What you can do

The Giant Sequoia National Monument is under severe threat from the Bush Administration!

Sign our Sequoia Petition
“We the undersigned want an immediate end to US Forest Service plans for commercial logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument.”

Final National Monument Management Plan Released

The Final Plan calls for extensive timber cutting in this southern Sierra preserve. Under this Plan, the Forest Service is going to log more lands than the most invasive Alternative in their Draft Plan! By increasing the size of their so-called 'community threat zones' (which will likely leave the forest more flammable) they've given themselves more square miles to log. They have slicked up their rhetoric to say that they will first consider burning rather than tree removal to accomplish their goals. But their goals are to remove trees miles away from structures, taking trees up to 30" of any species including Sequoia. They do not honor the Proclamation, and don't understand how to manage a unique irreplaceable natural wonder!

Forest Service Thumbs its Nose at the Proclamation!

· The Final Plan for the Sequoia Monument Proves the Forest Service has no idea how to protect a Priceless National Resource!  They see the Monument as an excuse to log more acres 'for protection' than had the Proclamation never been made!!! The only 'improvement' from the Draft Plan is glib wordsmithing. VERDICT: Final Plan is worse than the Draft  Plan.

· Sequoia Monument Should be Managed by the PARK SYSTEM consistent with the Proclamation, not  Mismanaged by the  Forest Service.

·  Please  Write Your Congressional Representatives and the Governor TODAY! Ask them to Help Protect California's Spectacular Sequoia Monument

A Year ago, the Draft Plan for Sequoia  Monument selected the most anti-protective  Alternative as the 'preferred Alternative."  Now the Final Plan is out and the Final Plan is worse than the Draft!!!

NOTE: The above photo is  straight out of the Monument Final  Plan depicting the types of "management"  allowed for the Monument including inside groves:  heavy machinery, tremendous soil disturbance and  logging!

1. The Plan allows logging of about  7.5 Million Board Feet of trees per year- trees of  ANY species including  Giant Sequoias inside  Sequoia Groves:  not just  small trees, but trees  'generally' no larger  than 30 inches in diameter. Those large trees can be  VERY old!  Trees can have 10-20 annual growth rings per inch on harsh  growing sites.!  You do the math!!! And all of this in spite of up-to-date  research showing that the Monument needs MORE not fewer old trees if its ancient forest dependent  species are to survive

2. The Forest Service claims  this tree removal  over many square miles of Monument is for "community protection" and "restoration."  But, even the Forest Service's own Fire Experts tell us that about 200 feet of thinned forest near communities and use of flame  retardant roofs are the best community protection.  The drastic  manipulation  planned for the Monument lands can leave the forest MORE flammable  and will  stress species already in deep trouble from past industrial-style  logging! The Sierra Club is not against  tree removal in unique situations involving public safety far away from  towns.

3.  Adding insult to injury, all this logging will cost taxpayers 1.2 Million dollars MORE than a prudent thinning  adjacent to communities and reintroduction of fire to more remote forests.

Right now the Sierra Club and many other organizations are filing Administrative Appeals on the Plan by the March 1st deadline.  We will go to court if necessary.

For the long term, WHAT to DO?  

The Sequoia Monument Should Be Managed by the National Park Service.
This will be a long, long campaign, but we will succeed!  We start the journey today!

CONTACTS:

Urge the Governor to continue California's strong defense of this wonderful Monument!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
governor@governor.ca.gov
Ask your Representatives and Senators to use their influence to get Sequoia Monument Management into the capable hands of the National Park Service, not as a National Park, but as a National Monument managed consistent with the Proclamation that created it! The Giant Sequoia National Monument deserves the highest, best, and most responsible care possible

Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office  Building
Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841
feinstein.senate.gov/email.html

Senator Barbara Boxer  
United States Senate
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510 (202) 224-3553
boxer.senate.gov/contact

Your Representative:
U.S. House of Representatives,  
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 224-3121 TTY: (202) 225-1904

To Find Your Representative:
http://www.house.gov/writerep

Contact Us to get on our Sequoia Task Force Newsletter Mailing List and e-mail Alert List. Please send your name, address, and email address to sequoia@kernkaweah.sierraclub.org


 Sequoia Task Force, P.O. Box 3543, Visalia, CA 93278