Gov. Jerry Brown's administration is preparing an assessment of logging activity and its potential effects on salmon habitat in Battle Creek.

The Sacramento River tributary near Red Bluff is the focus of a $128 million restoration project. The assessment comes in the wake of a June 19 article by The Bee that focused on conflict between clear-cut logging in the Battle Creek watershed and the taxpayer-funded restoration project downstream.

Conservationists have criticized the state for simultaneously investing millions of dollars in restoration while also approving logging on private land in the same watershed.

They argue that clear-cutting puts the restoration project at risk, because it may cause erosion that degrades salmon spawning habitat.

A consultant's report found that logging has already harmed habitat, though its findings are disputed.

Over the past decade, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has approved about 20,000 acres of logging in the watershed, mostly on land owned by Sierra Pacific Industries.

"We need to look at everything and then sort of look ahead from there," said Richard Stapler, spokesman at the Natural Resources Agency, which oversees the forestry agency and the Department of Fish and Game. "It's still a very serious issue, there's no question about that."

Stapler said the assessment could be finished in as soon as two weeks and will involve input from state agencies as well as local groups with an interest in the issue.

At the same time, Brown recently struck a provision from the new state budget that would have restored $1.5 million to Fish and Game to review the environmental effects of timber harvest plans. Because the funding involved a transfer of hunting and fishing license revenue, Brown argued it could have put $30 million in federal funds at risk.

The Battle Creek salmon and steelhead restoration project aims to return endangered fish to 48 miles of spawning habitat. It involves removing five dams owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., and adding new fish ladders to four others. Funding comes from a variety of state and federal sources.

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

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