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Minutes from RFI meeting
June 20, 2009

Board Members Present: Charles Bello (President), Vanna Rae Bello, Mark Bello, Dave Thompson (CFO), Dan Bernstein (Secretary), Cheryl Thompson, Nirmal Nair, Jaya Nair

Board Members Absent: Donny Mederos

Visitors: Anson Pyeatt, Miguel Ridolfi, Stace Hirth, Lyndia Pyeatt, Vince Dugar, Jim Clark (Forester)

Meeting started at 1:05 pm

Minutes of last year’s meeting were read.  Minutes approved by a motion by Dave Thompson and seconded by Dan Bernstein.  Motion passed unanimously.

No change in Board officers.

Financial report:

12/31/06 – $94,022

12/31/07 - $102,322

6/27/08 -  $104,184

6/1/09 - $107,132

Membership and Donation Update:

Total membership now at 365

Charles announced that the Adapt a Tree program was cancelled due to high administrative overhead.  Also stated that water tank was purchased (as per last year’s board meeting).

Discussion about how to increase level of fundraising.  Jim Clark mentioned that some organizations have access to state bond money.

RFI discussions:

Charles:  Reviewed “What RFI Means to Me” writeup (which is added to the end of these minutes).  Need a caretaker on the land.  Miguel asked what’s the incentive for the caretaker?  Rental income (≈ 15K) could be available to support a caretaker.  Miguel suggested a residential lease.  Charles is concerned about possible long term compatibility issues.

What does RFI own?  All the tagged trees and the conservation easement.  Currently the land is owned by Charles and Vanna Rae and the trust names RFI to succeed them.

Jim: State and federal funds available for fire protection (50% matching funds).  Hack and squirt, thinning and tree planting is covered.  In response to Charles’s question about Jim’s interest in becoming a board member, Jim is concerned about a conflict in interest and is comfortable for now as an advisor.

Vince described the extent of caretaking responsibilities and recommended that information about how to take care of the properties and structures be recorded.

Open Questions:

·       RFI – how will it function especially if no one on the board lives on the land?

·       Special rights extended to Mark and Mike Bello

·       Caretaker

Dan made a motion that Jaya, Nirmil, Cheryl, Dave and Dan meet off line to propose policies about Caretaker(s) and special rights to Mike and Mark and bring those proposals back to the entire board.  Nirmil seconded. Motion passed unanimously (Vanna Rae stepped out of the meeting before vote).

Stace: Very involved in sustainability and she is in favor of more workshops.

Nirmal volunteered to take over the website to promote awareness, and to record unique information.  Nirmal envisions coming up with a small team (several people) to document this information in exchange for lodging. Charles is agreeable with this. Possible topics to record: Food preservation, Tree Planting, Construction, Permaculture, managing vacation rentals, income sources consistent with sustainability, Property Maintenance.  Other ideas on the seminar section of the website, and perhaps we could arrange internships in these areas.

Motion by Dan to adjourn seconded by Nirmal.  Motion passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 2:30 pm.

Email addresses of RFI Board Members:

dcckthompsom@netscape.net (Dave and Cheryl Thompson)

bello07@sonic.net   (Mark Bello)  707-291-5764 Cell

donny_mederos@yahoo.com (Donny Mederos)

nirmal.nair@gmail.com (Nirmal Nair)

jnair_home@yahoo.com (Jaya Nair)

cbello@sonic.net (Charles Bello)

dan.bernstein@comcast.net (Dan Bernstein)

Other:
Jim Clark’s contact info: jimclark@ncrm.com

Notes from the Chairman, Charles Bello as to "What RFI Means To Me".

In the course of our everyday human events and struggles to provide for our families, and ourselves when do we have the time and opportunity to preserve and restore our natural resources while doing something that has an impact on the environment for the benefit of future generations? 

I personally feel privileged that we can set trees aside in a legal form that can never be cut so that giant redwoods can be restored to this land.  Can you imagine, what we are doing has the potential of beneficial results for thousands of years!  Is that not something worthwhile?

Another privilege for me is the establishment of a model as to how our forests should be managed for the benefit of future generation. This is about the management plan that we have in place in the land trust that RFI’s owns in the form of a Conservation Easement on our 400 acres at Northspur, California.

My hope is that there will be future interested parties as you to continue with the growth and development of this plan after my demise.

What is different about our management plan compared to that of the Industry?  What we are doing is what is best use of our forest following our guidelines of preservation, restoration, education and recreation. All of which are very important uses for our forests.

Another consideration for good management is that the forest needs to be broken down into a number of specific management plans that best apply to each micro situations of the land. Our 400 acres has 5 different management plans. Normally, in an industrially managed forest, the primary objective is profits whereas our goals are for environment considerations as our priorities.  Being non-profit we can look at long-term goals so that we can sit on the land for a hundred years, if need be, and not be burdened with property taxes to be serviced the investor cannot.

The following are the management plans as are recorded in Mendocino County Court House in the form of a Conservation Easement Owned by our RFI in a Land Trust.

