Club and allies halt Sequoia Monument logging

The Sierra Club, along with other environmental organizations, was granted a preliminary injunction stopping logging on 2,000 acres within the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Attorney Pat Gallagher, director of environmental law for the Sierra Club, led the rescue of the Monument, where logging was being allowed to proceed five years after the Monument was created. The so-called Saddle Fuels Reduction Project was really about removing big trees, not fire control, and would have taken more than 5 million board feet of big timber between 12 and 30 inches in diameter. While many big pine and fir were logged prior to the issuance of the August temporary restraining order, most of the area was spared! The project directly bordered but did not enter five groves of majestic sequoias.

There are several other timber sales "left over" from before the Monument's creation and similar in impact to the Saddle Project. The Sierra Club is deliberating further action.

The Forest Service has not taken seriously its responsibility to protect this wondrous forest, and the Club urges that management of the Giant Sequoia National Monument be transferred to Sequoia National Park, which has a solid track record of managing sequoia forests for true restoration and protection.

WhatYouCanDo

Write to your representative at:

House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515;

and to the supervisor of Sequoia National Forest at:

1500 W. Grand Ave.
Porterville, CA 93257.

Urge that no trees over 12 inches in diameter be cut in Sequoia National Monument and that management of the Monument be transferred to Sequoia National Park.

For more information and the latest updates on Sequoia National Monument, visit www.sierraclub.org/ca/sequoia/

Carla Cloer, chair, Sierra Club Sequoia Task Force