What does “sustainable forestry” mean? To get beyond abstractions, Coast & Ocean decided to visit the Salmon Creek Forest in Mendocino County, where the Conservation Fund is attempting some conscientious timber harvesting while restoring a 4,300-acre forest that has been damaged by years of commercial logging. The presence of spotted owls and other endangered species adds to the challenge.

Anne Canright went into the forest with owl biologist Mike Stephens, while Eileen Ecklund was to watch a timber harvest. But nature intervened. A few nights before she headed out, lightning sparked over 2,000 fires in parched northern and central California and set trees and brush aflame in the Salmon Creek Forest. The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was overwhelmed, so the people in rural Mendocino County had to do much of the firefighting themselves. Eileen’s report is “Living With Fire.”

Outside the region, most of the northern California fires were barely noticed--except for their smoke, which caused eyes to burn and voices to turn hoarse as far away as the San Francisco Bay Area. The media spotlight fell on Big Sur, Paradise, and later on the Yosemite area, where many homes were threatened.

Coming at the beginning of the summer fire season, in this time of global warming and diminishing water supplies, this huge outburst of wildfires invites reflection. Fire is a natural phenomenon that can actually benefit healthy, intact forests--forests such as the Conservation Fund and others are hoping to restore and sustain. It’s humans who make fires into disasters.

The concept of sustainable forestry is gaining ground around the United States. The Conservation Fund is by no means alone in attempting it. In the West, the Pacific Forest Trust manages 50,000 acres in California, Oregon, and Washington, and works with landowners to help them move toward sustainable practices. The Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc., recently bought 50,000 acres of forest north of Fort Bragg to restore and harvest sustainably. On July 30, the Mendocino Redwood Company took legal possession of 210,000 acres of Pacific Lumber’s Humboldt County lands after that company went bankrupt. Mendocino Redwood, which already owns almost 229,000 acres of forestland in northern California, is also committed to proving that we can have healthy forests and timber, too.