Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
Boycott the Gap EXTRA: News! Action! Events!
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Sunday, June 13, 1999
Forest Defenders Far and Wide!
As anticipated, June is proving to be action-packed! In this extra edition
newsletter...
--!!!!!CDF Greenlights Fisher Logging of Last Old Growth!!!!!
--Biodiversity Council Report: Nichols, Tuttle, Pjerrou Spotlighted
--June 15, 16. Strategy Meetings Against Free Logging Agreement
--June 18. International Day of Action! (Gap targeted!)
--June 21, 24. Acclaimed Greenbuilding Presentation
--Action Smorgasbord: Lockdown in NYC, B&W Ball, +++
CDF GREENLIGHTS FISHER LOGGING OF LAST OLD GROWTH
***************************************************************************
On the heels of the Biodiversity Council meeting Thursday, at which
California's new Secretary of Resources Mary Nichols promised change in
forestry regulation, CDF stamped its approval on THP 1-95-315 Amendment 10,
the controversial amendment that proposes 16 clearcut strips targeting some of the last old-growth redwoods in the Greenwood Creek watershed.
According to MRC's own SYP, less than 3% of MRC's holdings are in average stands of trees 24-inches or greater in diameter--of these few "big" trees, even fewer are 3-5 feet in diameter, and this plan targets many of these rare giants. To take any of these big trees, when so few remain, is an outrage, a tragedy, and a crime. Big trees are integral to the redwood ecosystem--indeed, many species of insects, plants, birds, and other wildlife completely depend on them.
We have asked MRC and the California Department of Forestry, "If you take this potential marbled murrelet and spotted owl habitat (these endangered birds nest only in trees this size or bigger), where else in this watershed can these rare birds nest?" Neither MRC nor CDF will answer this question.
Further, MRC states in this THP that they intend to go back at some unspecified time and clearcut additional strips in this plan area. So, we can expect the few big trees outside the current clearcut strips to be taken the next time--next year or whenever they like.
Our extensive efforts to get CDF and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to
address the issue of lack of endangered bird habitat in Greenwood Creek
fell on deaf ears. These so-called public agencies agreed with the Timber
Gap that it's best to get rid of the last potential habitat for endangered
birds. That way they won't have to bother about it any more.
We are meeting with CDF Director Tuttle tomorrow, and will make a special
appeal to her to stop this outrage. During his campaign for governor, Gray
Davis stated that "no more old growth should be logged in California."
Here is the opportunity for the new administration to back up those words
with action.
What YOU can do!
1.) Phone or fax the following people. Demand a stop to the logging of old
growth; mention THP 1-95-315 MEN, Amendment no. 10!
-Gray Davis, voice: 916-445-284 fax: 916-445-4633
-Mary Nichols, voice: 916-653-5656 fax: (916) 653-8102
-Andrea Tuttle, voice: 916-653-7772 fax: (916) 653-4171
-The Fishers, voice: 415-392-3600 fax: (415) 427-2632
2.) Join us in Mendocino! Logging may begin as early as Thursday morning--so
please stand by! Contact numbers: 707-877-3405 or 415-731-7924. Room and
board will be provided!
In the last few weeks, the Fishers' logging company, MRC, has filed three
additional logging plans in Greenwood (most of it clearcutting on steep
slopes), four new plans in Elk Creek (half of it clearcutting) - on top of
over 1,000 acres of logging already slated for the last Coho fishery in the
region, and a new logging plan in the Albion (for a total of 9) - in
addition to in-process or approved plans in the Navarro River, Big River,
Alder Creek and many other places. MRC's total is now up to 140 logging
plans!
The bombing has stopped in Belgrade, but sadly the war rages on in
Mendocino...
BIODIVERSITY COUNCIL: Where Have All the Coho Gone?
******************************************************************
Last Thursday, the Biodiversity Council met in Ft. Bragg, Mendocino County.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss where federal coho restoration
funds should be applied. The event gave Northern Californian
environmentalists an opportunity to meet key players in the new
administration--most notably new CA Dept. of Forestry Director ANDREA TUTTLE
and her boss, Secretary of Resources, MARY NICHOLS. A crowd of
about 300 people attended--including government bureaucrats, timber
industry reps, and environmentalists.
