Wilsons Sandbox

Know the truth, and the truth will set you free. URGENT ACTION ALERT LETTERS NEED ON SIERRA NEVADA CONSERVATION FRAMEWORK August 11 deadline The US Forerst Service has undertaken an unprecedented simultaneous revision of the Land Management Plans of all 11 of the Sierra Nevada National Forests. This plan is called the Sierra Nevada Conservation Framework (SNCF). This is a politically ordered effort directed by the President's Council on Environmental Quality. The chair of the CEQ is George Frampton, former Executive Director of the Wilderness Society, one of many extreme environmentalists in the Clinton/Gore administration, and has the full support of Al Gore. The administration is trying to finish this process before the November elections, since it would likely be halted if George W. Bush wins the election in November. While recreation was identified as a major issue in the planning process, it has been ignored, even though the plan has the potential to eliminate most campgrounds, roads, and trails on National Forest lands. While the Forest Service has said that it was shifting from a resource extraction dominated management emphasis to a recreation focused program, the SNCF will close or eliminate, over the long term, most of the existing recreation facilities, such as campgrounds, roads, and trails. Additionally, new facilities will be banned from most of the forest, due to other restrictions imposed by the SNCF. Even within the Forest Service, the SNCF has generated more internal controversy than I have witnessed in 11 years of dealing with the agency professionally. There is no science to support many of the proposed restrictions and Standards and Guidelines, and many agency professional scientists are very upset with the mangling of science to fit the political agenda. The SNCF identified several focus issues: Fire and Fuels, Old Growth Forests, and Riparian and Aquatic Zones. Smaller issues identified were West Side Oak Forests, and Bighorn Sheep. Amazingly, none of the 8 alternatives proposed in the SNCF will reduce catastrophic fires, and in fact, all will increase major fires, many of them several fold. The forests of the Sierra Nevada are enormously overstocked today, the rsult of over fifty years of aggressive fire suppression that has allowed the hisotric fire regime of frequent low intensity fires to be replaced with more and more frequent major, catastrophic fires that devastate the ecosystems, wipe out old growth forests, and destroy aquatic and riparian zones. This overstocked situation needs a combination of prescribed burning and mechanical thinning (The dreaded L word, Logging) to reduce these fuel loads down to a level where low intensity fire can be re-introduced. The SCNF does not directly answer our questions about how recreation and access will be impacted by the plan. Those decisions have been defferred to the local level, but the Standards and Guidelines (S&G's) in the SNCF lay the foundation for closures, with no option for the local managers. Our concerns with the S&G's include: The elimination of vehicle access to undeveloped campsites, wood gathering, vistas, etc. Formerly, vehicle travel was allowed up to 300 feet from a road to access campsites and other points of interest, provided no resource damage occurred. All off-road travel is banned. All routes of travel will be "Closed Unless Signed Open", instead of the current policy of "Open Unless Signed Closed". This is contrary to an appeall we won on the Stanislaus National Forest less than a year ago. Buffer zones will be created around all aquatic/riparian zones. These buffer zones extend 300 feet on either side of a permanent stream or lake, 150 feet on either side of an intermittent stream, and 75 feet on either side of an ephemeral stream (any "channel" that shows signs of water scouring). While no immediate closures can be contained in a programatic decision such as the SNCF, it does mandate local action down the road. All facilties, such as roads, trails, campgrounds, etc, within these buffer zones will have to be re-evaluated. Think about how many campgrounds are within 300 feet of water. What about trails that cross even dry channels? Every one of them would have to be formally revaluated, but the mandate of the SNCF says that these facilities can not be in conflict with the S&G's, so they will have to go, it is just a matter of when. 10 mile across Buffer zones wil be created around all denning sites for American Martens and Pacific Fishers, where no new development can take place. These buffer zones will occupy most of the forests, making replacement of facilites closed by the S&G's virtually impossible. Amazingly, the Forest Service has absolutley no idea how many of these denning site exist or where they are, yet draconian restrictions are proposed. To make the situation even worse, there is absolutley no science behind these restrictions! The SNCF is in conflict with a 1999 report by the General Accountig Office. The report, "Comphrensive Strategy for Reducing Catastrophic Wilfires" produced by the GAO recognized that prescribed fire alone is not going to reduce fires, but mechanical thinning must occur in most areas before a fire can be set, due to excess fuel loads that lead to a catastrophic fire rather than a low intensity burn. This report was withdrawn by the White House Office of Management & Budget when it was discovered it was in conflict with the SNCF. There are many, many other technical difficulties with the SNCF, but you just need to send a simple letter. We urge you to write the Forest Service immediately and demand that the SNCF select Alternative 1, the no action alternative. Below is a website with letters you can print out easily and send to the Forest Service. The deadline is August 11, so please send your letter today. The address is: USDA Forest Service-CAET Sierra Nevada Framework Project P.O. Box 7669 Missoula, MT 59807 Comments may be sent by e-mail to: mailroom_wo_caet@... Bill Dart, District Legislative Officer