The Bush administration announced its plans to alter the logging limits in February 2003. This action set into motion events that threatened to roll back years of hard-won protections for California’s forests and endanger wildlife and the public drinking water supply.
The Bush administration proposed eliminating old-growth forest and wildlife protections and allowing timber companies to more than double logging levels in the Sierra’s publicly owned forests.
The Bush proposal also would increase logging of large trees in remote parts of the forests. But Environment California Research & Policy Center findings indicate the focus should be on increasing protection in the zone around homes and communities.
Exposing false claims
Throughout 2003, we worked to counter the Bush administration’s false
claims that its proposal would protect against forest fires. While the
administration claims that its goal is fire risk reduction, the
announced revisions actually would weaken the Forest Service’s ability
to reduce forest “fuel”—dead trees and brush that promote or worsen
forest fires.
In fact, Sierra’s giant Sequoias have endured dozens of fires during their lifetime.
At a September 9, 2003 news conference in Sacramento, Environment California Research & Policy Center staff cited overwhelming scientific evidence that gutting the current Sierra Framework’s protections would severely harm the forests and endangered wildlife and fail to protect residents from forest fires.
Then-Resources Secretary Mary Nichols, a representative from Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office, and coalition partners joined us at the conference to voice support for the protections and to express concern about the legality of the proposed rollbacks.
We also took this opportunity to present mailbags stuffed full of 30,000 letters and public comments from Californians to the U.S. Forest Service. The correspondence expressed support for continuing protection of the Sierra Nevada.
Unfortunately, by the end of 2004, the Bush administration had rolled back protections for the Sierra.
Working to reinstate protections
In 2004, we continued to draw attention to the Bush administration’s wrong-headed plan.
On January 23, 2004, the day the Bush administration announced the plan, the San Jose Mercury News published an article on the new logging plan and quoted Environment California Research & Policy Center staff. On January 30, 2004, the Los Angeles Times editorialized against the Bush administration’s plan for the Sierra.
Reports continue forest fight
To further call attention to the Bush plan for forest destruction, we released two reports in 2004.
In April, we released California’s Environment At Risk: The Local Impacts of the Bush Administration’s Environmental Policies, which revealed the Bush plan for all of California’s protected forests.
Under the plan, wilderness areas and national parks alike are vulnerable to chainsaws, bulldozers and mining rigs.
In November 2004, we released Our Natural Legacy: The Value of America’s Roadless National Forests. According to the report, 60 million Americans rely on national forests for their drinking water.
The report also included details on the wildlife that live in America’s wild forests and showed that drinking water from California’s forests alone is worth $993 million annually.
Environment California Research & Policy Center will continue to work to protect California’s forests in the coming years.
