Sierra Club
Redwood Chapter Newsletter
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Forest Service Proposal to Log Sequoias in a "Protected" National Monument Keith Hammond | |
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Background On April 15, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a Presidential proclamation designating the Giant Sequoia National Monument on 328,000 acres of the Sequoia National Forest located in the southern Sierra Nevada. The proclamation recognized that 100 years of logging and exclusion of fire have severely degraded the forests and that they need to be restored. Among the resources the Monument was created to protect were several groves of giant Sequoia trees -- the largest living things on earth. The proclamation gave the Forest Service three years to develop a management plan to protect specific resources and to provide for recreation and enjoyment by the public. Motorized vehicles were to be confined to roads. Commercial logging and the removal of trees, except for clearly identified ecological purposes and public safety, were prohibited. In January 2004 the Forest Service released a final management plan that would allow 1,500 logging trucks full of timber to be cut each year inside the Monument - logging more intense than that permitted in the surrounding forest outside the Monument. Trees up to 30 inches in diameter could be cut, even centuries-old Sequoias. The Forest Service has justified this logging proposal by the alleged threat from wildfire. Outstanding Values Giant Sequoia National Monument includes about half of all giant Sequoia groves remaining in the southern Sierra Nevada, the only place in the world where they occur naturally. Some of the largest, "monarch" Sequoia trees are more than 30 feet in diameter at their base and more than 300 feet tall, higher than the Capitol Dome in Washington. The oldest are more than 3,000 years old - they were already mature trees in the early Roman Empire. A walk through one of these groves is a humbling experience. A person is dwarfed by the trees' immense size, overwhelmed by their antiquity. Their dominating presence, as their red-barked trunks reach for the sky above the surrounding pine and fir, led John Muir to dub them "Nature's masterpiece -- the first to feel the rosy beams of morning, the last to bid the sun good night." The Presidential proclamation makes clear that the Monument was created to protect not only the giant Sequoias, but also many wildlife species such as the California spotted owl and the Pacific fisher, whose last refuge in the Sierra is here, having been extirpated from the northern Sierra. The proclamation recognized over 200 plant species endemic to the southern Sierra that need protection. None of these species, including the giant Sequoia, can survive without a matrix of intact healthy conifer forests, the dominant ecosystem of the Monument. It is these conifer forests, including giant Sequoia groves, that were so heavily logged and degraded over the last century that they need restoration. Threats Under the Bush Administration the Forest Service now proposes to reduce excess fuels by logging medium and large diameter trees--the same type of management that led to the deplorable condition of the forest in much of the Monument. Logging in the Monument would further degrade wildlife habitat and possibly increase fire danger by opening the forest canopy and increasing growth of hazardous small fuels. In the adjacent Sequoia National Park, with identical forests and ecosystems, the National Park Service has taken a different path. It primarily uses controlled fire to reduce hazardous fuels and create healthy forests that are resistant to severe wildfire. The Park's giant Sequoia groves are thriving with vigorous reproduction of the young Sequoias needed to replace older trees as they inevitably succumb to natural forces. Park managers have protected developed areas inside the Park by creating narrow buffers where they thin the forest and burn dead materials and undergrowth to reduce the fire hazard. |
Within the Monument, there are several small communities, campgrounds, and other developed areas that also need similar buffers a few hundred feet wide to protect them from wildfire. However, the Forest Service is proposing to log throughout the Monument - miles from developed areas. Status Under its final management plan released in January 2004, the Forest Service would resume commercial logging inside the Monument, in clear conflict with the Presidential proclamation that created the Monument in the first place. The proclamation identified logging as one of the main reasons the forest is in poor condition. Conservationists are now advocating that management of the Monument be transferred to the National Park Service. Under this recommendation, the Park Service would manage the Monument in compliance with the direction in the Presidential proclamation. The proclamation makes it very clear that no tree may be removed from the Monument unless there is a clear ecological need to do so, or for public safety. Sequoia National Park has been managed this way for more than 30 years with excellent results. Sierra Club will appeal this plan and do everything we can to protect the giant Sequoia ecosystem and the plants and animals that rely on its health. Meanwhile, we need to get the word out that the Bush administration is failing to protect our natural legacy and the most magnificent of trees, the rare giant Sequoia. What You Can Do Please contact California's United States Senators. Ask them to insist that the Forest Service carry out in good faith the provisions of the proclamation that created the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The only logging that should be done is within 1/4 mile from communities, or to thin plantations. Prescribed fire should be the main tool to reduce fuels. If the Forest Service persists in intensive logging, our Senators should lead efforts to transfer responsibility for management of the Giant Sequoia National Monument to the National Park Service. Honorable Dianne Feinstein
Honorable Barbara Boxer
For more information contact:
(661) 821-2055 fontaine@lightspeed.net Sierra Club
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