The Coho salmon has been federally listed as a threatened species, although
the numbers of Coho on the Mendocino coast points to imminent extinction.
One of the main causes of the Coho's demise is stream sedimentation and
increases in temperature from OVERLOGGING. However, this fact was not
addressed at the Bio-Diversity Council meeting until MARY PJERROU,
President of the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance, took the podium.
In the course of her powerful, 20-minute speech--which was interrupted by
cheers, footstomping, applause, and shouts to CDF to do their job--Mary
Pjerrou made the point that the liquidation of the Mendocino coast redwood
forest must be stopped, and that fish habitat restoration without logging
regulation was like setting a broken leg on a person who is bleeding to
death from chest wounds. She went on in her quiet, compelling voice to
describe the state of Mendocino forestlands and the complete failure of CDF
and the Forest Practice Act to prevent the destruction of these forests.
Many of us were in tears in the end. She received a FIVE-MINUTE OVATION
(from all except a number of stony-faced natural resource agency
bureaucrats, and, of course, the timber reps). Mary's speech is appended to
the end of this email.
Thanks to the intrepid Albion activist BETH BOSK, who cornered Nichols and
Tuttle, we had an informal round-table with them over lunch on the lawn
outside the conference hall. There we quickly learned that Mary Nichols is a
smart and politically savvy agency head who appears to care deeply about
environmental issues. Nichols said that she is in the process of appointing
a new Board of Forestry. Nichols also said that Tuttle has not yet been
approved by the state legislature as CDF Director--this may explain Tuttle's
reticence (read caution?) at the meeting. But clearly, more is needed at
CDF than just the appointment of a new Director. The CDF old guard, which
is approving the liquidation of the Mendocino coast redwood forest, is still
in place in this agency, and obviously still in charge of logging plan
approvals.
June 15, 16. Mobilize Against Free Logging Agreement (FLA)!
********************************************************************
As many of you are already aware, the World Trade Organization is
negotiating a new international trade agreement to eliminate tariffs on
forest products world-wide. This agreement would expand the market for
forests products without providing environmental protections--in fact, the
WTO would like to eliminate restrictions on where, why, and how to log so
that production and profits increase. Further, once the agreement is in
place, campaigns to protect forests and local laws that, for instance, ban
the use of old-growth or uncertified tropical woods would very likely be
illegal under WTO rules. The FLA is scheduled to be completed at the next
WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle Nov. 30--Dec 3, 1999. Major
demonstrations are in the works for this event, btw.
Three meetings to plan strategy are scheduled for the Bay Area. For meetings
outside the Bay Area, please contact Antonia Juhash. American Lands Alliance
(202) 547-9230 or antonia@americanlands.org.
San Francisco. June 15, 7:00 PM. UC Hastings Law School 200 McCallister,
Second Floor Alumni Reception Room. CONTACT: Juliette Beck, 415-558-9486
ext. 254
San Francisco. June 16, 12:00 - 2:00PM. Sierra Club, 85 2nd Street, between
Market and Mission, 3rd floor. BART: New Montgomary Street Station.
CONTACT: Michele Perrault, 415-977-5500
Oakland. June 16, 6:30 - 8:30PM. Pacific Environment and Resources Center,
1440 Broadway @ 14th Suite 306. BART: 12th Street/Downtown Oakland
Station. CONTACT: Paige Fischer, 510-251-8800
June 18. Internat'l Day of Action Against Economic Globalization!
***********************************************************************
This worldwide event coincides with the G8 Summit in Cologne, Germany. See
the following URLs to get an idea of the enormity and nature of this event,
which is about dumping the corporate dictatorship, reclaiming the streets,
celebrating life, and kicking greed and blind consumerism. People will be
taking over the streets of the financial districts in cities around the
world on Friday, June 18! If it's not happening in your town--MAKE IT
HAPPEN!
A London-based human rights group has also called for this day to be a
international day of action against GAP, INC., in particular for their
exploitation of Russian needleworkers who evidently are making only 11 cents
an hour. So picket, phone, or fax the Gap to protest sweatshops and Fisher
family exploitation of the environment!
