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Forest Legislation Celebration
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by Gary Bailey November 14 The Forest Protection Committee of the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter celebrated enactment of two new California laws that will provide some protection for the state’s waters, forests, and wildlife. Joe Simitian, who represents local Assembly District 21 in the California Legislature and author of one of the new laws, attended the Forest Protection Committee Chairwoman Karen Maki said “We are grateful for the legislature’s passage and the governor’s signing of SB810 and AB47 into law, and we are delighted to have an opportunity to thank Assemblyman Simitian and Senator Burton on behalf of our chapter’s 23,000 members, the 200,000 Sierra Club members in California, and all Californians who drink water, for their efforts to protect California’s water supplies, forests, and wildlife.” Assemblyman Simitian added, “I am pleased the legislation (AB 47 and AB 1330) I worked on with the Sierra Club became law. I look forward to continuing work with the Sierra Club that protects and preserves our environment.” Protecting California’s forests and water is important to the Sierra Club. The Loma Prieta Chapter’s Forest Protection Committee has met with Assembly members representing San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito co SB810 was lauded by Forest Protection Chair Maki as the most important California forest law in thirty years. SB810 gives California’s Regional Water Quality Control Boards authority over the approval of proposed timber harvest plans with regard to their impact upon rivers and streams and is key to protecting our waterways from unnecessary degradation during logging. The EPA has declared numerous California streams and rivers impaired under the Clean Water Act because of the effects of questionable logging practices. California Coho salmon are at 1% of historic population levels primarily because of destruction of their spawning streams by pollution from logging. AB47 requires that timber harvest plans include maps showing past logging in the af The Forest Protection Committee always needs more volunteers, even those who cannot devote much time to this cause. If you can help, please contact Karen Maki at karenmaki@earthlink.net, or (650)366-0577. |
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Other Feature Articles: Trip Report: Giant Sequoia National Monument, by Barry Boulton The Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Act , by Patricia Jones AB 47: Looking at Cumulative Impacts on Our Forests, by State Assemblymember Joe Simitian State Legislators Seek to Improve Forest Practices, by Paul Mason and Karen Maki Our Endangered National Forests, by Karen Maki Bush Administration Poised to Assault Our National Forests, by Douglas Bevington |
unties to explain the issues and to ask for support for forest reform legislation. In support of SB810 and AB47, the Forest Protection Committee organized chapter members to call thousands of Sierra Club members who reside in districts of swing Assembly votes throughout California, requesting that they ask their Assembly members to vote for these bills. Committee members and volunteers have written letters to newspapers and to elected officials on behalf of forest reform and have staffed information tables at public events. According to Sierra Club Regional Representative Warren Alford, "This victory demonstrates once again that a small, dedicated group of individuals really can change the world."
fected watershed so that cumulative impacts of multiple logging projects over time and over a watershed can be considered. This is an important step because such cumulative impacts have essentially been ignored in the past.