December 17, 2019 — After some shouting, concerns about grandstanding, and talk of litigation, the Board of Supervisors voted Monday to investigate the first code violation complaint against Mendocino Redwood Company and form an ad hoc committee. The vote, which passed with Supervisor John McCowen dissenting, came after several motions about implementing Measure V failed for lack of support among board members.
Measure V, a voter initiative which declares dead standing trees a nuisance, became law in 2016. At that time, Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) sent county CEO Carmel Angelo a letter, saying its practice of using herbicides to kill tanoak trees is legal under a number of other statutes. The county then waited two years for the Attorney General to decline to issue an opinion. Last month, county counsel Christian Curtis responded to MRC’s letter, disagreeing with the company’s findings. Acorrding to Angelo and Curtis, the company has not yet responded to the November letter, but John Anderson, the director of forest policy at MRC, spoke at yesterday’s meeting to say that maybe there might be some litigation if the county moves to enforce the measure.
Willits City Council member Madge Strong told the board that obeying the law is MRC’s responsibility, and that the board is responsible for enforcing the law. And Terry d’Selkie, who lives near MRC, filed a code violation complaint against the company for dead standing trees, asking why the company should be allowed to continue a practice that voters rejected years ago. Planning and Building Director Brent Schulz assured supervisors that his department takes all complaints seriously, but that he has five code enforcement staff members, and they handle about 600 complaints a year.
Anderson told Supervisor John McCowen that at the current rate of herbicide treatment, it could take the company 10-20 years to restore the species balance the company is striving for. He added that MRC is willing to work with landowners to conduct the practice some distance from their property lines. As he went into the details of MRC’s forest management plan, activist Naomi Wagner interrupted to shout that, “This is ridiculous! Obey the law!”
A woman named Raquel summed up her analysis, saying, “You are literally saying, how long is it going to take you to finish committing these crimes...or just commit your crimes a little bit further away from people’s lands. That’s not what we want. We want you to stop it.”
The ad hoc committee consists of Supervisors Ted Williams and John Haschak.