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

[Ben Ficklin]

Forest Plan May See Some Changes

[Itzlzha]

I know of a village that is looking for an idiot. Want an application?

Obviously must be a different village from yours.

Nice try kid. Come back when your voice changes, Peter Brady.

[B4Ranch]

PING;

I need somebody to explain to me why I should respect this SOB! quick!

[editor-surveyor]

Is there anything at all in your head? (besides pot smoke)

[tubebender]

Our local paper here in Eureka (Times-Standard) had the newer AP story today you refered in your reply. Sawmills here in Humboldt County are on the ropes or out of business. This area is the most productive timber land in the US and they are bringin logs in by barge from Oregon and New Zeland. We had a very large fire east of use here 2 years ago and the socialist blocked using the dead trees before the bugs get them.

[editor-surveyor]

Pardon the double pings, but can we invite some more friends?

[poet]

Good advice

[poet]

Thanks for the heads up. Happy New Year

[MissAmericanPie]

Bumpity ping ping

[Carry_Okie]

You've shown signs of thoughtfulness before, but this time, you have really blown it.

[Osinski]

We elected a globalist, of that there is no doubt.

Why, Miss Pie, isn't this a change of perspective for you? What do you think of the globalist perspective? Please reply.

[MissAmericanPie]

Did I somehow ever give you the impression that I am pro-globalist? Say no or I may have to go throw myself in front of a truck.

[Ben Ficklin]

I can't see how there could be any significant changes to the plan. Minor stuff dealing with fire hazards. I read somewhere that over 10 million had been spent in development of the plan.

Once the logging infrastructure is gone and the hands disappear there's no bringing it back.

[Ben Ficklin]

You need to realize that the Sierra Plan is just an increment in the ultimate plan

[Osinski]

Pro-globalist? Not in so many words, but am I mistaken in the impression I had of you as pro-Bush?

[Chad Fairbanks]

Logging was a big part of the New Hampshire Economy (along with Textiles, and shipbuilding) for centuries - and yet, the state is more heavily forested than it has been at anytime in it's history (HIstory defined as 'since the white people came', anyway)... seems to me that logging works just fine, and it's envirinmental whackjobs that screw everything up...

[MissAmericanPie]

I give anyone credit when they do something right, but I also don't hesitate to type up when I think they are wrong. You will find posts, especially on the stem cell issue, where I rip him, and posts where I am stunned that he took his hand off the bible swearing to uphold the Constitution and right after that rips his britches jetting down to rub elbows with his pal Vicente Fox, and you will find posts on the war where I feel he has made the right moves, to a point, he has certainly made better moves than Gore would have done.

I am a registered independent on the side of my fellow citizens that want the Constitution to be followed, and truth to tell, I have not made up my mind if I will trouble myself to go to the polls in 2004 yet.