Sierra Club

April, 2004 Mineral King Group News

Sierra Club Mineral King Group/ 559-739-8527
Web: http://kernkaweah.sierraclub.org/mineralking/

Final Sequoia Monument Plan is Bad News

The Sierra Club and other major
environmental organizations are dismayed
by the Final Plan for the Giant Sequoia
National Monument.. The Forest Service
has turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to
the intent and purpose of the Proclamation
and ignored our three years of constant
reminders that they must follow the
Proclamation.
Nearly four years after President
Clinton signed the Proclamation creating
the Giant Sequoia National Monument,
the Forest Service has released the Final
Decision about how they want to manage
the Monument: the news for Giant
Sequoias, indeed for all species of the
Monument, is not good.
Was this the Intent of the Proclamation?
In his Proclamation, President Clinton
protected not only the Giant Sequoia
groves but the entire range of ecosystems
within Monument boundaries, “Oak
woodlands and chaparral to high-elevation
subalpine forest, numerous meadows and
streams .. an interconnected web of habitats
for moisture-loving species.” He
specifically included wildlife such as the
Pacific fisher and the California spotted
owl, along geological and archaeological
resources. He pointed out that the forest
needed to be restored from the effects of a
century of fire suppression and logging.
Further, he directed in the Proclamation
that the removal of trees, except for “When we
Continued on page 4…. try to pick
out anything
by itself, we
find it
hitched to
everything
else in the
universe.”
John Muir

NOTE: These photo are straight out of the Monument Final Plan depicting the types 
of "management" allowed for the Monument including inside groves: heavy
machinery, tremendous soil disturbance and logging!

Individual Highlights:
Your Vote Needed – 2 Upcoming Outings & Events – 3 Volunteer at LeConte Lodge – 7
Science Lesson Plans – 2 Register to Vote! – 3 Volunteer! Volunteer! Volunteer! – 8
 Your Vote Needed in Sierra Club Board Election
You may have heard about the
controversy revolving around this year’s
Sierra Club Board of Directors (BOD)
election, which has received national
media coverage. Club entities, unlike
individual Club leaders, cannot take
positions on the election, but often
members wonder how they can find out
more about the candidates than the ballot
statement.
This year, there is impartial and
relevant information on the Board of
Directors candidates online at:
http://www.sierraclub.org/bod/
2004election/candidate_forum/.
It contains responses from all 17
candidates to 14 key questions
developed from a survey of grassroots
Club leaders during January.
Science Lesson Plans Inspired by John Muir Now Available
The Sierra Club announces new
standards-aligned Science Lesson Plans
inspired by and using John Muir's
adventures and explorations. John Muir
was the famed naturalist, explorer,
writer, conservationist, renowned for his
exciting adventures in California's Sierra
Nevada, among Alaska's glaciers, and
world wide travels in search of nature's
beauty. As a writer, he taught the people
of his time and ours the importance of
experiencing and protecting our natural
heritage.
Learning about John Muir's life
can serve as a launching pad to science-
based environmental studies through
plant and animal habitats, ecosystems,
earthquakes, avalanches, glaciers,
geology, weather, biodiversity, and
forests, as we discover that, as John
Muir said, “When we try to pick out
anything by itself, we find it hitched to
everything else in the universe.”
The Science Lesson Plans are
Page 2 of 8 the latest installment in the John Muir
Study Guide, a K-12 Curriculum Guide
The website features enhanced
navigation so you can easily see all
candidates' answers to a particular
question, all the 14 answers of a
particular candidate, or any combination.
All answers are limited to 150 words.
The Candidates' Forum Q&A
website is a list of candidates' answers to
key questions, presented in such
a way that you can easily contrast and
compare their positions.
This is an important election,
and your informed participation will
help determine our future direction. The
National Club is offering this feature to
further the Club's tradition of an open
and democratic election and to help you
cast a knowledgeable and informed vote.
You may also wish to consult
with trusted Club leaders – contact any
of our Chapter or Group Ex Comm
leaders to obtain their personal views.
for implementing California Education
Code Section 37222 and celebrating John
Muir’s Birthday each April 21. While the
original Study Guide is focused on
History and Social Science, the new
lesson plans are aligned to the California
Academic Content Standards for Science
or each grade level, K-12.
Both curricula can be used at any
time of the year, and contain subject
matter relevant outside California as well.
The new Science Lesson Plans
were written by Janet Wood, M.S.
Geoscience Education, with the John
Muir Education Committee of the Sierra
Club. Janet is the Treasurer of the Mineral
King Group.
Teachers may obtain the new
Science Lesson Plans free of charge at the
following website:
http://www.sierraclub.org/
john_muir_exhibit/lessons/science/
 Upcoming Outings Upcoming Dinner Socials

