Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
ACTION ALERT
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Thursday, April 8, 1999
Forest Defenders Across the Land!
We are very concerned by the slow pace at which our new governor Gray Davis is making appointments to natural resource agencies such as the California Department of Forestry. We've heard it will be a year before new policies and a new influence will be felt. Meanwhile, the Old Pro-Timber Guard is still in place at CDF, approving plans like THP 1-95-315 for clearcutting old growth, and colluding with the Fishers' logging company to get Spotted Owl habitat logged before surveys have to be done (as they did in THP 1-98-350 in the Albion River recently).
The Mendocino coast redwood forest is in such critical condition that we don't have a year for Davis and his appointees to start turning things around. We are likely to lose some coho salmon populations THIS YEAR. The old growth is down to maybe 1% of the forest (on Fisher lands) and they are quickly cutting the last of it. Without old growth, endangered birds will simply die off - and the forest will never recover.
Faxes, phone calls, and letters have been flying with no apparent effect. The Old Guard at CDF is still approving even the WORST plans that come before them - and we expect all of them to be approved in the near future:
--On APRIL 2, CDF approved yet another high-impact logging plan in Elk Creek, THP 1-98-266 MEN, despite over 10,000 people protesting this THP. Together with THP-1-97-445 MEN, these plans constitute over 1000 acres of high-impact logging, including 418 acres of clearcutting, around the only known coho fishery (10 or fewer sighted in 1995) in a 150-square mile region. The CDF Official Response neither discussed nor analyzed the cumulative effects of the plan on coho salmon. (REMEMBER, the State Supreme Court just ruled against CDF for inadequate cumulative effects analysis on two THPs in Humboldt County!)
--Given the decision on THP 266, there is no doubt that CDF will approve Amendment #10 to THP 1-95-315 MEN in Greenwood Creek tomorrow--despite the warnings of wildlife biologist Dr. Allen Cooperrider that this clearcutting plan will fragment and destroy one of the last decent areas of wildlife habitat on the coast. ....This is the plan that changes an old 1995 logging plan from low impact "commercial thinning" to 15 strip clearcuts targeting the last old growth trees in Greenwood Creek--a beautiful residual old growth forest containing trees from 200 to 1,000 years of age, the last of their kind on the Mendocino coast....The Fisher family is not content with its numerous high impact logging plans purchased from Louisiana Pacific or recently approved by CDF. It has to change old plans in order to take the last stick of merchantable timber off these extremely depleted and damaged forest lands!
***PROTEST IN MENDOCINO THIS WEEKEND!!!***
FOREST DEFENDERS, PLEASE STAND BY TO PROTEST THIS LOGGING PLAN IN MENDOCINO THIS WEEKEND WHILE WE SEEK A TRO!!! Anyone who can join us--please contact me ASAP (415-731-7924) chalicenew@earthlink.net ***
***JOINT GAP PROTEST THIS SATURDAY 12 NOON - ACROSS THE NATION!!!****
Those of you who can't join us in Mendocino, please join environmentalists, human rights activists, and labor groups this SATURDAY at 12 NOON in front of your neighborhood Gap store! Download a Gap Picket Packet from http://www.elksoft.com/gwa or call Mendocino Environmental Center to fax you a flyer or snail-mail you the packet: 707-468-1660. Call Global Exchange for a human rights action packet 415-558-9486 and for the location of the protest nearest you!!!
In the Bay Area meet at...
--Gap flagship. Powell and Market, SF.
--Gap. Telegraph and Bancroft Way, Berkeley.
Call me for placards, flyers, and banners!
***FINALLY: LET'S TRY ONE MORE TIME TO GET A FIRE MOVING UNDER THE DAVIS ADMINISTRATION!!!***
Please phone, fax, or write the following message to one or more of the following:
Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Building, Sacramento 95814
916-445-2841 (voice) 916-445-4633 (fax)
Secretary of Resources Mary Nichols
1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, California 95814
916-653-5656 (voice) 916-653-8102 (fax)
Director of CDF Andrea Tuttle
1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, California 95814
916-653-7772 (voice) 916-653-8957 (fax)
Dear Governor Davis, Secretary of Resources Nichols, Director of CDF Tuttle:
We are extremely alarmed by the slow pace at which our new governor is cleaning house: The Old Pro-Timber Guard is still reigning supreme at CDF--as if there has been no change in administration whatsoever. Faxes, phone calls, and letters have been flying with no apparent effect.
We have heard that it may take as long as a year for the new administration to get its environmental policies in place: THE MENDOCINO COAST REDWOOD FOREST DOES NOT HAVE A YEAR!
We are asking you to intercede IMMEDIATELY to stop the liquidation of the coast redwood forest in Mendocino County. These forests have almost no old growth left. Their rivers and creeks run muddy after every winter storm. They have been clearcut too many times. They have been poisoned with herbicides. The coast redwood forest ecology is on the verge of collapse - with a catastrophic loss of the timber resource and all associated forest values - including the fish and the birds - looming in the immediate future. The timber companies are logging the last of the old growth RIGHT NOW. Please, we implore you to do the following:
--Rescind approval on THP 1-98-266 MEN. Together with THP-1-97-445 MEN, these plans constitute over 1000 acres of high-impact logging, including 418 acres of clearcutting, around the only known coho fishery (10 or fewer sighted in 1995) in a 150-square mile region. The CDF Official Response neither discussed nor analyzed the cumulative effects of the plan on coho salmon. (Remember, the State Supreme Court just ruled against CDF for inadequate cumulative effects analysis on two THPs in Humboldt County!)
--Deny approval of the following plans: 1-95-315 MEN Amend. #10 (Greenwood Creek),1-99-048 MEN (Navarro), 1-97-445 MEN (Elk Creek), 1-98-350 MEN (Albion River).
--Do not approve any timber harvest plans that cannot demonstrate long-term sustainability of the timber resource and forest-dependent species. If the last of the late succession forest and its dependent fish and wildlife are to be saved in Mendocino County--we need you to act NOW!
Sincerely,
Your name and address
Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, SF
For questions and comments please e-mail us!
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