In SAN FRANCISCO, people will be meeting at Justin Herman Plaza (at the
Embarcadero) at 11:30. The parade will stop at the Gap flagship store at
Powell and Market; other corporate marauders will also be targetted in this
massive street party.
JOIN THE FUN OVER LUNCH! THIS IS HISTORIC!
It's the beginning of the OVERTHROW of the CORPORATE OLIGARCHY!
For more info:
http://xinet.com/rts/
http://www.gn.apc.org/june18/
June 21, 24. Natural Building and Social Justice
****************************************************
Robert Bolman's renowned slide-show presentation is on tour in the Bay Area
and throughout California:
Monday, June 21, 11:30 am
EPA Building, 75 Hawthorn St, San Francisco
Contact: Timonie 415-744-1113
Thursday, June 24, 7:00
Open Secret Bookstore
923 "C" Street, San Rafael
Call: 415-457-4191
Tuesday, July 6, 7:30
Patagonia, 415 River Street, Santa Cruz
Contact: Environmental Council 831-469-8533
For the full list of stops, contact me.
ACTION SMORGASBOARD!
********************************
--LOCKDOWN AT GAP - NYC! JK CANEPA and REDWOOD MARY LOCKED DOWN at the Gap
at 34th and 6th in NYC today, while 100 demonstrators cheered them on! They
said, "No business-as-usual until Gap puts people and the environment before
profits!" and were arrested for disorderly conduct. THREE CHEERS FOR
REDWOOD MARY AND JK!!!
--PLIGHT OF THE REDWOODS TOUR. Evidently, Redwood Mary and Julia Butterfly
are going gangbusters on the East Coast with many presentations and upcoming
actions. Full report to follow (I hope, when they can take a breather!).
THANK YOU WETLANDS PRESERVE AND ROBERT SCHALKENBACH FOUNDATION
FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!
--BLACK AND WHITE BALL. It's always satisfying to shame the Fishers on their
own turf, and the B&W Ball last Saturday was no exception. We dressed to the
hilt, with the addition of masks, noisemakers, and helium balloons. Then
paraded around as the ball's official jesters, passing out "riddles," which
everyone wanted... What's Black and White and Red All Over? Answer: It
Couldn't Be More Black and White--What the Fishers of Gap Inc. Are Doing to
the Redwoods! THANK YOU SF CORE GROUP FOR RISING TO THE OCCASION!!!
--SWEATSHOP: Call-to-Action. Call your Congressmember 202-224-3121 and ask
them to support Saipan reform legislation such as Democrat George Miller's
comprehensive reform bill , H.R. 730, and/or a bi-partisan bill, H.R. 1621,
which simply takes away Saipan's ability to put "Made in the USA" on their
label, and requires garments made in Saipan to apply to U.S. tariff and
quota laws. Ask them to contact Rep. Don Young, Chairman of the House
Resources Committee and request that he hold hearings on Saipan reform
(which he is blocking). Since the Washington Post also covered the story,
action inside the beltway is really heating up and Members of Congress are
beginning to get the message - now with some grassroots pressure, they might
actually enact long overdue reforms!
--NAFTA: Call-to-Action! NAFTA's Investment Rules have been used to
challenge a variety of government action, including environmental
protections. See www.foe.org or www.tradewatch.org for the full story. Let
lawmakers and negotiators know we want a full review and renegotiation of
NAFTA's investment rules. US Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121 or get email
addresses at http://www.senate.gov/senator/index.html and
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
--EDF Call-to-Action. Re the G8 Summit, letters urgently needed to support
establishing global environmental and social standards! Go to the following
URL for background and to respond easily to this call-to-action:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=9550A1181B929145746C64450
--GENETCALLY ENGINEERED FOOD: Sign the petition for mandatory labeling of
genetically engineered food!
http://www.safe-food.org/-campaign/petition.html
_____________________
Cheers and many thanks! (Pjerrou speech follows!)
Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, SF
June 10, 1999
BioDiversity Council
WATERSHED PROTECTION: MYTH AND REALITY
My name is Mary Pjerrou. I am President of the Redwood Coast Watersheds
Alliance - an alliance of 12 community watershed groups and projects in
Mendocino County, founded in 1989.
