Forest Service bushwhacks Giant Sequoia National Monument by Bill Corcoran, Southern California Regional Representative For years Sierra Club activists fought to protect the giant sequoia ecosystem from logging and road-building on Sequoia National Forest, home to nearly half of the world’s remaining sequoia groves. When President Clinton signed a proclamation creating Giant Sequoia National Monument, activists felt they had made a significant step in protecting the ecosystem and restoring the natural processes that had created this beautiful place. Clinton’s proclamation charged the Forest Service with developing a management plan. To the astonishment of activists everywhere, the proposed plan would put logging center stage. In fact, the Preferred Alternative 6 would log more large trees in the monument than in the surrounding forest—up to 10 million board feet a year. They even propose to log giant sequoias. The rationale is that otherwise catastrophic fires will destroy the monument. Buried deep in their environmental documentation, they admit to wanting to save the local sawmill. Commercial logging of the monument, they write, “might make the difference between continued operation and closure of the one mill available to serve the Monument.” There is nothing stopping the Forest Service from thinning trees near houses and businesses. Forest officials have acknowledged that giant sequoia groves are not at risk for catastrophic fire. Much of last year’s fire in Sequoia National Forest burned brush, not trees. The impacts of this logging, not just to the giant sequoia old growth forest but also to wildlife, are potentially severe. Pacific fisher, California spotted owl, and many other ancient-forest-dependent species are barely surviving in the Southern Sierra. Adoption of Alternative 6 may be the final blow to their viability. Ironically, there is a Giant Sequoia named after the elder George Bush. Take Action • Contact the Forest Service or Jim Whitfield, Team Leader, Giant Sequoia National Monument, 900 West Grand Avenue, Porterville, CA 93257. Let them know that the preferred alternative (Alternative 6) is the worst they could have chosen and inconsistent with a National Monument. While flawed, Alternative 4 is much closer to the ecosystem restoration and recreational use voiced at the Monument’s creation. The California Wilderness Coalition has suggested the following talking points for your letters: 1. The preferred alternative, Alternative 6, is completely unacceptable. It fails to value the last remaining giant sequoia trees. It would open the monument to commercial logging, ignoring the most basic requirements of the monument proclamation. This alternative gives the administration the power to do anything it wants with the least amount of accountability. We suggest you adamantly oppose Alternatives 2, 3, 5, and especially Alternative 6. 2. Alternative 4 most closely follows the original proclamation. We suggest you propose adopting Alternative 4 because it: a) Has two sensible management zones, one for areas of high human use and another with an integrated ecosystem approach, b) It allows tree removal only for fuel reduction in areas near structures and where human safety is a key concern, c) It relies on hand thinning and prescribed and natural burning as primary management tools, and d) It allows increased non-motorized recreation and keeps the historic trail network intact. Deadline for comments is March 17. View the draft EIR • Please send a copy of your letter to Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Representative Farr (addresses on p. 3). • Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to alert others. For more information contact Bill Corcoran (213) 387-6528 x208. [ top of page ]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]