Sawmill project bad for ecology

http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/content/tncms/live/

Posted: Friday, September 21, 2012 10:37 am

Whatever one may think of Castle & Cook’s “Sawmill” project, it is nothing less than an ecological calamity in the making. I refer specifically to the intent to relocate – up to? – 8,000 oak trees, one assumes by cutting down that number and replacing them with saplings elsewhere.

Speaking as a field botanist and mid-Sierra wildflower specialist, I have learned that a mature oak tree is not an artifact of nature. It is, rather, a miniature ecosystem unto itself. Myriad creatures, from microscopic to mammals, depend on oaks for food and shelter. The ground under an oak, to and beyond the dripline, is in interdependent relationship with the oak. Cutting down even one oak destroys both habitat and biotic preserve. Cutting down 8,000 is an ecological calamity.

Calaveras County’s woodland health is already in serious decline, even without Castle & Cook. Drought, habitation loss, and population growth have taken their toll. There was a time – not much more than a decade ago – when the spring wildflower bloom was both profuse and predictable. Today it’s neither. Some species have all but vanished: Copperopolis used to have fields filled with Frying Pan Poppies (Eschscholzia lobii). Finding even one today is noteworthy. It is impossible to assert that Sawmill will reverse this trend: quite the opposite is fully to be expected.

I understand that the county needs to grow and that developers need to develop. I also understand that, as Vladmir Lenin put it, you can’t make an omelet without breaking an egg. All that granted, I would hope that Calaveras County government might take a larger view than tax revenues and short-term construction jobs. Our meadowlands and oak-covered hills are a unique treasure, which if lost are irreplaceable. We owe it to those who follow us to leave something for them.

Al Lockwood
Angels Camp