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the iiinaller ag-reage of living Sequoia, please consider this. In the last decade, scientists have 

 taken COTC samples from Crescent Meadow, in the very heart of the densest of Sequoia Groves, 

 and discovered through pollen counts and carbon dating, that less than 3500 years ago, Sequoias 

 were a very small part of the local fauna. You must imd«rstand that Sequoia Groves move, 

 however slowly, and we must make room for their movement. Furthermore, please remember 

 that the Sequoia are a "dinosaur" remnant of an ancient species that used to cover much of the 

 west. EACH INDIVIDUAL GROVE HAS BEEN SEPARATED FROM ITS NEIGHBORING 

 GROVES FOR AT LEvVST TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YE^VRS. Each Grove has its own 

 gene pool hiding God KNOWS what secrets. Llmderstand that the 1 orest Service has been 

 planting seedlings from God knows what foreign gene pool. Sequoias reproduce only from other 

 trees within a few hundred feet of each other. Unless the newly planted Sequoia come from seed 

 stock out of the nearby, existing grove, the Fwest Service is destroying the integrity of each 

 grove. 



If we had time. I could take you to iimumerable examples of Forest Service mismanagement 

 and incompetence. Neither President Bush's Proclamation, or the Mediated Settlement that our 

 local congressmen have touted as a solution have had a major effect on this mismanagement. 



You must understand too that it was the more conservative elements of the local 

 environmental community who rejected the Mediated Settiement. Lifetime Republican 

 conservationists like Carla Cloer and Martin Litton, and quiet moderate groups like the local 

 Audubon society, as well as local community groups like the Sequoia .\lliance and the Tule River 

 Conservancy refused to sign on, while more radical groups like the Sierra Club and NRDC 

 jumped at the chance to look good. The people supporting H.R. 2153 are not radicals. 



The entire Mediated Settlement process was a joke. .'Uana Knaster. the mediator, moved 

 at least one of the hearings several hundred miles away where local concerned parties, with the 

 exception of professional timber industry- staff could not attend. Despite the fact that two 

 women. Charlene Little and Carla Cloer, had the most expertise of any "laymen," Forest .Service 

 staff and other mediation parties worked to discredit them and keep them out of negotiations. 



Once the mediated settlement was signed, little changed. Loopholes kept popping up 

 whenever violations of the spirit and intent of the agreement helped the Forest Service or the 

 timber industry. .At one point a timber sale was advertised in what I believe is called the 

 Mclnlyre Grove of Sequoias. The maps clearly show sections within the Grove being offered for 

 sale. It took the personal intervention of an independent forester to see the tree maricers torn 

 down. 



The mediated Settlement committed the forest to following more sound science. Virtually 

 half way througli tlie ten year plan that the settlement covered, virtually none of tliose studies has 

 been done that would really change timber harvest practices. Tlie reforestation report which 

 should govern how fast trees are harvested has been shown to be completely inaccurate. 

 Furthermore, while the agreement allowed for continued hardest of salvage wood (from wildfires 

 and disease), the industry has been observed liarvesting healthy green trees from amongst the 



