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Clearcutting
is the most ecologically devastating logging method in common use.
In a clearcut, all of the vegetation in a timber harvest is cut
down and removed, burned or killed with herbicides.
Current California law allows the timber industry to clearcut vast
areas.
California’s forests are being clearcut at an increasingly
rapid pace. Since 1990 nearly 687 square miles of California forests
have been clearcut– more than three and a half times the surface
area of Lake Tahoe. One company alone (Sierra Pacific Industries,
based in Anderson) has been authorized to clearcut more than 250,000
acres in the Sierra Nevada in the past two decades.
Forest-protection advocates were incensed when on Apr. 17 a bill
to limit clearcutting in California, Assembly Bill 2926, introduced
by Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View), was
killed in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee following a lobbying
siege by Big Timber. This measure would have significantly restricted
the practice of clearcutting and encouraged more environmentally
friendly methods of timber harvesting such as selective cutting.
The timber companies knew that if this bill made it out of committee,
publicity on the issue would mount. And they know that when the
public sees pictures of devastating clearcuts, and learns that this
archaic practice is growing rapidly, the public will be outraged
and pose an unstoppable political force.
It’s time to raise the stakes and call upon the state’s
most powerful elected officials to support a ban on clearcutting.
Clearcutting is highly destructive of the natural environment. Its
effects include:
• Destroying wildlife habitat and corridors and endangering
native plants and animals;
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Increasing soil erosion and sedimentation in rivers and streams,
which increases the need for
costly water treatment, diminishes the capacity of the state’s
water storage facilities and harms wildlife;
• Boosting the risk of intense wildfires by converting cool,
moist forests into sun-baked slash
piles and later to fire-prone tree plantations;
• Degrading the state’s natural beauty, which in turn
affects tourism, recreation, retirement and property values; and
• Contributing to global warming by removing a major natural
storage reservoir (standing vegetation) for carbon dioxide, and
by exposing forest soils to accelerated weathering.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Ending the practice of clearcutting in California’s forests
is necessary and urgent. Our forests are being destroyed at an ever-increasing
pace. You can help us fight clearcutting by helping to elevate this
issue in the priorities of California’s elected officials.
Please write to the three top officials in the state– Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, and Attorney General
Jerry Brown. All three are likely to run for high office again within
the next two years. We must encourage them to begin now to build
into their campaigns a prominent and aggressive plan to end clearcutting
in California.
Tell them about the destruction of California’s forest legacy
by a few greedy timber companies that contribute only a small percentage
of revenue and jobs to the state. Let them know that this issue
is not going to go away until clearcutting in California has been
stopped!
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear _____________ :
The health of California’s environment and economy is being
jeopardized by clearcutting. Clearcutting harms native plants and
animals, contaminates water supplies, increases the risk of forest
fires, destroys California’s natural beauty, and contributes
to global warming.
It also damages recreation and tourism, hurting the rural counties
that depend on these industries.
Since 1990 nearly 687 square miles of California forests have been
clearcut– more than three and a half times the area of Lake
Tahoe.
To curb this ecologically devastating practice and encourage cleaner
and more responsible methods of timber harvesting, I urge you to
bring this issue directly to the state’s voters and express
your strong support for ending clearcutting.
Please help protect California’s remaining forests for future
generations.
Sincerely,
(Your name and address here)
Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-2841
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Lt.
Gov. John Garamendi
State Capitol, Room 1114,
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-8994 |
Jerry
Brown, Attorney
General of California
1300 I Street, Suite 1740
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916)-324-5437 |
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