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action and inaction affect our forests and their habitats with both 

 short- and long-term results. 



As a logger for 7 years and a forester for 26, I have seen that 

 my activities in forest management often turn green into brown or 

 black for months or even years, depending on the ecosystem. 



Yet, I have returned to areas that I have cut, to forests that I 

 have burned, to trees that I have planted, and seen the develop- 

 ment through growth and succession that have turned these areas 

 into beautiful growing forests, because black and brown naturally 

 turn into green, rejuvenating the land, and reusing the soil. Trees 

 grow. And with knowledge, forethought and care, through eco- 

 system management, we can create and restore anew our amazing 

 resources. 



The giant sequoia resource is almost magical in its ability to ful- 

 fill human desires and needs. As some of the information provided 

 to you from the giant sequoia symposium shows, the young giant 

 sequoia trees grow two to four times faster than their coniferous 

 neighbors. They have wood qualities that meet or exceed those of 

 coastal redwood. 



Combine those facts with natural insect, disease and fire resist- 

 ance, an ability to grow in mixed or pure stands, and its fabled 

 beauty, and here is a tree that we should indeed revere and pre- 

 serve through much greater use. We must manipulate and manage, 

 carefully and with forethought, with fire and with ax, if we are to 

 be sure of the continuance of this fabulous resource. 



We Eire part of a larger ecosystem, in which humanity must be 

 included as a part. We cannot continue to ignore our conflicting de- 

 sires for both beauty and products. Since residents of this Nation 

 continue to consume the world's forests in increasing quantities per 

 capita, per year, we have a responsibility to preserve forests 

 around the world. 



My colleague. Bill Libby, points out if we are to preserve, say, 

 1,000 acres of land in California, we are probably increasing har- 

 vest elsewhere, adversely affecting at least 5,000 acres in some 

 place like Equador, causing environmental degradation and an in- 

 ordinately higher level of species extinctions and displacement of 

 indigenous peoples. 



No sane person would disagree with the goals of this bill. Cer- 

 tainly, we all want to preserve giant sequoia. But it is naive to ask 

 nature and a committee to take care of our forests in a socially ac- 

 ceptable manner, after we have attempted to ignore vegetation de- 

 velopment for so long. 



As written, this bill ignores forest succession, the climate that 

 provides conditions for catastrophic fire, centuries of manipulation 

 by Native Americans, and millennia of forest interactions. 



We must indeed preserve giant sequoia ecosystem dynamics, and 

 these we must learn from the forest itself. This bill's provisions ab- 

 dicating management and ignoring what we are learning from 

 ecosystems, while we increase dependence on forests elsewhere, is 

 foolishness in the extreme. No matter what we decide here or else- 

 where, nature's inexorable forces will continue, and humans will 

 continue to be dependent on forests. 



I thank you for the opportunity to address you this way. 



