URGENT: Protect Jackson State Forest - Sign SB 1648 into Law!!!
Dear Governor Schwartzenegger,
Greenwood Earth Alliance includes a network of ~2000 environmentalists and activists from AROUND THE WORLD--Brazil, India, Finland, the UK, Europe, Canada, Japan, and, of course, the US--who have campaigned to SAVE THE REDWOOD FOREST--unique to the northern coast of California--from complete annihilation by private development interests. These once magnificent forestlands--130 million years in the making, the tallest trees and densest biomass on earth, home to thousands of species, many of them now endangered-- should be preserved as a WONDER OF THE WORLD for future generations. Their wanton decimation IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE.
The least we can do is preserve this forest on our PUBLICLY OWNED LAND. Although we do not think it goes far enough (the bill will still allow some commercial logging of the forest), we support SB 1648, Senator Chesbro's bill to reform management of Jackson Demonstration State Forest, as a first step in turning around this myopic and foolhardy policy of destroying natural resources as if there is no tomorrow--a policy that has led to global warming, the world water crisis, and the catastrophic loss of species and entire eco-systems.
SB 1648 will update legislation created in 1947 when there were vast virgin forests and many fewer people in California. Now over 80% of those forests have been either completely destroyed or so damaged they can no longer be logged sustainably--most of this damage done in the last 30 years. SB 1648 will eliminate the present mandate for maximum timber production, and replace it with multiple values that include conservation, restoration, education, recreation. It will establish a public advisory committee to oversee our largest and most important state forest, 50,000-acre Jackson State Forest. Jackson Forest is the largest publicly owned redwood forest between San Francisco and Humboldt County. This bill will also end the public dissension and legal stalemate that has halted all forest operations in Jackson Forest for four years.
Greenwood Earth Alliance supports SB 1648 and we ask that you sign it into law.
Mary Bull and Mary Pjerrou, Co-Directors
Greenwood Earth Alliance
252 Frederick, San Francisco, CA 94117
Box 90, Elk, California 95432
415-731-7924 or 707-877-3405 |