California’s forests can’t take the
assault anymore
Clearcutting; herbicide spraying; global warming; hotter, faster
fires; lax logging rules; greedy timber executives; complacent bureaucrats:
all have hammered the forests into submission.
The woodlands desperately need help in recovering.
To begin to restore the forests’ vigor, Forests Forever
has rolled out the most extensive forestry-reform effort in its
20-year history: the California Statewide Sustainable
Forests and Watersheds Campaign.
The challenge now is
to get the word out. We need your help convincing Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and state legislators of the dire need for change.
Give the DOC
a chance
Without new forestry management, California’s forests will
continue to suffer. At present the lead agency charged with overseeing
logging is the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection
(CDF).
But CDF’s chief role is firefighting, not resource management.
We propose legislation to put in charge the agency whose profile
most closely fits the job responsibilities, the state’s Department
of Conservation (DOC) .
Timber harvesting falls
directly within DOC’s jurisdictional mandate. The agency
provides services and information that promote environmental health,
economic vitality, informed land-use decisions, and sound management
of the state’s natural resources.
Online access
to THPs
Forests Forever advocates publishing all Timber Harvest Plan
(THP) documents online as one of the quickest and most affordable
ways to advance public participation in California’s resource
management decisions.
Filing fees for THPs
The state Board of Forestry (BOF) should institute a reasonable
THP filing fee based on the acreage of the cut. The cost,
now underwritten by the taxpayer, would be borne by the
landowner or timber owner filing the THP. The fees would be deposited
into a THP Review and Enforcement Fund.
Strengthening the Water Code
Logging is “the leading source of impairment to water
quality in the North Coast of California,” according
to the U.S. EPA. Yet the state’s water code inadequately addresses
the need for logging operations to protect vulnerable watersheds.
Forests Forever proposes
strengthening key definitions in the state’s water quality
control laws to bolster regulators’ authority to safeguard
watersheds.
Clarifying legislative intent
Currently California’s Forest Practice Act (FPA) in essence
designates timber production as the primary purpose of the state’s
forests. The act fails to accord equal weight to ecosystem
preservation.
Forests Forever proposes legislation tailored to expressly mandate
and not merely consider ecosystem protection.
Better regulate steep-slope logging
Intensive logging on steep slopes exacerbates erosion, siltation,
landslides, debris torrents, and floods. Forest Forever proposes
amending the Forest Practice Rules and installing stricter guidelines
for logging on slopes of 15 degrees or greater.
Let counties write rules
Counties need more freedom to write their own timber harvesting
rules.
Currently if the BOF
rejects county-proposed logging rules– as it has done consistently
for many years– the county is faced with the extra burdens
of time and expense in overcoming such a decision, if it can succeed
at all.
We propose shifting the burden to the BOF to show convincingly
that the proposed county rules are inconsistent with the FPA, or
not needed by the county.
Ban clearcutting
As Forests Forever has long argued, clearcutting
is the most ecologically devastating logging method. Yet current
state law permits the clearcutting of forest patches up to 40
acres each . Such cuts now scar vast stretches of California.
Forests Forever has written legislation that would prohibit clearcutting
, except in strictly limited circumstances such as the harvest of
fiber plantations and Christmas trees, or the creation of needed
fire breaks.
TO TAKE ACTION:
Write or call Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and urge him to use
his fullest influence and authority to remake California forest
practices. Ask him to adopt the package of eight reform
measures being advocated by Forests Forever and its allies.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-2841
Also contact your state senator and assembly member and
ask her or him to sign on to Forests Forever’s reform effort.
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