Help create the Sequoia National Monument!
These are tough times for the mighty sequoia. In the 1980s, the Forest Service clear-cut around many sequoia groves. Giant old monarch trees were left towering over piles of logging debris, bare dirt, and ashes. A lawsuit stopped Forest Service logging in the groves, but tree cutting continues nearby.
Sequoias are found only on the western slope of the central and southern Sierra Nevada. They are part of an old growth ecosystem that includes the surrounding Sierra conifer forests. The nest of the last California condor chick hatched in the wild was found in a cavity of a giant sequoia.
Many other rare and sensitive wildlife species, such as the California spotted owl and the Pacific fisher, also live on and around the trees. Scientists say we still don't know how to assure the survival of the giant sequoias, but one necessary step is an end to destructive logging in the area.
The Solution:
On February 15, President Clinton proposed creating a Sequoia National Monument. Although some sequoias are already protected in Sequoia National Park, more than half are in Sequoia National Forest where they have no long-term legal protection from logging or other forms of development. Although a 1990 agreement directed the Forest Service to develop a plan for preservation of the sequoia groves, the Forest Service has not done so.
The Forest Service now has 60 days to report back to Clinton with a recommendation. A proposal developed by conservation groups would protect 400,000 acres from logging, road building, off-road vehicles, and other destructive influences. We need to convince the President to adopt a tough and carefully worded management plan.
"Walk in the Sequoia woods at any time of the year and you will say they are the most beautiful and majestic forests on earth." -- John Muir, 1911
The Forest Service is due to report to the President on the anniversary of Muir's birth, April 21 (also the day before Earth Day). Help us finish what John Muir started and give him a birthday gift--and all of us a special Earth Day this year--by sending a message to the President asking him to fully protect the giant sequoias in a national monument.
The most important thing you can do:
Write a letter to President Clinton supporting the monument. Also send a copy to Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and to your Representative. Please send it as soon as possible! Even if you have already written a letter to Clinton regarding the national monuments, a letter specific to the proposed Sequoia National Monument would be very helpful right now. The deadline for letters to be received is April 21, 2000.
Points to make in your letter:
1. People have been urging protection of the giants sequoias for OVER A CENTURY! Let's finish the job.
2. The monument should be similar in size and management to Sequoia National Park. Protect the whole ecosystem and watershed, not just the groves.
3. There's no place in a national monument for commercial logging or other destructive uses.
4. Off-road vehicle use should be restricted to existing roads, and no new roads should be built in the monument.
5. The primary uses for the monument should be ecosystem preservation and non-damaging recreation.
6. It's great that the President is considering this monument. It is long overdue and will be a permanent legacy of his administration for generations to come!
Write to:
Honorable Bill Clinton, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500
Email: president@whitehouse.gov
Honorable Dianne Feinstein or Barbara Boxer, United States Senate, Washington DC 20510
Email: senator@feinstein.senate.gov or senator@boxer.senate.gov
Honorable (full name), United States House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515
Get email address from www.house.gov
For more information, contact Tina Andolina at (530) 758-0380 or tina@calwild.org.
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Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
