Where did the MRC get the idea for the Mattole Forest Futures Project?
The Mattole Forest Futures Project — to be implemented through a PTEIR — was conceived at the California Forest Futures conference in Sacramento in 2005, the brainchild of then-MRC executive director Chris Larson, along with Richard Gienger (involved for many years in restoration and the reform of forestry regulation in the Mattole and nearby areas) and Sally French (Mattole timberland owner, and member of the board of Forest Landowners of California). The project grew out of the recognition that the high cost of a THP increases the pressure to harvest more than would be ecologically beneficial, and that THPs focus their environmental analysis tightly on a single harvest, missing the effects on the broader landscape. At the same time, with second-growth timber across the Mattole beginning to reach harvestable age, the pace of logging is apt to pick up soon, making these issues more pressing than they have been in recent years.
