Sequoia Task Force Responds : Battle to Save the Giant Sequoia
Below is a response to the post about the fight over saving the giant sequoia. Please read this response and visit the Sequoia Website at the end of Mr. Ara Marderosian’s rebutal. 
Carl Pope claims that “after years of fighting to keep our towering Sequoia trees safe from the timber industry’s saws, we have finally won.” For Mr. Pope to say that “we have finally won” is far from the truth.
Just because the timber mill withdrew one lawsuit is not, as Pope falsely claims, “preventing them - once and for all - from logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument” or “putting an end to the pillage of these iconic trees.”
Mr. Pope is obviously also incompetently unfamiliar with how the Monument is managed by the US Forest Service, or he would tell the public the truth: we have not won!
In addition to other harmful projects, the Forest Service’s “Schedule of Proposed Actions” for the Giant Sequoia National Monument lists so-called “community protection,” “hazard tree,” “thinning,” and “fuel reduction” logging projects in the Monument. Funding for these projects has been generously provided by Congress.
Congress is now considering funding the Forest Service with millions of dollars in the 2009 budget which could be used to log in the Giant Sequoia Groves, the Grove influence zones, and elsewhere in the Monument. The battle to protect the Giant Sequoia National Monument is not over; indeed, the battle to protect the Monument is just getting underway. And where is the Sierra Club in this battle in the halls of Congress – no where to be seen?
Ara
Ara Marderosian
Sequoia Task Force
Conservation Chair
Kern-Kaweah Chapter
Executive Committee
(760) 378-4574
And
Mr. Ara Marderosian,
Executive Director
Sequoia ForestKeeper
P.O. Box 2134,
Kernville, CA 93238
(760) 376-4434
www.sequoiaforestkeeper.org
ara@sequoiaforestkeeper.org