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b'April 20, 2022 \\u2014 Attendance was low at the first hybrid in-person zoom Board of Supervisors meeting in two years yesterday. \\nAfter public comment, which ranged from unresolved issues in the cannabis department to dissatisfaction with the covid response, the Board received an update from state officials on the scientific review of Jackson Demonstration State Forest, which the Board requested last year. \\nAt the close of the presentation, the board voted unanimously to request representation on the Jackson Advisory Group, or JAG, though it hasn\\u2019t been determined if that means an appointed representative or a supervisorial liaison. The JAG advises CalFire and the Board of Forestry on the management of JDSF. Last month, two new members joined the group. Reno Franklin is the chairman of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians in Sonoma County, and has served on the National Indian Health Board and is a member of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.\\nJoanna Nelson, the director of science and conservation for the Save the Redwoods League, joined the JAG with the intent of advising \\u201con the development of improved, science-based restoration management practices,\\u201d according to an announcement by the conservation group.\\nThere was no written material accompanying the presentation by Deputy Director of California Natural Resources Jessica Morse and Demonstration Forest Manager Kevin Conway, of CalFire. \\nMorse spoke about who will be involved in the scientific review. Dr. Elizabeth Forsberg, who is a PhD scientist with the Nature Conservancy, was appointed to the Board of Forestry in September. She will be running the management sub-committee of the Board of Forestry. \\u201cAs to this board\\u2019s request specifically around reviewing the science, the forest and wildfire resilience task force at the state has a science advisory panel made up by PhD forest scientists from the UC\\u2019s and other institutions, and we\\u2019ve asked them to do a scientific review of the Jackson,\\u201d Morse said. \\u201cThat study is underway right now, and they\\u2019ll be reporting back to us in the coming months.\\u201d \\nMarie Jones, a member of the Mendocino County Climate Action Advisory Committee and a county planning commissioner, wanted more detail. \\u201cI would love to actually see what the proposal is for the scientific study of JDSF,\\u201d she said. \\u201cIt sounds a little haphazard, and like the advisory group will actually be doing some of the work. Is it possible to provide us with an outline of the proposed study so that we can look at it and be sure that our issues will actually be looked at?\\u201d\\nMorse reminded supervisors that the board of forestry voted last year to review the JDSF management plan with an eye toward tribal co-management. But David Martinez, a longtime activist with Winnemem Wintu heritage, said he hasn\\u2019t seen evidence of it yet. \\u201cI\\u2019ve been out into the forest many times, especially in the Caspar 500 and Soda Gulch,\\u201d he said. \\u201cWhat I see is the road building and the destruction of sacred sites, cultural properties, and I see the proposed destruction of cultural gathering zones. And it\\u2019s all been approved and okayed. It is not okay to destroy the historical properties of the Pomo people. And the Yuki peoples. Everything in their management plan says they can do these things because it is necessary for forest product production. This has to change,\\u201d he insisted.\\nThat might be possible, with a different funding stream. Morse said this year there is a $10 million budget for the demonstration forests, \\u201cso that there\\u2019s not any pressure to be able to harvest trees. We\\u2019ve asked for additional funding in this year\\u2019s current budget before the legislature so that these demonstration forests can just have a steady income, so that their costs are covered and that they can be these world-class forests that we need them to be.\\u201d She added that, \\u201cThere are some studies happening on carbon sequestration and climate resilience that these new investments are going to be focused on.\\u201d\\nConway said Calfire plans to use some of the money for a fuels reduction project on road 408-409 near the Caspar scales; improve trail signage; and conduct fire resiliency work, like completing a long-planned fuel break along Three Chop Ridge, and re-introducing prescribed fire to the forest. \\u201cWe\\u2019re also going to be engaging with some scientists to try to answer some of the questions that the community has about our forest management and climate change,\\u201d he said. He also reported on CalFire\\u2019s efforts to engage the community, including the activists who have brought the logging to a standstill. \\u201cWe have not entered into any timber sales in 2022, in order to give us an opportunity to give a public tour of the sales prior to going out,\\u201d he said. \\u201cWe have also been slowing down our submittal of new plans\\u2026we had three members of your climate action advisory committee come out and look at the forest. We\\u2019ve done five community tours.\\u201d\\nBut Jones remained dubious about what she called the mission of the forest. She said that, \\u201cThe climate action committee was taken on tour of the site by the Mendocino Redwood Company,\\u201d a prominent lumber company in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. \\u201cThe fact that CalFire notes this as a project that they did illustrates to me the lack of separation of the forest industry and CalFire\\u2019s management of JDSF. A lot of the talk this morning was about, seems like CalFire thinks there\\u2019s a problem in communication. And I don\\u2019t really think that\\u2019s the problem. I think the problem is much more fundamental than that. And it\\u2019s the mission and the role of this publicly owned property that composes 50,000 acres in our county, and the value that it can provide in terms of addressing climate change, providing jobs in the tourism and recreation industry. And those things are negatively impacted by the relentless focus on cutting down trees.\\u201d'