Timber Harvest at Sheephouse Creek

Sheephouse Creek Watershed Area
Past, Present, and Proposed Timber Harvest

Sheephouse Creek Boundry Map

Another precious watershed is is danger of losing the very forest that keeps it healthy. Please learn about this Timber Harvest Plan and what you can do to influence the outcome. www.ncriverwatch.org

A petition of concern for logging in this watershed is being circulated on behalf of Sheephouse Creek watershed, a Coho and Steelhead spawning creek. You can print out the petition, sign it, and get some other signatures or just send it in. The address for doing this is at the bottom of the petition. You can also download the petition at
http://www.arrowflight.com/pdfs/sheephousepetition.pdf

Sheephouse Creek (near Duncans Mills in Sonoma County) is important for its watershed values near the coastal zone as well as an important salmon spawning and rearing area. In addition, there is a current Coho captive broodstock program overseen by the Department of fish and Game.

A Non-industrial Management Plan (NTMP) for logging of 331 acres and a THP for logging of 81 acres have been filed with CDF (now known as CalFire). Together these plans total 442 acres or 20% of the watershed acreage. If allowed to cut as proposed, these plans together with already approved plans Within the last ten years amount to almost half of the forests in the Sheephouse watershed, creating potential cumulative impacts. Unfortunately, CalFire only does a THP by THP analysis and no real analysis on the broader cumulative impacts within the watershed.


Sheephouse Creek is in danger of being adversely impacted causing, in part, the demise of one of the last few remaining coho streams in Northern California. Currently, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is conducting a Coho Salmon Impact Evaluation for Sheephouse Creek. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has declined to review the plan but sent a letter to Cal Fire stating the critical importance of this habitat area for Coho. It must be pointed out that Cal Fire is the lead agency on approving these plans and has a history of ignoring the professional opinions of other agencies.

Below are links to each logging plan for more information. Also see Activist Corner for discussion on what some activists are doing and to get more information to send comments on the plans.

Letters of concern go to:
CDF c/o 135 Ridgeway Avenue,
Santa Rosa, CA. 95402
or at santarosapubliccomment@fire.ca.gov

For the Non-Industrial Management Plan, 1-08-NTMP-004SON, go to:
ftp://thp.fire.ca.gov/THPLibrary/North_Coast_Region/NTMPs2008/1-08NTMP-004SON

For the Timber Harvest Plan, 1-08-025SON, go to:
ftp://thp.fire.ca.gov/THPLibrary/North_Coast_Region/THPs2008/1-08-025SON