One company: Achieving economic and conservation goals within a complex regulatory regime
The Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) asked us to help develop a long-range strategy for complying with the myriad state and federal laws that apply to commercial timber harvest on its 350 square miles of forests in Mendocino County and Sonoma County. Such a strategy will be essential if MRC is to succeed in achieving its bold vision for sustainable forest management.
The complexity and inconsistency of environmental laws and regulations can often limit their effectiveness in protecting natural resources and impose unnecessary burdens on economic activity. This is especially true for companies that embrace sustainable forestry, which requires long-range forest management planning that spans enough time to allow a forest to grow. The critical obstacle for MRC: California's commercial timber harvests are typically regulated by three-year plans that cover only a few hundred acres.
MRC's vision was to develop an eighty-year forest management plan for more than 225,000 acres that would restore a redwood and Douglas-fir forest and introduce a new approach to commercial forestry using selective timber harvest.
- We helped MRC develop a comprehensive, long-term compliance strategy to address the requirements of state and federal law.
- We are helping MRC develop a first-of-its-kind Habitat Conservation Plan and Natural Community Conservation Plan to meet the requirements of the federal Endangered Species Act, the California Endangered Species Act, and the Natural Community Conservation Planning Act. The Plan will also provide the framework for compliance with the California Forest Practice Act, and numerous other state and federal environmental laws.
- We are working with key state and federal officials to gain support for MRC's ambitious effort, and to develop new compliance strategies and tools for sustainable forestry.
From the time it was first established in 1998, MRC has operated with the goal of demonstrating that it is possible to restore industrial forestlands as part of a viable business plan. With a long-range regulatory compliance strategy and a long-range conservation plan to implement it, MRC can succeed in achieving that goal.
For more information about the Mendocino Redwood Company, please visit www.mrc.com.