The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comments until March 3, 2026, on the Mokelumne Amador Calaveras Forest Health Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement. They propose forest thinning, fuel reduction, and fire breaks (all requiring some form of logging), as well as prescribed burning of the Eldorado and Stanislaus National Forests — including along several rivers eligible for National Wild and Scenic River protection, including the North Fork Mokelumne and four tributaries, North Fork Stanislaus, Middle Fork Cosumnes River and Caples Creek.
While reducing wildfire risk is essential, some of the proposed mechanical logging and herbicide use could damage the scenic, cultural, fish, and wildlife values that make these rivers worthy of protection.
The project proposes 3,789 acres of logging to reduce fuels and thin forests, as well as 496 acres of fuel breaks, along the Middle Fork Cosumnes River, which is eligible for protection due to its outstanding recreation and hydrological values (one of the few remaining undammed rivers in the Sierra Nevada). In contrasts, eligible segments of the North Fork Stanislaus River and Caples Creek will be lightly treated.
The North Fork Mokelumne itself is less threatened, with just 565 acres of fuel breaks proposed along the river, although four of those fuel breaks are located on successive ridges along a mile of the river canyon, raising concerns about the need for multiple fuel breaks and potential impacts on the river’s extraordinary scenery. In addition, fuel breaks require repeated clearing, typically with herbicides toxic to fish and wildlife.
Hundreds of acres are proposed for logging along eligible North Fork Mokelumne tributaries, including segments of the Bear River, Cole Creek, Green Creek, and Beaver Creek. The North Fork Mokelumne and its tributaries are eligible for Wild and Scenic protection due to their outstanding cultural values. These streams flow are so rich in pre-history cultural values, the Forest Service designated the landscape through which they flow as the Mokelumne Archeological Special Interest Area.
CalWild supports the project’s proposed prescribed burning of thousands of acres of land along eligible Wild and Scenic Rivers to reduce fuels, as long as prescribed burn areas along the rivers are hand treated and not subject to destructive mechanized clearing. As currently proposed, the project allows mechanical clearing within 15 feet of perennial streams.
Under federal guidelines, the Forest Service is required to protect the free-flowing character and outstandingly remarkable natural and cultural values of eligible rivers and streams, as well as each eligible segment’s potential Wild, Scenic, and Recreational River classification. The agency is claiming that all these protective provisions will be met by the project, at least in the long term. But there will be “temporary” adverse impacts on these values from project activities, particularly those requiring mechanical clearing to thin forests, reduce fuels, and create fire breaks.
People concerned about potential project impacts on the rivers and streams eligible for National Wild and Scenic River protection can either comment via this government website or via CalWild’s action alert form by 11:59PM on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. In your comment:
- Urge that mechanical treatments and herbicide application in all eligible Wild and Scenic River corridors be kept to a minimum to protect their outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreation, fish, wildlife, history/cultural values. There should be no herbicide spraying in riparian conservation areas along streams.
- Support prescribed fire proposed in eligible Wild and Scenic River corridors, as long as it can be accomplished without extensive mechanical pre-treatment.
- Treatments in the Middle Fork Cosumnes River corridor should be primarily hand clearing and prescribed fire to protect its outstanding recreation and hydrology value.
- Four fire breaks along a mile of the North Fork Mokelumne River downstream of its confluence with Panther Creek seems overkill. Fire breaks should be limited to the fewest needed to successfully prevent the spread of wildfire and to protect the extraordinary scenery, recreation, fish, and wildlife values of the state-designated Mokelumne Wild and Scenic River.