1. One important aspect to forest management is timber production. We are not part of the forest activists groups who believe that no trees are to be cut. In fact, it is very important for proper forest management that thinning operations are done periodically.  These timber stand improvement operations can produce residual profits that can be pumped back into the land and or for land purchases to expand our area of influence. In these areas, we want to maximize the production of timber by the using all known means to achieve these result.
2. The second management plan is that open areas like meadows should be kept open to a certain degree to create firebreaks or access to the forest in the event of fires. This gives a chance for fire protection agencies to come in and work in whatever direction they wish to attack the fire. So, it is important to keep maintain open areas in the forest for fire protection.
3. The third aspect is that there are certain areas in the forest that need to be allowed to evolve in their natural way.  No heavy equipment is allowed in these areas and no activity except for recreational use is allowed. These areas need only occupy a small area of the total forest but special areas should be set aside in this way.  We have two beautiful canyons of 2-3 acres each that are pristine and set aside in this way, and should be maintained as such. This kind of use is for future generations to come in and enjoy the beauty of a mixed species old growth forest unmanaged by man.
4. The fourth aspect is in regards to restoration. It is important to select certain trees that are not to be harvested ever.  In other words, to try to restore old growth giant redwoods where there are none. These trees should be chosen as we have along the rivers and streams. These have a secondary beneficial effect of creating shade that keeps the water temperature cool, which is necessary for the fisheries, especially the salmonoids.   So there is a double value here: to restore giant redwoods so that future generations can experience the wonder of these huge trees and restore the fisheries at the same time. We have chosen a 1000 of these trees that are in that category.  Another part of this same aspect is to choose trees up on the ridges. Its has been shown that in the summer time in these coastal areas, we usually have fog from about 2 to 9AM.  So it is important to save some trees to become giant on the ridges trees as during the summer it sometimes actually rains under these trees with what is known as  “Fog Drip”.  The water collects under these trees filter through the soil and goes into the trees to keep the forest healthy and also, by adding water into the soil which eventually finds it way into the streams.  Our summers go from mid May to November without any rain, so this is an important consideration that is not considered by the industry.  Some of these older cull trees are also to be left as wild life habitat.  We have, also, chosen some trees along the hiking trails and put them into this easement as well so that when you are hiking along these trails, you will be able to experience these wonders.
5. Another important management plan considers fire protection. This management plan establishes access roads, fuel and fire breaks. The idea is to try to stop a fire before it can spread especially when it comes up the ridge and tries to climb over to the other side. I have been trying to work with our neighbor, Mendocino Redwood without success. They have roads on one side of the ridges, which are our boundary lines.  I have created firebreaks on our side and if they would maintain the other side of these boundary ridges, we could create a very significant firebreak that would become a very good preventive measure in the event of a fire.  It is like an insurance policy.

I would like to elaborate on the history of our land and how it affects the management of our land. We have a problem that started when the original old growth was cut around 1918. They cut the old growth trees mostly with hand tools and in order to make it easier, they set the forest on fire after they finished cutting the trees so as to burn off the smaller branches making it easier to get the trees out. The logging was essentially a clear cut and with the burning, what happened is that they created an environment for competitive hardwood trees such as the tan oak and the madrone trees to flourish so that in some areas we now have a thicket which is a real hazard in terms of a fire. With adverse weather conditions, it could create an unstoppable fire becoming a devastating situation. In this instance, following the industry’s lead, we have experimented on a 2-acre plot with clearing these trees with herbicides. This is the only effective way that I know of to remove these hardwoods and reestablishing the conifers (redwoods and Douglas firs).  This is accomplished by a system called hack and squirt. In this system a person carries a backpack with the herbicide, hacks the tree with a hatchet and then with a gun like instrument squirts one drop of the herbicide for every 2 inches in diameter of the tree that you wish to kill. The herbicide is absorbed into the tree and kills it within a few months. This process also creates an excellent environment to plant and grow seedlings because of the partial shade created by the dying and dead trees. This is an affective way we can bring back the forest from a thicket and return it into a productive forest as it was prior to the original logging. The larger hardwoods (anything larger that 6-8 inches) are allowed to remain as part of the forest ecology. In a forest with mixed species, the leaves, the shade created by these larger trees is beneficial to keep the forest soils cool and retain moisture during the winter rains and shade out competing brush.  At this stage our forest is at only about 20% of its maximum potential for growing timber.  There is lots of work to be done.  Maybe Obama can help us out!  My estimation is that I could use 20 people for 5 years to do all that needs to be done.  After this phase 4 or 5 people for 10 years just to give you an idea of the scope of this work as I see it.

Thanks, for your time and interest.  Perhaps we can discuss some of the issues as outlined in this text at our board meeting.

Thanks also to Nirmal for helping me put this all together.

Charles Bello

RFI's Mission Statement:

RESTORATION:  Purchase forest lands and manage them for the benefit of future generations and to restore giant redwoods where there are none left.
PRESERVATION:  Monitor conservation easements so that these lands can be protected in perpetuity.
EDUCATION:  Conduct workshops and seminars and to bring an awareness and consciousness of the importance of our redwood forest and its ecology to children as well as adults.
RECREATION:  Provide a safe and beautiful place to commune with nature for recreational purposes.

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Redwood Forest Institute is a non-profit corporation organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.