April 17, 2004 – Lady Bug Trail – 3 Dinner Socials in Visalia:

miles to Cedar Creek, 6 miles RT,
April 14 at 6 p.m - Canton Restaurant
Moderate, 3500 ft to 5000 ft elevation.
May 12 at 6 p.m. - TBA
Meet at 8:30 at Martha Vineyard Parking
June 9 at 6 p.m. - picnic at Blain Park
Lot near McDonalds. Trip Leader:
Sharon Meckenstock 559-732-8458.
May 22, 2004 – Tokopah Falls, (or
alternate location in case of excessive
snow). 3.5 miles RT, Easy, 6720 ft to
7250 ft. Spectacular falls in Spring! Trip
Leader: Sharon Meckenstock 559-732-
8458.
June 12, 2004 - Muir Grove – 4 miles
RT, Moderate, 6750 ft to 6830 ft. This
wonderful outing is an educational one
geared towards increasing the Club's
knowledge of flora. Participants will be
lectured on wildflowers in the upper
Sierras and have the opportunity to
learn photo techniques from an
experienced and talented photographer, Explore, enjoy and
Pam Coz-Hill, as she points out the protect the planet.
natural beauty of the wilderness. Call
trip leader to sign up: Pam Coz-Hill 733-
3882, cnyn_flwr@yahoo.com.

Sierra Club Members Need to Register to Vote!

Local Sierra Club leaders were recently
shocked to learn that an amazing percentage of
Sierra Club members are not registered to vote,
or did not vote in the last Presidential election.
In fact, if a majority of Sierra Club members had
voted in the last Presidential Election, we would
not be now dealing with the most extremist anti-
environment President in U.S. History We know
that Sierra Club members are among the most
educated and intelligent members of our society!
We need you to register to vote, and to VOTE
IN THE NEXT ELECTION! In one recent local
election, only 19 votes separated winning and
losing, so every vote counts!
In California, and especially in Tulare
County, it is easy to register to vote!
To register, you must simply complete a
voter registration card. You can find
registration cards at your local Department of
Motor Vehicles office, city hall, most US Post
Offices.
You can also always obtain a
registration card from the Tulare County
Elections office in the County Courthouse.
To have a registration card mailed to
you, call (559) 733-6275 or 1-800-345-
VOTE or go to the following website to have
a registration card mailed to you:
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/votereg1.html
Once filled out, you can simply mail
in your form! You can even register as a
permanent absentee voter, if you prefer to
vote by mail.
For more information, visit the Tulare
County Elections Department Voter
Registration web page:
http://www.tularecoauditor.org/elections/
register.htm

Page 3 of 8
 Sequoia Monument (continued from page 1)

personal use fuel wood, may take place
only if clearly needed for ecological
restoration and maintenance or public
safety.
That language seems pretty
straight forward. The forest needs to be
Harmful Logging Miles restored and trees can only be removed
for very good reasons.
Away from Structures
How to best protect
The final Management Decision
structures in a forest! Somehow the Forest Service
interprets this stricture on tree removal
to mean they can continue logging and
sell 7.5 million board feet of timber
every year, enough to fill 1500 logging
trucks, for each of ten years. They say
they can justified removing ANY
species of trees up to 30 inches in
diameter from the Monument's forests
and Sequoia Groves. The Sierra Club
fought to stop such management
practices with a lawsuit in the mid
1980s.
How do they justify all this tree
removal? They say that this heavy
manipulation is needed to thin the trees
that have grown too thick and close
together creating a fire hazard and for
“ecological restoration.” This is the same
excuse for logging they used a quarter of
a century ago!
The Sierra Club Sequoia Task
Force supports removal of easily
ignitable brush and small trees, those 4
to 8 inches in diameter from within
about 200 feet of developed areas and
structures. That should be the first
priority in reducing fuels and promoting
public safety. Cooperative projects with
private property owners and home
construction using less flammable
materials is the real key.
Bushes and small trees, the ones
that carry fire, are almost never taken to
the sawmill because they are too small.
They are not merchantable and are
NOT included in the 75 Million Board
Feet of timber the Forest Service plans
to sell from the Monument in the next
ten years. Scientists tell us that large
trees are almost NEVER a flammability
problem; they are very difficult to
ignite!

