NAIL NEWS 7/11/08

NAIL has learned that San Jose Water Company has communicated that they will press their appeal to CA Board of Forestry regarding the denial of the NTMP. The appeal may be active in the September/October timeframe, pending a logistical discussion between the Board of Forestry and SJWC. We were notified of this through the office of Assembly member Ira Ruskin.

Residents must be vigilant as we work through the next steps in this process. It is vital that the community not lose sight of your collective power in this situation and the support you have given NAIL in the past.

We will keep you updated on status.

NAIL Steering Committee

NAIL - Protecting the Upper Los Gatos Creek Watershed

NAIL NEWS 7/09/08

NAIL Members,

Please be aware that Big Creek Lumber is in the process of submitting a 56 acre THP for land owned by George F. Rabe Trust , located "in the Los Gatos Creek watershed" approx. 1.25 miles southeast of Holy City. A THP is a 3 year logging permit, with an option for an additional year.

As we have been fearing, the redwood and big tree forests in these mountains continue to be an attractive profit-generating attraction for some people. NAIL maintains our opposition to such logging plans on the same basis that we opposed the San Jose Water Company NTMP - the risk of fire when the big trees are removed, the danger to source water supply, sedimentation into Los Gatos Creek, slope instability, imperiled wildlife and the dangers of huge logging trucks on our two-lane, winding mountain roads.

Please prepare yourselves for a community response to this clear and present danger to our neighborhoods, the danger to source water supplies, and to the watershed forests. NAIL will continue to update you on the status of this THP.

Your NAIL Steering Committee

NAIL - Protecting the Upper Los Gatos Creek Watershed

NAIL NEWS 6/29/08

NAIL Members:

A number of residents and drivers in the Summit Road area have been contacting us in the past week asking about the logging trucks they have been seeing. Trucks loaded with fresh (not fire damaged or salvaged) redwoods have been driving down Summit Road towards Highway 17.

Here is some information regarding what they are seeing:

There is a logging operation happening on a large, private parcel of land bounded by Buzzard Lagoon Road and Eureka Canyon Road. If you check the CDF FTP site for copies of the documents that were filed to approve this THP 3-yar logging plan,) the property owners are Roger and Michelle Burch who are logging 160 acres of their land to sell to Redwood Empire Sawmills. The logger listed in the application documents is Big Creek. The trucks taking out the lumber are probably contracted to Big Creek as they do not have the Big Creek logo on them.

If you go to ftp://thp.fire.ca.gov/THPLibrary/North_Coast_Region/THPs2007/1-07-017SCR/ you can read through the entire plan. It lists all the neighbors in the area as well.

Unfortunate news for the Santa Cruz Mountains trees.

Your NAIL Steering Committee
Protecting the Upper Los Gatos Creek Watershed

NAIL NEWS 6/6/08

The Santa Clara FireSafe Council, Aldercroft Heights County Water Board, Chemeketa Mutual Water Company, the Redwood Estates Homeowner Association, the Lake Canyon Water District, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Santa Clara County Parks, CalFire, County Fire, San Jose Water Company and Santa Clara County Fire Department have all contributed monies toward the development of this plan in addition to contributions from individual home owners.

On Monday, June 9th, the Santa County Board of Supervisors will review a budget request from the LH CWPP Working group for an additional $10,000 to help support the development of this plan. We urge you to support the plan and email Don Gage to let him know that we appreciate his support for the funding request from the County:

Don Gage -don.gage@bos.sccgov.org

To learn more about the Lexington Hills Community Wildfire Protection Plan, please see:
http://www.sccfiresafe.org/LHCWPP.htm

Thank You,
Your NAIL Steering Committee

NAIL NEWS 4/29/08
Private Bohemian Club Involved In Logging Dispute - A CBS 5 Special Report -

Call Toll-free: 1(800) CALL ELK (225-5355) and/or email Sr. Regional Director Mike Ford at mford@rmef.org

NAIL NEWS 3/29/08

Dear NAIL Members:

There is an easy phone call you can make that will have bearing on the retention of over 2500 acres of trees on land belonging to the elite Bohemian Club, a private retreat for politicians, celebrities, foreign royalty and corporate honchos, located along the Russian River. The Bohemian Club's acres include redwood, Douglas fir and hardwood trees. The forests provide habitats for northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets and rare plants. The Bohemian Club wants to log these acres for income.

The male-only members of the Bohemian Club and their high priced PR firm are trying to get around the acreage requirement for an NTMP. Just like San Jose Water Company did in our case, the Bohemian Club boys also applied for the NTMP dishonestly, owning too many acres to quality for that permit. Thanks to NAIL's success with this issue in fighting the logging plan here, this type of dishonesty is now under public scrutiny. To get around it the Bohemian Club is now trying to push 160 of their acres into a donated conservation easement so they can be under the limit and avoid environmental scrutiny as they log in perpetuity. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is the group that is agreeing to partner with The Bohemian Club.

www.SFGate.com. As you will see from this article, NAIL is supporting the opposition to this NTMP logging plan. The Sierra Club also opposes this logging plan as do some members of The Bohemian Club itself.

The easy step you can take would be to contact the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and express yourself regarding their involvement in such a dishonest tactic, citing the backlash it will cause against their organization and the fact that by doing so they are killing trees, not saving them. With enough public outcry against this shady tactic, it could be stopped. Let the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation hear the following from you:

1) By accepting this easement they are risking the trees not saving them. Current fire science has proven that cutting down the big trees in a forest poses a greater chance of large scale forest fire. If the foundation accepts this easement they are allowing that kind of logging to go on and that kind of fire risk to occur.

2) Do they want to be known as a foundation that allowed a private men's club to get around proper environmental impact studies just to make money off of trees? This will cause The Elk Foundation a great deal of negative publicity and affect future donorship.

Toll-free: 1(800) CALL ELK (225-5355)

Your involvement in this process is important. Public outcry whenever possible will play a huge role in changing these types of tactics.

Thank you all.
Your NAIL Steering Committee