<\/p>\nAdd Preferred Source<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
But, now, Berry is seeking a different type of state approval that would allow logging in perpetuity on\u00a0Berry\u2019s Knotfarm. Designed for smaller scale operations on less than 2,500 acres, these permits require environmental analysis\u00a0of the entire property rather than piecemeal reviews of the portions to be logged that they used previously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Berry said the change is administrative and \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean an increase in harvesting\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s a decrease in paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the unlimited timeframe has stoked concerns among local residents and environmental groups that the plan, as proposed, doesn\u2019t do enough to protect sensitive fish habitat and drinking water for 123 households and businesses in Jenner (whose water source crosses Berry\u2019s land).\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Bruce]()
<\/p>\n
Bruce Berry, standing near Jenner Creek, said his logging plans will be aware of water sources.<\/p>\n
Erik Castro\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the last chances to think about doing something other than logging here,\u201d said Mike Keller, whose family owns 14 acres near Berry\u2019s Knotfarm on Sheephouse Creek, which crosses through both his and the Berry properties.<\/p>\n
Berry\u2019s Knotfarm shares a border with the 5,630-acre Jenner Headlands Preserve and stands at the nexus of a remarkable transition that has unfolded on the Sonoma Coast over several decades. Vast tracts of once privately-owned land are now public.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
San Francisco was built from redwoods cut from California\u2019s coastal ranges, and though logging has met a sharp decline up and down California\u2019s North Coast, redwood lumber is still prized for its durability and natural resilience against rot and pests.<\/p>\n
The stunning Sonoma Coast may look wild with its steep cliffs, beaches and coastal mountains, but it has been logged, bulldozed, grazed and blasted apart for more than a century. In the 1920s, industrial quarry operations created Goat Rock\u2019s iconic outcropped shape. And humans have altered the Russian River\u2019s path time and again across generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But development\u2019s heavy hand has, in some respects, had a lighter touch in recent decades. A grassroots campaign in the 1960s that successfully blocked PG&E\u2019s plans to build a nuclear power plant on Bodega Head is widely agreed to have dawned a new era.<\/p>\n
![\"A]()
<\/p>\n
A view of Bruce Berry\u2019s forested property in Jenner. His family has been logging the area for decades.<\/p>\n
Erik Castro\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
In the decades since, efforts to restore and preserve natural landscapes have helped create a 34-square-mile contiguous patchwork of public and preserved lands that span from the Jenner Headlands south to Bodega Bay and inland following the Russian River\u2019s southern banks.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Keller said the region is still recovering from the scars of large historical logging, which continue to choke local waterways with sediment. Keller recalls his grandfather telling stories about hearing the water-splashing cacophony of coho salmon coming up Sheephouse Creek\u00a0\u2014 a phenomena he never experienced first-hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt blows me away that in such a short period of time, that whole population that frequented the Russian River basin has disappeared,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keller, a Windsor resident who manages his family\u2019s rental properties and works as a handyman, has been doggedly protesting and questioning the Berry family\u2019s timber plans for decades\u00a0\u2014 a singular thorn in their side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But more critics have joined Keller in protest of this latest timber plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sebastopol resident Elsa Sze and her husband created an artificial intelligence-based system to help people who share their concerns easily generate public comment letters. Their platform has so far helped generate 446 comments about the Berry plan to Cal Fire, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of us in Sebastopol, who take our children to the forest and to Jenner, just hearing this breaks our hearts,\u201d Sze said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Senior]()
<\/p>\n
Senior Forester Harlan Tranmer, left, and Bruce Berry standing on the far western edge of Berry\u2019s property in Jenner.<\/p>\n
Erik Castro\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Timber operations are regulated by the forest practices division of Cal Fire, which oversees California\u2019s forests in addition to fighting fires.<\/p>\n
As of April 1, there were 30,000 acres of active commercial timberland in Sonoma County, said John Ramaley, assistant deputy director of Cal Fire\u2019s forest practice division. Of that, nearly 25,000 acres fall into the non-industrial type of plan that Berry is seeking.<\/p>\n
According to a state database, local timber operators include familiar names like San Francisco\u2019s elite and secretive Bohemian Club, which owns about 2,700 acres in Monte Rio on the Russian River, and the Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit that owns and manages the Jenner Headlands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
California loggers have two main options for getting state permission to harvest timber. The first is called a timber harvest plan, which allows trees to be cut within a specific area in a short time period, typically under 5 years. The other option is available only to smaller landowners \u2014 that less-than 2,500-acre category \u2014 and requires a comprehensive review of the entire landscape, including water resources, erosion risks and wildlife. It allows for landowners to log periodically as long as they own the land.<\/p>\n
