificant by any stretch."

A similar assessment comes from Sierra Pacific Industries, considered the largest private forest owner in California. Spokesman Mark Pawlicki estimates the salmon protections will restrict logging on 8,000 acres of company land in the Sierra Nevada, plus an additional 20,000 acres on its coastal properties.

"We don't think our forest practices have any limiting effect at all on salmon," Pawlicki said. "But since the rules are now going into effect, we will comply with them."

Honcut Creek, small enough to jump across, is clear and deeply shaded at midday by a canopy of trees on its banks. This is what the rules are designed to preserve: cold water, free of erosion.

Small changes in small watersheds like this could help bring back Central Valley salmon, which are so depleted that commercial salmon fishing is banned for a second straight year in California and most of Oregon.

Salmon are known to use Honcut Creek downstream near its confluence with the Feather River. Boosting that spawning run by improving water quality in the creek could help the entire state.

Brian Williams, a downstream resident, is glad to see the new rules.

A consulting biologist who works with a number of logging companies, Williams bought a home along the creek eight years ago and began researching its history. He said the creek is named after an Indian tribe that had a large camp on its banks – probably because a vigorous salmon run provided food.

Williams said local residents report having seen salmon in the 1970s as far upstream as his property, near Honcut Road, even though there are two small dams in between.