Supervisors pick bones with feds

USFS cutback plan stirs up controversy

A U.S. Forest Service proposal to reduce staffing across 1 million acres of federal land ruffled feathers at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting.

In response to the ongoing federal budget crisis, Six Rivers National Forest plans to scale back on personnel, primarily by consolidating the middle three of its five districts under one deputy district ranger.

No one will be fired, but vacancies won’t be filled, Forest Supervisor Tyrone Kelley said in his report on the draft proposal, which could be implemented by late spring. Smith River National Recreation Area would not be affected, nor will fire management, travel management or timber harvests, he said.

“If you are having to reduce your staff in order to meet a budget crisis, if you were to add more land and had to take care of more property you would need more personnel,” Hemmingsen said.

Kelley disagreed, saying it’s not a one-to-one correlation, but a matter of “efficiencies that are not strictly restricted by the budget.”

He mentioned that, budget-permitting, the Forest Service in fact is considering buying additional parcels in Del Norte County.

“That is something that’s back on our plate,” he said.

Some supervisors, Hemmingsen included, have long chafed at the amount of land in Del Norte County that is controlled by the state and federal governments.

The Forest Service also came under fire regarding Red Mountain, a sacred site to the Yurok Tribe located seven miles east of Klamath, which has communication towers vital to emergency services in this region, including CalFire and dispatches that go through the Sheriff’s Office.

The forest’s 30-year plan includes tending to these towers until 2022, though no improvements have been made in recent years. The plan also calls for the Forest Service to eventually eliminate its responsibility by either moving the towers or divesting of them, Kelley said.

A recent meeting in Del Norte convened by the state Department of General Services called attention to the need for upgrades on Red Mountain in the next decade.

The area is not considered a telecommunications site in the forest plan due to an archaeological report designating the area as part of the Helkau Ceremonial District, forest spokeswoman Julie Ranieri told the Triplicate Wednesday.

Some supervisors were irked that forest officials have been meeting with Yurok tribe officials about the issue without including a litany of local, state, and federal groups with a stake, including: the Del Norte Sheriff’s Office, CalFire, the California Highway Patrol, CalEMA, Caltrans, California Department of Water Resources, California Department of State Parks, California Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the California Department of General Services.

“It still needs some sort of upgrades to make it for the next 10 or 11 years and that needs to be done and it needs to be done by the Forest Service,” Supervisor David Finigan said. “To have that responsibility passed off and hear you are talking to a local tribe is unacceptable.”

“That you are handing that off and not taking responsibility on your end is pretty disappointing,” Hemmingsen put in.

 “We have not handed it off,” Kelley replied. “It is public land. Amending the plan is hard for a historical district and a historical place. My position is that I would really like to see it stay and work with the tribe.”

For now, if the state wants to lead the way with improvements, it must stay within the existing footprint of the site.

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