Albert DeSilver of Woodacre has been hiking Marin’s trails for two decades but he’s never seen anything quite like the “war zone” of debris and downed trees blocking a favorite path carved into a Forest Knolls hillside.

He said a county parks crew, in what top officials described as the best way to proceed, chopped down several trees, including Douglas firs and bays, to block access and thus close an unauthorized trail off Juniper Road that linked the bottom of Hunt Camp to an area halfway up to the Manzanita Fire Road.

“The trees cut were firs invading chaparral — the same type of thinning and removal we pursued when we had people cut Christmas trees,” parks chief Linda Dahl said, recalling a popular holiday program.

But DeSilver said it looked like the very people charged with protecting the environment were destroying it.

“I was shocked to discover … a previously stable foot path was raked out and dug up, large logs and sticks were strewn all over the place,” DeSilver said. “I was further horrified to see a large 30-inch in diameter live Douglas fir had been cut across the trail, and then two large bay trees and then several more live fir trees … and even some small madrone trees,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe the habitat destruction, the erosion, and the potential fire hazard, he added.

“Isn’t it spotted owl nesting season?” DeSilver asked. “This area is prime owl habitat.”

But what DeSilver called a “massive tree-cutting operation … in direct violation of their mandate to protect and preserve our open space lands” was described by Dahl as a “best practice” and preferred action of numerous land management agencies.

DeSilver, who appeared at an Open Space District session this week to show county supervisors photos of tree stumps and trail debris, was rebuffed by Dahl, who said parks officials will continue the practice when closing wayward and unauthorized trails.

County supervisors, who later in the day agreed to spend $45,000 to analyze the environmental impact of rerouting a quarter-mile of trail at the Loma Alta preserve in Fairfax, made no comment about the Forest Knolls situation.

Others concerned

DeSilver, a member of the Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy, is not alone in expressing outrage over the trees cut above Forest Knolls to block a “social trail” used by local residents.

Lisa Luzzi of Inverness Park, founder and a past president of Access4Bikes, a cycling advocacy group, was incensed after seeing what she regarded as the “devastating” county trail project. Speaking as an individual, and not as a representative of the bike club, she noted that while tree removal is not regulated under California environmental law, and that local tree protection ordinances do not apply to public agencies, the parks department should not have acted during spotted owl nesting season.

“They shouldn’t be logging,” Luzzi said. “This area could be spotted owl habitat.

“Our public agencies are doing far more damage to the trails by this preferred method of trail removal, than the building of the social trail” itself, she contended.

Luzzi noted that the parks crew trails project was not unique.

“I’ve seen state parks cut down beautiful heritage madrone and oak trees to block a trail,” she said. “MMWD has repeatedly cut live trees to block trails. And now we’re seeing it by Marin parks.”

Illegal trail

Matt Sagues, the county parks department’s resource planner, said that far from being a beneficial “footpath,” the trail at issue was cut into the hillside illegally through “rare serpentine habitat, runs downslope through bay woodland, and contours out at the bottom in redwood forest.” Trailblazers chopped madrones and pushed excavated dirt into stream crossings, he added.

Sagues, responding to an Independent Journal inquiry in a lengthy email, said county crews already were cutting “less desirable” trees in the area to protect rare chaparral and related habitat.

“In this case we simply cut more Doug firs and dragged them into the illegal trail,” he reported. “Doing this effectively closes the trail, and protects the rare Mt. Tam Manzanita … and habitat for the rare Tiburon Buckwheat… . Both of these species are threatened not only by illegal trail activity, but also by Douglas fir encroachment.”

Owls not affected

As for owls, “this work was done in the first week of February. Our spotted owl nesting season starts March 1.”

The Forest Knolls trail closure joins “several miles of illegally built and environmentally destructive trails in Roy’s Redwoods, Mt. Burdell, and Giacomini” preserves shut down by the county in recent months, he added. “We will be closing more.”

Luzzi indicated that the department’s work closing local trails is a waste of time.

Inevitably, she added, people will remove the downed trees and restore the Forest Knolls path the county has closed. That’s what happened at China Camp when scofflaws removed tree debris blocking rogue trails state officials tried to close. Vandals have reopened other closed trails as well in what some call a continuing cat-and-mouse game with county crews.

But when and if the Forest Knolls trail is reopened, “rather than a sweet little trail in the woods, it is a trail going through a devastated war zone,” Luzzi said. “So who is winner of this war? No one, and the biggest loser is the environment.”