Presidents Message September 2009

As I see it, on a scale of 1 to 10, uncommon nonsense is at a 12. Let’s review our current situation. Locally, SPI has closed the Standard sawmill, and the Chinese Camp mill is running part time because it is about out of cedar logs. Our county is preparing to lose over 500 jobs as the timber industry winds down. Conversely, we are building a new Tractor Supply and Lowe’s to sell the very products we can’t produce.

On Wednesday, August 26th, the fire danger was so high that several timber operators cutting on the Stanislaus National Forest were required to stop work at 1:00 pm for fear their equipment might spark a fire. On the same day, one ridge over, the Yosemite Park Service purposely set a fire near a small community. The 91 acres that was supposed to burn was spared, at the expense of 7,200 other acres. Sixteen million dollars later, the “prescribed” wildfire was contained. In an admission that defies logic, common sense, science, and a desire to keep his job…when asked if he would do it all over again, Dave Uberuaga, the Acting Superintendent of Yosemite National Park said, “Yes.” This gave real meaning to the “Acting” part of his job title.

On August 6th, the Sierra Forest Legacy took stock of the timber situation in California and decided it was a perfect time to deliver the final blow. It came in the form of a lawsuit to further restrict Forest Service timber sales. The Legacy group argues that it will suffer irreparable harm if the Forest Service goes ahead with its program of forest thinning. This is all on the heels of new research released by Dr. Tom Bonnicksen, Professor Emeritus of Forest Science at Texas A&M University, which documents findings indicating that all of California’s 14 million cars would have to be garaged for over 3 1/2 years to offset the emissions released by California’s wildfires between 2001 and 2007.

And finally, yours truly just finished writing a 128 page Timber Harvest Plan costing thousands of dollars so that Columbia College could harvest one acre of trees averaging 8 inches in diameter to accommodate their new Science and Natural Resources building. CAL FIRE rejected the timber plan twice because it did not adequately address the impact the one acre tree removal job would have on climate change, specifically greenhouse gas effects (I am not making this up). In the end, the whole thing gave me more gas than the one acre of trees could ever have absorbed!

So, what to do…how can we ever recover from the hole in which we find ourselves?

Well, first pull out a penny or a $100 bill, or anything in between, and read across the top, and never forget that message. Secondly, most of us are not “in the hole”, but are instead watching our misguided fellow Americans dig. That’s not so bad, but when they try and pull us down with them…well…we get angry. That’s where we are right now. The grassroots (or “astroturf” as Speaker Pelosi calls us) are getting angry. Fortunately, our chance to take action is only a November away.

In the meantime, TuCARE will fight back for all of us. TuCARE is one of two interveners in the Sierra Forest Legacy lawsuit against the Forest Service. An October 1st hearing is scheduled. We will be there. TuCARE is doing any good reporter’s job by trying to get access to the actual weather data at the fire line when the Yosemite prescribed fire was started. We will not rest until the truth is known.

TuCARE supports both existing and new home improvement stores. We want to help stock their shelves. We will continue to stay in the forefront of the effort to restart our sawmills. TuCARE is uniting with valley farmers to educate the public and politicians with a simple message…healthy forests = clean and abundant water. TuCARE believes that a 128 page timber harvest plan for 1 acre of small trees is 126 pages too long. We are working toward common sense reforms in our current “analysis paralysis” regulatory systems.

In the meantime…don’t give up—keep the faith—pledge allegiance—read the penny.