From BushGreenWatch

March 2, 2004

Bush Puts Giant Sequoias on the Chopping Block

Under the guise of forest fire prevention, the Bush Administration's Forest
Service has proposed logging in California's Sequoia National Monument, home
to some of the world's tallest and oldest trees, reaching ages of 3,200
years or more.[1] Also at risk are the Pacific fisher, the California
spotted owl, and many other threatened species dependent on ancient forest
habitat.[2]

Established by President Clinton in 2000, the Monument designation was the
culmination of years of work by environmentalists. But in its draft
environmental impact statement (EIS) for management of the Monument, the
Forest Service chose the most environmentally destructive of six alternative
management plans, the one calling for the most intensive logging.

Under the Forest Service's "preferred alternative," 80,000 acres would be
opened for logging, including trees up to 30 inches in diameter, a size not
permitted in most National Forests throughout the Sierra Nevada.[3] The
Forest Service's proposal calls for 180 clearcuts, producing 10 million
board feet a year.[4]

The Forest Service plan is based on the idea that if the ancient Sequoias
aren't logged, they will be vulnerable to catastrophic fires (despite the
fact that they have somehow managed to survive for thousands of years on
their own). But the real motivation may lie in a sentence buried deep in the
EIS, which says logging in the Monument "might make the difference between
continued operation and closure of the one mill available to serve the
Monument."

If fire prevention is actually the Forest Service's agenda, experts cite
better ways to accomplish this, such as thinning the forest near homes and
businesses, and increasing the number of prescribed burns.

Logging in the Monument will actually increase the likelihood of severe
fires, since removal of the large trees reduces the cooling shade of the
forest canopy, and because highly flammable brush accumulates in open areas
where logged trees once stood.[5]

In a final insult, the Forest Service plan will actually be subsidized by
taxpayers, to the tune of $34 million. Much of that will go toward road
building, even though there are already 900 miles of roads in the Monument.
And nearly $14 million of taxpayer money will be spent for "mechanical
thinning of conifer" -- otherwise known as logging. [6]

SOURCES:
[1] Presidential Proclamation establishing Sequoia National Monument, April
15, 2000.
[2] "Forest Service Bushwhacks Giant Sequoia National Monument," Sierra
Club.
[3] "Forest Service Proposes to Log Sequoia National Monument," The
Wilderness Society.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Action Alert, Sequoia ForestKeeper.
[6] Ibid.

From: BushGreenwatch
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