San Jose Water Co. logging plan denied by California Forestry

Map of proposed San Jose Water land ownership - logging area

High-tech effort blocks San Jose Water Co.'s logging plan

By Paul Rogers
Mercury News

Article Launched: 09/29/2007 01:38:15 AM PDT

A plan by the San Jose Water Co. to log 1,000 acres along Highway 17 has capsized, overcome by neighbors armed with high-tech cameras, mapping software and other Silicon Valley tools.

The plan, which over the past two years became the most contentious logging battle in Santa Clara County history, failed to win the approval of officials from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Details were not available Friday evening because the agency had not yet released its official action letter.

But neighbors opposing the plan said Rich Sampson, a top official in the forestry agency's Felton office, confirmed to them Friday over the phone that his agency turned down the project. Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Los Altos, released a letter saying the plan "has been denied" and noting his "desire to see the area preserved as open space."

While other logging battles feature environmentalists sitting in trees, this one featured Silicon Valley computer programmers sitting at their monitors, studying every acre of the plan. The tech-savvy opponents used Google Earth and other tools to rally support, even drawing former Vice President Al Gore to their cause last year.

The investor-owned water company, which provides drinking water to 1 million people, said it wants to log to reduce fire risk on 1,002 acres of watershed lands it owns between Lexington Reservoir and Summit Road. The area has not been logged in a century.

John Tang, a spokesman for San Jose Water, said Friday that the company may file an appeal to the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. He also said it has not ruled out reworking logging plans and returning with a new proposal.

"We are very surprised and disappointed by the decision. We thought we were on the right track," Tang said.

Tang noted that under the plan, the area would have been divided into nine units, each about 100 acres. Redwood and Douglas fir trees in each unit would be logged once every 18 years, starting with the lands nearest Summit Road.

Opponents argued that the logging actually would increase fire risk because the water company and its contractor, Big Creek Lumber of Davenport, planned to remove too many large trees. They also claimed it increased landslide risks, and that the logging operation would disrupt their homes in small mountain communities such as Chemeketa Park and Aldercroft Heights.

"This was a bad idea," said Kevin Flynn, a Cisco Systems manager who lives in Chemeketa Park along Highway 17. "It never should have gotten this far."

The key issue was acreage. San Jose Water applied to the state for a "non-industrial timber management plan" that would have allowed logging

on an ongoing basis over a 15-year period.

State law sets 2,500 acres as the maximum amount of forest land containing commercially viable trees that any landowner can own while remaining eligible for that kind of logging permit.

San Jose Water claimed there were 2,002 acres of commercially viable trees over the 6,000 or so acres it owns in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

But opponents said there were 2,754 acres - 254 too many.

The opponents enlisted the help of Kenneth Adelman, a Santa Cruz County resident who made millions when he founded TGV Software in the 1980s and later sold it to Cisco Systems. Adelman owns a helicopter and, in 2002, gained national attention when he flew along the California coast, taking more than 12,000 digital photos. Barbra Streisand sued him for invasion of privacy when her home turned up in his photo set, but he won the case.

Last year, Adelman flew Google engineer Rebecca Moore, a Summit Road-area resident who opposed the plan, above the San Jose Water property. They took more than 700 photos, which she then merged with Google Earth software.

Adelia Barber, a doctoral student in ecology at the University of California-Santa Cruz, then analyzed each photo, circling areas of redwoods and Douglas fir trees so the software could measure the exact area of each. At a minimum, the company has 2,754 acres of commercial timber, she concluded, but it could have as many as 3,428 acres if surrounding areas where small saplings could grow are included.

State forestry officials agreed with Barber.

But Tang noted the water company could sell some of its lands to get the forested total under 2,500 acres, making it eligible again for the ongoing permit.

"We haven't ruled out anything at this point," he said. "We remain committed to protecting the environment, reducing the fire hazard and protecting the water supply."