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Testimony for the Subcommittee on Specialty Crops & Natural Resources 



Committee on Agriculture 

 The U.S. House of Representative 



October 13, 1993 



By Kathy Bailey 



Chair for State Forestry 



Sierra Club California 



Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Headwaters Forest Act, 

 HR 2866. 



My name is Kathy Bailey. I am the Chair for Sierra Club's California State 

 Forestry Committee. Our committee's focus is the 7 million acres of California 

 forestland owned by the timber industry and other private land holders. I have worked 

 virtually full time as a volunteer on forestry issues since 1988 and have been active off 

 and on since 1976. I have lived near Boonville, in west-central Mendocino County, 

 California, for 22 years. 



We are here to consider the future of the last remnant of what's known in 

 California as the Redwood Empire. The historic range of the redwood forest was 

 from south of San Francisco Bay, north to the Oregon border in a band no wider than 

 40 miles along the coast. Two hundred years ago this area was blanketed with 

 majestic redwoods, trees eight to fourteen feet or more across, taller than the Capitol 

 Dome, and up to 2000 years old. Today less than five percent remain uncut, including 

 all existing park land and the proposed acquisition known as Headwaters Forest. 



Sierra Club joins with the Wilderness Society and the National Audubon Society 

 in supporting the Headwaters Forest Act because it provides the only foreseeable 

 chance to maintain this significant portion of the environmental heritage of the 

 redwood region. We specifically support, at a minimum, the 44,000 acre acquisition 

 area and the bill's focus on reestablishing the links between the virgin, uncut blocks of 

 forest which remain in order to enhance the habitat value of the area. 



Although there are some beautiful stands of virgin redwoods in existing state 

 and federal parks, there is no redwood forestland in the U.S. Forest system. Through 

 a quirk of history the entire redwood ecosystem is held by industrial timber companies 

 and other private holders. The land is designated "timber production zone" for tax 

 purposes, and the primary use is, in fact, wood products production. 



Although the state's Forest Practice Act mandates sustained yield and protection 

 of water, wildlife and aesthetic values, the regulations governing logging have never set 



