In California, clearcutting is no longer generally practiced on US Forest Service (public) lands due to the negative impacts on forest resources and wildlife habitat. However, California forestry laws and rules still allow clearcutting on private lands. A growing number of counties are attempting to update county forestry rules to restrict or prohibit clearcutting within their jurisdiction. In recent years, Marin, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties have petitioned the CA Board of Forestry for better county forestry rules.
The two largest timber companies in California – Sierra Pacific Industries and Green Diamond Resource Company – collectively own nearly 2.1 million acres of California’s forestlands. Though some of these companies’ timberlands are managed to certifiable sustainability standards, they routinely clearcut significant portions of their forests to maximize profits.
Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is a privately owned company and is the single largest landowner in California with 1.7 million acres, largely in the Sierra Nevada but also in coastal redwood forests – more than half of the industrial timber industry’s 2,982,000 acres in California. SPI started to conduct widespread clearcutting around 2000 and is well underway to clearcut and convert approximately 1.2 million acres from natural forests into tree plantations. SPI states that it adheres to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® SFI® Standard, but this an industry-created program and is not considered by most environmental groups to be adequate, compared to the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification program, an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.
Green Diamond owns over 400,000 acres of forested lands on the north coast of California in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. These private lands surround Redwood National and State Parks, the Yurok Reservation, and the communities around Humboldt Bay, Trinidad, Klamath and Crescent City. In California, some of Green Diamond Resource Company lands have achieved either SFI certification or FSC certification, but they continue to use extensive clearcutting.
Roseburg Resources Company owns approximately 650,000 acres in Western Oregon and Northern California, including Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou and Trinity counties. Roseburg has identified 172,000 acres in Northern California as FSC-certified.
Non-industrial private landowners collectively hold another 4,455,000 acres of timberland.
You can search for FSC certification for individuals and private timber companies at the FSC website.