P R E S S  R E L E A S E S

29 Members of Congress Urge Forest Service to End Logging in Giant Sequoia National Monument

Wednesday, October 25, 2006             

 On Friday, October 19, 2006, Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) and 28 other Members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to  Mike Johanns, Secretary of Agriculture, and Dale Bosworth, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, demanding a halt to logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument (GSNM).   The letter is a strong rebuke of the environmentally destructive and fraudulent Forest Service logging program in GSNM.  The letter cites several instances of illegal logging within the GSNM, including the hazard tree removal project that removed more than 200 large trees from the Monument’s most popular sequoia viewing spot, the Trail of 100 Giants, in violation to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The letter states that, “These logging operations are destroying the natural sequoia forest ecosystem of the GSNM, in direct violation of the spirit and the letter of the presidential proclamation creating the GSNM in 2000.”  To obtain a copy of the letter, click here.

 In a House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee hearing on March 9, 2006, in response to questions from Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), the Chief of the Forest Service Dale Bosworth gave numerous factually incorrect answers about the illegal logging occurring in GSNM.  President Clinton established the 327,000 acre Giant Sequoia National Monument in April 2000, stating that all logging projects should be phased out and the trees within its boundaries were not to be cut for timber.  Sequoias are the largest trees on earth, and are found naturally only in a small region on the western slopes in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada in California.  

Sequoia ForestKeeper’s mission is to protect and restore the ecosystems of the southern Sierra Nevada – including both Sequoia National Forest and the Giant Sequoia National Monument – through monitoring, enforcement, education, and litigation.   By acting as the eyes, ears, and voice of the forest, SFK seeks to improve land management practices, to promote land stewardship, to enforce existing laws and regulations, to implement public awareness programs, and to offer assistance to local land management agencies. 

Save America’s Forests is a coalition of citizens, groups, scientists, and businesses dedicated to research, education, and advocacy for the protection and restoration of the world's disappearing wild forest ecosystems and native biodiversity.  Founded in 1990, our primary goal in the U.S. is to establish new policies to protect the last wild areas in our national forests, including Ancient and roadless forests, and to permit only ecologically sustainable forestry outside those core areas. Internationally, we are working to protect rare, biodiverse tropical rain forests, as well as the rights of the indigenous people who live in those forests.

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SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST DECIDES TO FULLY PROTECT RESOURCES                                                                                                Conservation groups support decision

December 21, 2005

Kernville, CA- Conservation groups applaud the Sequoia National Forest and District Ranger Priscilla Summers for her withdrawal of a decision that would authorize livestock grazing on nearly 37,000 acres within the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The Tule River-West grazing decision was appealed in November by Sequoia ForestKeeper, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sequoia Forest Alliance, the Tule River Conservancy, the Kerncrest Audubon Society, the Sequoia Task Force of the Sierra Club, California Trout, RangeWatch, Western Watersheds Project, and Forest Guardians.

"We are grateful that the Forest recognized its responsibility to protect the extraordinary resources named in the Monument's Proclamation and withdrew this project. The reauthorization of livestock grazing in this area would have harmed the giant sequoias, the archeological and cultural sites, and the plants and animals that the special designation is supposed to preserve," said Ara Marderosian, the executive director of Sequoia ForestKeeper.

"We were concerned that the Forest was reissuing grazing permits without considering impacts to rare plants and animals, including the Pacific fisher, which depends on intact forest habitat, and the Springville clarkia, a threatened plant that is only found in the Tule River drainage," said Greta Anderson, botanist and Range Restoration Campaign Coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity. "The choice to withdraw the decision is significant in that it gives the Forest more time to make better plans."

Area residents were concerned that the protective measures used to protect fragile riparian areas were not sufficient, and that the decision did not do enough to monitor and mitigate livestock impacts. Of particular concern was the ability of alder trees to regenerate in damaged riparian areas, which the Forest's own botanist admitted could be compromised even at low levels of grazing. "I hope the Sequoia National Forest will take stronger actions to restore alders in the riparian areas," said Todd Shuman, a Tehachapi resident and representative of Western Watersheds Project.

Another concern of local people was the failure of the decision to address the increased risks of catastrophic wildfire posed by livestock grazing in the project area.  Area resident and representative of RangeWatch Jane Baxter stated "With residents near these grazing allotments very concerned about fire risk to their properties, we were disappointed that the Forest ignored addressing the relationship between grazing and fire cycles. Old thinking that grazing reduces fire risk has been challenged in recent scientific studies looking at 'the big picture.'"

