The Loma Prietan
May/June 2003
State Legislators Seek to Improve Forest Practices
by Paul Mason and Karen Maki
Over the past several decades, excessive and unsustainable logging in California's forests have caused myriad adverse impacts including loss of endangered species habitat, degradation of water quality, and even destruction of homes from logging-related landslides. For many years concerned citizens have been trying to improve logging practices in California, with limited success. Efforts to pass stronger rules at the Board of Forestry have largely been thwarted by industry-friendly appointees, and efforts in the legislature have failed as well.
This legislative session seems to be shaping up differently. Earlier this year, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton asked the Senate Natural Resources Committee to prepare a report on opportunities to improve forest practices in California. Following that report, three very strong environmental legislators who will be term-limited out in 2004 --Senators John Burton, our own Byron Sher, and Sheila Kuehl--have introduced legislation to protect our forests. Fortunately, newer legislators, Assembly Members Joe Simitian and Sally Lieber, have also authored forest bills. Each bill addresses a different piece of the problem from a different angle.
The importance of passing good forest legislation now cannot be overstated. We have strong seasoned legislators eager to lead the charge who are supported by the next generation of legislators. We can really make some progress in promoting sustainable logging on California's private lands, even at this time when the national government seems determined to reduce or even eliminate the protection measures for our national forests and parks.
The Loma Prieta Forest Protection Committee has participated in the fight to protect our forests by educating Club members and non-members through documentaries, forest speakers, and tabling. Currently, they are planning a forest watch event in our national forest and will tour timber harvest sites with the Central Coast Regional Water Control Board before they decide whether to renew the industry-wide waivers for sediment going into creeks and rivers. They also meet with legislators to express concern for our forests and provide background information.
However, it is also critical that our legislators hear from you, their constituents. As mentioned in April's Loma Prietan, the Forest Protection Committee is starting a group of forest armchair activists who are willing to write letters to editors or legislators. If you would like to participate in any FPC event, please contact Karen Maki at 650/366-0577 or karenmaki@earthlink.net.
We have a long way to go before any of these bills become law, but with good grassroots activism, prospects look better this year than at any other time in recent memory. Following are summaries of the primary forestry bills that the Sierra Club is working on this year. You can find current information about any bills in the legislature by visiting the Senate's website at www.sen.ca.gov and clicking the Legislation link.
Again, please contact your Senator and Assemblyperson and encourage them to support this year's forestry reform efforts. Find your legislators' addresses at www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/yoursenator.htm and www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm.
Paul Mason is the forestry lobbyist for Sierra Club California. He can be reached at paul.mason@sierraclub.org.
Forestry Package Summery
2003-2004 Legislative Session
SB 810 (Burton) – Sponsored by Sierra Club California & Planning and Conservation League
• Status as of April 10: Passed Senate Natural Resources Committee
• SB 810 requires that Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) comply with Regional Water Quality Control Board plans to protect water quality. Amazingly, the Department of Forestry has often refused to accept the opinion of Water Board staff regarding impacts of logging on water quality, approving logging plans that damage water quality. This bill gives clear authority to the Regional Water Quality Control Board to implement its water protection mandate during the THP review process.
SB 217 (Sher) – Sponsored by Sierra Club California
• Status as of April 10: Passed Senate Natural Resources Committee
• SB 217 would require the Board of Forestry to adopt regulations that provide standards and procedures for determining the maximum harvest limits for the timberlands of each ownership within a planning watershed. It would also place additional limits (including a ban on clearcutting and a requirement to maintaining structural characteristics) on logging of ancient forest stands larger than 40 acres.
SB 557 (Kuehl)
• Status as of April 10: Scheduled for Senate Natural Resources Committee
• SB 557 would establish a "Timber Products User Forest Restoration Fund" and impose a fee of $.01 per board foot on timber products sold for consumption in California. The fee is expected to generate up to $100 million, which would fund THP review (approximately $21 million annually) as well as watershed restoration, worker retraining, and a variety of other projects.
AB 47 (Simitian) – Sponsored by Planning and Conservation League
• Status as of April 10: Passed Assembly Natural Resources
• Inadequate assessment of the cumulative impact of multiple logging plans has long been identified as one of the biggest problems with forestry in California. This bill requires the Board of Forestry to adopt rules to gather basic information, including maps of past projects and current conditions of the watershed, so that the additive environmental effects of the current project can be effectively reviewed.
SB 711 (Kuehl)
• Status as of April 10: Passed Senate Environmental Quality Committee
• Requires that the California Environmental Quality Act apply to timberland conversion and oak woodland conversion and assigns CDF as the lead agency in charge of those approvals.
AB 561 (Lieber) – Sponsored by Defenders of Wildlife
• Status as of April 10: Scheduled for Assembly Natural Resources Committee
• Directs the Board of Forestry to define "variable retention", an increasingly common logging technique.
AB 466 (Steinberg) – Sponsored by Environment California (formerly CALPIRG)
• Status as of April 10: Scheduled for Assembly Business & Professions Committee
• Prohibits state agencies from purchasing wood or wood products from ancient trees.
SB 754 (Perata)
• Status as of April 10: Scheduled for Senate Natural Resources & Wildlife
• Protects "Heritage Trees" in California that were growing in 1850, the year California gained statehood. Some of these trees are thousands of years old.
AJR 11 (Jackson) – Sponsored by Environment California and The Wilderness Society
• First Hearing: Assembly Natural Resources
• AJR 11 authorizes the President and the Congress of the United States to take necessary action to implement the Sierra Nevada Conservation Framework as originally adopted. The Framework, as currently written, would reduce the risk of fire in the Sierra Nevada, protect old forests in this extraordinary region of California, and preserve essential habitat for the California spotted owl and other imperiled wildlife.