Statement of Intent to Protect & Conserve Dutch Charlie Watershed

Endorsed by Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria • InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council • For The Wild • Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples • Environmental Protection Information Center • Center for Biological Diversity • Earthjustice • and other allies — see full list here

Attitudes of disrespect and policies of violence toward Nature and its original guardians, the Indigenous Peoples of this redwood region, nearly annihilated the area’s Tribes and its rich abundance of plant and animal species, including wild coho salmon. For countless generations, the region’s forests and streams have been—and today remain—home to the Tribes, the salmon, and others who have survived these severe impacts. We now have the opportunity to take a much-needed step toward addressing these harms through a culturally informed environmental justice effort. In alliance with the Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria, we intend to protect and conserve the entirety of a key wild coho salmon watershed. Our goal is that the majority of the watershed ultimately be designated as a Cahto Protected Area. We ask that you join us in doing what is just and right for Nature and Indigenous People: to honor and secure lasting protection for this important area of the Cahto Tribe’s traditional lands and waters, including its imperiled salmon and other culturally—ecologically important species.

Dutch Charlie watershed is a unique and special place

• The upper South Fork Eel River watershed is home to the last viable metapopulation of California’s endangered coho salmon. Dutch Charlie Creek is the S. Fork Eel’s only known reliable coho spawning habitat. Other streams in the region do not have the reliably cool temperatures and critical habitat essential for coho.

• Most nearby watersheds have been heavily impacted by recent and ongoing logging, but only 200 acres of the Dutch Charlie Watershed have been logged in the last 20 years. The watershed’s remaining large trees and abundant bio-cultural diversity make it an extremely high priority for protection.

Protecting Dutch Charlie watershed is practical and important

• The 2800 acre watershed has only two major landowners and no public roads.

• The first mile of Dutch Charlie from its confluence with S. Fork Eel is already protected in a 700 acre private preserve.

• The Dutch Charlie watershed constitutes a cultural landscape of great significance to the Cahto Tribe, whose nearby reservation represents a tiny fraction of their original territory. The Cahto Tribe remains spiritually and culturally connected to their traditional lands and waters, which the Cahto People diligently cared for and coexisted in harmonious relationship with for millennia. The Cahto Tribe opposes timber harvesting and any other damaging activities within the Dutch Charlie watershed, and has declared that the majority of the watershed should be conserved as a Cahto Protected Area due to its great bio-cultural significance.

• The watershed is adjacent to three large protected areas, the 23,869 acres of the federal Elkhorn Ridge and S. Fork Eel River Wilderness areas and the 7660-acre UC Berkeley Angelo Coast Range Reserve. Protecting the entire Dutch Charlie watershed will significantly expand these protected forest and stream habitats another three miles toward the ocean, which is vitally important for the many species of wildlife who live here.

The first step is to stop the proposed “Charlie Eagle” THP

This Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-20-00153-MEN) would irreparably damage the Dutch Charlie watershed for coho and other species, with plans to:

• Remove the largest trees, which would severely impair the recovery of this forest ecosystem, impair fire resilience, and cause significant sedimentation and reduced streamflows that will kill large numbers of baby coho and eliminate coho habitat.

• Operate heavy equipment on logging roads directly above Dutch Charlie Creek and its major tributaries. The plan includes winter operations, new roads, new stream crossings, and logging on known landslide areas which would contribute to slope instability, cause erosion and result in excessive, cumulative sedimentation and other impacts to the creek and the South Fork Eel River.

• Apply non-selective, highly toxic herbicides throughout the entire THP area, contaminating soil and water for decades. Constituents of these herbicides are known to be teratrogenic and carcinogenic to wildlife and humans. They do not break down, and would permanently contaminate and harm this highly sensitive ecosystem.

• Eliminate “undesirable” hardwoods such as tanoak, which would trigger a cascade of bio-cultural diversity losses.

The time to take action to save Dutch Charlie watershed is now. The “Charlie Eagle” THP would violate numerous environmental laws and the cultural values and heritage of the Cahto Tribe. But together we can stop the THP and protect the watershed in perpetuity. We are working in alliance with the Cahto Tribe to protect this precious place for the sake of present and future generations of the Cahto People, the redwoods, the salmon, and all life.

To support this effort, we ask that you endorse our Statement of Intent above. If you provide your email address with your endorsement, we will notify you when the time comes to submit public comments to CalFire telling them to deny the Timber Harvest Plan and choose the conservation alternative. If you have any questions or would like to help in another way, feel free to contact us.