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E-mail StoryRuling another blow to industry already reeling, pro-loggers say
| Tuesday, Aug 22 2006 10:15 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Aug 22 2006 10:19 PM
The legal tug of war over logging on Giant Sequoia National Monument lurched in favor of environmentalists Tuesday, yielding to a predictable pattern of cheers and boos from anti-logging activists and those whose livelihoods depend on cutting trees.
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In throwing out the U.S. Forest Service's fire prevention plan, which included commercial logging as one of its tools, the judge affirmed citizens' rights "to scream and shout when the Forest Service does something illegal," said Ara Marderosian, executive director of Sequoia ForestKeeper in Kernville.
"Taking trees 30 inches in diameter has nothing to do with the fire regime," he said.
Rangers, loggers and sawmill operators disagree. Loggers do what the federal government would otherwise have to pay for in a forest vastly overgrown due to more than 100 years of fighting fires, they say.
"It's unfortunate the court doesn't appreciate near-term actions for long-term benefits," said Kent Duysen, president of Sierra Forest Products in Terra Bella.
With all but one timber sale frozen on the monument, the industry is suffering, he said. Four sawmills have gone out of business in the region since 1994, and his is the only one left in the Sierras south of Sonora, he said.
"We're going to need some relief," Duysen said.