The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District wants to selectively thin about 130 acres of crowded second- and third-growth redwood forest in La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve, a project it says would push the stand back toward healthier old-growth conditions, reduce fire risk and cut sediment from old logging roads, the Almanac reported.
The work would require a Timber Harvesting Plan, a Cal Fire permit that functions like an environmental impact report and includes public notice and comment. Midpen’s project page says a draft plan has been prepared and will be submitted to Cal Fire to start that review. The two proposed treatment areas are in the northern part of the preserve, west of Skyline Ridge, and total about 130 acres; parts sit in a Conservation Management Unit managed mainly for sensitive plants and wildlife. No trees would come down until the state signs off.
Leigh Ann Gessner, a Midpen public affairs specialist, told the Almanac that the forest is so densely packed after 19th-century logging that little light reaches the floor, reducing plant and wildlife diversity. A logged stand can be up to four times as dense as a healthy one, she said. Restoration forestry, in the district’s description, means thinning some of the overcrowded trees so larger “future old-growth” trees get more water and light, store more carbon and better withstand drought, pests and fire. Gessner said some of the removed wood may be sold, with any proceeds going back into the restoration, and that Midpen also wants to repair legacy logging roads that send sediment into the watershed.
The district has studied wildlife in the project area, including the endangered marbled murrelet, which nests in old-growth trees. Because of historic logging, that habitat is degraded and murrelets have not been detected there, Gessner told the Almanac, though she said the project would improve habitat over time. Midpen’s stated goals also include better watershed function, more wildlife habitat and carbon storage, and greater resilience to fire, disease and climate change. The Almanac reported the project has been in the works since 2020; if Cal Fire approves the plan, the district expects to start treatments between 2027 and 2028.
Staff presented an update and discussed the timber plan at a Midpen board study session at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the district’s Los Altos office, with a Zoom option. The official page invited public comment at that meeting. Neighbors will get additional notice once Cal Fire’s formal review begins. Midpen is asking people who want project updates to sign up on its website, and it points to similar restoration work in the Santa Cruz Mountains and at Redwood National and State Parks as models for cutting selected trees in order to save a forest.