BEC Byline: California Forests

This article first appeared in May 2001. It is posted here for archival purposes. Some material on this page may be dated.

[In 2000] Sierra Pacific Industries announced its intention to clearcut over one million acres of Sierra Nevada forestland. Clearcutting is going as planned and the upper watersheds of Deer, Chico, and Butte Creeks are looking like a patchwork quilt from the air. Drive up Highway 32 and you'll see a small sampling of what most of the ridges of the Sierra look like. Californians are paying dearly for this horrendous management of private forests. Our taxes pay the California Department of Forestry millions in administrations costs, we pay in increased pollution of our waterways, we pay to fight fires often caused by poor logging practice, and we pay again to restore watersheds and endangered species. Clearcutting requires herbicides to be sprayed yearly for decades. There are no "safe" herbicides; many are known carcinogens that wash into our drinking water downstream.

Finally, in March [2001], Senator Sher started to examine this pressing issue in hearings in Sacramento. Ecological and economic experts on the Sierra shared their findings about a plan for sustainable forestry and the need for changes in the logging practices in California. Unfortunately, Governor Davis has turned a deaf ear to arguments for reasonable logging. His administration has made it clear they have no plans to change current practice. In fact, the Board of Forestry is more often weakening current rules, clearly showing that our governor is bought and paid for by the Forest products industry.

Senator Sher and Senator Kuehl are introducing 2 new bills in the next weeks in an attempt to reform logging practice. Senator Kuehl's bill (SB 234) would revamp the qualifications for membership on the Board of Forestry, which is now weighed heavily toward the timber industry. Scientists, fisherman and union reps would have a place on the board. Senator Sher's bill (SB 540) would set strong standards for salmon protection in forested watersheds. Coho salmon populations are at just 1% of their former numbers, thanks in large part to industrial logging on California's North Coast. Please call your senators and urge them to support these bills when they come up for a vote.

Also of interest is Sierra Pacific Industries recent press release stating that they are reducing their planned clearcuts by 70% due to public concerns. The reality is that they are calling these clearcuts by a different name "Variable retention units". They claim that now they will be leaving 1-5% of the trees in a typical 20-acre unit, which is exactly what they have been doing already. They also claim that they are going to delay clearcutting timber stands next to clearcuts for 10 years, rather than the 5-year cycle allowed in the Forest Practice Rules. Again, in reality, this is what they are already doing. The new SPI policy does absolutely nothing to provide better buffers for flowing streams (now you can log literally IN the stream), or to reduce the use of controversial herbicides, or to spare large oaks or conifers. In reality, there has been no change to SPIs policy except the language they use, which is another ploy to mislead the public.

Several groups are poised to begin a concentrated effort to reform the California Forest Practice rules and to expose the industry and the State Board for providing poor protection for our watersheds, wildlife and water quality.

This column originally appeared in May 2001 in the Chico Examiner.