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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November
22, 2005
Contact:
Paul Hughes, executive director: (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, communications manager: (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org
Keep
Chainsaws out of the Monument
Bill would put Sequoia Monument under Park Service
A timber sale of more than 1000 acres in a forest that was supposed
to be protected forever from logging was halted by judicial decision
last week. It was the latest in a series of rulings affecting the
U.S. Forest Service’s logging plans in the Giant Sequoia National
Monument, home to more than half of the world’s remaining
giant sequoia groves.
“Rather than bat these projects down in court one by one,
we should take the monument out of the Forest Service’s hands
for good,” said Paul Hughes, executive director of Forests
Forever, an environmental organization in San Francisco dedicated
to protecting the forests of California.
A new bill recently introduced in Congress would do just that. The
Act to Save America’s Forests (S. 1897) would take the monument
away from the Forest Service entirely and put it under the management
of the National Park Service.
S. 1897 was introduced by Sens. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Christopher
Dodd (D-CT) on Oct. 19. A companion bill will be introduced soon
in the House by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA).
The 327,769-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument was established
by President Bill Clinton’s proclamation in 2000.
On Monday, Nov. 14, a federal judge put a stop to the Ice Project
in the southern Sierra monument. Altogether, four recent court decisions
have put limits on the Forest Service’s logging plans there.
Yet other logging projects in the monument, such as the White River
and Frog sales, are waiting in the wings. According to the Forest
Service, these sales were planned before the monument was established,
and are not subject to the provisions of the proclamation.
In stopping the Ice Project, U.S. District Court Judge Charles R.
Breyer ruled that the Forest Service has ignored research on the
project’s potentially harmful effects on wildlife. This decision
was similar to his Sept. 9 ruling that halted the Saddle Fuels Reduction
Project in the monument. In that decision Breyer cited the Forest
Service’s failure to incorporate new findings on threats to
the Pacific fisher into its logging plan.
The Forest Service claims that logging is needed to thin the forest
and “preserve the ecosystem” in the monument. Yet the
Park Service, which manages the adjacent Sequoia National Park,
has been using prescribed fire to maintain its sequoia groves very
successfully.
“The big trees seem to be doing quite well, even without the
Forest Service’s chainsaws,” said Hughes.
In addition to placing the monument under the Park Service, S. 1897
would end clearcutting on all federal lands and stop logging and
roadbuilding in the last wild roadless forests. It would require
federal forest agencies to restore native biological diversity on
our national forests.
Forests Forever strongly supports S. 1897.
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