CAL FIRE takes public into Jackson Demonstration State Forest for plan update

CAL FIRE took the Jackson Demonstration State Forest debate out of the meeting room and onto the ground, using a June 7 field session to show how restoration, research and recreation are supposed to coexist in one of California’s most closely watched public forests. The update centered on the 48,652-acre forest near Fort Bragg and Caspar, where the state says more growth occurs each year than is harvested, even as a proposed Camp 8 timber plan draws sharp opposition over habitat and steep terrain.

The outing was aimed at the public and media and was built around a look at the 2026 Forest Management Plan, recreation survey findings and the proposed Camp 8 Timber Harvest Plan. That mix made the meeting more than a briefing. It was a test case for how Humboldt County and the wider North Coast can scrutinize a state forest that CAL FIRE describes as a “living laboratory” for sustainable timber production, recreation, watershed protection, fish and wildlife habitat and restoration.

Jackson Demonstration State Forest was established in 1949, but its logging history goes back to private ownership in 1862 and changed after the state bought the property in 1947. CAL FIRE says it is the largest of California’s 14 demonstration state forests, and the new management plan is meant to set goals and general parameters for the next 10 years, or until a later revision is approved. Public meetings and workshops tied to the plan ran from October 2024 through November 2025, showing how long the process has already been unfolding.

Recreation is part of that planning, not an afterthought. CAL FIRE says the forest has 22 general-use campgrounds with 64 total campsites, concentrated in the Camp 1 and Camp 20 areas. The agency is also weighing findings from a recreation survey as it updates the plan, a reminder that trail access, camping and timber management are being evaluated together rather than in separate tracks.

Research has long given the forest its statewide importance. The Caspar Creek Experimental Watershed Study, established in 1961, remains one of the most detailed forest-management investigations in the state. CAL FIRE says work has continued with Northern Arizona University and the United States Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station on harvest effects, water yield and resilience in the redwood watershed.

The Jackson Advisory Group, which advises CAL FIRE and the Board of Forestry on management-plan review, implementation issues and policy matters, is part of that process. The stakes are highest around Camp 8 South, where conservation groups including the Coalition to Save Jackson Demonstration State Forest, the Environmental Protection Information Center and Wild California have argued the proposed harvest threatens older second-growth redwoods, habitat and steep ground above the North Fork of the South Fork Noyo River. Timber harvest plans still move through an extensive multi-agency and public review process, but the fight over Camp 8 is already shaping the broader North Coast argument over whether demonstration forests should keep balancing logging, restoration, recreation and tribal co-management, or tilt more decisively toward conservation and fire resilience.