Help preserve habitat for the giant sequoia!
The Giant Sequoia National Monument is under attack! Your support for this irreplaceable natural area, and the ancient trees it harbors, is critical at this juncture. The deadline for written comments was July 24, but comments will be accepted up until two weeks past this date (August 7).
Please participate to be sure our vision for permanent Giant Sequoia protection is not lost! The Forest Service has begun the scoping process for the Giant Sequoia National Monument Management Plan. This is the first step in the process, where public comments are solicited on what the plan should cover and address.
Your participation by writing a lette, is critical to this process, because the scoping document the Forest Service has distributed already assumes certain management directions for the MonumentÉwithout any review by the public or the Scientific Advisory Committee! Also, as you no doubt know, our opponents are clamoring to reduce the size of the Monument, and increase inappropriate uses such as off-road vehicles and logging in the name of "fire risk reduction."
To get a copy of the scoping document, see the website, www.r5.fs.fed.us/giant_sequoia, or call (559) 784-1500.
Key points to make in your comments:
* The time period to review and comment on the scoping document is too short. Ask for a 90-day extension period.
* Tell the Forest Service that no boundary changes should be made to the Monument. All areas are fully justified by the ecological elements, including flora and fauna, to be preserved in the Monument.
* Ask that the scoping document be redone, appending a full copy of the Presidential Proclamation that created the monument, as that is the key guide to the purpose and management of the Monument.
* Express your concern that the scoping document contains many assumptions about management direction that should be addressed with many options in the Environmental Impact Statement, not as a "done deal" in scoping. Examples of these include specific recommendations of where trails should be located, maps of grove boundaries without a clear definition of a "grove" being determined, suggestions about different management regimes for specific groves, etc. The scoping document should look at all issues to be addressed-not indicate specific actions to be taken!
* The definition for a Giant Sequoia grove should be determined through collaboration of the interagency Giant Sequoia Committee, with involvement by the Giant Sequoia National Monument Scientific Advisory Committee. It should not be determined by the Forest Service alone.
* Express concern about overlapping management regimes from the Sierra Forest Plan Amendment (Sierra Framework) and the Giant Sequoia Management Plan. Management of the Giant Sequoia Monument should always be at least as protective, and in some areas should be more protective, than the Sierra Framework guidelines, since its primary purpose is protection in perpetuity of the unique ecosystems within the Monument boundaries.
* The Scientific Advisory Board should have the opportunity to propose a full range of management and research options for all aspects of the management plan. They should not simply react to Forest Service documents that have not been submitted to scientific or public review such as the cited draft report, "Defining Ecological Zones of Influence for Giant Sequoia Groves on the Sequoia National Forest," or to pre-determined mapped management areas.
* While the management plan is being developed, the Forest Service should carry out no projects within Monument boundaries that will in any way foreclose options for management and protection of the Monument, except if there is a direct danger to life and property.
* The Monument should have its own Supervisor who reports directly to the Secretary of Agriculture.
* Add any important points about why and how you feel the Giant Sequoia National Monument should be protected, special areas important to you, etc.
Thank you for helping to ensure John Muir's vision for the giant sequoias is finally realized!
If you can't attend a meeting, submit written comments by August 7, 2001 to:
Jim Whitfield, Giant Sequoia National Monument Team Leader
Sequoia National Forest
900 West Grand Ave.
Porterville, CA 93257
Thanks for your help!
To help in other critically important campaigns, see the California Wilderness Coalition's list of current and urgent action alerts.
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Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
