President Clinton's plan to create a 355,000-acre Sequoia National Monument has people on both sides of the issue up in arms.
Environmentalists say the president's proclamation, expected today, may not go far enough to preserve the largest stands of unprotected giant sequoias left in the world because Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is advising the administration to allow commercial logging to continue for up to three years."Here we have a national monument that's supposed to be sacrosanct and sacred. But the Forest Service says, 'Business as usual. We're going to log,"' said Martin Litton, a Sierra Club leader who has spent his life hiking in, flying over and photographing the majestic red trees.
On the other side of the fence, furious timber workers, off-road vehicle buffs and property rights activists say the president's designation will make nearly one-third of the existing Sequoia National Forest off limits to commercial logging. They say the presidential action would block roads and create headaches for people who live in the region.
"We feel this is a political move by President Clinton that has nothing to do with saving sequoia redwoods. It's a payback to the environmental groups that campaigned for him," said John Keyes, a rancher and grower in Springville, Calif.
"It's a land grab. We feel that access to the High Sierra will be denied because of this monument," added Keyes, who founded the Sierra Nevada Access, Multiple-Use and Stewardship Coalition three years ago to oppose the Forest Service's plan to protect roadless areas.
Clinton is expected announce the creation of the Sequoia National Monument on Saturday. The declaration would offer permanent protection to the ancient giants. The land would come from the existing 1.14 million-acre Sequoia National Forest southeast of Fresno.
The forest contains about 25,000 acres, or two-thirds of the 38,350 acres of the world's remaining giant sequoias. The rest are in the adjoining Sequoia National Park and on state, federal, private and Native American lands in California.
Giant sequoias, Sequoiadendron giganteum, like their cousins, the coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, are found only in California.
The tallest giant sequoia on record reaches a height of 269 feet and a circumference of 112 feet. The base is 35 feet in diameter. The trees can live more than 3,000 years.