WHEN GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM issued a directive to all state agencies in 2020 to give First Nations an equal role in the management of their ancestral lands, it was heralded as a turning point in California history.
Four years later, meetings involving Cal Fire and unnamed tribes are being viewed as a sign co-management is finally being implemented in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) in Mendocino County. The county is the first in the state to bring native tribes into the management process for a state forest.
Kevin Conway, the head of the state’s demonstration forest program, said the unique effort now underway could become a model for the other 13 demonstration forests Conway oversees, which are scattered all over California.
But it hasn’t been an easy process so far — in part because of Native Tribes’ historically rooted distrust of government promises and in part because of the ongoing struggle between logging interests and environmental concerns. And much about the process, including the specifics of tribal involvement, is so far not being made public. The JDSF has been the center of environmental activism, far more than the other 13 forests, Conway said.
For half of the 21st century to date, environmental protests and lawsuits have shut down the JDSF to logging. The first time that happened, the California Board of Forestry compromised with environmentalists by creating an advisory group that reviews Timber Harvest Plans (THPs). This group called the Jackson Advisory Group, or in common terms, the JAG, also allows for public input. But many environmentalists feel the JAG acts as a rubber stamp for state-approved logging plans.
In 2020, large protests in the forest blocked logging, with tree-sitters, people chained to gates and other actions that caused Cal Fire to terminate a harvest called the Caspar 500 THP. With commercial logging still blocked, Cal Fire implemented numerous compromise plans they hoped would allay environmental fears while allowing logging to resume operations with the public input. One key effort was for Cal Fire to follow the governors’ directive for co-management. But that proved easier to decree than actually to do, and co-management became as hot an issue as the questions about fire management.
Strictly confidential
A key part of the problem, all sides admit, is that tribes are resistant to cooperating with Washington or Sacramento because of a horrific history, especially in Mendocino County. One example is that five acres used by Natives are all that remain of what was once a 25,000 acre Mendocino Indian Reservation, comprising much of Fort Bragg.
But with the future of cash flow to the JDSF and its mission to study logging scientifically at stake, Conway and Brandon Gunn, the head of the Calf Fire Mendocino Unit, set out to get local tribes involved. They sent letters to 19 local tribes, and after months of discussion,Conway announced last fall that an official co-management process was underway.
But he said the tribes had one condition: confidentiality.
“Which tribes?” critics asked in public meetings repeatedly.
Conway said that was confidential.
“How many?” Again that was confidential.
“What is being talked about?” Can’t say, replied Conway.
Critics, including a half dozen indigenous people, doubted the Tribal Advisory Council even existed since everybody was being asked to accept all this on faith.
Some have accused Cal Fire of creating the council simply to meet Cal Fire’s stated goal of getting back to cutting trees (and getting logging revenue flowing again).
But Conway insists that the co-management process, opaque as it is, is bearing fruit. He said the effort in Mendocino County is unlike any other and has broad implications for the state.
“The relationships we are developing with local tribes at Jackson are showing us how we might advance similar goals on other Demonstration State Forests,” he said. “None have as many tribes that identify our Demonstration State Forests as ancestral territory.”
Feeling left out of the process
Edwina Lincoln, a Yuki elder and enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Reservation in Covelo, was stunned when she came to a JAG meeting in September 2023 and heard this process was underway. The seven tribes who live together in Round Valley are among the most important First Nations in Mendocino County, and she believed Round Valley’s people were not involved and had not been given a chance to give input.
Lincoln has asked repeatedly for the state to produce a guidance document from the governor, or a memo of understanding that the state should have as a public record, if such a process is truly underway. No such documents have been produced.
Critics including Lincoln and others say they do not believe the council, whoever they are, can represent all tribal interests while operating in private and communicating only through Conway.
To date, no one has publicly defined precisely what gets managed under co-management but it is widely understood to mean all uses of the forest, including logging, restoration and public access.
Nor is it clear whether participation in forest management provides tangible benefits for tribes. One prong of Newsom’s 2020 directive was “land back,” under which state agencies would return to tribes some of the land with ancestral claims. But in Jackson, no one in a position of authority has mentioned any land return.
“Co-management is not happening,” said Lincoln in an interview.
“We have been asking for backup paperwork and there has been none. Why can’t they tell us how they think this is supposed to work? Why don’t they have a letter of support that is a public document?” said Lincoln.
“We have been asking for backup paperwork and there has been none. Why can’t they tell us how they think this is supposed to work? Why don’t they have a letter of support that is a public document?”
Edwina Lincoln, a Yuki elder and enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Reservation
But despite the secrecy and despite skepticism from Lincoln and the Coalition to Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest, clues are emerging that suggest co-management is actually taking shape.
The public found out more about the Tribal Advisory Council than ever before at a July 19 day-long meeting of the JAG that was conducted entirely in the redwood forest. There, Conway revealed the number of tribes represented on the council and said the fifth tribe had joined recently.
Pulling back the curtain
Amy Wynn, the new chair of the Jackson Advisory Group, said the JAG had also previously been in the dark about the Tribal Advisory Council.
But Wynn finally saw behind the curtain and met and talked with Tribal Advisory Council members when Terry O’Brien, the new chair of the California Board of Forestry, decided to tour the Jackson demonstration forest with fellow board member and Tribal forestry specialist Dawn Blake-McQuillen of Hoopa in Humboldt County, among others. The tour looked at sites where prescribed fire had been used, wildfires had happened and logging was at various stages.
Wynn noted after the tour that tribal council members still wanted to limit public scrutiny.
“They (tribal council members) have been very clear and consistent in saying that they would like to remain anonymous, and their actions confidential. I don’t know how long that’s going to go on. It might be forever,” Wynn said.
But, without revealing specifics, Wynn said she liked what she saw and added that she has confidence now that real progress is being made.
“Within that specific Tribal Advisory Council working with JDSF staff, they appear to be engaging in open, transparent dialogue,” Wynn said. “I believe this is giving them really safe space to do that and work through some very tough questions.
“During that day, we were able to get to know each other, and for me it’s very affirming that the relationship being built is new and it’s growing,” Wynn said.
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