Logging the Sequoias : Insanity or Greed?

The Sierra Club issued a press release in January, decrying the administration's plan to log in the Sequoia National Forest, as part of the implausibly named Healthy Forest Initiative.  From the release:

Giant Sequoia National Monument boasts two-thirds of all the Sequoia redwoods in the world, with most of the remainder found in the adjacent National Park. The popularity and awe-inspiring beauty of the Sequoia forest and its wildlife led President Bill Clinton permanently protect the forest as a National Monument under the Antiquities Act. Earlier, President George Bush Sr. had proclaimed the Sequoia groves off limits to commercial logging.

Earlier this month, the Bush administration officially reversed those policies by finalizing plans to allow what amounts to commercial logging in the Monument, including the prized Giant Sequoia groves. The administration's plan would allow 7.5 million board feet of timber to be removed annually from the Monument, enough to fill 1,500 logging trucks each year. This policy would include logging of healthy trees of any species as big as 30 inches in diameter or more. Trees that size can be as much as 200 years old.

Last week, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit to block the Bush Administration’s plan to permit commercial logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument. “The giant sequoias are more than part of the California landscape,” said Lockyer. “They are part of us. They stand as majestic guideposts to our history and treasured symbols of our state."

The administration's argument was positioned in a speech by Bush on May 20, 2003, where the President said:

Wildfires in unnaturally overgrown forest burn hotter and spread faster than normal fires.  And their effects on the environment can be devastating.  The fires sterilize soils and trigger soil erosion.  They decimate our forests, killing even giant Sequoias that have survived centuries of smaller fires.

So "thinning" the forests leads to healthy forests, no?  Well...no.  First of all, "thinning" is logging.  Let's not use a word that sounds environmentally friendly.   Secondly, this is not about protecting our forests, its about opening up roads and allowing logging on previously protected land.  This is not sustainable logging, this is the incredibly short-sighted and systematic destruction of old-growth forest. 

Bush's argument that we have to protect the forests from fires by cutting down trees is bogus.  The Yosemite Association says this:

Many species of plants in fire-prone habitats have evolved special adaptations and survival strategies that help them persist and thrive with fire. In fact, without fire, many of these species are unable to regenerate and compete effectively within their community.

Sierra sequoia mixed-conifer forests are a typical example of a fire-adapted forest complex. The dominant tree species have elevated canopies and thick fire-resistant bark. They can easily survive low-intensity surface fires that were common in past centuries. Giant sequoias, for example, have bark up to half a meter thick, great height (up to 90 meters), cones that open to drop their seeds following heating by fires, and seedlings that require mineral soil and abundant light to survive.

And the Sequoia and Kings Canyon’s “Fire Information Cache” web site says this (PDF):

Episodic surface fires have swept through giant sequoia groves for many centuries. Nearly all of the largest and oldest sequoias have huge basal fire scars that bear witness to these ancient flames. Although park naturalists have long accepted that fire was a frequent visitor to sequoia groves before arrival of Anglo-American settlers around 1850, real concern about negative effects of suppressed natural fire regimes did not arise until the early 1960s. Ecologists noticed that there were few sequoia seedlings or saplings within the groves, while the density of other shade-tolerant tree species was increasing. Research suggested that elimination of episodic fires during the past century had also eliminated necessary conditions for sequoia regeneration; sequoia seeds germinate and establish best in mineral soils exposed by surface burns.

So what you can do to protect an incredibly treasured national monument?  Start by signing the Sierra Club's petition to save the Sequoias.  Tell friends.  Post a blog story.  Write the local paper.  It shouldn't matter if you live in Ojai or Ohio - logging the sequoias is an incredibly bad idea no matter if its greedy or insane.