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Cloer-Testimony: H.R. 2153 Page 12 



places. Sequoia National Forest still was not deterred from its plan to log in groves. 

 Even after thie injunction was in place, the 1988 Sequoia Forest's Land Management 

 Plan (t-MP) called for similar treatment of 9,300 acres within Giant Sequoia groves. 

 Many groups filed an appeal on the LMP; many of these appeals were resolved by the 

 MSA. 



As late as 1 990, Environmental Assessments were listing the goals of "manage groves 

 with objectives of perpetuating the species, preserving old growth specimen trees, and 

 providing timber." Please note that throughout all of the controversy no one has 

 suggested that there is a shortage of individual Giant Sequoia trees; the concern has 

 been for the natural processes of the ecological entity call a "grove." Getting the Forest 

 Service to protect "groves" instead of merely protecting unique large specimen trees 

 while doing tree-farm management around them has been a continuing battle. 



It has been ten years since the protection of Type I Grove Policy was changed to allow 

 the destruction of the groves. It has taken ten years of intense dedication by unpaid 

 volunteers and tens of thousands of dollars donated by private citizens to regain a 

 grove protection policy; while we were regaining that protection more than 1000 

 acres were logged from the cores of more than eight groves. 



It is unthinkable that this battle might have to be fought again; the groves cannot bear 

 to lose more acres in the process. We must face the fact that Forest Service Policy is 

 subject to the whims of changing administrations. Even with the best of intentions, 

 management of local National Forests can be caught in budgetary dilemmas which 

 leave them few alternatives but to produce commodities to the detriment of other 

 resource values. Legislation is the most permanent protection we are able to provide. 



You may be told today that a Mediated Settlement(MSA) of the appeals of Sequoia 

 Forest's Land Management Plan protects Giant Sequoias. This is incorrect. The 

 MSA's provisions for grove boundaries was bargained to be 500 ' from the 

 outermost Sequoia in each grove. This is not a science driven process. There is no 

 determination or protection of the ecological elements, such as ground water level, etc, 

 upon which the groves depend. The MSA definition was a stop-gap measure to 

 protect the hearts of the groves until further science and stronger protection could be 

 gained. The MSA allows togging in Converse Basin, once the largest grove in 

 existence. The MSA is valid only until the next Forest Planning Cycle, a maximum of 

 10 years. The enclosed letter from Joe Fontaine, who also served as a Sierra Club 

 representative during negotiattons, further explains the MSA. 



You may be told today that President Bush's proclamation in 1992 makes grove 

 protection policy permanent; but this proclamation incorporates the MSA and 

 therefore incorporates the flaws of the MSA. And the proclamation contains the 

 paragraph. 



