Five environmental and fishing groups on Thursday urged Gov. Jerry Brown to protect a costly salmon restoration project from state-approved logging.

The Bee reported Sunday that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, has approved thousands of acres of clear-cut logging in the Battle Creek watershed.

Just downstream, other state agencies are spending voter-approved bond funds to remove five dams. The aim is to return endangered salmon to 48 miles of creek that have been blocked for 90 years.

"It makes no sense to be both restoring and destroying a river all at the same time – and at taxpayer expense," said Glen Spain, regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens Associations, a commercial fishing group and longtime supporter of the dam removals.

Taxpayers are investing $128 million in the project, which focuses on a system of dams on Battle Creek owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. About halfway finished, it includes removing five small dams and building new fish ladders on four others.

Money for the project comes from federal grants and taxpayer-approved bonds overseen by the state's water and wildlife agencies.

The logging, under way mainly on land owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, complies with state law. But it occurs at a time when the state Department of Fish and Game no longer monitors affects on wildlife and aquatic habitat due to budget reductions and job cuts.

A disputed study by a consultant of the watershed concluded that erosion from logging has already compromised salmon spawning habitat in the creek.

Additional clear-cutting threatens to add more erosion to the system, which could smother spawning habitat vital to steelhead and winter- and spring-run chinook, the species targeted by the dam-removal project.

Cal Fire is overseen by the state Board of Forestry. The board has powers to adopt special protections in a unique watershed, but has never done so on its own initiative.

The critics urged Brown to make that happen. A spokesman for the governor did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Stan Dixon, chairman of the Board of Forestry.

Richard Stapler, spokesman for the state Natural Resources Agency, which oversees Cal Fire and the Board of Forestry, called California logging rules the nation's "most stringent" and said state officials "will continue to monitor" Battle Creek logging.

"The state takes environmental protection issues very seriously," Stapler said.

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Call The Bee's Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264. Follow him on Twitter @matt_weiser.

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