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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Logging Suspended in America's Sierra Nevada Mountains

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

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12/05/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

Timber sales in the Sierra Nevada and nearby mountain ranges are to

be halted for three months, in response to a suit brought by

environmentalists on behalf of the protection of several endangered

species, including the spotted owl.  Lets hope that this is the first

step in major reductions of damaging commercial logging in the

region.  Either the United States is committed to protecting its

endangered species and threatened ecosystems, or it is not.  This is

the era of surging consumer demand for certified, sustainable forest

products based upon low-impact logging methods.  There is no need to

allow continued industrial forestry, based on greed and blatant

disregard for life and its ecological needs, to continue on our

public lands, or anywhere.  Halting industrial logging everywhere is

a pre-condition to moving towards global planetary sustainability. 

Further, this will require major increases in strictly protected

forests, management of all other forests under certifiably

sustainable low-impact methods, a commitment to forest restoration

across vast areas, and major reductions in consumption of forest

products.  Anything less will prove insufficient to conserving the

World's forests.  Lets get going...

g.b.

 

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ITEM #1

Title:  Sierra Nevada logging suspended - report     

Source:  Reuters, Copyright 2000

Date:  December 5, 2000  

                                                 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The US Forest Service is to halt timber sales

and most harvesting from forests in the Sierra Nevada and nearby

ranges, the Sacramento Bee reported.

 

The nearly three-month suspension, to begin Dec. 11, comes almost two

months after a coalition of environmentalists sued the Forest Service

in a bid to protect the habitat of the California spotted owl and the

Pacific fisher, a small, furry tree-dwelling weasel.                      

                                           

It will impact operations across 11 million acres (4.4 million

hectares) of California and Nevada forest.                         

 

A spokesman for the Forest Service was not available for comment.                     

                                           

"We strongly disagree with them on the merits of the lawsuit but we

felt it doesn't make sense to rush into court and shoot from the hip

on all these complex issues," Edmund Brennan, an assistant US

attorney, was quoted in the Bee on Saturday.                                  

 

Brennan said the logging suspension probably would not have much

economic impact this time of year, since winter snows and wet roads

curtail logging activity.                                  

 

In 1991, logging was shut down across millions of acres of national

forest by US District Judge William Dwyer of Seattle to protect

habitat for the northern spotted owl.                                       

 

The suspension is due to end on March 1, 2001.               

 

 

ITEM #2

Title:  Logging halted in Sierra Nevadas                                   

Source:  Associated Press, Copyright 2000

Date:  December 3, 2000  

 

The U.S. Forest Service is temporarily prohibiting timber sales and

logging on 11 million acres of national forests in the Sierra Nevada

Mountains.                                                  

                                                                    

The three-month suspension includes an area equal to 17,200 square

miles that stretches from the Sequoia National Forest north of Los

Angeles, along the mountains past Yosemite National Park and Lake

Tahoe, to the Modoc National Forest on the Oregon border.          

                                                                   

The suspension will take effect Dec. 11.                           

                                                                    

It comes in response to a lawsuit by environmentalists who want to

protect the habitat of several endangered species, including the

spotted owl. The suit was filed Oct. 13 with a federal judge in

Sacramento.                                                         

 

Forestry officials agreed to the suspension, reluctantly, in part out

of concern that the judge in the suit might repeat a 1991 federal

ruling that stopped logging in Pacific Northwest to protect the owl.

 

"We strongly disagree with them on the merits of the lawsuit," Edmund

Brennan, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the Sacramento Bee. "But we

felt it doesn't make sense to rush into court and shoot from the hip

on all those complex issues."

 

The suspension is scheduled to last until March 1, or until a

decision is announced on the "Sierra Nevada Framework." Forestry

officials say they will produce the framework, a broad restructuring

of management plans for the forests at issue, this month.

 

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including the Earth Island Institute, want

the federal judge to prohibit logging until the framework is

completed. They say no more logging should occur until protections

are in place, not least because the Forest Service acknowledges the

owl population is declining. Environmentalists also worry abut the

Pacific fisher, a weasel-like mammal already extinct across

much of the Sierra range.

 

The lawsuit resembles one that led to the landmark ruling by U.S.

District Judge William Dwyer of Seattle intended to protect the

spotted owl.

 

Brennan said the temporary suspension likely will not have an

economic impact on the industry, because logging is blocked by snow

and wet roads during the winter. Meanwhile, federal officials are

preparing a response to the environmentalists' lawsuit.

 

But the timber industry and its supporters say sawmills depend on

timber, and accuse the Forest Service of caving in to

environmentalists.

 

"It looks like another lose-lose situation," said Dan MacLean, a

spokesman for U.S. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Marysville. MacLean said the

suspension would hurt timber companies and the companies that use

wood to produce electricity.

 

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