So where is all the projected commercial timber coming from if not

Forest Service “Management”
of Sequoia Groves
Page 4 of 8
for protection of structures and public safety?
The Forest Service will
“develop” huge so-called “threat and
defense zones” that will extend more
than 1 1/2 miles from structures, and, in
addition, they will thin many south and
west facing slopes.
There is no justification for
heavy forest manipulation in areas up to
3 miles in diameter centering on
developed areas. There is no evidence
that intense thinning of the forest does
anything except make the forest hotter,
dryer and more flammable; further, it
destroys the old-forest habitat that is
already deficient on Monument lands
because of past logging. As one Sequoia
expert pointed out, this Monument has a
serious deficit of large trees i.e. those
40 inches in diameter and larger. He
astutely notes that it would seem
reasonable to protect, not log, 30 inch
trees if one hopes to quickly restore 40
inch trees.
While there may be limited
situations that require tree removal
instead of prescribed fire alone, cutting
and removing trees must be the last
resort, not the first. That is what the
Proclamation clearly says. That is what
we demand!
 Sequoia Monument (continued from page 4)

Sequoia National Park’s Long History of Successful Management

How could the Forest Service
insist that wide spread removal of large
trees is “clearly necessary” and is their
only option, when Sequoia National
Park, with the same objectives,
successfully avoids tree removal on
forests adjacent to Monument lands, in
the same Giant Sequoia groves and
Sierran forest ecosystem? The Park has
been using prescribed fire for decades to
protect communities, reduce fuels,
create diversity, stimulate the growth of
young sequoias and enhance wildlife
habitat in a healthy forest. They seldom
resort to tree removal. The results have
been excellent. If you have not driven
or hiked through Sequoia National Park
recently you should. Prepare for a treat.
You will see a healthy beautiful
forest with redwoods and other species
looking much like the forest John Muir
described in his ramblings through the
Sierra in the 19th century with a full
range of healthy forest conditions
including evidence of recent fire. You
will find yourself wondering why the
Forest Service can’t do the same thing in
the Monument.

The Monument Should be Managed by the Park System

Because the Forest Service refuses to
comply with the spirit of the
Proclamation, the Sierra Club’s position
is that Monument should be managed by
the National Park Service--specifically
Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park--
instead of by the Forest Service. We are
NOT recommending that the Monument
become a Park; it should remain a
National Monument, managed in strict
accordance with the Proclamation that
created it. Almost all the nation's
National Monuments are managed by
the Park System; the Giant Sequoia
National Monument should be too! The
Park Service would comply with the
intent and spirit of the Proclamation.
After many field trips to Sequoia
National Park, the Sequoia Task Force
believes the results of their management
are excellent. Sequoia National Park has
a proven track record and offers the
nation's highest standards in resource
management. The Monument deserves
nothing less.
“The battle we have fought,
and are still fighting, for the
forests is a part of the
eternal conflict between
right and wrong, and we
cannot expect to see the end
of it. I trust that our Club
will not weary in this forest
well-doing. The fight for the
forest parks and reserves is
by no means over”.
- John Muir, 1895

