Tomales Bay forest management project clears hurdle

California State Parks has approved a controversial 10-year project that involves prescribed burns and the use of masticators and herbicides in the Tomales Bay forest.

A project analysis shows that the work described is consistent with the public works plan for the state park that received unanimous approval from the California Coastal Commission in April.

The new project analysis was submitted to the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection on July 8. The move signals that state parks officials are gearing up to seek clearance from the Coastal Commission to start work.

Although the commission already approved the public works plan, state parks staffers need project-specific approval at a public hearing before any pile burning, brush clearing or tree cutting can begin.

Cyndy Shafer, a natural resources program manager with the state parks department, said staffers aim to bring the project to the commission for a public hearing this fall.

“The purpose of the project is to sustain and enhance the bishop pine forest and other unique habitats of the park into the future through active restoration work,” Shafer said.

The proposed project will involve ecological restoration work on up to 1,590 acres within the Tomales Bay State Park.

State parks officials did not have to perform a project environmental impact report, or EIR, because the anticipated effects to wildlife and nature have already been covered in an analysis of the state’s vegetation treatment program, approved in 2019.

Instead, the project-specific analysis includes an addendum to that program EIR to demonstrate that the project will not create any disturbances that haven’t already been accounted for.

Park officials said that the lack of fire, both from natural events such as lightning strikes and from past prescribed burns by the Coast Miwok, has created unhealthy forests in the parkland bordering Tomales Bay.

Specifically, park officials said they are concerned about the potential loss of bishop pine and hardwood forests that require fires to regenerate and are now threatened by disease, pests and drought that have been exacerbated by climate change.

Much of the work will occur on the western side of the bay, which is mostly forested, though some work will take place on the eastern side, which consists more of grasslands.

The project has drawn mass criticism from environmentalists and animal rights groups who argued that the projects described are too aggressive for the sensitive habitat.

Jack Gescheidt, a San Rafael resident and consultant for the nonprofit In Defense of Animals, has been a staunch opponent.

“CalParks cutting down hundreds of trees, both living and dead, and shredding thousands of shrubs with masticating machines will only damage forest health, and increase wildfire danger,” he said in an email. “Industrial deforestation projects like this one, complete with gallons of herbicides, are the problem, never a solution.

Gescheidt said creating defensible space around hardened homes is the most wildfire protection, and that this is a logging project disguised as forest management.

On the other hand, members of the Marin Conservation League have been supportive of the project.

Nona Dennis, president of the organization, said the project-specific analysis “spells out the need for judicious management to ensure that the mosaic of iconic bishop pine forest, hardwoods and grasslands we associate with the park is restored to a healthy condition to persist into the future.”

When the Coastal Commission approved the public works plan, it added stronger protections of tribal cultural resources. Specifically it required that state park staffers consult with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria on project design and implementation.

Dennis said that is key.

“We are heartened that beneficial fire may be used as one of the treatment tools and that cultural (Indigenous) knowledge will be incorporated into the program,” Dennis said in an email.

More information and project updates are posted at bit.ly/3TVda46.