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Cloer-Testimony: H.R. 2153 Page 9 



National Sierra Club Board states in his letter of 3/1/94, there was no science and no 

 biological data which guided the placement of the grove boundaries, it was a stop- 

 gap definition, the best the Sierra Club could get under the circumstances; it was a 

 temporary measure designed to stop destruction in the heart of the groves until 

 permanent legislative solutions could be gained. 



The Forest Service will testify that it too wants to protect Giant Sequoia Groves. It will 

 tell you that the Giant Sequoia Preservation Act is not necessary, that Forest Service 

 Policy will preserve the Giants. 



Forest Service policy protected the groves in the past, and Forest Service policy failed 

 to do its job. The following summary of events may serve to illustrate why agency 

 policy is totally insufficient to protect the groves over time, and why legislation is 

 imperative. 



As detailed in the Administrative Appeal of the Decision to Log in Giant Sequoias, in 

 the 1970's Forest Service Policy protected the groves. Several of us were very 

 concerned about the loss of the forest outside of the groves. We knew that 

 overlogging the forest adjacent to the groves would eventually affect the groves 

 themselves, but there was no immediate concern. There was 'common knowledge" 

 that logging in groves had been stopped after the abuses at the turn of the century. 

 Not only was there the assumption that logging within groves was prohibited, many 

 groves were posted with yellow signs which declared: 



"Type! 



REDWOOD GROVE 



Area Back of This Sign 



Established Under Reg U-3 



by Regional Forester" 



which according to Region 5 Guidelines meant: 



"...No major activities such as campground or road construction, or timber cutting, 

 will be permitted within any Type I Grove." 



This was the first specific Forest Service Manual direction for management of Giant 

 Sequoias. Sequoia Forest documents written between 1970 and 1984, including 

 District Multiple-Use Plans, refer to various groves as being Type I. 



Then in the Fall of 1986. Charlene Little stumbled into a logged-over portion of the 

 Long Meadow Grove. Roads had been pushed through the grove, large areas of 

 Sequoia roots had been severed, huge swaths of earth had been piled, and all 

 vegetation had been removed except for Giant Sequoias 8 feet in diameter and larger; 

 it looked like a war zone. 



