ACTION ALERT! STOP CLEARCUTTING THE SIERRA NEVADA !

Dear Friends of Forests, 

Massive clearcutting is occurring all across the west slope of the Sierra Nevada at an unprecedented rate and scale. The situation is worsening and it is time for action.

On Sunday, June 19, the Sacramento Bee reported how clearcutting by Sierra Pacific Industries in the Battle Creek watershed near Lassen National Forest is threatening a $128 million salmon and steelhead restoration project, the largest of its kind in the nation. With Cal Fire and other regulators completely failing to do their job, local community residents have had to step in to monitor the logging impacts and have filed lawsuits to stop the rampant clearcutting altogether. They need our support.

Read the article here: 

Troubled Waters of Battle Creek by Matt Weiser  Sunday, June 19, 2011

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/19/3711308/troubled-waters-of-battle-creek.html

Please take a moment today and call and/or email Governor Brown and Natural Resources Secretary Laird to demand a moratorium today on further clearcutting in the Battle Creek watershed. An  investigation also must be conducted as to why logging impacts in the region were not evaluated in the publicly funded salmon and steelhead recovery plan.   

Here is a sample message:

"I am outraged that Sierra Pacific Industries is being allowed to sabotage the $128 million, taxpayer funded salmon and steelhead restoration project in the Battle Creek Watershed. I urge you to stop SPI from clearcutting in the Battle Creek watershed immediately and require a comprehensive watershed assessment of the impacts of their clearcutting and herbicide applications. Clearcutting and plantation forestry is converting the forests of Northern California into highly flammable, sterile tree farms lacking all the features of a natural forest, while discharging sediment and herbicides into our streams and rivers. Industrial clear cutting is not right for California and it should be stopped now, before more species face threats of extinction. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and recovery plans are expensive to produce. Future generations of Californian’s will thank you.”  

Governor Jerry Brown

State Capitol Building , Suite 1173

Sacramento , CA 95814

(916) 445-2841

Email him through his website at http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php

John Laird, Secretary of the California State Natural Resources Agency

1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311

Sacramento , CA 95814

(916) 653-5656

secretary@resources.ca.gov

You can also learn more about the organization Battle Creek Alliance featured in the Bee article, at www.thebattlecreekalliance.org.

Also, if you can, please send a letter to the Sacramento Bee as well. You can submit a letter online here:

http://www.sacbee.com/2006/09/07/19629/submit-letters-to-the-editor.html

Here is what Katherine Evatt, President of the Foothill Conservancy, wrote:

Matt Weiser’s excellent article on Battle Creek pointed out a problem that exists across the Sierra and southern Cascades: Sierra Pacific Industries’ clearcutting is at total odds with state, federal and local conservation efforts and investment.

While communities and agencies work to reduce the risk of damaging fires, SPI is logging large, fire-resistant trees and replacing them with highly flammable pine plantations. While PG&E, conservation groups, and wildlife agencies invest millions to restore rivers, fish habitat, and frog populations, SPI is dumping millions of gallons of herbicide in the watersheds and creating huge erosion risks. While the state works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, SPI is releasing huge amounts of carbon by deep-ripping forest soils.

This is not enlightened forest management. It’s forest liquidation, a late 19^th century robber-baron approach to resource management. And it’s putting the public’s wildlife, fisheries, and water quality at risk. –Katherine Evatt