• Throughout California’s iconic Sierra Nevada, Sierra Pacific Industries is clearcutting forests, destroying wildlife habitat, and contributing to climate change. State officials can stop the destruction, but they need to know you care.
• Unfortunately, the story of “The Lorax” is coming true in California’s forests today.

Please join us in calling on Governor Jerry Brown to stop clearcutting in the Sierra and the rest of California today. Here are two great petitions you can sign!

Petition 1: Please sign the petition to Governor Jerry Brown, which says: “Massive clearcutting in the Sierra and Cascades is destroying wildlife habitat, threatening water quality, replacing diverse forests with highly flammable tree farms and contributing to climate change. Please act today to stop clearcutting in California’s forests.”
Click linkhere to sign the petition: http://signon.org/sign/governor-brown-stop-clearcut?source=c.em.cp&r_by=2822236

Petition 2: Tell Governor Brown to Speak for the Trees! – Sign the Sierra Club Petition to Stop Clearcutting California’s Forests.

California’s forests and streams are under attack. We are calling for forest guardians LIKE YOU to fight back!It’s time to make clearcutting a thing of the past or our water, cliimate, and wildlife will not last! California’s forests provide 80 percent of our state’s water supplies. As the lungs of the Earth, they are our first line of defense against climate change.

Help us generate 10,000 signatures to make forest protection a priority for the Governor’s administration. Click link here to sign the petition http://action.sierraclub.org/forestguard

Thanks!

Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch is proud to again be the local host of the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival on
Tour for the eighth consecutive year. Check our website, www.sierrafilmfest.org for a schedule and preview of the upcoming films.

Our second event is on Thursday, April 19 2012, at Newsome Harlow, 403 Main Street Murphys, CA (209-728-9817). The evening begins with Thai One On Dinner at The Kitchen at Newsome Harlow at 6pm. Can’t make dinner? Wine tasting reception starts at 7pm. Films screen in the courtyard around 8:15
pm. Free.
RSVP at www.sierrafilmfest.org to hold a seat and bring warm clothes and blankets. Dinner reservations must be made directly through The Kitchen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ruRMJN50x0&feature=related

Widespread clearcutting in the Sierra Nevada by Sierra Pacific Industries is destroying an estimated 90% plus of this critical resource in clearcuts. The majority of oaks and other hardwoods are being cut, bulldozed, sprayed with herbicides, or otherwise damaged or killed by these operations.

Oaks are critical for food and cover by a large population of bird and mammal species. Productivity of deer and other species has been directly related to acorns.

Oaks provide structural habitat for concealment, resting, nesting, denning, and birthing. Their flowers provide nectar and pollen that are essential for the survival of countless species of butterflies, bees, and beetles

Take action now! Help EPFW end clearcutting and destruction of oaks in the Sierra.

• Go to http://action.sierraclub.org/stopclearcutting to ask Governor Brown and Resources Secretary John Laird to stop the clearcutting. Or call Governor Jerry Brown 916-445-2841 and John Laird at 916-653-5656.
• Join or donate to Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch, supporting its work for responsible logging, healthy watersheds. Call us for more information 795-5569 or email us at epfw@goldrush.com

The  article “California logging industry’s $18 million state subsidy”
by Matt Weiser (mweiser@sacbee.com) can be found at >>http://m.sacbee.com/sacramento/db_98825/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=eNW0P9Hm&full=true#display

The report noted that “California taxpayers subsidize the logging industry to the tune of $18 million a year, according to testimony at an Assembly hearing Tuesday.The key question before the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee was whether any of that subsidy is justified.”

The article further noted that “The industry pays state agencies about $550,000 a year in permitting fees. That means the state general fund subsidizes the balance of more than $18 million a year. In comparison, the state plans to close 70 parks next year because it doesn’t have $11 million in the general fund to keep them operating.”

Environmental groups testified that that clearcut logging causes habitat loss and water pollution and that the industry should cover all of the state’s cost to police those problems.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – September 21 – A coalition of conservation and sportsmen’s groups formally notified the state of California today that the state’s management program for timber harvest is out of compliance with laws designed to protect the state’s fish and wildlife. Recent changes in program funding have largely eliminated California Department of Fish and Game review of decisions by the California Department of  Forestry (Cal Fire), the state agency that oversees logging in the state. Both Fish and Game and Cal Fire are housed in the state’s Resources Agency.

