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Contact: Keith Hammond, 530-758-0380 ext. 109
Ryan Henson, 530-474-4808
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2002
BUSH PLAN WOULD MAKE FIRES WORSE IN CALIFORNIA -- LOGGING LARGE TREES INCREASES FIRE DANGER.
NEW REPORT CONCLUDES CONGRESS MUST REDUCE FUELS NEAR TOWNS, NOT IN REMOTE WILDERNESS
DAVIS, August 21, 2002 — President Bush’s plan to waive environmental laws and log the National Forests will only make fire danger worse for California communities, according to a new report by the California Wilderness Coalition.
"The Bush logging plan would surrender wilderness to timber companies, log the biggest trees and leave behind the kindling that causes catastrophic fires," said Bob Schneider, director of the California Wilderness Coalition. "It’s a disguise for commercial logging that makes fires worse. If you think this year’s fires are bad, the Bush plan would just compound the damage in future years."
The report, entitled Restoring California’s Forests: An Ecologically Based Strategy for Reducing Severe Fires, Protecting Communities, and Restoring the National Forests of California, is the first time California conservationists have set out a statewide, proactive vision for managing fire and restoring ecosystems in the state’s National Forests.
California’s National Forests are damaged by decades of logging, fire suppression, and other harmful impacts which greatly increased the overgrowth of flammable brush and small trees fueling severe fires. The report offers a blueprint for restoring the ecological health of our forests and reducing hazardous fuels near homes and communities where people are threatened.
Key recommendations include:
- The Forest Service must clear hazardous fuels within 1/4-mile
of communities, where people are at risk not log remote wilderness.
Science shows that logging large trees only makes fire danger worse.
- Congress must direct fuels reduction into this "community
zone" and must pay for it. CWC supports a $10 billion appropriation
currently being considered in Congress.
- The Forest Service should use its existing "fast-track authority"
(known as "Categorical Exclusions") to immediately remove flammable brush
and small trees up to 12" diameter within 1/4 mile of communities.
- Features of the Sierra Nevada Framework should be applied
to California’s other National Forests namely, strict site-specific tree
size limits on logging and thinning, and strictly defined "community zones"
where fuels reduction work is focused.
- California’s National Forests must complete Fire Management
Plans required by the 1995 federal fire policy currently the Mendocino,
Sequoia, Cleveland, Angeles, Tahoe, San Bernardino, Lassen, Plumas, Modoc,
and Lake Tahoe Basin forests lack these critical plans.
- Congress must greatly increase block grants to California
state and local governments to reduce dangerous fuels because most of the
wildland-urban interface is not on federal lands.
- Congress and the Forest Service must conserve all roadless
and wilderness areas they have the highest ecological integrity
and the lowest number of fires. People ignite the vast majority of fires,
especially in areas with roads.
The U.S. Senate will soon consider the Bush plan, including a "fire logging rider" that would suspend environmental laws and declare a logging holiday for timber companies, similar to the disastrous 1995 "salvage rider" which led to two years of irresponsible logging and extreme acrimony over management of our National Forests.
The California Wilderness Coalition urges Congress to uphold our environmental laws and fund smart ways to restore our forests and protect towns from wildfire.
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.
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Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