Among the goals in our mission statement are these:
o to educate the general public, industry and government on the need to
preserve genetic diversity within the natural environment, as well as to
show the irreversible environmental damage that occurs when species and
their habitats are heavily altered or eliminated; and
o to make credible environmental review an integral part of the timber
harvest review process.
One of the activities of this Alliance and its member groups is reading
Timber Harvest Plans. We are the only organization in Mendocino County
that does so on a regular basis, covering many watersheds. It's possible
that we are the only people in the state of California who read the
cumulative effects portion of Timber Harvest Plans for Mendocino County.
These are the portions of the Timber Harvest Plans where the foresters
state that there are no Marbled Murrelets, no Northern Spotted Owl, no
Northern Goshawks, no Bald Eagles, no Golden Eagles, no Peregrine Falcons,
no Great Blue Herons, no Egrets, no Ospreys, no hawks, no swifts, no
martins, no warblers, no frogs, no salamanders, no turtles, no endangered
plants and no Coho salmon, in, or anywhere near the plan area; that there
is no habitat for any of these creatures, or, if there is a bit of habitat,
none of these creatures has been seen; that, in addition, there are no old
growth trees - let alone old growth forest - in, or anywhere near, the
logging plan area, and finally, that the logging proposed in the given plan
will have no significant impact on any forest resource including wildlife
and fish.
We've been reading these statements for over ten years - in hundreds of
logging plans, covering tens of thousands of acres of forest: No wildlife
seen, no Coho salmon, no old growth - no cumulative effects.
The California Department of Forestry - which sits alone at the table, in
the so-called Multi-Disciplinary, Multi-Agency Timber Harvest Plan review
process - has nothing whatever to say about the absence of all of these
creatures and their habitat, and always agrees that more logging would be a
good idea.
There is a standing joke among Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance members.
We advise people not to read Timber Harvest Plans, until you have formed a
THP support group -people you are not embarrased to cry in front of -
people who will help put you back together after the excruciating torment
of seeing the Department of Forestry justify yet another depletion logging
plan in Mendocino County.
Possibly these foresters are not telling the truth about wildlife, fish and
old growth in Mendocino County. Foresters have been known to lie in Timber
Harvest Plans. However - and what is far worse - the evidence is that,
overall, they are telling the truth. The bio-diversity of the forest is
almost gone here. In addition to the logging plans that say there is no
wildlife, and the federal listings of numerous forest species, we now have
some data from the owners of these forests, the timber corporations - from
studies conducted, for instance, by Louisiana Pacific, before it sold out
of the redwood business, when there was still talk of "Sustained Yield"
Plans. What these studies reveal is as follows:
In three years of fish surveys, involving hundreds of instances of data
collection, the coho salmon were absent in 19 of 27 watersheds - formerly
belonging to Louisiana Pacific, now belonging to the Mendocino Redwood
Company. In the 8 (of 27) watersheds where any coho at all were found, the
coho were absent in 75% of the streams. This as yet unapproved Sustained
Yield Plan further reveals that 97% of these forests were in average stands
of 1 to 21 inch diameter trees, in 1996 - and only 3% contained average
timber stands with trees of 24 inch diameter or greater - the only decent
wildlife habitat left.
The public has had to fight hard for this information - ten years of
struggle and grief for "Sustained Yield" Plans, that are yet to be
approved; and on the fish data, a year of effort just to get the data
sheets. Industry has tried its best to suppress, hide, debunk and
"green-wash" this information. CDF has gone along with this. But we don't
really need the L-P fish surveys to tell us that there are almost no fish
left in our streams. We can see that for ourselves. And we can go down to
the Harbor, and see that the salmon fishing fleet is gone. And we don't
need the L-P tree size data to tell us that there are hardly any decent
sized trees left in these former L-P forests. We live here. We know that.
And we can see their log trucks going by, and go and see their log decks,
with their piles and piles of pecker poles.
Conditions are only slightly better on Georgia Pacific forest lands - the
other major forest liquidator in Mendocino County. A third company,
Coastal Forest Lands, has so overcut its forests that it now wants to
convert 10,000 acres of redwood forest into vineyards.
