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Cloer-Testimony: H.R. 2153 Page 8 



=ederal law. Attorney Kirk Boyd will delineate the myriad of legal problems which 

 Sequoia Forest runs into when it tries to plan and implement logging activities which 

 do not take into consideration the finite limitations of the forest. 



In addition to all this destruction caused by overlogging and unsuccessful plantations, 

 another insult is that logging-as-usual is economically irresponsible. Forest economist 

 Robert Wolf is presenting testimony which clearly explains that the logging program of 



Sequoia Forest is a losing proposition even when evaluated solely on its economic 

 impacts to the American taxpayer. 



I believe that anyone who scrutinizes the record will clearly see that geographically 

 this Forest is not suited to logging, it is not a good tree farm; past attempts to turn it into 

 a tree farm have resulted in a fragmented forest. It needs every contiguous block of 

 unkjgged forest that remains if it is to survive and retain its integrity as a forest 

 ecosystem. 



Ail of our testimony today which refers to reforestation failures, watershed damages, 

 and economic defteits of togging all serve to underscore our positfon that logging is not 

 a valid option for the future of Sequoia Forest. 



It would be easy to get sidetracked into viewing the forest as merely a lumber 

 producing farm because that is how the Forest Servrce has viewed it. 



But how does all of this relate to Sequoia Groves? During discussfon and analysis, it 

 is easy to splinter a complicated biological entity, such as a forest, into its various 

 components and to begin to separate them so that we lose track of how they all 

 inten-elate. The forest of the southern Sierra, including the Giant Sequoia groves, is all 

 one ecosystem. Here the Giant Sequoia groves are making their last stand, scattered 

 amongst the overlogged forests of Sequoia National Forest. About thirty-eight groves 

 have been identified in Sequoia Forest, but to separate and isolate them into small 

 islands as if they are not a part of the whole forest, or as if their existence does not 

 depend upon the health of the whole forest, is to ensure their demise. Extensive 

 logging and roadbuilding around groves can have drastic impacts which may not be 

 apparent for a century or more. To protect the groves, we must protect the forest which 

 sustains them and of which they are a part. 



We are heartened to hear the new Chief of the Forest Service pledge to institute 

 ecosystem management. Today, by Forest Service Policy and consistent with the 

 MSA, the groves are defined as islands surrounded by 'ordinary" forest lands. The 

 definition of grove and the protection of the groves is based on locating the existing 

 trees, measuring out 500 feet from the outermost Sequoia, and placing a marker at 

 that point. Outskje of that marker logging can continue as usual. Pacing several feet 

 from a Sequoia is not a science or ecosystem driven process. This definition of 

 ■grove" was bargained during the MSA negotiations. As Joe Fontaine, member of the 



