LOGGING IN THE NEWS
Logging is in the news again in California after the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in seven counties to stop logging plans on 5,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Regions.
The environmental group alleges the agency approved the projects without properly analyzing carbon emissions and climate consequences under California’s Environmental Quality Act.
Sierra Pacific Industries is slated to complete the logging. They responded to the CBD claims, stating the harvesting would result “in a net sequestration rate of carbon dioxide that far exceeds any emissions that might occur.”
In California, all clear cuts must be replanted, meaning that eventually these replanted areas would compensate for any carbon emission resulting from logging. Mark Pawlicki, Sierra Pacific’s director of corporate affairs and sustainability said, “This out of state organization won’t be happy until they have taken away every forest-related job in California. The plaintiffs do not understand forestry and they do not understand carbon sequestration.”
Dave Bischel of the California Forestry Association says the logging plans “provide significant data on the carbon sequestration benefits,” and adds that 40 per cent of the state’s sawmills have closed since 2000, resulting in a significant boost in rural unemployment.
“By continuing to rubber-stamp Sierra Pacific Industries’ clear-cutting plans, the Department of Forestry is chopping a gigantic hole in the credibility of California’s climate policy,” claims Brian Nowicki, CBD’s climate policy director.
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