Coho Project Partner Awarded Coveted Timber Management Status

Coho Project Partner Awarded Coveted Timber Management Status

Mendocino Redwood Co. receives "sustainable" status in part for its work with TU restoring degraded coho salmon habitat on private timber lands

Contact:

11/20/2000 --  --  Contact:
Steve Trafton, California Policy Coordinator, Trout Unlimited: 510-528-4772
Alan Moore, Western Communications Coordinator, Trout Unlimited: 503-827-5700 x. 10

November 17, 2000. Albany, Calif.…Trout Unlimited is proud to announce that Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) of Calpella, Calif., one of TU's primary conservation partners in California, was this week awarded "sustainability" status by the independent Forest Stewardship Council. The "sustainability" designation, earned after meeting stringent standards on wildlife and fisheries habitat protection, allows MRC products to carry a special label preferred by a number of large retailers.

TU and MRC have been partners on the landmark North Coast Coho Project since near the time the company formed in 1998. The project allows large-scale restoration to take place on entire watersheds within MRC-owned timberlands. Decades of logging by previous owners and networks of hastily constructed access roads and clear cuts have left streamside and upslope habitat near streams unstable and the source of dumping sediment into streams. Those streams were historically abundant fisheries for coho salmon. Sediment can devastate salmon by clogging gravel spawning areas, rendering reproduction nearly impossible.

Work was recently completed in one such watershed -- the South Fork of the Garcia River -- using heavy equipment to stabilize banks, decommission some roads and improve fish habitat and passage. MRC is only allowing full access to its land holdings well as its data collections regarding those lands, and will use its employees and equipment to complete the restoration work. Further, MRC is kicking in $100,000 for the project.

"TU couldn't be more pleased with the work we've done in recent years with Mendocino Redwood in getting the North Coast Coho Project up and running," said Steve Trafton, TU's California Policy Coordinator. "It's great to see the type of commitment to resource conservation that MRC has demonstrated recognized and rewarded."

The North Coast Coho Project would not be possible without the contributions of other major funders, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the California Department of Fish and Game, the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, and Trout Unlimited.

Trout Unlimited is the nation's leading coldwater conservation organization with125,000 members, including 10,000 members in California, and 500 chapters nationwide working to conserve, protect and restore trout and salmon watersheds throughout North America.

Date: 11/20/2000