Conservationists are hoping that some of the protective measures included in the now-withdrawn decision will take effect this season, including keeping cattle out of degraded areas and improving monitoring on the allotments. The Forest can implement these measures through annual operating plans, and the natural resources would benefit from early action.

The Giant Sequoia National Monument receives significant recreational use and approximately six million visitors come each year to sight-see, hike, photograph, and study the giant sequoias and the surrounding ecosystem. The conservation of the biological resources of the Monument is therefore also important to regional tourism and local businesses. 

Judge Halts Logging in Giant Sequoia National Monument, Environmental News Service

November 15, 2005

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2005/2005-11-15-09.asp#anchor4

SAN FRANCISCO, California, - A federal judge for the Northern District of California has blocked the U.S. Forest Service from moving ahead with a commercial logging project in Giant Sequoia National Monument in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Criticizing the agency for its "lack of thoroughness" and for its decision to evaluate potential consequences only after logging had begun, Judge Charles Breyer issued a preliminary injunction that halts a timber sale known as the Ice Project.

In his ruling the judge explained that the Forest Service had ignored extensive research on how commercial logging would affect wildlife in the region, including the findings of its sister agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"At the very least, a careful scientific analysis would likely entail more than a cursory evaluation of a sprinkling of the recent publications on topic, and would include some explanation for a conclusion that directly conflicts with that of the expert federal agency in this area," the judge wrote.

Giant Sequoia National Monument encompasses two-thirds of all the Sequoia redwoods in the world. The Bush administration's plan for Giant Sequoia as well as the Ice Project specifically includes logging of healthy trees of any species as big as 30 inches in diameter. Trees of that size can be 200 years old or more.

In the six years since the Ice Project was initially proposed, the project area became part of the Giant Sequoia National Monument, and future commercial logging was outlawed.

The Bush administration had tried to "grandfather" that project into the Monument boundaries, and the Forest Service began logging the area in September.

Conservation groups charge that the Forest Service has not taken a hard look at the likely environmental harm that the extensive logging will cause, utilizing the significant research and analysis conducted since the project was proposed in 1999.

Earlier this fall, Judge Breyer ruled that a similar timber sale, known as the Saddle Project, was illegal because it relied on outdated and incomplete data.

"Rather than more broadly addressing the judge's concerns, the Forest Service simply began allowing cutting and repeating the same mistakes somewhere else," said Pat Gallagher, director of the Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program.

Judge Breyer denied the Forest Service claims that the timber sale was urgently needed for public safety reasons. In light of the fact that the timber company "has waited six years to execute the contract because of unfavorable timber prices "an additional delay of less than one year cannot be devastating," the judge decided.

"The Forest Service has not shown that it is up to the task of safeguarding Giant Sequoia despite its status as one of the world's natural wonders," he said. "There is no excuse for the carelessness the Forest Service has exhibited in allowing logging this rare forest," Gallagher said.

Joining the Sierra Club as plaintiffs for this case are the Tule River Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, Earth Island Institute, and Sequoia ForestKeeper.

"Citizens groups have repeatedly been forced into court to get the Forest Service to follow the law," said Deborah Reames of Earthjustice who served as co-counsel in the case. "Protecting Giant Sequoia National Monument, a real gem of America's public lands, really shouldn't require such vigilant oversight by concerned citizens."

   SEQUOIA FORESTKEEPER FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST THE U.S.

    FOREST SERVICE

    Group Finds Fault with the Giant Sequoia National Monument Management Plan

  Sequoia ForestKeeper filed a lawsuit in conjunction with Earth Island Institute, Sierra Club, and the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign on January 27, 2005 in the Northern District Court of California in San Francisco.  The lawsuit challenges the United States Forest Service’s approval of the Monument Management Plan under the National Environmental Policy Act (‘NEPA’), the Antiquities Act and the National Forest Management Act (‘NFMA’).  The suit, if successful, will require the United States Forest Service to revise the Management Plan to provide better protection for the giant sequoia ecosystems.

To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

FOREST SERVICE WITHDRAWS BURNT RIDGE LOGGING

  March 8, 2004

  On March 5, 2004, the Forest Service withdrew Sequoia's Burnt    Ridge Restoration Project.

 U.S. District Court Judge, Robert E. Coyle, of Fresno, California, set a trial date of December 14, 2004 for the Burnt Ridge Restoration Project in the area of the 2002 McNally Fire in Sequoia National Forest.  

