April 6, 2000
By BART JANSEN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Sierra Club on Wednesday began delivering 600,000 postcards from across the country urging Congress and President Clinton to extend protection for giant sequoias in California.
The event came as both sides braced for a showdown over the proposal to limit logging and off-road vehicles near the trees that are outside national parks. Logging non-sequoias is permitted in Sequoia National Forest and elsewhere.
Clinton asked for an Agriculture Department recommendation within weeks about whether to designate 400,000 acres of the Sierra as Sequoia National Monument. Supporters say cutting trees around the sequoias threatens their survival.
"The public comes to the forest to enjoy peace, quiet and tranquility," said Joe Fontaine, head of the Sierra Club's sequoia task force.
"They don't come to the forest to drive through clear cuts or dodge logging trucks when they're looking for the magnificent sequoia groves or places just to relax and enjoy the forest," he said. "They don't come to be assaulted by squads of roaring, ear-piercing off-road vehicles."
The Sierra Club has suggested creating the monument to coincide with Earth Day on April 22. The White House had no comment about the postcards, which will be divided and delivered over the next few days to the White House and party leaders in the House and Senate.
Meanwhile, the House Resources Committee approved a bill Wednesday from three California lawmakers that would require an 18-month National Academy of Sciences study about how to protect the trees, which can live up to 3,000 years and reach 100 feet around at the base. It next goes to the full House, although a vote date has not been scheduled.
Administration officials say they would recommend Clinton veto the bill if it reaches him in time.
"This is a phony issue drummed up for election-year politics," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, who sponsored the bill with Reps. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, and Cal Dooley, D-Hanford. "We're going to fight it to the very end."
The lawmakers agreed the sequoias must be protected but said preventing logging of non-sequoias could cost $8 million in timber industry salaries. They said walling off vast stretches of forest is unnecessary because sequoias occupy only 19,345 acres.
Critics of the proposal have organized rallies Saturday morning in Los Angeles, Fresno and Pleasanton.
Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said the Forest Service and timber industry acted irresponsibly for decades in allowing the decline of sequoias. A monument could allow the species to thrive, rather than merely survive, he said.
"Now what we've got to do is stop the last few remaining obstructionists in the Congress of the United States from derailing this magnificent plan," Miller said.
Less than 10 percent of the Sierra's ancient forest is intact outside of national parks, according to the Sierra Club.
The monument proposal would restrict logging and road-building in designated areas between and among 70 groves of the giant trees. About half the groves already are protected within Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park.
Under the 1906 Antiquities Act, Clinton can create a monument by executive order without congressional approval. Details won't be known until Clinton issues an order, but monuments typically prohibit mining and logging while allowing grazing and recreation.
Giant sequoias grow only in the Sierra and typically are larger in diameter than related coastal redwoods, which grow along the Pacific from Big Sur to the Oregon border. Coastal redwoods grow taller, but sequoias typically have twice the trunk volume.
The General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park is the world's largest tree by volume, nearly 275 feet high and more than 102 feet around at its base.
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