New Sequoia National Monument
President Clinton, following the recommendation of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, ordered the formation of Sequoia National Monument in the central California Sierra Nevada Mountains. In a letter to Glickman, the President promised to "ensure that these majestic cathedral groves, which John Muir called "'Nature's masterpiece,'" are protected for future generations to study and enjoy".
Nearly 328,000 acres of the Sequoia National Forest are to permanently preserve 34 groves of giant sequoia.
The national monument designation will stop any existing timber harvesting rights but allow access for camping, hunting, fishing, and other recreational uses. To create the monument's extra level of federal protection, Clinton used the 1906 Antiquities Act which places the forest under the supervision of the National Park Service.
And the debate grows as conservative Republicans in Congress are quoted as being against the designation.
"I strenuously oppose a Sequoia National Monument designation because it could do more harm than good," said Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA). "The President claims we need to 'protect these trees.' But far from protecting these trees, the Clinton-Gore monument may actually increase risks by limiting management tools for reducing these hazards around the groves."
Many members of the environmental community simply don't buy that and say Clinton's
designation does not go far enough to reduce harvesting. It will allow noncommercial
logging "under the guise of so-called forest health," says the Natural Resources Defense Council.
NRDC attorney Andrew Wetzler said "The kind of forest health logging that's been done
in the past is actually a mechanical thinning process that shears whole swaths of
forestland. Mechanical thinning is commercial logging in everything but name."
According to the USDA, the science panel will allow the best science to guide the appropriate choice and mix of ecological management actions, including mechanical treatment, prescribed burning, and other techniques necessary to protect the sequoia groves from catastrophic fire and other threats. The panel will also address concerns raised by several members of Congress, the California Forestry Association, and local residents.
About half the remaining groves already are protected because they lie within the
Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks. Clinton's declaration applies to 34
groves outside those boundaries and within the borders of Sequoia National Forest.
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