Given the current levels of logging in Mendocino County, there is no
prospect for improvement. We all know - although it is a very difficult
thing to face - that the old forest and its creatures are nearly gone in
Mendocino County, that the timber resource itself is nearly gone - and that
we are fast approaching the point of no return.
In fall 1997, when L-P announced that it was selling out, former CDF
Director Richard Wilson said, "It's sad but it really should be no
surprise. Everybody knew they were cutting themselves out of business."
"Everybody knew" - but nobody in government did anything about it. The
California Board of Forestry acknowledged the depletion logging in
Mendocino County as long ago as 1988. Forest activists, numerous
organizations all over the state, the general public, and even Mendocino
County asked for relief, in the early 1990s. The state's response was the
bogus "sustained yield" rules we have today - by which every major timber
land owner in Mendocino County is cutting itself out of business.
Coastal Forest Lands now has only 3 to 4,000 board feet per acre of
standing timber left on its forest lands. Mendocino Redwood Company
(former L-P) forests are down to 7 to 8,000 board feet per acre. Georgia
Pacific - which started out with more timber than L-P - has about 10,000
board feet per acre left. By comparison, the coast redwood forest is
capable of producing 100,000 board feet of standing timber.
These three companies - CFL, MRC and G-P - are lined up, 1, 2, 3, like
lemmings at the edge of a cliff. They are right now taking the last
merchantable timber - the very last old growth, the last decent wildlife
habitat. CFL has pretty much finished up the liquidation - they are moving
on to the next step, vineyards and subdivisions. Mendocino Redwood Company
and Georgia Pacific are not far behind them.
To give you a specific example: In July, 1998, Lousiana Pacific notified
the California Department of Forestry of the transfer of 104 Timber Harvest
Plans to Mendocino Redwood Company. MRC has now added plans of their own,
for a total of about 140 logging plans so far (with an average size of 170
acres). In 1997, L-P submitted logging plans for a yearly total of about
4,000 acres of logging. In 1998, L-P and MRC, combined, submitted logging
plans also for a total of about 4,000 acres. As of the end of May, 1999,
MRC has filed plans on almost 3,000 more acres. If MRC keeps up this pace,
they will have filed plans for 6,000 more acres of logging by the end of
this year - one third more than L-P's total acreage per year, in its final
two years.
The new MRC logging plans are identical to the 104 plans that they bought
from L-P in almost every way. Fifty percent of these plans include all or
partial clearcutting. Seventy percent include clearcutting or
clearcutting-type logging. Stream protections, the same. Road
construction, the same. The only difference is MRC's so-called "variable
retention" - a 90% clearcut for new plans only. However, MRC's overall
increase in plan acreage for the year will make up for the retention of 10%
of the trees in clearcut areas. The same amount of timber, or more, will
be cut. The fact of the matter is that MRC is completing the L-P logging
program - one of the most notoriously unsustainble logging programs in
northern California - despite everything they say about "good stewardship."
The "good stewardship" line is just that - a P.R. line, a line of baloney -
to cover up what they are actually doing.
Both of these companies - MRC and G-P - are filing logging plans under
"Option C" rules, which do not require a "Sustained Yield" Plan. Both
companies continue to log with no approved "Sustained Yield" Plan - despite
the promises made to this County by the California Board of Forestry in
1994. We now know that the Mendocino Redwood Company is abandoning the
"Sustained Yield" Plan process, and will be filing logging plans under
another set of rules - called "Option A" -rules that have no requirement
for restoring the productivity of the redwood forest. Not that the other
"Options" have worked...
The "Option C" rules are how L-P accomplished cutting themselves out of
business. "Option B" rules are the late, lamented "Sustained Yield"
Plans. "Option A" is what you do after "Options B and C" have failed to
produce sustainable logging.
The collateral damage from this destruction of the timber base has been
severe, and is on-going: including the rivers of mud we see out in the
ocean after every winter storm, from every river and stream along the
coast; the imminent loss of the coho salmon; the potential loss of the
steelhead. The loss of these resources is illegal. We have laws that were
supposed to prevent such losses. Government has failed to enforce them -
and Big Timber has put up a relentless fight against all efforts to
conserve soil, water, fish, wildlife and forest integrity.