In October 2010, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed Fish and Game funding for the majority of staff positions that review timber harvest; the funding has yet to be reinstated. As a result, Cal Fire no longer regularly consults with Fish and Game over the environmental impacts of  ogging, as is required by state law. In the Sierra Nevada, for example, Fish and Game involvement has been completely eliminated despite the fact that widespread clearcutting continues to occur.

“Logging can cause severe harm to California’s wildlife, including species such as coho salmon and steelhead trout,” said Justin Augustine with the Center for Biological Diversity. “That’s why state law requires Cal Fire to consult with the Department of Fish and Game: to make sure that our fish and wildlife receive the protections they need and deserve.

Cal Fire’s timber-harvest review program is currently exempted from certain provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act because the program is considered “functionally equivalent” to the normal “environmental impact report” process that most projects go through. But in order to maintain its “functionally equivalent” status, Cal Fire is required to consult with Fish and Game regarding the impacts of logging plans on fish, wildlife and rare plants.

“We have tried hard to maintain a fig leaf of funding for consultation on THPs by the Department of Fish and Game,” said Michael Endicott with the Sierra Club. “But even legislative budget proposals that would provide interim funding without taking any money from the General Fund have been removed by the past two governors. It is time for the governor and the agencies to come up with proposals that will assure full participation in THP reviews.”

“The state cannot slash funding for DFG’s review of timber harvest plans on one hand and then pretend that DFG is meaningfully participating in timber harvest reviews and protecting fisheries on the other,” said California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance Executive Director Bill Jennings.

In a letter to California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club California, Forests Forever, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Protection Information Center, Ebbetts Pass Forestwatch, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, Central Coast Forest Watch, Battle Creek Alliance, and the Northern California Council, Federation of Fly Fishers called for either a restoration of Fish and Game oversight of Cal Fire’s timber harvest review or a cancellation of Cal Fire’s functional equivalency status under the California Environmental Quality Act.

At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature – to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law, and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive.

Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) has already had timber plans for clearcut-type logging covering about 16,000 acres – equivalent to 25 square miles – of forest approved in Calaveras County.  You can see what has already been clearcut on a satellite map made for EPFW at www.sierraforest.org. (For more information on the specific clearcutting logging projects mentioned here view this pdf.)

• Sierra Pacific Industries is currently clearcutting even more this year

Two plans in the Mokelumnne River watershed, Swamped and South Rim, include 722 clearcut acres, over 1.1 square miles.[i]

Another ongoing logging plan in Calaveras County is the Big Buck THP, located about 8 miles southeast of West Point, and involving a total of 1,375 acres of selection and group selection patch cutting.

CAL FIRE recently approved the Wilson Lake logging plan containing 354 acres of clearcut-type logging three miles east of West Point on Winton Road in the Bear Creek watershed.

• Sierra Pacific Industries continues to submit new plans to clearcut even more

The Blueberry logging plan, including 318 acres of clearcutting, is now being reviewed for approval by CAL FIRE.  This plan is located 16 miles west of West Point on Winton Road and is in the lower Blue Creek watershed, an area already damaged from aggressive clearcutting as shown on the Calaveras map at www.sierraforest.org  (Winton Road is marked on this map)

The most clearcut logging plan submitted by  Sierra Pacific Industries is  4-11-014 CAL (Porkchop) it totals  500 acres. Estimated public comment deadline: 10/16/11.
It contains 73% clearcut, 14% selection, 10% no-harvest, 4% shelterwood logging. Some of the timber harvest units are near Winton Rd., (see link in paragraph above) but most of them are closer to Forest Creek, immediately to the south.

Some of the clearcutting is, according to the map, probably within 30-40 yards of the creek. Usually, clearcutting to within this distance of a watercourse, portends increased erosion and an increase in creek sedimentation, especially during significant rain events.

