Photo courtesy Martin Litton Aerial photo illustrates clear cuts where giant sequoia trees stand without a forest around them, due to trees that have been cut and shipped to sawmills for logging.

California's giant sequoias, among the world's oldest and largest trees, are one of nature's icons. John Muir called them 'the most beautiful and majestic on earth,' and the Sierra Club he founded has sought to preserve them.

So when 34 groves of giant sequoias were given protection in 2000 by President Bill Clinton's creation of Giant Sequoia National Monument, covering 328,000 acres in about one-third of Sequoia National Forest, environmentalists cheered, thinking that the trees and their surroundings were safe and that the land would be restored after more than a century of logging in the national forest.

But they haven't found much to cheer about since then in the actions of the Forest Service under the Bush administration.

First, there was the Forest Service's controversial management plan, which called for more logging than before the monument was created, up to 7.5 million board feet a year, enough to fill 1,500 logging trucks, in the name of 'fire prevention' and 'ecosystem restoration.' This despite the specific injunction in Clinton's proclamation creating the monument that prohibited timber production, or removal of trees unless 'clearly needed for ecological restoration.'

The Sierra Club and other organizations filed suit in federal court in San Francisco in January 2005, saying the proposed Forest Service plan violates national environmental laws, would harm rare wildlife, and is inconsistent with the original proclamation. California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer filed a similar lawsuit a few weeks later. A decision is pending.

Then there were last year's aborted logging attempts. The 2000 proclamation had allowed a few pending timber sales to proceed, to be completed by 2004. The deadline was quietly changed to 2005, then 2006. In the summer of 2005, a logging project got underway. Activists found freshly cut fir tree stumps nearly 3 feet in diameter at the Saddle Project near giant sequoia groves. Arguing that there had been no compelling reason to extend the deadline beyond 2004, they quickly got a court order halting the projected logging of 5 million board feet of lumber. Several weeks later, the court halted another logging operation, the Ice Project, criticizing the Forest Service for its 'lack of thoroughness' and ignoring extensive research on how logging would affect wildlife.

A bill introduced in the House in July by Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia, would bypass these court rulings and allow logging projects that were pending when the Monument was created in 2000 to proceed, cutting trees up to 30 inches in diameter. If enacted, HR 5760, would circumvent environmentalists' efforts to protect trees and wildlife.

This year it was Freeman Creek Trail, nearly 5 miles long, descending along Freeman Creek to the Kern River. Like all trails inside the Monument, it was off-limits to motorized off-road vehicles.

The trail and the Freeman Creek Grove of giant sequoias offered a pristine wilderness experience for hikers, horse riders, campers, fishermen, and birdwatchers. Not far from Quaking Aspen Campground, site of weekend outings by Angeles Chapter groups, the trail and grove were a highlight during Sierra Club outings to the Monument.

Club activists were appalled in July to find that the path had been rebuilt into a nearly 5-foot wide walkway. Carla Cloer, chair of the Sierra Club's Sequoia Task Force, described the scene:

'Miles of loose dirt from the road cut has been pushed over the downhill side towards Freeman Creek and the road abuts many ancient sequoia trees. In some places sequoia roots have been severed. Huge new switchbacks have been cut so as to make the trail longer and less steep . . . easier for driving. Many trees were removed in the process and three 5-foot-wide wooden bridges span the delightful Freeman Creek. Today, nothing stops vehicular access into this unique grove, and already ORV's are busy zipping up and down this new road.'

Photo courtesy Carla Cloer Trail maintenance worker rides an ATV along newly widened Freeman Creek Trail.

Carla Cloer says that the Forest Service gave no public notice to solicit public input, and performed no environmental study of potential effects.

A hiker who said he had hiked this 'ancient trail' dozens of times over 50 years said he started down the trail after the widening, but found it 'too depressing. . . . It will look like all the hundreds of logging roads that are being used by 4x4s,' he lamented. 'It will surely attract 4x4 vehicles of all kinds.' He said he could not recall any problems with stream crossings or erosion on the old trail, even with very young children.

A Forest Service official, Priscilla Summers, district ranger in the area, said the trail was rebuilt to original standards, the same as in the agency's manual. 'We aim for a tread width of 4 feet,' she said. 'And after a year or so, the rough edges will slough down and it won't look so raw.' The trail will continue to be off-limits to motor vehicles.

She said some sections of the trail had been badly eroded. These were filled in and the trail rerouted to avoid steep grades. Stream crossings and old-style culverts were replaced with three bridges and new culverts that are easier for salamanders and fish to navigate.

Summers said notices of the proposed project were sent to interested parties. Cloer and Ara Marderosian, executive director of Sequoia ForestKeeper, said they did not recall getting any such notices.

Frustrated Sierra Club activists have called for management of the Monument to be taken from the Forest Service, with its heritage of timber sales, and transferred to the National Park Service, which has shown in adjacent Sequoia National Park how to preserve healthy sequoia forests with prescribed burns. The Act to Save America's Forests (S. 1897) would, among other things, transfer the Monument to the National Park Service.

Adapted from an article in the Pasadena Group newsletter Arroyo View.

Take Action!

URGE your U.S. senator and congress member to oppose H.R. 5760 that would allow logging in the Monument.

ASK legislators to support S. 1897 to transfer Monument management to the National Park Service.

SEND trail or other comments to Acting Forest Supervisor Nancy C. Ruthenbeck, Sequoia National Forest, 1839 South Newcomb Street, Porterville, CA 93257.