The state has solicited bids to log over eight million board feet of trees in Brandon Gulch and plans to award the contract on April 8.

A protest rally and press conference will be held at the bid opening for Brandon Gulch on April 8.

An earlier attempt by the state to log this hundred-year old undisturbed section of Jackson State was halted by a Campaign lawsuit in 2001. In the intervening months, CDF and the Board of Forestry received more than 4800 letters opposed to continued industrial logging of Jackson Forest.

The Brandon Gulch logging is only the first salvo in the state’s attack on our forest. Bids are also being solicited now for logging in Camp3 in the central recreation area of the forest and adjacent to Brandon Gulch.

The two plans cover 900 acres of 100-year-old redwood forest. More than 30,000 trees and 20 million board feet of timber will be taken from the largest area of undisturbed old second growth redwood forest in Mendocino County.

The recently approved management plan calls for cutting 31 million board feet PER YEAR out of Jackson State. As the Brandon Gulch and Camp 3 plans show, the oldest and best forest will be targeted first.

The Campaign is requesting that CDF defer the Brandon Gulch and any other logging plans until our pending lawsuit is decided (see "EIR Lawsuit Hearing Set"). If CDF refuses and awards a logging contract in Jackson State, the Campaign can file to enjoin logging until the court rules on our lawsuit. Whether or not the court will agree is uncertain.

In making Brandon Gulch its first logging site under its new management plan, CDF is ignoring requests and advice from a broad spectrum of the public, the environmental community, the Department of Fish and Game, as well as its own Jackson State advisory group. All of these emphasized the ecological and recreational value of the remaining 10,000 acres of old second growth in Jackson State and asked that these acres, at a minimum, be set aside for restoration to old growth.

CDF’s move to log Brandon Gulch is driven by a need for money to fund state forestry programs. Unfortunately for Jackson State and the public, CDF and the legislature in the past decided to make profits from logging Jackson State the primary source of funding for a variety of state forestry programs – including subsidies to private timber owners and urban tree planting. In this year of massive state deficit, the state evidently feels it has "no alternative" other than to cut down our children’s heritage.