The title for our presentation today is "Watershed Protection: Myth and
Reality." The "myth" is that we have watershed protection. The "reality,"
of course is that we do not. To know this, you only have to go down to the
Albion River and talk to the people who are right now sitting in trees -
and have been for several weeks - trying to stop the Mendocino Redwood
Company from logging in an area with active slides that are pouring
sediment into the Albion River. Linda Perkins, of The Albion River
Watershed Protection Association, tried for a year to get somebody, in some
agency, to do something about this. The answer we get, these days, from
the state in charge of protecting our watershed resources, is, "We don't
have time for Mendocino County." From our federal agencies, what we hear
is: "We don't do THPs," and - sorry - but there is nothing we can do about
the faulty Spotted Owl surveys in your county, the lack of Marbled
Murrelet, and your local Coho salmon fishery.
Time and again we hear this - from Regional Water Quality, from State Fish
and Game, from the National Marine Fisheries Service, from the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. We are the forgotten County. Our government has
written Mendocino County off - as to the protection of natural resources,
and this natural resource-based economy. If it takes tree sitters to stop
the logging in a slide area - something is critically wrong in our state
agencies - agencies that should be here, shutting this logging operation
down, now.
To address the question of watershed restoration - whether it be fish
habitat or water quality - we have first to address this other matter:
that our major timber corporations are cutting themselves out of business -
under the current Forest Practice Rules - and with that, are continuing to
inflict serious, if not fatal, harm on our watersheds.
In one watershed - Elk Creek, on the south Mendocino coast, where there was
once an abundant Coho salmon fishery - the Louisiana Pacific fish surveys
found only "10 or fewer" coho salmon in the entire creek system. These
were also the only Coho salmon found in a region of approximately 150
square miles. Elk Creek is one of only 8 watersheds where any coho at all
were found. Right now, the California Department of Forestry is in the
process of approving over a thousand acres of logging - half of it
clearcutting - and more than 10 miles of road construction, all around the
one place they found any coho.
Local people care about this - people like the 14 and 16 year old kids who
found the fish in Elk Creek - when the California Department of Forestry,
the California Department of Fish and Game, and Mendocino Redwood Company
foresters couldn't find any fish there. People all over the country care,
and care deeply - about the redwood forest and its wildlife and fish.
People who have been protesting at the Gap store on 5th Avenue in New York
City. People like Mary Bull who is leading the Save the Redwoods/Boycott
the Gap campaign in San Francisco. People in Australia, people in India -
people all over the world who have signed our Petition.
Yet our government agencies do worse than nothing. The National Marine
Fisheries Service wrote off a thousand acres of logging around the only
documented Coho salmon in the region - without even requiring a fish
survey.
It doesn't bother CDF, of course. They just flip the page, when it comes
to the cumulative effects portion of the THP. No amount of logging is too
much logging for CDF - no matter the cost to other resources - which, in
this case, is very grave, indeed.
We - those of us who live in these coastal watersheds - may be the last
people on earth who have the privilege of seeing Coho salmon in these
rivers and streams. Extinction is the most profound impact possible. It
comes at the end of many accumulated impacts that have been systematically
ignored. The Coho salmon's land-based habitat is the one controllable
element of the Coho's life cycle. Any further harm to this habitat must be
stopped right now - including the frenzied and unsustainable logging that
we see you, in government, approving every day.
What we want from our government is the following
1. We want you to tell the truth. We don't want any more logging plans
that say there will be no cumulative effects from a 1,000 acres of logging
in a creek where only "10 or fewer" coho salmon were found. We don't want
to ever again hear the words "sustainable logging." Let's put those
untruthful words behind us. If you believe that the cost of sustaining
this resource-based economy for another year or two is the loss of the coho
salmon species, and other forest values, then we have a right to know
that's what you are thinking. We have a right to participate in these
decisions. We elect you. We pay
your salaries. We pay for your presence here today. If we wanted lies, we
would have chosen another form of government. Bottom line, no. 1: We want
you to tell the truth.
2. We want you to face the existing situation, square on - and start
showing some leadership and courage.
We need a new way of thinking about these matters. Instead of thinking
that corporations have rights and no responsibilities, we need to reverse
that order, and make sure that corporations take responsibility for what
they do, or else they get no rights.
