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Ctoer-Testimony: H.R. 2153 Page 2 



il remember the first time my horse Rascal and I saw a bulldozer on a trail which I 

 thought was miles from anywhere. I didn't stop to think about what that bulldozer might 

 mean. At first the changes were small; a few trees were logged here and there. But by 

 1970. clearcutting, with its nuclear logging methods, had made my favorite beautiful 

 places unrecognizable. 



1 1 feel strongly that those of us who know and love these mountains must fight for their 

 protection. In my endeavors I have filled many roles. I am a co-founder of Sequoia 

 Forest Alliance. I am a member of the Executive Committee of the Kern-Kaweah 

 Chapter of the Sierra Club. I am the official contact person representing the Sierra 

 Club in the 1990 Mediated Settlement Agreement(MSA) of the Sierra Club's appeal of 

 Sequoia Forest's 1988 Land Management Plan (LMP) and I am the Chairperson of 

 our Chapter's Sequoia National Forest Committee. I also serve as the Litigation 

 Coordinator for Tulare County Audubon's recent lawsuits which challenge Sequoia 

 Forest's LMP as well as certain specific timber sales. I am on the board of the Tule 

 River Conservancy and the Sequoia Forest Citizens' Coalition. 



I have read and researched countless Forest Service documents. I wrote the 

 administrative appeal which led to the Sierra Club's successful legal battle to stop the 

 logging in Giant Sequoia groves which took place in the mid-1 980's. I wrote a portion 

 of the administrative appeal of Sequoia Forest's LMP. and I was a representative of 

 the Sierra Club during the majority of the negotiations which led to the 1990 MSA. 

 Between 1984 and 1994 I wrote numerous administrative appeals, consulted with 

 experts including biologists, hydrologists, and foresters, conducted on-the-ground 

 investigations and surveys, and I testified at a 1991 Hearing in Visalia before the 

 House Subcommittee on General Oversight and California Desert Lands. I have 

 served as a guest speaker at numerous occasions including the Sequoia 

 Symposium, "Giant Sequoias: Their Place in the Ecosystem and Society," June, 1992 

 sponsored by the University of California, Davis, Sequoia National Forest, and 

 Sequoia National Park. 



We have pursued every legal avenue available in an attempt to bring the management 

 of Sequoia National Forest into compliance with federal law and with the sound 

 science of ecosystem management. I am absolutely convinced that the only final 

 solution is legislatk>n. 



My message is simple: The future of the Giant Sequoias depends not only 

 on the land beneath their roots but also upon the health of the entire 

 forest of which they are a part. These ancient gifts from the past, whose 

 ancestors gave shade to dinosaurs, do not belong only to those of us 

 living here in 1990; they belong to the world and to the future. While most 

 of the public believes that ail Giant Sequoia groves are already protected by law, that 

 is not the case. Over 26,000 acres of groves have no statutory protection whatsoever. 

 We must protect the groves AND their sustaining ecosystem. 



