|
Following the completion of the "CFIP" Greenbelt Management Plan in December 2004 (which was not approved by the BTCSD Board of Directors but which contains extensive forestry survey data on an 800-acre portion of the Greenbelt), the Recreation, Greenbelt & Conservation Committee spent a year (2005) preparing a draft Greenbelt Stewardship Plan. This was presented to the BTCSD Board of Directors on November 8, 2005. At that meeting, the Board voted to accept the document, while not approving it, but did direct that the "neighborhood outreach and education" component of the plan could begin effective January 2006. The Plan was further reviewed and revised by the Recreation, Greenbelt & Conservation Committee and approved section by section by the Directors. The Plan came to be viewed, not as a definitive management plan, but as a broad "vision statement" with general goals and guidelines for projects. Any projects relating to areas covered by the Plan must be individually reviewed and approved by the Committee and the Board. All of the documents relating to this process are included in this section in the order that they were produced. Extensive public comment from a series of public meetings was considered in the drafting of the plan.
About half of Brooktrails' 5,000 acres consists of "The Greenbelt"—the forest and meadowland which intermingles with residences. The Greenbelt is heavily forested, primarily with redwood and Douglas firs and tanoak, and inhabited with many forest species. It is the Greenbelt which gives Brooktrails its unique character and allows our residents their beautiful views, privacy, recreation opportunities through the trail system, and interaction with nature.
The large "core" areas of greenbelt were extensively logged from around the turn of the 20th century to the 1960s, and all of the true old growth redwood was cut. Logging practices of the time have caused long-term consequences: thick growth of tanoak, sedimentation into Willits Creek and our reservoir, and an increasing fuel load for fires.
Although anyone moving into Brooktrails is assuming an increased risk of fire by living in the middle of a forest, the District wants to create as "fire safe" an area as possible. We also want to care for and perpetuate the Greenbelt and keep it healthy. For several years the District and its Recreation, Greenbelt & Conservation Committee worked on a plan to manage the greenbelt to accomplish these goals. Our residents participated in this process, letting us know what types and degrees of activities affecting the Greenbelt they desired. The District held public meetings throughout the drafting process. Careful minutes of these meetings, including the comments made by the public, were referred to throughout the drafting process.
When the process first began with the 'CFIP' Plan, the focus was almost exclusively on forestry: on cutting some portion(s) of the Greenbelt to reduce fire risk. It was necessary to find out just what types and numbers of trees we had and to get an estimate of what this type of forestry-based management would cost. In 2004, the District commissioned an inventory and report which was performed by registered professional foresters Roger Sternberg and Jerry Garvey. It was partially funded by a California Forest Interface Program grant (CFIP) and therefore it and the whole plan at the time came to be known as "the CFIP Plan." Public meetings were held before and after the report was prepared. All of the documentation from the CFIP Plan, along with the report itself, can be found under the "CFIP Report" section. The Board of Directors, with public input, determined that it did not wish to proceed at this time with the recommendations contained in the CFIP Plan. Instead, because the CFIP Report raised additional issues such as erosion and sedimentation—issues the State of California will probably require the District to correct in the next 10 years, the concept expanded to include these concepts as well as management, protection and repair of not just the Greenbelt, but the District's watershed. Our watershed is the area through which Willits Creek runs and from which we get our drinking water. Issues affecting the greenbelt affect the watershed, too, and vice versa.
In this section we are placing the final Plan and most recent proceedings first. If you wish to review the entire process, you should start with the CFIP Report and all of the documents contained under that heading.
The final and draft Plans and the CFIP Plan each contain their own table of contents.
|
