Agriculture chief upholds management plan for 11.5 million acres of Sierra

The Sierra Times ^ | 27 December, 2001 | JIM WASSERMAN Associated Press Writer

[brityank]

Agriculture chief upholds management plan
for 11.5 million acres of Sierra

By JIM WASSERMAN Associated Press Writer 12.27.01

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Bush administration announced support Thursday for a Clinton-era management plan that giving a new environmental tilt to managing 11.5 million acres of national forest in the Sierra Nevada.

U.S. Agriculture Under Secretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, upheld earlier agency decisions that rejected appeals by loggers, ski resorts and off-road groups hoping to kill the plan.

"The plan is a final agency decision which is now being implemented," Rey said.

The management plan, formally called the Sierra Nevada Framework, shifts the Forest Service's emphasis from logging old-growth forests to protecting them on 4 million acres. It also bans logging on most trees larger than 20 inches, while limiting logging in a 460-mile stretch of California and Nevada to levels one-tenth those reached during the Reagan administration in the 1980s.

California Forestry Association President David Bischel called Rey's ruling the "worst decision they could have made" and one that will "add to the risk of catastrophic wildfire."

His and other opposition groups may take their cases to court. More work remains on the plan, Rey said, and he asked supporters and opponents to delay legal action until they see the results.

Forest service officials, after nine years crafting a management vision that began aiming to protect the endangered spotted owl, are now working on revisions to better prevent destructive wildfires. Pacific Southwest Regional Forester Jack Blackwell will announce a so-called "action plan" early next week, officials said.

Environmentalists fear those might be a backdoor way to accomplish more logging in the nation's longest unbroken mountain range.

Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist, declined to offer details on the action plan, saying it will be announced soon.

But environmental spokesmen had nothing but praise for Rey's decision not to throw out the Sierra Nevada Framework.

"Today the sun is shining on California's Range of Light," said Jay Watson, regional director of the Wilderness Society.

Craig Thomas, spokesman for the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, agreed, saying, "I think California is leading the way in terms of this agency bringing its credibility back."

Bob Roberts, director of California Snow, a group of Sierra Nevada ski resorts, said Rey should have scrapped the plan.

Ski resorts won't be able to add new lifts if they can't remove trees larger than 20 inches in diameter, Roberts said, which makes him "feel recreations has been a casualty of the process."

© 2002 SierraTimes.com

[editor-surveyor]

My guess is that it is an inflator in his case ;-)

[mrustow]

Thanks for the ping.

But environmental spokesmen had nothing but praise for Rey's decision not to throw out the Sierra Nevada Framework.

"Today the sun is shining on California's Range of Light," said Jay Watson, regional director of the Wilderness Society.

I'm no enviro expert, but this doesn't good. If only relatively small trees can be removed, they might as well have said, "No tree removal permitted."

[philman_36]

A case of self-inflatuation?
Paging Dr. Freud...