Bush Puts Giant Sequoias on the chopping block

[G_j]

www.BushGreenwatch.org

www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000064.php
3-2-4

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.
http://www.sierraclub.org/ca/sequoia/monument/fs_bushwacks_gsnm.html

<3> "Forest Service Proposes to Log Sequoia National Monument," The Wilderness Society.
http://www.wilderness.org/WhereWeWork/California/sequoiamonument- logging.cfm

<4> Ibid.

<5> Action Alert, Sequoia ForestKeeper.
http://www.sequoiaforestkeeper.org/currentprojects.html

[asinton]

1. Sequoias need fire to propagate

Giant Sequois drop their seeds after a fire, which clears the ground for their saplings. It probably ajdusts the ph as well. They have thick bark to withstand forest fires. There are scars to show their survival of previous fires.

I find it hard to believe that anyone familiar with forestry doesn't know this.

[Andy_Stephenson]

2. Bushco is not familiar with

forestry. They are greed driven...

[mikehiggins]

3. They know. They just don't give a damn. eom

[Poiuyt]

4. Can't argue with bush on this one

Cutting down all the trees WILL prevent forest fires. There's a parking lot in my city that hasn't had a single forest fire.

[yellowcanine]

9. Very good point - A lot of villages in Vietnam were saved from the Commies

in much the same way. Might have some possibilities for the endangered species as well - if we shoot them we won't have to spend money protecting them.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. Is he trying to rally our base?

Can't do a better job than he's been doing.

[yellowcanine]

10. Shrub is a "uniter", remember?

I do believe the Democrats are united. Good job, shrub!

[Lorien]

6. Those monuments belong to every American

Not some %#@&*^! mill! Talk about private interests over people!(And no, this isn't about "protecting jobs". If * cared about that he wouldn't ship them all overseas)! Humanity is hardwired for nature; we need to immerse ourselves in little unspoiled pockets of it from time to time. Our survival in more ways than one depends on it's preservation.

One thing I've always wondered about;how can people who claim to revere God have such complete contempt for His creation? The Bible commands Stewardship of the earth, not it's destruction.

[G_j]

7. stunning

180 clearcuts..
GW and his merry band of Orcs seem to enjoy the rape and pillage of our mother.
There are not words to describe these people.

[sweetheart]

8. I wonder myself

The 30 inch rule pretty much only cuts small trees, and thins the
forest.

I've hiked around the canyons away from the great redwoods years back, and i remember noticing how fire could catch in those hot
dry canyons and be virtually unstoppable. Then people get involved
and want to stop "NATURAL" fires... and they stop them too long only
creating a massive explosive fire when it finally goes.

Given they've already messed up by blocking the fires, it might
make sense to selectively cut to prevent a fire taking out the redwoods. That the seeds need fire to open must be considered
that a too-hot fire will burn the redwoods down anyways. The thick
bark "helps" but does not render those huge redwoods fireproof.

I just hope that if they are cutting, that giant "redwoods" of
any size are not cut.

.. just that does not jive with the word "clearcut"... unless the
cuts are to create wide firebreaks.

[Hammie]

11. 30 inches?

For a Sequoia, that is a sapling. It seem highly unlikely that "Ancient" Sequoia will be found among the population of trees that is 30 inches and smaller.

Anyway, you can read the text of the proposal here http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/gsnm/feis/chap2/chap2.pdf

Highlights:

Amount of road to remain essentially unchanged, with existing roads that exhibit adverse environmental impact to be repaired, moved, or closed.

Gaps in forest created by mechanical thinning (logging) to be less than 2 acres with a target of less than 1 acre and a total area of less than 5%.


It hardly reads like a plan to raze the Ancient Sequoia to me.

[Moderator]

12. G_j

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
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Thank you

DU Moderator