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Clearcutting
is the most ecologically devastating logging method in common use.
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.
Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Attorney General Kamala
Harris. Encourage them to end clearcutting in California.
Tell them about the destruction of California’s forest legacy
by 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!
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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)
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Gov.
Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
(510) 628-0202
ONLINE
CONTACT
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Lt.
Gov. Gavin Newsom
State Capitol, Room 1114,
Sacramento, CA 95814
ONLINE
CONTACT
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Attorney
General Kamala Harris
Attorney General's Office
California Dept. of Justice
Attn: Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
(916) 322-3360
Toll free: (800) 952-5225
Global warming
info
ONLINE
CONTACT
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BACKGROUND:
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.
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:
• Contributing to global warming by removing a major natural
storage reservoir (standing vegetation) for carbon dioxide, and
by exposing forest soils to accelerated weathering.
• 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; and
• Degrading the state’s natural beauty, which in turn
affects tourism, recreation, retirement and property values.
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