Options For Preserving Humboldt County's Forests

How to maintain large tracts of timberland, and the jobs and environmental qualities they support, is one of the complex problems confronting Humboldt County as it completes its 20-year General Plan Update.

Property taxes on Timber Production Zones (TPZ) are about 10 percent of standard property taxes. But over the last two decades, residential value has begun to eclipse timber value.

As land is subdivided into smaller parcels and land values increase based on residential use, the economic viability of sustainable timber harvesting diminishes. Unless policies to protect working timberlands are adopted, Humboldt County could lose its timber base and vital forested landscape. Such policies are needed to protect working forestlands from being divided up, while allowing small landowners to live on the land they sustainably manage.

Between 1997 and 2008, 35,000 acres of Humboldt County’s industrial timberlands were divided up through “Certificates of Compliance,” according to the North Coast Regional Land Trust. Obtaining a Certificate of Compliance is a way to divide land without any environmental review or land use planning.

Since 2008, owners of an additional 15,000 acres initiated the steps to divide TPZ lands using this same process. These Certificates allow for the construction of residences on land that would otherwise be primarily used for timber production and habitat values.

Though many rural areas in the county have long been homesteaded, there is currently no way to distinguish between homesteading and breaking land up for less environmentally friendly lifestyles.

Timberlands can be protected by promoting well-planned development in areas served by public infrastructure, while discouraging widespread residential development of rural forestlands. Focusing most future residential development in existing communities will protect timberlands and open space, ensuring long-term viability of the timber industry – an essential economic base for our communities.

So the question for planners is how can the General Plan Update encourage small landowners to manage for forest ecosystem values while discouraging the sale of TPZ land to people who lack a land ethic?

One current policy option in the General Plan Update would create different rules for industrial and non-industrial TPZ lands. Another policy being discussed would limit houses to one per 600 acres on industrial TPZ lands, while allowing smaller landowners to live on the land they manage.

Several other proposals would give small TPZ landowners more flexibility while ensuring that the large contiguous areas of TPZ can’t be broken up into small individual parcels.

If different rules are adopted for large industrial landowners, the following policies would apply to landowners of less than 5000 acres:

•Easier “Rollout” of Smaller TPZ Parcels: Currently a four-fifths vote of the Board of Supervisors is required to remove land from TPZ zoning and tax status, typically with a 10-year waiting period. This new policy would allow easier rollout for parcels under 160 acres. Rollout to rural residential or agricultural zoning would allow one house per legal parcel.

•Option to Remain in TPZ: The Healthy Humboldt Coalition recommends giving owners of smaller TPZ parcels (fewer than 160 acres) the option to remain in TPZ with demonstration of active forest management, such as an approved timber harvest plan, non-industrial timber management plan, erosion control plan, habitat restoration plan, or fuels reduction plan. This would distinguish landowners who are working to restore forest ecosystem values from those who are not so dedicated.

•Planned Rural Development Program: Environmentally sound residential development in appropriate areas would group houses together while keeping the remainder forested under       conservation easements.

A combination of such policies would guide future development to benefit small TPZ owners while protecting the long-term base of Humboldt County’s industrial timberlands.

Jennifer Kalt is Policy Analyst for Healthy Humboldt, a coalition of public interest organizations (including the NEC) working for a County General Plan that provides healthy transportation and housing choices while protecting resource lands and watersheds by focusing future growth in existing communities.

TAKE ACTION
Express your opinion on the General Plan Update by emailing mspencer@co.humboldt.ca.us.
For more information on the Forest Resources chapter of the Land Use Element, visit www.healthyhumboldt.org.
To read the policies under consideration, see the Forest Resources Voting Chart at http://co.humboldt.ca.us/gpu/documentsKeyIssuesPlanAlt.aspx.

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