The Environmental Protection Information Center, or EPIC, hopes Humboldt County voters will endorse a countywide ban on clearcutting and other timber industry practices that they say are harming water quality and wildlife habitat while exacerbating climate change. In a press release sent out this morning, the group says volunteers will be gathering signatures to get a measure on the general election ballot for November 2018. But the process of actually implementing such a ban isn’t quite so simple, as Humboldt County Counsel Jeffrey Blanck explains in his summary of the initiative: “State law gives exclusive authority to regulate the conduct of almost all timber operations to the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.” So, in effect, even if voters approve the measure it would merely serve as a recommendation or request to the Board of Forestry.