Board OKs Temporary Rules to Limit N. California Logging

State forestry officials seeking compromise unanimously approved six-month rules Wednesday to limit tree cutting near Northern California’s rivers and streams.

The State Board of Forestry’s action drew mixed reviews from loggers and a quick hit from environmentalists.

The board said it will develop permanent rules to take effect in 2001 and will base them on an exhaustive examination of logging’s impact on fish and wildlife in fragile watersheds--something that loggers, fishing interests, scientists and environmentalists all recommend.

“This is not the last word in deciding this issue,” said Louis Blumberg, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry.

The rules are part of the elaborate system of regulations, enforced by the department, governing tree cutting on millions of acres of private forests. Their most significant provisions appeared weaker than the proposal that had been before the board for weeks and that resulted in protests by loggers and environmentalists.

Originally, the rules sought logging limits near virtually all types of streams--those with fish, those with aquatic life other than fish and those that are seasonal.

The new rules focus only on the fish-bearing, or Class I, streams. The rules require loggers to leave at least 85% of the forest canopy within 75 feet of the stream, and at least two-thirds of the canopy within the next 75 feet.

Environmentalists say the canopy protection is not consistent, requiring only a fourth of the cover to come from tall pines and other conifers--which provide more shade over a longer reach than smaller trees.

And loggers contend that the limits represent a severe financial hardship on tree cutters. The canopy zones are measured from the water’s edge, but that edge changes regularly.