237 



Testimony for Hearing on March 9, 1994 



To: House Subcomininee on Specialty Crops and Natural Resources 

 From: Roy Keene, Executive Director, Public Forestry Foundation 

 Re: The Giant Sequoia Preservation Act, H.R. 2153 



My History With Sequoias and Forestry 



I was bom and raised in Southern California as was my father. Both of us ^nt many 

 weekends and vacations hiking and camping in the Sequoia National Forest Our family 

 moved to Oregon in the mid 1960s and it was many years before I visited the big trees 

 again. During that absence I became a logger, a timber broker, and fiiudly a forestry 

 consultant, all the while making my living in the forests of the Pacific. 



When I returned to the Sequoia National Forest (SNF) in the late 1980s, I was astounded 

 by the degradation of America's premier ancient forest at the hands of the U.S. Forest 

 Service. Ehuing my absence, roads had carved up the forest landscape and clearcuts had 

 obliterated great stands of trees along with the streams many of them shaded. When I 

 investigated, I found a collection of special interest groups busy at work coiuJoning more 

 of this abuse under the gtiise of a "mediated agreement" My concerns for the Sequoia 

 were brusquely ignored by the Forest Service who told me that this so called "agreement" 

 was the final word. I was shodced that special interest groups were making fatal decisions 

 regarding America's premier ancient forest 



Sequoia Groves are Endangered 



The giant Sequoia tree (S. giganteum), foremost among the world's remnant population of 

 great beings, exists on only 2% of the acreage that describes the habitat of its more 

 common relative, the redwood Sequoia (S. sempervirens). Out of the 75 giganteum groves 

 that exist on the entire earth, the Sequoia National Forest Service manages over half of 

 them. In ttus case the Forest Service is not only our forest managing agency, but also the 

 trustees of a global treasure. Because of their short-sighted bias, at least 38 of the 75 

 groves are presently endangered fix>m exploitative logging practices, as well as from the 

 increasing effects of fire suppression, air pollution, grazing and drought After spending 

 several years ground reviewing this management crisis, it is evident to me that Sequoia 

 National Forest (SNF) managers are still obsessed with squandering this international 

 treasure on themselves and a single mill. Sierra Forest Products. Consequently, I am 

 asking Congress to move The Giant Sequoia Preservation Act, H.R. 2153, 

 forward to help protect the ancient Sequoia groves and surrounding habitat from further 

 subsidized resource exploitation. 



