June 4, 2003
Press Release For Immediate Release
Contact Vince Taylor, Ph.D. (707) 937-3001
The California Department of Forestry (CDF) has run into a new
obstacle in its attempts to log Jackson State Forest. CDF is court
fighting a charge that a new management plan for the forest fails to meet
California environmental laws. While awaiting a ruling on a request for a
preliminary injunction filed by the Campaign to Restore Jackson State
Redwood Forest, CDF has now been charged by the Campaign with trying to
sell over $7 million of timber at below market prices.
Commenting on the Campaign’s charge, Dr. Vince Taylor, Executive
Director of the Campaign, said, "It is totally inappropriate for the
state to be selling logs from our publicly owned redwood forest when
there are serious questions about the adequacy of the environmental
review of its management plan. To sell the public forest at below-market
prices would pile injury upon abuse. We’ve asked the legal office of
the Department of General Services to ensure
that all state laws are being followed before approving the contracts."
In a letter to the Department of General Services, which is reviewing
two contracts for logging in Jackson State, the Campaign alleges that the
state erred in putting the contracts out for bid when there was a clear
risk of that the logging would be enjoined by court order. The letter
quotes a court declaration by Christopher Rowney, Deputy Chief, State
Forest Program Manager in which he states that the risk of an injunction
lowers bid offers and results in the state being offered less than the
prevailing market value for its timber. The letter concludes, "If the law
requires that assets of the state not be sold for less than their full
value, the pending sales should be voided."
The Campaign also raised other questions about the bidding process. It
says that the Jackson timber sales are so large that competitive bidding
is impossible given the shrunken state of the Northern California timber
industry? Each of the contracts is equal to about 10% of all of the
timber harvested in 2002 in Mendocino County, where Jackson State Forest
is located. Because there are only a few mills big enough to finance such
bids, only two bids were received on each contract -- and the firms
involved trade logs with each other. The letter asked DGS to determine
whether, under these circumstances, the bidding process met state
requirements for competitive bidding.
The Campaign further asked DGS to investigate the circumstances
surrounding the withdrawal of the winning bidder in the Brandon Gulch
sale and the awarding of the contract to the second bidder. The second
bid was over $700,000 lower that the first bid. CDF had the option of
rebidding the contract but chose not to do so. The Campaign asks DGS to
determine whether it was legal for CDF to accept the much lower second
bid rather that rebidding the contract.
See the full text of the
letter to the Department of
General Services
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