National Scenic Trail Chopped By Logger's Ax?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 3, 2002

CONTACT INFO:
Peter Elias
petrelias [at] hotmail.com
S.I.E.R.A-
Sierra Institute for Ecological Resource Advocacy
530-288-0823

Fran Burgard
Scenic Corridor Preservation Group
530-862-1367

Carolyn Hinshaw
Sierra Club/Sierra Nevada Group
530-477-1320


SIERRA PACIFIC INDUSTRIES SETS ITS SIGHTS
ON CUTTING ANCIENT FOREST
ALONG RENOWNED PACIFIC CREST NATIONAL SCENIC HIKING TRAIL


Local Citizens Plan Hikes to Protest Devastating Cut,
While Youth Plan Direct Action


SIERRA CITY, CA. -- Local concerned citizens are gearing up for protest hikes along the popular Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (PCT). They intend to draw attention to an active timber harvest plan, which calls for the cutting of an area of ancient forest adjacent to the trail as well as three miles of the trail itself.

Unless the harvest plan is stopped, the hikes into the area will provide the final chance to view the old-growth forest, as it is slated for a landscape-altering cut by Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) later this year.

In addition to the planned hikes, a group of young activists have mounted a civil disobedience effort via a "tree-sit" along the area of the national trail scheduled for cutting. The action is designed to halt the plans of SPI, the largest private timberland owner in the country.

The area in question is due northwest of Lake Tahoe near the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is outside of the small mountain town of Sierra City, in Sierra County, California, near the well-known Sierra Buttes and Yuba Pass on State Highway 49.

SPI is best known for its plan to clear-cut more than one million acres it owns in the Sierra. Those plans now draw major civil protests and scrutiny. In October, 2000, surprisingly unnoticed, SPI received approval by the State of California for the Milton Timber Harvest Plan . The plan encompasses 2,880 acres of land, including the three miles of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. Deemed a more selective timber harvest, the devastating plan also includes three areas of remnant old growth or ancient forest, totaling nearly 300 acres. SPI posted and began cutting in this area in mid-August, 2002.

"Of course SPI has a legitimate interest in the timber value of their land. They deserve to be compensated. But the people have a legitimate interest in the aesthetic value of their National Scenic Pacific Crest Trail," said Fran Burgard of the Scenic Corridor Preservation Group.

She adds, "Now the majority of people in the immediate community are asking that the company save the trees along the path of the National Scenic Trail, so that we all can continue to enjoy the vistas and study these magnificent trees for generations to come."

Burgard contends that the local Sierra County economy will get a bigger boost from preserving its heritage by keeping the trees along the PCT, than from any monetary value the county might receive through the harvest.

According to Peter Elias, a representative of the environmental watchdog group SIERA, or Sierra Institute for Ecological Resource Advocacy, "Rare and special places such as this must be safeguarded. A temporary cessation of logging activity may still allow for a negotiated resolution which will benefit everyone."

Elias proposes simple measures including protecting the Pacific Crest Trail, saving the ancient forest stands, and creating no-cut buffers for watercourses in the area. These actions would still allow Sierra Pacific Industries to conduct its timber operations on the vast bulk of the expansive Milton harvest plan.

Congressional action designated the PCT as a National Scenic Trail in 1968. A 5-foot easement for the Pacific Crest Trail passes through land now owned by Sierra Pacific Industries. While the timber company has been relatively tolerant or even gracious regarding associated public use of its land, as a matter of business practice it continues to be intent on maximizing timber production.

The relatively small parcels in question are ideal candidates for transfer to a protected status, whether this be ownership by a land conservancy or simply a more protective easement. The major issue to be resolved remains whether such action can be accomplished before chainsaws hit the most critically important environmentally and recreationally sensitive areas.

In the view of Nancy A. Erman, Specialist Emeritus, Aquatic Ecology, with the University of California, "The Haypress and Milton basins are already heavily impacted by a run-of-river hydroelectric project, roads, and logging over the past decade or so. Severe erosion, loss of stream cover and reduced stream flow make it unlikely that these stream basins can sustain all the logging planned for the area in the next few years. The approval of this large timber harvest in these two basins points out the inadequacy of the Department of Forestry's cumulative impact analysis."

Concerned citizens in this historic timber economy town are circulating petitions and otherwise doing what they can to ask SPI and public officials to save the threatened areas from the logger's axe. "This is a magical place! If a 500-year old tree directly on the National Scenic Trail can't be protected, what possibly can?" said a youthful, unnamed, Milton Creek resident tree-sitter, as he ascended 100 feet into a Douglas Fir in an effort to halt the cutting.

*The tree-sit and old-growth grove on the PACIFIC CREST TRAIL are a short one to two hour walk from a Sierra City campground/trailhead. Guided visits for press on the public easement trail will be arranged. Call: 530-288-0823 or email: petrelias [at] hotmail.com


Visuals/Background material are available at
http://yubawatershed.org/pictures/miltoncreek2/
http://yubawatershed.org

Press Trips To the Area Can Be Arranged

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