Clear Cutting the Forest in Pine Valley

[mctrails 38]

I was on a ride on Bear Valley Road out of Pine Valley on Sunday and noticed large patches of clear cut areas west of the road. Upon stopping and checking it out I heard noises of motorized equipment working in the same areas. Yesterday I checked it out on the Cleveland Nation Forest website and found out what it was all about.

They are doing a project called Corte Madera Vegetation Reduction. Basically they are clear cutting large areas around the Corte Madera Wildlife Preserve to prevent the spread of wildfires. They plan to do a lot of that mastication work (no I’m not talking about self gratification) and prescribed burns all around the Corte Madera area. You can check out more about it at http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/cleveland/projects...gmt/index.shtml

I read through some of it. Typical governmental blah, blah, blah. They do say they are going to leave some vegetation along the ORV routes and install fencing to prevent illegal entry by the ORVs. Apparently they will do some of it along the Kernan trail. Hard to tell where as the maps in their documents are impossible to read. During the review and comment periods they only received 2 comments. One long drawn out letter from the CBD objecting to almost everything to which the FS made a couple of minor changes and then approved the plan.

I took some pictures and hiked over closer to where they are doing/did some of the work. Basically they are obliterating every living plant in the areas they are working. I just wonder how they can justify this when they raise all kinds of heck when ever they think people are making illegal trails through some of the same areas. Also, why aren't the enviro whackos raising a stink about this? WTF?

[BC330 0]

As of tuesday they had demolished almost all vegitation right up to Bear Valley road, not more than a half a mile from the start of the road. I hope they stop at some point. It looks like they are not showing any discression, even the so-called "endangered" Manzanitia. My family got a huge fine from the forest service for disturbing the same plant when we built our track on private property. So WTF? Let's all go out there and protest! Oh wait, that never works. Just think it should all grow back in 25-30 years or so right?

BC