Editorial: Tomales Bay State Park forest management plan is worthwhile
State experts also need to carefully monitor the work. Science should continue to guide the plan’s progress.
The California Coastal Commission’s endorsement of the forest restoration and fire prevention plan for Tomales Bay State Park serves as a sign that science and safety are the foundation of the important initiative.
The work can’t happen soon enough, says Commissioner Katie Rice, a Marin County supervisor who knows the turf and says the task is needed to restore the bayside forest’s environmental health.
She’s right. Disease, pests and drought have taken a toll, all compounded by climate change. Add to that the absence of large fires, thanks to modern firefighting. Those fires, whether started by lightning strikes or as prescribed burns begun by native tribes, have environmental benefits of nature’s regenerative powers and preventing areas from becoming overgrown.
Today’s firefighting crews and limited use of controlled burns have essentially altered that ecological process.
The overall goal of the plan is to thin the forest to make the landscape healthier for bishop pines and hardwood trees and to reduce the danger of a catastrophic wildfire that would endanger neighboring properties.
Still, the plan has generated considerable controversy, including from the activist group In Defense of Animals, which labeled the plan “a destructive deforestation project.”
But the commission followed the recommendation of the experts the agency and state park have on staff.
In addition, the Marin Conservation League, hardly a lightweight when it comes to protecting the local environment, supports the plan, saying the 10-year process detailed in the proposal, “preserves and enhances biodiversity and ecological functions.”
That is an important local endorsement from an environmental watchdog that would not back “a destructive deforestation project.”
The carefully planned work that will stretch over a decade will hardly be a clear-cutting for the forest and the timing should afford protection for the wildlife that call the forest their home.
The 1995 Vision Fire, the 12,354-acre wildland fire that destroyed 45 homes nearby, offered a lesson on the importance of keeping forests healthy. Layers of built-up duff helped the fire spread across heavily forested landscape.
Over the years, state parks have implemented similar programs. While not stretched and measured across a decade, the state removed thousands of eucalyptus trees that were blanketing much of Angel Island in order to restore the grasslands that covered the island before humans planted the trees.
At Tomales Bay State Park, the state has the opportunity to create a model that restores and enhances the native natural environment of the forest while also affording a common-sense level of protection against wildfires.
That the state has made Tomales Bay State Park a priority speaks volumes regarding the environmental need and the public safety goal.
Timing will be important, as will keeping a protective watch over work that’s underway and its effect on flora and fauna.
Critics of the state’s plan likely will keep a keen eye on the work.
They should.
State experts also need to carefully monitor the work. Science should continue to guide the plan’s progress.
The commission’s approval is important and serves as a government checks-and-balance on the state parks’ plan and its environmental objectives.