The agency that manages the Jackson Demonstration State Forest—CalFire—has released their draft plan for public input, for their intention to finalize a new Management Plan in early 2026.
You can find the draft Management Plan here: https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/natural-resource-management/demonstration-state-forests/jackson-demonstration-state-forest.
The list of public input meetings is below. You can submit comments in person or by email.
The draft plan is rife with problems.
CalFire did NOT put in place infrastructure to have tribal co-management so that tribes (whose ancestral land encompasses JDSF) could have an equal, meaningful seat at the table during the planning process.
CalFire is NOT complying with the state’s premier environmental review law, CEQA, and pareparing an Environmental Impact Report.
CalFire has NOT stopped proposing new logging plans during the planning process and has not addressed their outdated and problematic “mandate” for commercial logging in this coastal, maturing redwood forest.
Please submit public comments to this email address: JDSF@fire.ca.gov with “FMP public comment” in the subject line.
Suggested talking points are below, or you can compose your own, but it is important that CalFire hear from those who care about healthy forests, the importance of mature redwood forests as a defense against climate catastrophe, the necessity for CalFire to make good on their “commitment” to involve tribes whose ancestral homeland includes Jackson Forest, and other wildlife and forest health issues.
Talking Points you can use
- The “community outreach” and subsequent drafting of the new Forest Management Plan (FMP) is in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A full EIR is required for this new FMP.
The new plan will likely have significant impact on the environment—the threshold that triggers the need for a CEQA process. An EIR is essential because it requires CalFire to respond to comments and questions, and to analyze alternatives and mitigation options. An EIR ensures that government-to-government tribal consultation is embedded in the process. CalFire’s “community outreach” is a greenwash of the process. Their planning process must be called what it is: bogus and dishonest. - The last full EIR in 2007, was cited by CalFire and used for the 2016 FMP update, which means CalFire is relying on a nearly two decades-old environmental analysis for the management plan update.
The Board of Forestry (BoF) erroneously attempted to exempt itself from CEQA in a 2020 rule change to Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations. This rule change wrongly categorizes Forest Management Plans (FMP) as merely “information collection.” (Cal Code Regs. Title 14 § 1153(b)). We don’t want the FMP to merely collect information; we want the agency to recognize climate considerations, tribal involvement and realities of 2025 and institute restoration forestry, which means a significant change, which means following CEQA!
State Senator Mike McGuire and State Assemblymember Chris Rogers agree.See their Sept. 5, 2025 letter. - This process as put forth by CalFire is entirely backwards. A new Management Plan should not move forward until a robust structure for tribal co-governance agreements is in place.
AB 1284 encourages all Calif. Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) agencies to develop co-governance agreements with tribes and allows tribes to initiate government-to-government consultation regarding co-governance and ancestral land returns.
The CNRA Tribal Stewardship Toolkit is in the process of being finalized, as a guiding document for all co-governance and land returns in California. This should be used by CalFire, not preempted by CalFire.
The current Tribal Advisory Council established by CalFire is just that–advisory. The Tribes should be shown the true respect they deserve as sovereign nations–as equal governance partners with California on their traditional lands! - AB 52 government-to-government consultation and cultural landscape protections must be incorporated into the new Forest Management Plan. AB 52 was enacted in 2015 and has not been fully incorporated into the management of JDSF.
- We call on California to fund Native training programs and build institutional infrastructure in order build tribal capacity to realize the full scope of co-management.
- No timber harvest plans (THP)s should be approved until the new Management Plan is in place. And then, for fire management under indigenous leadership, for forest health, but not for commercial purposes.
- CalFire is attempting to move forward with the AMEX THP, and Camp 8 THP. Camp 8 proposes building roads in areas of JDSF that have never seen roads and destroy one of the last second growth/old growth mixed stands of redwoods in JDSF. These maturing trees are essential to counter catastrophic climate change.
PUBLIC MEETINGS:
Monday, November 3, 2025 — 5:00–7:00 PM*
Saturday Afternoon Clubhouse
107 S. Oak Street, Ukiah, CA
Monday, November 10, 2025 — 4:00–6:00 PM*
California Natural Resources Agency, Room TBA
715 P Street, Sacramento, CA
*Please note: Zoom attendance for in-person meetings is available, but for listening only.
Link for pre-meeting materials and registration is https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKmbEm1xiVU9kxB4YtYjgSsExZKt-EelA-Ms9seth2JpkYSQ/viewform
SHOW UP IF YOU CAN, OR SEND INPUT AND COMMENTS TO CALFIRE:
Please submit public comments to this email address: JDSF@fire.ca.gov with “FMP public comment” in the subject line.