Save the Doty Creek Old Growth Grove

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection 135 Ridgeway Avenue Santa Rosa, CA 95401

To CAL FIRE:

Please enter my comments to the administrative record for 1-08NTMP-009 MEN (the Bower NTMP).

I am writing as a citizen who is concerned about protecting the wildlife habitat that is provided by the remaining patches of Old Growth Forest (late-seral habitat) within the Gualala River Watershed.

The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has identified the last known 18 acres of Old Growth habitat (LSFS) in the Doty Creek Watershed. Large redwood trees are estimated to be at least 120 to 450 years old. Doty Creek drains into the Little North Fork of the Gualala River.

The Doty Creek Old Growth Grove provides suitable nesting and roosting sites for both marbled murrelets and spotted owls. It is a specialized habitat that many animals need to survive. This high quality late-seral refuge is located in a steep canyon behind the Gualala Airport, in Unit 9 of the Bower NTMP (Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan).

The Bower NTMP proposes cutting down most of the Old Growth redwood and other mature trees in Unit 9, along with harvesting the largest trees on approximately 600 acres of Gualala River Watershed forest.

The Forest Practices Act directs CAL FIRE to balance the landowner's desire to profit from timber harvest with the public's interest in "protecting soil, air, fish and wildlife, and water resources from unreasonable degradation."

I believe that removing the large old trees from the last remaining Old Growth habitat in the Doty Creek Watershed would result in "unreasonable degradation" of forest elements the Department of Fish and Game considers "irreplaceable features for wildlife habitat."

I support DFG recommendations to protect the Doty Creek Old Growth Grove. I request that CAL FIRE make the permanent protection of all DFG identified Old Growth habitat in Unit 9 an enforceable condition for approval of the Bower NTMP.

Respectfully Yours,
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