9/10/2012
Employees with Humboldt County's public works department are utilizing a $17,000 grant to start formulating a plan to manage parts of the McKay Tract near Cutten as a community forest.
The Trust for Public Land -- a nonprofit conservation organization -- is providing the grant, which was approved Aug. 28 by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. The grant will fund the first phase of examining the feasibility of having the county oversee a community forest operation.
Public Works Deputy Director Hank Seemann said the grant will help the county start making more detailed preparations to look at trail opportunities and timber harvesting procedures on the property.
”That's actually already started, and we'll be continuing to do that,” Seemann said.
He said the county will have to determine how to make the management of the forest a cost neutral venture that doesn't dip into the county's general fund -- or at least doesn't dip in too much.
”The board of supervisors will want to see a pretty robust financial plan,” Seemann said.
Since 2010, the trust has been working to purchase up to 1,225 acres in the Ryan Creek Watershed from the Green Diamond Resource Company -- a forest products company that owns and manages forests in California and Washington -- to create the community forest. The trust still needs to raise funds to acquire the property, and doesn't anticipate purchasing it until sometime in 2013.
Since the sale of the property is still tentative, Seemann said the forest concept is going to take some time to develop.
”Best case, this could unfold over the next two to four years,” Seemann said. “It's going to be a journey of a thousand steps.”
North Coast Program Manager John Bernstein said the trust is looking at purchasing 640 acres to 1,225 acres to create the community forest -- an anticipated cost of $8.1 million. The entire cost of implementing the community forest is expected to cost $12 million to $13 million, he said. The plan is use federal, state and donated funds.
”Over the years, we've become one of the go-to nonprofits to put together all these many different pots of public funding,” Bernstein said. “It really takes a long time to get this money together.”
Seemann said the county plans to apply for a Headwaters Fund grant to cover the remaining costs of drafting a complete community forest management plan. He said the full plan is anticipated to cost about $125,000, so the county would be applying for a $108,000 grant to supplement the trust's starting grant of $17,000. The Headwaters Fund was created by the county to utilize $22 million in state and federal funds given to offset the sale of the Headwaters Forest Reserve.
While the trust hopes to acquire 1,225 acres for a community forest, the Green Diamond Resource Company owns a total of about 7,500 acres in the Ryan Creek Watershed. Bernstein said the trust wants to have the remaining land protected by a conservation easement.
