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ecosystems, and ultimately, as biological organisms, we will pay a very high price for our 

 ignorance and our arrogance. 



Neither natural forest succession nor human manipulation are environmentally benign nor 

 are they necessarily scenic. Yet both action and inaction clearly affect our forests and their 

 habitats through time, with both short and long term effects. 



As a logger for seven years, and a forester for twenty-six, I have seen that my activities in 

 forest management often tum green into brown or black for months or even years, 

 depending on the ecosystem. Yet I have returned to areas that Fve cut, to forests that Tve 

 burned, and to trees that I've planted, and have seen that development through growth and 

 succession that have turned these areas into beautiful growing forests, because black and 

 brown naturally tum into green, rejuvenating the land and reusing the soil. Dcme with 

 knowledge, forethought, and care, with ecosystem management we can create and restore 

 anew our amazing resources. 



No sane person would disagree with the goals of this bill. Certainly we all want to preserve 

 giant sequoia. But it is naive to ask nature to take care of our forests in a socially 

 acceptable manner after we have attempted to ignore vegetation development for so long. 

 As written, this bill ignores forest succession, a climate that provides conditions for 

 catastrophic fires, centuries of manipulation by Native Americans, and millennia of forest 

 interactions. We must indeed preserve giant sequoia ecosystem dynamics, and these we 

 must learn firom the forest itself. This bill's provisions, abdicating management and 

 ignoring what we are learning from ecosystems, while we increase dependence on fwests 

 elsewhere, is foolishness in the extreme. No matter what we decide here or elsewhere, 

 nature's inexorable forces will continue, and humans will continue to be dependent on 

 forests. 



The larger ecosystem questions, in which humanity must be included as part of the 

 ecosystem, dictate that we cannot continue to ignore our conflicting desires fOT both beauty 

 and products. Since residents of this country continue to consume the world's forests in 

 increasing quantities per capita per year, we have a responsibility to preserve fOTCSts around 

 the world. My colleague Bill Libby points out that if we "preserve", and forego harvest of 

 trees on 1000 acres of land in California, we are probably increasing harvest elsewhere, 

 adversely affecting at least 5,000 acres in some place like Ecuador, causing enviioiunental 

 degradation, an inordinately higher level of species extinctions, and displacement of 

 indigenous peoples. 



The giant sequoia forest resource is almost magical in its ability to fulfill human desires and 

 needs. Studies referenced below detail both the growth rate and the value of young growth 

 giant sequoia as a resource. These young trees grow two to four times faster than their 

 coniferous neighbors, with wood qualities that meet or exceed those of coastal redwood. 

 Combine these facts with natural fire, insect and disease resistance, an ability to grow in 

 pure or mixed stands, its fabled beauty, and here is a tree which we should revere and 

 indeed preserve through much greater use. We must manipulate and manage, carefully and 

 with forethought, with fire and with axe, if we are to be sure of the continuance of this 

 fabulous resource. 



Gasser, D. P. (IN PRESS) Young growth management of giant sequoia. In: Proceedings 

 of a Symposium, Giant Sequoias: llieir Place in the Ecosystem and Society, VisaUa, 

 California, June 23-25, 1992. 



Libby, W. J. (IN PRESS) Mitigating some consequences of giant sequoia management 

 (same proceedings as above). 



(Attachment follows:) 



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