Mountain Resource Group

Thank you to Nick Arreguy for his suggestions to NAIL members and the NAIL steering committee. They were excellent thoughts and suggestions and we would like to reply to them:

Nick: Call press TV and Radio conferences to educate the public on how logging increases Fire danger and harms water sheds. Publicize the inaccuracies and omissions in the NTMP document. Publicity will attract volunteers from colleges and the rest of the Bay area community. We have to build our numbers into overwhelming proportions.

NAIL: We are in touch with reporters from a number of newspapers; the LG Weekly, the SJ Mercury News, The Santa Cruz Sentinel and The SF Chronicle. We have ongoing relationships with the press and are doing everything possible to educate them so that readers can be educated. We recently submitted a first-review article about the innacuracies of the NTMP to the press. A more thorough study of the massive NTMP document by NAIL-hired experts is ongoing and we will be communicating with the press about our findings.

Building our numbers into overwhelming proportions would be an excellent thing to have happen. The probem is that the average person has a general lack of knowledge about logging plans, and specifically NTMP's because it is not something commonly encountered. The learning process takes time. The more you learn about the process, the more you are able to talk to your friends and neighbors about it, the more you are able to speak out to your public guardians about it, the larger our numbers will grow.

Additionally, NAIL is working with consultants who are experts in key areas of the NTMP. They will review it critically and we will proceed in our resistance strategy to stop the plan.

Nick: Picket SJW headquarters and publicize the event to newspapers and TV news organizations. Reiterate messaging above.

NAIL: Residents who would like to organize peaceful public events are encouraged to do so. If you have the time and inclination to lead a public activity to express your opposition to the NTMP, please contact us so we can discuss it with you. During the NTMP process we will need as many residents as possible to attend the public feedback meeting. The date has not yet been scheduled, but we will let everyone know as soon as it is confirmed to us.

Nick: Find out when and where the investors meeting is and present views and or past presentation to Los Gatos City council. If need be, purchase a least one share per protester, in order to enter the meeting.

NAIL: Again, excellent suggestions. Anything and everything that residents can do to show their support for defeating this terrible plan is needed and valued. Remember however that the Los Gatos town council has no jurisdiction over this matter, given that we live in unincorporated Santa Clara County. You might want to direct your views on this terrible plan to Santa Clara County supervisors. They are interested in hearing from you and welcome your commentary. Supervisor Don Gage oversees this area of the county and he has stated that he intends to work with residents and welcomes their communications about the NTMP. Urge the supervisors to vote on a resolution to challenge the NTMP.

Nick: Challenge SJW to use experts and consider studies that NAIL considers relevant.

NAIL: SJWC believes that the experts they have on staff, their hired experts, and those with whom they interface at Big Creek Lumber, are the right experts. As NAIL experts complete reports from studies, those studies will be shared. You can be assured that SJWC is well aware of studies showing that cutting out the canopy will increase the risk of fire, but they reject that information because it does not fit with their goal of making a financial profit off of logging trees.

Nick: Try to force the state to hold approval hearings in our community in venues large enough to hold all interested parties and well publicize the times and locations of and well in advance of the meetings.

NAIL: The county has the ability to request that the public feedback aspect of the NTMP be held at a time and location convenient to the affected population. We have received assurances from Supv. Gage that this request will be made. It is possible that we will be able to attend the public feedback meeting in the evening and probably at the CDF site in Felton. This is better than a morning meeting in Santa Rosa, which could have been the scenario. Stay tuned to the NAIL website for confirmation of meeting time and location.

Nick: Find ways to boycott SJW or major shareholder products. Unfortunately, institutions hold the largest chunks of shares.

NAIL: Again, anything that citizens can do to make it clear to SJWC how much they oppose this plan, is important.

