By Anna Schier / San Diego Patch / March 1, 2024
Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop planned logging projects following fires at Giant Sequoia National Monument.
The lawsuit opposing the commercial logging projects was brought in the Northern District of California by the Sierra Club, John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute and Sequoia ForestKeeper. The projects proposed by the U.S. Forest Service would be on 13,000 acres that burned in the 2020 Castle Fire and the 2021 Windy Fire, which killed many giant sequoia trees, according to a prepared statement from the Sierra Club dated Feb. 22.
The projects could see tens of thousands of trees fall, according to Courthouse News Service, which reported the forest service said it would leave most downed trees away from the giant sequoias that are larger and that hand tools would be used.
A forest service spokesperson did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from Patch.
“Giant sequoias are some of the most iconic trees in the United States, and they should be preserved for generations to come,” Alex Craven, Sierra Club forest campaign manager, said in a prepared statement. “Simply put, these projects as proposed won’t help us achieve that. Moreover, they threaten the vulnerable and endangered species who call these landscapes home.”
Heavy machinery would damage what is both a protected landscape and a habitat for endangered and threatened species such as the Pacific fisher, California spotted owl and a wolf pack, according to the Sierra Club. The projects would also allow timber companies to profit off logging in an area where such activity is intended to be prohibited, the organization said.
The giant sequoia is the world’s largest tree and only grows naturally in a 60-mile band in the western Sierra Nevada mountain range, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Giant sequoias can grow taller than 300 feet and be more than 20 feet wide.
The groups behind the lawsuit are arguing that the service broke the National Environmental Policy and National Forest Management acts and that new assessments should be done for the projects, according to Courthouse News Service.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Let the trees fall naturally, hasn’t the FS heard the term ‘nurse trees?’ The loggers will destroy the area with their machines. Period. That’s what happens, and I LIVE in a never-ending logging county. The mountains I live in look like a dog with mange in every direction, huge square patches missing with a row of trees left standing across ridgelines until storms blow them down. It’s insane. And it’s gotten worse over the 20 years I’ve been here because, in 20 years, the patches are still bare.
And the FS lets them do it. Remember when clearcutting was outlawed in the 1970s? Lies.
When my youngest stepdaughter was offered scholarships she chose Wildlife Biology as a major, and Humboldt State U as the school. Then one of her professors told his class that first year that if they continued the Major, most would be either working for logging companies or working for the Forest Service that works for logging companies. She switched Majors and ended up at UC Davis on scholarship to be a Veterinary surgeon and skipped directly from graduating with her BS to the PHD program. With her older sister an FS wildlands firefighter, she made an informed choice.
Never trust the FS leadership because, in reality, they work for corporations who own the politicians and control the Service.
sealintheSelkirks