California state government is allowing timber clear cutting where they are funding watershed restorationClear cutting a forest is horrifying. It is death multiplied many times over and spreads out and over the landscape into every aspect of the atmosphere and environment. To stand by it and see it is to feel death. It empties you and then fills you with rage that man could do this to nature. Such an arrogant abuse is incomprehensible to the normal person. Yet the State of California is allowing it to happen. It is absurd and maddening but it is allowing it in watersheds that are being restored with your tax dollars.
When done by an industrial timber company the death keeps coming. The fish, birds, butterflies and every animal are driven out of a habitat that is already diminishing steadily. Erosion causes sediment to fill and heat creeks and choke off life. Then the company plants a plantation of single species pine for industrial harvest which chokes off the vitality of the forest. Many of us have fought these horrifying abuses and thought we have won against clear cutting.
We the undersigned, believe that industrial-scale clearcutting is:
Converting California's diverse forests into fire-prone tree plantations
Threatening water quality and quantity
Promoting extensive use of chemical herbicides
Contributing to local and global climate change
Endangering wildlife and their habitat
Damaging private property values and public land values regionally
We call on the State policy makers and State and Federal Agencies to use all means at their disposal to end the destructive practice of clearcutting.
Thank you for your attention to this vital issue.