Nick: Explore potential liability SJW Corp might incur if their logging activities (if approved) are shown to increase sediments in Lexington reservoir. Any liability must be considered a part of the fiduciary responsibility of the officers of SJW. Make clear that any fires that occur after logging operations (if executed) will result in law suites against SJW

NAIL: Our expert consultants will be looking at all of this, rest assured. Residents should feel free to voice these sentiments to SJWC, Santa Clara County, CDF and other involved agencies.

Nick: Continue outreach and the forming of alliances with other environmental groups such as Green Peace and Sierra Club and other groups to publicize and fight through legal action and protests if required. If logging in watersheds is allowed, then we will be going down the slippery slope of more logging throughout our region.

NAIL: We have an alliance with the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club. They have been helping us greatly and continue to be a part of our resistance team. They are on board. We also have alliances with other "green" organizations who are aware of this plan, who are equally alarmed and who are doing work on our behalf, some of it "behind the scenes."

Nick: Show SJW that logging increases fire danger. This could be a prelude in order to take legal action to fight the logging. Consider the tobacco companies. Even though they knew smoking was dangerous to ones health, they publicly maintained it was not harmful. For that stance, in the end, they were legally responsible for the harmful effects of smoking despite legally selling tobacco at the time.

NAIL: There is no SHOWING SJWC that logging increases fire danger. They know this but they choose to ignore it. Again, this NTMP is about making money off of trees on their watershed land. Fire plans, source water quality plans, impact to the environment and to the quality of life of area residents, (as well as the hit to our property values,) is of no interest to SJWC. Neither is the conventional wisdom of most water companies that the logging of watershed land is not a good practice.

We would like members and resident to know that NAIL is working 24x7 on this issue. As stated, we have expert topical consultants and legal consultants working with us. Now that the NTMP has been filed and we can see the REAL language and REAL intent, we are heavily strategizing as to our next steps. We will be holding another community meeting so watch the website for that date.

NIck: Contact the top mutual fund holdings and top institutional investors
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=SJW
NAIL: Great suggestion!

Nick: Put a link in the left hand side of the main page to make it easier to find who to contact to express my views and to find the petitions. Link to the documents prescribing the policies for the water sheds of other large West Coast municipalities including San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Marin County, Portland and Seattle

NAIL: We do plan an upgrade to our NAIL site. The committee has been so busy with fighting the plan on different planes that we have had less time for web page adjustments. If anyone would be willing to donate funds to assist us in this task, it would be welcomed.

Nick: Explore ways to increase public participation and enjoyment in SJW’s properties such as hiking trails through the redwood groves.

NAIL: This is a subject that has been addressed before. SJWC has shown no desire to allow the public access to this land. SJWC recently increased the security fencing around entrances to their watershed, and replaced old locks with heavier, newer locks. Hired guards ensure that there is no trespassing on their property. Security is so tight in Aldercroft Heights that if a fire were to shut off resident exit via Alma Bridge, the entire neighborhood would be locked in. All other vehicle exits out of Aldercroft have SJWC locked gates across them, and no one has a key to the locks in the event of an emergency. SJWC will not offer a key even to the Aldercroft Heights Water board. John Tang, SJWC engineer has stated that: "SJWC cannot take responsibility for people who choose to live in a more fire-prone area" but does mention that if there were a fire they'd send up someone with a key. Hope it is in time...!

Additionally, even if SJWC were to open even some percentage of their lands for public use, in the way that East Bay Municipal Utility Disrict does, for example, and forgo the enormous profit they plan to make off of logged trees, they would have quite a bit of work to do just to make the land accessible. SJWC has been a very poor steward of the land in terms of clearing out brush, sudden-death oakfall, and invasive broom.

Again, we thank Nick for his well thought out remarks and suggestions and we hope NAIL members will consider them seriously. NAIL is more than just your steering committee, it is ALL OF US up here who care about this land and the impact the logging plan will have on it, and us. The steering committee can't do it all. We need you and we need our hired experts to stop the plan. Whether you can donate time or money, or both, we need you here and now.

NAIL Steering Committee