|
|
Thousands of hikers, campers, horseback riders, anglers, hunters, and skiers visit the Monument each year, and these magnificent forests provide essential habitat for the California spotted owl, Pacific fisher, and myriad other plants and animals. Yet the Forest Service's new management plan calls for extensive logging under the guise of "fire protection." Sequoia National Park, adjacent to the Monument, provides a better sequoia management paradigm. The Park is successfully restoring its giant sequoia ecosystem through the careful use of prescribed fire and a conservative use of small-tree thinning. Over several decades the Park Service has made considerable progress in returning a natural fire cycle to the ecosystem and increasing sequoia regeneration while avoiding harmful logging. That same careful stewardship should be applied inside the Monument. That's why the Sierra Club is calling for the transfer of the Monument's management to the National Park Service. For more information on the Giant
Sequoia National Monument contact:
Photo courtesy NPS; used with permission. Up to Top |
