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Draft Forest Plan Published
The Little Sur River Needs Your Help!
The Forest Service has published their Draft Land Management Plan and
Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Los Padres National
Forest and three other southern California forests. The final forest
plan, when it is issued, will guide management of the four forests for
the next decade and beyond. The complete text of the draft documents
is available for public comment at the USDA Forest Service forest plan
revision website (http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/scfpr).
The forest plan is a broad document that provides a framework for
future project-level management. It makes recommendations for land
use designations, special management areas, and wild and scenic river
designation. Some of these recommendations, including new wilderness
and wild and scenic river designations, would require an act of
Congress to implement.
The forest service's preferred action is to implement Alternative 4,
which emphasizes recreation. The strongest conservation option
considered was Alternative 6, based on a Conservation Alternative
submitted by a coalition of advocacy groups including the Ventana
Wilderness Alliance. Alternative 6 would set biological diversity and
the health of the ecosystem as primary goals, and manage other uses of
the forests to minimize negative impact on the environment.
On issues specific to the Monterey Ranger District, the draft forest
plan recommends Wild & Scenic River status for the Arroyo Seco River,
and against Wild and Scenic designation for the North Fork of the
Little Sur and San Antonio Rivers. The upper Carmel River and the
South Fork Little Sur, which had previously been considered eligible,
were not considered for suitability at this time. It also proposes a
9,948-acre Milpitas Special Interest Area (including the Indians) and
two Research Natural Areas, Ventana Cones and Valley Oaks (near the
Indians adjacent to Fort Hunter Liggett). These would join the
existing Cone Peak Gradient Research Natural Area and Alder Creek,
Lion Den Spring and Southern Redwoods Special Interest Areas. there
are no new recommendations for wilderness designation in the Monterey
Ranger District, though a number of wilderness additions are
recommended in other districts of the Los Padres National Forest.
The failure of the forest service to recommend the Little Sur River
for Wild and Scenic status is particularly disappointing. The Little
Sur has unique scenic, wildlife, geological and botanical values that
qualify it for designation. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement
issued with the draft forest plan documents find only the Dudley's
Lousewort as an Outstandingly Remarkable Value of the North Fork of
the Little Sur. Dudley's Lousewort is an uncommon riparian species of
which the largest known population, consisting of over half of the
estimated number of individual plants of the species in existence,
occurs on the Little Sur River. The Little Sur River is also the
premier habitat for the threatened Central Coast steelhead.
The headwaters of the Little Sur originate in the very heart of the
Ventana Wilderness, and drain the north slope of the Window, the
famous notch in the ridge near Ventana Double Cone from which the
entire wilderness derives its name ("Ventana" is Spanish for "window",
and legend has it that the Window was once topped by a rock arch).
The two forks of the Little Sur River straddle the massive limestone
mountain Pico Blanco, one of the most distinctive topographic and
geologic features on the Big Sur coast.
Action Items
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Thank the USFS for their recommendation for Wild & Scenic status for
the Arroyo Seco River. Urge them to recommend Wild designation for
the segment between Escondido Camp and the Horse Bridge.
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Urge the USFS to complete suitability studies and make
recommendations for all other eligible streams in the final forest
plans, as required by law, agency guidelines, and initial SoCal
Forests planning direction. These include the upper Carmel River and
Tassajara Creek.
-
Ask the USFS to study the eligibility of the other rivers that have
been nominated by the public and supported by the VWA, including
Willow Creek, the Nacimiento River, and San Carpoforo Creek.
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Support eligibility findings and designation recommendations for the
Little Sur River (both forks) and San Antonio River.
-
Support Alternative 6, which provides the strongest protection for
rivers and land designations.
The 90-day public comment period on the draft land management plan
began May 14 and runs through August 11. Comments may be made online
at http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/scfpr or by mail to:
Southern California Forest Plan Revisions
Los Padres National Forest
USDA Forest Service
Content Analysis Center
P.O. Box 22777
Salt Lake City, UT 84122
Sending a copy of your comments to the VWA helps us keep track of the
support from our membership. Send a copy by email to
kelsey@ventanawild.org or by mail to PO Box 506, Santa Cruz, CA 95061.
More information on the VWA's positions and comments on the forest
plan revision process may be found at
http://www.ventanawild.org/projects/forplan/.
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