What’s Next?
Nearly every national and local
environmental organization is studying
the final Monument Management Plan.
The Sequoia Task Force/Sierra Club will
file an administrative appeal by the
March 1st deadline.
The Forest Service received over
16,000 comments on their Plan, many of
them from those of you reading this
article. The Forest Service didn't listen.
The Administrative Appeal process is
the Forest Service’s last chance to
change its ways without our going to
court. We do not enjoy filing lawsuits
and going through the stress of litigation,
but we are not going to turn aside and let
the Forest Service go ahead with
business as usual. These lands are no
longer in the timber base; they are now
a National Monument which supersedes
all past directives. If they will not listen
to us they will have to listen to the
courts.
Page 5 of 8
 Sequoia Monument
What You Can Do
“I want to ensure that these
majestic cathedral groves, which
John Muir called
`nature's masterpiece,'
are protected for future
generations to study and enjoy.”
- President Bill Clinton,
April, 2000.
Contact Your Representatives!
Page 6 of 8
(continued from page 5)
If you want to put in your two Urge the State’s continued support for
cents worth, now the most effective one of California’s most treasured
thing you can do is to write our United resources.
States Senators Barbara Boxer and
Dianne Feinstein. Tell them that the Let our leaders know how important it is
Management Plan the Forest Service has for the Giant Sequoia National
adopted is a Logging Plan, not a plan Monument to have the highest and best
to protect the Monument’s resources. management possible; urge their
Point out that the Plan they have support!
adopted would cost 3.4 million dollars
per year while the rejected Alternative
4, which relies on prescribed fire as the
primary management tool with little tree
cutting, would only cost 2.1 million
dollars per year. This would save
taxpayers 1.2 million dollars every year
AND provide sound management. Ask
them to demand that the Forest Service
withdraw the Management Plan and
write a new one that complies with
President Clinton’s Proclamation. If the
Forest service refuses to listen ask them
to support efforts to transfer the
management of the Giant Sequoia Get on the Sequoia Task Force
National Monument to the National Park Newsletter Mailing List and e-mail Alert
Service. You can also let the new List. Send your name, address, and email
California Governor know that you are address to:
proud of the state’s role in successfully sequoia@kernkaweah.sierraclub.org
championing the Monument against http://www.sierraclub.org/ca/sequoia/
Tulare County’s lawsuit to dismantle it.
Urge the Governor to continue Senator Barbara Boxer
California's strong defense of this
United States Senate
wonderful Monument!
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Washington D.C. 20510 (202)
State Capitol Building 224-3553
Sacramento, CA 95814 boxer.senate.gov/contact
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633 Your Representative:
governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. House of Representatives,
<mailto:governor@governor.ca.gov> Washington, DC 20515
(202) 224-3121
Senator Dianne Feinstein To Find and Write Your
United States Senate Representative:
331 Hart Senate Office Building http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841
feinstein.senate.gov/email.html
http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html
Volunteers Needed at Sierra Club’s Home in Yosemite Valley

Please call or email the Curator to discuss

volunteering at LeConte Memorial Lodge this
season.
For more information, see:

http://www.sierraclub.org/education/
leconte/volunteering.asp

CONTACT:
Dr. Bonnie J. Gisel, Curator,
209 372-4542; 209 403-6676
LeConte Memorial Lodge, leconte.curator@sierraclub.org
the Sierra Club’s home in Yosemite
National Park, is celebrating its
Centennial during the 2004 Season
which begins on April 30, 2004.
We are looking for Sierra
Club Members interested in
volunteering one week to assist in
keeping the doors of the Memorial
open to our many visitors. This is a
wonderful opportunity to meet
families and friends from around the
world and to share your own interests
in wilderness. Please consider
spending one week this season with
us at LeConte Memorial Lodge.
As a volunteer, entrance to
the Park is free, and you may camp
with us, free-of-charge, under the
Ponderosa Pine near the Merced
River with a wonderful view of Half-
Dome. Many weeks are still The LeConte Volunteer Campsite is nestled in the
available. Bring a friend or family forest, next to the river, just beyond this meadow!
member and volunteer together.

Page 7 of 8
 Sierra Club Volunteer! Volunteer! Volunteer!
Mineral King Group Your local Sierra Club Group is composed
P.O. Box 3543 entirely of volunteers. Don't just sit back and let others
.
Visalia, CA 93278 do all the varied tasks. Mineral King group has 400 Please send us your e-mail
USA members and just a few keep things going. Volunteer a address for periodic news
updates from the Mineral
little time it doesn't have to be a big commitment. King Group. E-mail your
Phone:
(559) 739-8527
Here’s a few ideas of how to get involved: request to:

1. Attend a “mailing party” to send the next newsletter. harold.wood@

E-Mail:
harold.wood
@sierraclub.org
We’re on the Web!
See us at:
http://kernkaweah.
sierraclub.org/mineralking
Your Mineral King Group
is your local Sierra Club
Group for Tulare County
west of Porterville, and for
Kings County.
sierraclub.org
2. Send us our e-mail address for periodic updates and
activities.
3. Attend a hearing or meeting of our local board of
supervisors or planning commission and report back to
group.
4. Come to a group meeting or social.
5. Write a letter or e-mail supporting a club priority to
your legislators.
6. Visit our website!
7. Register to vote and help get out the vote for pro-
environment candidates.
8. Please contact us if you’d like to help at any level!
We need you!
The Group ExComm meets the fourth Monday of the
month. Any member is always welcome to attend.
For more information, contact our Membership Chair:
Beverly Garcia 592-9865 or gmachine@psnw.com.

SIERRA CLUB
P.O. Box 3543
Visalia, CA 93278
USA