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Matthews (2000) on History of Ten Mile (from GP SYP)

Matthews, Graham and Associates. 2000a. Sediment source analysis and preliminary sediment budget for the Ten Mile River, Mendocino County, CA. Prepared for Tetra Tech, Inc. VOLUME 1: Text, Tables, and Figures. Fairfax, VA. 143 pp

The history of the Ten Mile River watershed is dominated by timber harvest. The following information is summarized from the history section of the Georgia-Pacific West, Inc. SYP (Jones & Stokes Associates 1997). Logging began in the lower basin about 1870 using hand methods and teams of oxen. The logs were hauled to the mill in Fort Bragg. The first railroad in the area connecting the South Fork with Fort Bragg was developed in the 1910s. The South Fork was the major log supply to the Fort Bragg mill between about 1920 and 1940. Railroads were extended into the Middle and North Forks by the early 1920s and railroad logging was the primary method of removing timber through the 1930s, when it was generally replaced with tractor logging and most of the railroad grades were converted to roads.

Methods of hauling lumber evolved over time from utilizing jackscrews, horses, bull teams, logging inclines, Dolbeer donkey, railroads, to trucking on haul and skid roads: each of these methods had varying levels of impact on the watershed. There is no information indicating that splash dams were used in the Ten Mile River watershed as they were in the Noyo and Big River watersheds to the south.

Since 1940, tractor yarding and the construction of roads, skid trails and landings were the primary types of logging practices. Major portions of the watershed were harvested using tractor logging between the mid 1940s and mid 1960s. Until the Forest Practices Act was passed in 1973, logging practices were unregulated. This Act required road construction and timber harvesting practices intended to protect aquatic habitat and watershed resources. During the past twenty years the use of cable yarding on steeper slopes has increased substantially, and tractor logging is generally restricted to gentler slopes. These most recent changes in practice create far less ground disturbance than tractor yarding, although tractor yarding is still responsible for 40-80% of the harvest, depending upon ownership. Relative to the 1940-1960 period, harvest levels were apparently far lower between the late 1960s  and the mid 1980s, because the forest was fairly well depleted and was left to regenerate. Current harvest levels have increased with the maturity of second growth forests, and most of the watershed is managed using about a 60-year average rotation age.