That limitless timeframe gives the impression the Berry would have broader leeway\u00a0to log on his land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anne\u00a0Schukat, a Jenner resident and water customer, said the logging plan feels like a direct threat to the town\u2019s fragile water supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine the very water you depend on every day for drinking, cooking and showering being polluted by sediment,\u201d she said in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Berry\u2019s]()
<\/p>\n
Berry\u2019s Sawmill and Lumber Yard in Cazadero, Calif., on Thursday, March 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Erik Castro\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Ramaley said non-industrial timber management plans come with additional restrictions compared to harvest plans meant for industrial operators. Loggers must employ selective harvesting methods, which retain a diversity of tree size and age, and they are prohibited from clear cutting, which is allowed in some cases with timber harvest plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once a project is approved, operators still must submit\u00a0additional plans to the state in advance of each harvesting operation, undergo periodic reviews and, in some cases, pre-harvest inspections. After a harvest, timber managers are prohibited from logging in the same location again until the subsequent growth is equal to or greater than what was taken.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Berry said his late father, Loren Berry, was a traditionalist who preferred what he called \u201cthe old-fashioned way\u201d\u00a0\u2014 filing timber harvest plans for each project. Now, Berry said he wants to do more upfront and pave a more streamlined path for his children and grandchildren. A single 90-acre plan once took more than a decade to win approval, he said.<\/p>\n
He said they will honor regulatory buffers that limit the proximity of logging to water, including creeks, and they will cut no new roads and add erosion controls including new culverts to protect the ecosystems downslope. They\u2019ll use cables to lift felled trees out of steep canyons, a method to reduce erosion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A]()
<\/p>\n
A look at a property map during a tour of Bruce Berry\u2019s land in\u00a0Jenner.<\/p>\n
Erik Castro\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve also marked three 100-acre buffers around spotted owl nests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Berry said he\u2019s frustrated by what feels like a deluge of misinformation being put out by activists, and he called out a group for including an unrelated picture of clear-cut logging on a blog post about his property.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think most of the comments are from people that don\u2019t understand,\u201d Berry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a letter, the Sierra Club\u2019s Redwood Chapter claimed Berry was proposing to remove 70 percent of the board feet per acre \u201cat first entry.\u201d Berry\u2019s forester Harlan Trammer said that the claim appears to be a misunderstanding of a carbon calculation required by the state. The plan allows for a maximum harvest volume per year of 6.9%, he said, adding that \u201cno one harvests the maximum \u2026 bit would take too long to grow back.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But in another letter, Arcata-based nonprofit Environmental Protection Information Center raised concerns that the plan is not protective enough against sediment in creeks, and included a detailed list of points needing clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis area has a documented history of damaging timber harvest practices, its watercourses are already impaired, and fish populations remain at risk,\u201d said Melodie Meyer, conservation attorney with the center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Debarking]()
<\/p>\n
Debarking machinery that has sat unused for approximately eight years at Berry\u2019s Sawmill and Lumber Yard in Cazadero, Calif., on Thursday, March 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Erik Castro\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Cal Fire is the lead agency but the plan also requires input or approval from a variety of other entities including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and Sonoma County, which handles coastal development permits under the California Coastal Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The public has until April 13 to submit comments about the project. From there, Ramaley said that Cal Fire\u2019s forestry division \u201cwill review the entire record, recommendations from the state agencies, and public comments\u201d and \u201cthe plan, if found in compliance, will be approved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For his part, Berry said he vowed to safeguard Jenner\u2019s water source. He said his family ran Cazadero\u2019s water utility for years and they also rely on similarly fragile sources of clean water\u00a0\u2014 local springs and wells in the Austin Creek watershed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Berry\u2019s eyes, logging\u00a0\u2014 at least the way his family does it\u00a0\u2014 isn\u2019t at odds with protecting the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a big garden,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Logger Bruce Berry stands on the far western edge of his property overlooking Penny Island at the mouth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[3805,2356,1687,192,79,5414],"class_list":["post-564432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-climate","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-sonoma-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}