The redwood ecosystem is a single, very complex, very delicately balanced
organism. We cannot allow continuing damage to one part of it, and expect
to be able to fix another part. We must stop the deforestation of
Mendocino County - before we can restore anything. What's needed is a
fundamental change in the way logging is regulated, wherein the resources
that all people depend upon come first, and logging comes second.
The fish, the wildlife, the water, the soil, the trees and other forest
components - the things that make up a forest - the things we all need -
must come first. These important resources have been disregarded and
severely damaged. The Forest Practice Act needs to be re-written to state
that the health of the forest - and the good of most people - must take
precedence over the profits of a few. The forest is a necessity of life
to all of us. We need it to live. Other people, on the other side of the
planet, need it to live. Forests create the biosphere of the planet, and
the very air we breathe. To sacrifice our forests for a few people to make
money is not right, and must be stopped.
3. Watershed restoration money must be tied to increased regulation and
enforcement, and to a commitment from the landowner to stop harming the
watershed. I am personally involved in a fish habitat restoration project
in Greenwood Creek. Just as we began the restoration work part of the
project, L-P sold out - still with no approved Sustained Yield Plan, yet
they had started to implement their unapproved Sustained Yield Plan which
called for clearcutting a third of their forest ownership over a ten year
period. At that moment, the new company came in - Mendocino Redwood, with
its intimate money connections to the Gap clothing stores - and they
started doing the same thing! Ten years of clearcutting, with no approval
by anybody - except for the tacit approval given by the California
Department of Forestry as they rubber stamp logging plan after logging
plan. How can we restore a watershed that is being systematically
unraveled, and converted into a tree farm?
Using taxpayers' money to pay for fish habitat restoration - while the
entire redwood ecosystem is under such continual stress, and is being
removed before our very eyes - is not a viable solution. It's as if a
doctor tried to fix a broken leg, with the patient meanwhile bleeding to
death from an open chest wound.
It's time for us to recognize the truth of this situation - and it's time
to do something about it, before it is too late. When you head out of here
- and get back on the road - and pass by that illusion of a forest on
Highway 128 (those big tall trees that line the road and stop at the
river's edge, about 50 feet in) - and if find yourself behind a log truck,
count the trees. In the old days here, you would see one log per truck -
one great, magnificent redwood tree per logging truck. Even fifteen years
ago, you might see two or three big trees per truck. What do you see today?
Mendocino County's bio-diversity is going down that road, in that log truck
filled with 20 pecker poles - to a mill that got rid of its old growth saw
some time ago. The myth is that we can keep that truck going forever -
carrying 20 pecker poles, then 30 pecker poles, then...what? L-P's Harry
Merlo said he was "logging to infinity." He meant what he said.
The reality is that our watersheds have no protection. The birds that need
those trees, the water that those trees filter to the ground, the fish that
need their shade, and the people who need these qualities in the
environment, are being severely harmed by this liquidation.
The myth is that it all grows back. The reality is that the wood that is
being sold now is not good wood. It's weak; it's disease-prone. Builders
won't use it. It's called "yellow redwood" - because it's growing up in a
depleted, damaged watershed.
Tell the truth. Be courageous. Lead the way in straightening out natural
resource priorities. Put people first. Put the forest first. Put the
earth first.
Thank you.
_________________________________________
Other Contacts/Information Sources:
www.elksoft.com/gwa
----------------------------
Mary Pjerrou, Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance
707-877-3405 pirohuck@mcn.org
----------------------------
Norman de Vall, Greenwood Watershed Association
707-877-3551 ndevall@mcn.org www.gapsucks.org
----------------------------
Redwood Mary (Mary Rose Kaczorowski),
Plight of the Redwoods Tour redwoodm@mcn.org
----------------------------
Mary Bull,
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign
415-731-7924 chalicenew@earthlink.net
-----------------------------
Also of interest:
----------------------------
Gap Labor Exploitation URLs:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/14
/MN19190.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/20
/MN49132.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/22
/MN49806.DTL
http://www.house.gov/resources/105cong/democrat/cnmifin.html#contractlabor
http://www.globalexchange.org
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