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REPORT: CALIFORNIA'S 10 MOST THREATENED WILD PLACES of 2003

Unprecedented Federal Assaults on State's Wildlife and Wilderness; Logging, Drilling, Off-Road, Endangered Species Threats Explode

EMBARGOED: HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL Wednesday March 5

Contact: Contact: Keith Hammond, California Wilderness Coalition, 530-758-0380 x109

MEDIA: preview the report at http://www.calwild.org/resources/pubs/10most.php

Wednesday, March 5 --The primary threat to California's wild lands is a slew of anti-environmental policy rollbacks by the Bush Administration aimed specifically at California, according to the California Wilderness Coalition's second annual listing of the state's "10 Most Threatened Wild Places."

"Another day, another outrage," said Mary Wells, executive director of the California Wilderness Coalition. "From the logging of roadless forests, to gutting endangered species safeguards, to drilling wilderness for oil, the Bush Administration is issuing a shocking series of anti-environmental policies that specifically target California's last wild lands and imperiled species."

Recent Bush Administration policies that specifically target California's wild places include:

• overruling its own federal scientists and cutting Klamath River flows, killing 34,000 salmon.
• approving industrial power plants on three Northern California National Forests, denied by the previous administration.
• reversing the denial of an open-pit cyanide mine in the California Desert Conservation Area.
• re-opening California Desert endangered species habitat previously closed to damaging off-road vehicles.
• dismantling the Forest Service's Sierra Nevada Framework to let the timber industry log old-growth forests.
• planning to drill for oil in endangered California condor habitat in the Los Padres National Forest.
• dismantling Northwest Forest Plan protections for California's ancient forests and salmon.
• slashing critical habitat for numerous California endangered species.
• approving new freeways through Southern California's Cleveland National Forest.
• planning to log roadless areas of the Tahoe, Plumas, and Sequoia National Forests in violation of the Forest Service's Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
• planning to log Giant Sequoia National Monument in violation of the 2000 monument proclamation.

California's "10 Most Threatened Wild Places for 2003" are:

• Algodones Sand Dunes -- Bush Administration's extreme off-road plan would overturn protection of endangered wildlife and wilderness.
• Panamint Range (Briggs Mine and Surprise Canyon) -- Open-pit mining and off-road vehicles would devastate natural landscapes, sacred lands, and wilderness.
• Cleveland National Forest -- Proposed freeways, dams, and, power lines threaten region's last unprotected wild forests.
• Tejon Ranch -- Sprawl and industrial development threaten key habitat on California's largest private landholding.
• Los Padres National Forest - Proposed oil and gas development puts wild forest lands and endangered species habitat at risk.
• Duncan Canyon -- Salvage logging would ruin old-growth forest, roadless areas and proposed wilderness.
• Westside Sierra Corporate Forestlands - One company's plan to clearcut 1,000,000 acres would degrade water and drive Sierra Nevada wildlife toward extinction.
• Plumas and Lassen National Forests -- Bush Administration's massive logging "experiment" would cut old-growth forests and spotted owl habitat.
• Medicine Lake Highlands -- Development of geothermal power plants would lay waste to wild forests and sacred lands.
• Klamath River Basin -- Excessive water diversion is killing thousands of salmon and hurting farmers, fishermen, tribes, and endangered wildlife.

The report is available online at: http://www.calwild.org/resources/pubs/10most.php

Five of the ten threatened wildlands are in Southern California, where the Bush Administration has approved freeways through the Cleveland National Forest, proposed new open-pit cyanide mines in the California Desert, proposed reopening endangered species habitat to extreme off-road vehicle use, and proposed oil drilling in endangered California condor habitat in the Los Padres National Forest.

In addition, the owners of Tejon Ranch, California's largest single private landholding, have begun to break up the vast ranch with industrial and residential development, threatening imperiled species and critical migration corridors for wildlife belonging to all Californians.

Five of the ten threatened wildlands are roadless areas in California's National Forests, threatened by logging, oil and gas drilling, geothermal development, and road-building -- projects which are specifically prohibited by the Forest Service's Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Bush Administration has yet to implement the Roadless Rule, and is still expected to try to overturn it.

On a brighter note, two areas from the 10 Most Threatened 2002 list have been saved:

• Mojave Desert - Cadiz Project. Saved in October when the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California rejected the water-mining scheme as financially and ecologically unsound, thanks to strong leadership by Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Jerry Lewis.
• Trinity Alps Wilderness Additions: Saved in April when a federal judge stopped the Forest Service's illegal logging in these roadless areas. Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Mike Thompson have proposed the areas for wilderness designation in the California Wild Heritage Act.

Founded in 1976, the California Wilderness Coalition defends the pristine landscapes that make California unique, provide a home to our wildlife, and preserve a place for spiritual renewal.