|
http://www.sacbee.com/news/calreport/calrep_story.cgi?N214.HTML Environmentalists urge immediate halt to logging old-growth timber Hearst says little interest in buying Examiner Environmentalists urge immediate halt to logging old-growth timber By JOHN HOWARD Associated Press Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Former tree-dweller Julia "Butterfly" Hill and dozens of other environmentalists demanded an immediate halt Wednesday to old-growth logging -- a move authorities said would affect half of California's private forests and more than $30 billion worth of timber. Hill, part of a Northern California environmental coalition, said current law allows the cutting of ancient trees, including redwoods, under loopholes and exemptions abused by harvesters. The group filed an emergency petition with the state Board of Forestry calling for an immediate stop. "This is all about protecting the trees, including the one I lived in, which was more than 1,000 years old," Hill, 25, said during a crowded hearing two blocks from the Capitol. Her group later rallied on the Capitol's steps. Hill lived for two years on a tarp-covered platform high up in the redwood 250 miles north of San Francisco. She climbed down last month after the Pacific Lumber Co., owners of the grove, spared the tree from logging. To order an immediate, across-the-board halt, the nine-member Board of Forestry would have to decide that old-growth harvesting represents a major public emergency -- an unlikely finding. Under the law, an emergency means a direct threat to "public peace, health and safety or general welfare." Environmentalists contend old-growth logging has precipitated just such an emergency because of its environmental impact. "That is not the administration's view," said Stan Young, a spokesman for Resources Secretary Mary Nichols, Gov. Gray Davis' top environmental adviser. But Young and other administration officials said the governor opposes "cutting down trees without getting an environmental review." The state will develop a "consensus-based" inventory of California's old-growth timber to come up with a plan to help protect critical habitats, they said. In part, the inventory will determine which trees should be considered old-growth. There are several exemptions to the rules governing timber harvesting that allow the cutting of trees that otherwise might be protected. The most significant of the nine exemptions allows the taking of "dead, dying or diseased timber," a category environmentalists contend is too broad. "Any old growth is 'dead, dying or diseased' by definition," said Paul Mason of the Environmental Protection Information Center of Garberville. A state forestry review of the potential impact of the emergency order sought by the environmentalists said the ban "could apply to up to half of all private forest land" in California. The petition seeks to block the harvesting of all trees older than 150 years or with trunks larger than 60 inches in diameter at their widest point. It would order a review and age measurement for trees 36 inches to 60 inches to see if they should be classified as old-growth. The petition also seeks buffer zones around the oldest trees. "If all trees greater than 36 inches would be classified as old-growth, the no-cut rules would apply to 23 million trees making up 31 percent of the total timber volume on private land worth approximately $31 billion. In addition, the no-cut buffer area could add 1.5 to 1.8 million additional acres, depending on how the buffers of individual trees overlap," Bill Stewart of the California Department of Forestry. California has about three million trees larger than 60 inches in diameter, and about 20 million in the 36-inch to 60-inch range, he said. Just how much old-growth timber is harvested now is open to question. State authorities have no current numbers; environmentalists say it may be 10 percent or more. But timber interests believe the environmental community has overstated the issue. "It is important to recognize that once you get through the sensationalism and down to black and white facts, what you're not being told by the other side is that 95 percent of ancient redwoods are already protected," said Chris Nance of the California Forestry Association, a trade group that represents timber and forest products companies. Problems? Suggestions? Let us hear from you. / Copyright © The Sacramento Bee
|
Return to Home