{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"JDSF trees cleared from power lines sold to PG&E","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":387,"description":"May 13, 2022 — PG&E has been removing trees and other vegetation from around its transmission line that runs alongside Highway 20 between Willits and Fort Bragg, including 115 acres of land belonging to the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, which is managed by CalFire. The work began last summer, and is about halfway done.\r\nCalFire sold a little over a million board feet of merchantable redwood and mixed conifer logs to PG&E, which then sold the logs to Mendocino and Humboldt Redwood Company, in a contract that was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. \r\nWalter Smith is a landowner in Willits who has objected vigorously to PG&E’s plans to cut down trees on his property. “I think it’s a double standard,” he said, of the fact that PG&E does not buy most of the trees that it removes from most landowner’s private property. “On the other hand, would it create more of an incentive to cut more trees if landowners were being paid for them?”\r\nDeanna Contreras, with PG&E, said the utility is paying a stumpage fee to JDSF, which the company does occasionally when removing trees from large parcels of public lands where it is possible to harvest the trees in a way that is acceptable to sawmills. She said “CalFire, as the owner of the property, submitted a public utility right-of-way exemption to support PG&E’s work.” CalFire is the agency that approves exemptions and is responsible for implementing the Forest Practice Act, which regulates timber operations.\r\nKevin Conway, the manager of CalFire’s demonstration state forest program, agrees with PG&E that clearing the lines is not a timber operation. “Instead of a timber harvesting plan, we used a public utility right-of-way exemption, which is an exemption in the Forest Practice Rules that recognizes that there are certain areas of the forest where the primary purpose is not the growing of forest for various benefits, but is for another use,” he said, “In this case it is for the safety of the transmission...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}