This THP is generally SE of Sacramento about 6 miles NE of West Point, CA. It is in a mid elevation watershed from 3,800 to 4,980 feet that has been hammered by past SPI clearcut logging. Given the high percentage of clearcutting and over story removal proposed, it is likely that SPI is removing whatever habitat remains (trees up to 60″ dbh and 200 years

• Take action now! Help EPFW end clearcutting in the Sierra.
  • Go to http://action.sierraclub.org/stopclearcutting to ask Governor Brown and Resources Secretary John Laird to stop the clearcutting.
  • Go to http://www.pelicannetwork.net  and www.battlecreek.org to find out how clearcutting is threatening a salmon spawning stream and historic salmon restoration project, and to send your comments about this special watershed to Governor Brown and Secretary Laird.
  • Join or donate to Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch at  www.forestwatchers.org, supporting its work for responsible logging, healthy watersheds. Call us for more information 795-5569 or email us at epfw@goldrush.com

Background on clearcutting in Calaveras County

Sierra Pacific Industries has said it intends to clearcut 2/3 of the 1.7 million acres of California forest land. This is well over one million acres – over 1,750 square miles – of clearcutting in the Sierra Nevada.

SPI owns 74,000 acres of land in Calaveras County (shown in red in Figure 1, below).  This means 50,000 acres of forest crucial to our lives and our communities are being clearcut and converted from diverse, natural forests into tree plantations.  They are unlikely to ever again become rich biological forests, especially since SPI’s plan to is continue clearcutting these areas every 60-80 years.

• Sierra Pacific Industries is currently clearcutting in the Tuolumne Game Refuge and in the watersheds of Beaver Creek, which flow through Calaveras Big Trees State Park.  This is in the SPI logging plan called Cow Camp – SPI will use clearcut type logging on a total of 249 acres  in this State Game Refuge.  They will use various herbicides to prevent native plants from growing back.
• Grizzly Meadow logging plan – involves 35 acres of selection logging, 47 acres of clearcutting, and 545 acres of “alternative visual retention” even-age treatments closely resembling clearcutting. Out of 628 acres designated for logging treatments in this Griswold Creek watershed, 592 acres of those acres are outside the stream corridor and are planned for aggressive removal of everything except, at most, 4-8 trees per acre.
• Granite logging plan, located near Cherry Lake in Tuolumne County, would allow 443 acres of selection logging, but also 165 acres of clear-cutting, and 154 acres of Alternative Prescription (Visual Retention), for a total of 319 acres of clearcut-like logging treatments.
• Take action now! Help EPFW end clearcutting in the Sierra.
  • Go to http://action.sierraclub.org/stopclearcutting to ask Governor Brown and Resources Secretary John Laird to stop the clearcutting.
  • Go to http://www.pelicannetwork.net  and www.battlecreek.org to find out how clearcutting is threatening a salmon spawning stream and historic salmon restoration project, and to send your comments about this special watershed to Governor Brown and Secretary Laird.
  • Join or donate to Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch at  www.forestwatchers.org, supporting its work for responsible logging, healthy watersheds. Call us for more information 795-5569 or email us at epfw@goldrush.com

On July 28, 2011 KQED had a live radio show on the forest clearcutting activities in the watershed of Battle Creek where public money is attempting to restore the watershed  Ths show is incredibly informative and is is a must listen for those who care about our salmon and forests. Learn about the widespread clearcutting by one company – Sierra Pacific Industries – in this watershed. You can access it at http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201107280900

Your CA government’s  cash – to the tune of $128 million - has been set aside for an important  project to revive the endangered salmon and steelhead populations in Battle Creek near Mount Lassen. But environmentalists have filed for an injunction to stop a timber company’s clearcut logging plans, saying they may endanger the creek restoration project. KQED talked to the stakeholders

Host: Michael Krasny

Guests

• · Ed Murphy, manager of resource inventory systems at Sierra Pacific Industries
• · Justin Augustine, staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity
• · Marily Woodhouse, director of the Battle Creek Alliance and a longtime resident of the area
• · Richard Stapler, spokesman for the California Natural Resources Agency

More information on Battle Creek and the salmon resoration can be found at:

http://www.thebattlecreekalliance.org/

Also visit the home page of http://www.pelicannetwork.net/ and see the links to photos and recent tours of Battle Creek and sign up to comment and help bring the salmon back to Battle Creek.