The court issued a Preliminary Injunction enjoining the Burnt Ridge Restoration Project after the court  concluded that this logging project violates the National Forest Management Act by failing to comply with the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment requirements for the management, protection, and recovery of Old Forest Emphasis areas, violates the Forest Service Categorical Exclusion (CE) regulations by the use of a CE for logging projects, and violates the National Environmental Policy Act by permitting a project which may have individual and cumulative significant impact on the environment to be approved without environmental document and public review.

To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

CONSERVATION GROUP APPEALS DECISION TO LOG IN GIANT SEQUOIA NATIONAL MONUMENT

March 2, 2004

On Monday, March 1, 2004, Sequoia ForestKeeper (SFK) appealed the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) for the Giant Sequoia National Monument released by the Forest Service on January 16, 2004.  Despite the protective intent of President Clinton’s April, 2000, proclamation that declared this area a National Monument, 1.5 million cubic feet (7.5 million board feet) of wood products will be removed from the Monument per year in the first decade; and 4,050 acres will be logged each year, despite the directive of the proclamation that “No portion of the Monument shall be considered to be suited for timber production.”   This management plan also puts sensitive species, such as the California Spotted Owl and Pacific Fisher, at greater risk by logging the old forest habitat they are dependant upon for survival.

To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

Forest Management Plan Does Not Protect Communities From Fire

February 8, 2004

The 2004 Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Framework (SNFP) has “goals -- protecting old trees, wildlife habitat, watersheds and communities”, but proposes to log general forest 1.5 miles from communities, and beyond, supposedly to protect communities. 

The Forest Service and the Bush Administration ignore the research of Jack Cohen Research Physical Scientist Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT, by specifying thinning miles around the community rather than immediately around each structure, which would protect the structure.  Thinning the forest miles from structures fails to protect structures because there can be spot fires ignited in the community and beside structures by flying embers carried from a great distance during fires storms.

 To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

 President Bush Signs Fatally-Flawed Wildfire Bill
December 3, 2003
Environmental Groups Promise to Expose Truth Behind Bush's Pro-Logging Agenda

Kernville, CA - Today, President Bush will sign into law the Healthy
Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HR 1904). Like the double-speak rhetoric offered by "Clear Skies" which relaxes pollution standards for air quality, this legislation leaves homes and communities vulnerable to wildfire, severely limits public participation, undermines the very heart of the National Environmental Policy Act and does not ensure protections for ancient, old-growth forests or roadless wildlands.
 

To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

Congress’ Forest Fire Deal Fails to Protect Communities

November 20, 2003

Members of the Senate and House announced yesterday that they reached agreement on a wildfire bill that ignores real solutions for Western communities and does next to nothing to protect homes and communities from wildfires. The conference agreement closely mirrors the Bush Administration's so-called "Healthy Forests Initiative". The result will be wildfire policy that effectively removes citizen participation, interferes with the judicial system, increases commercial logging, leaves old-growth and roadless forests vulnerable, all while failing to protect communities at risk.  Sequoia ForestKeeper strongly urges Congress to reject the bill.

To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

Restoration or Exploitation? 

Post-fire Logging in America's National Forests

November 18, 2003

Background

Post-fire logging and associated road building are billed as a way to help burned forests recover. A closer look reveals that this logging threatens water quality, destroys healthy mature stands of green timber and wastes millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Despite this fact, post-fire logging is currently being proposed in nearly every western state, and includes some of the largest logging operations ever proposed by the U.S. Forest Service.  These post-fire timber sale proposals make up nearly half the total logging volume planned for the entire National Forest System in 2003.

A new report, Restoration or Exploitation?  Post-fire Salvage Logging in America's National Forests, sheds light on the myriad ecological impacts this damaging form of logging causes to our natural heritage, but also the significant economic costs to the American taxpayer. 

To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

Senate Wildfire Legislation Fails to Protect Communities
October 29, 2003

The conservation community is united in expressing our deepest sympathies for lives lost and for families who have suffered immeasurable losses in Southern California.

Southern California fires are burning predominantly on non-federal land -- areas that are not addressed in the Administration's Healthy Forest Initiative and the current Senate legislation, which are without any guarantee that resources will be directed to the removal of small trees around homes.  Protecting peoples' lives, homes and communities must come first.

To read the entire press release, CLICK HERE.

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