More on this from The Tuolumne River Trust: Great News on the Rim Fire Recovery The Forest Service just released a Proposed Record of Decision for the Rim Fire Recovery, and its a huge improvement over what we faced in May. TRT is proud of the leadership role our own John Amodio played in bringing together stakeholders to hammer out a compromise that balances economic interests with the protection of wildlife habitat and environmental values. By participating in Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions (a forum for environmentalists, timber industry representatives and others to meet, share information, and work towards solutions), we not only reached an acceptable compromise all sides could support, but also built a strong bipartisan foundation that will continue working together to seek federal funding for ongoing restoration efforts in the Rim Fire burn area. The Proposed Decision: • Reduces the amount of salvage logging from nearly 30,000 acres to just over 15,000 acres. Whereas the previous preferred alternative called for removing 660 million board feet of timber, the new decision reduces that amount to an estimated 210 million board feet. • Protects the extraordinary Clavey River Watershed by keeping the roadless area intact. • Eliminates all new permanent roads and reduces the amount of new temporary roads. • Reduces salvage logging on steep slopes and in other sensitive areas. Many dead trees and downed logs will be left in place to serve as wildlife habitat and to protect against soil erosion. TRT appreciates the good work of the National Forest Service, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, Sierra Forest Legacy, timber industry and others in working together with us on a solution. And many thanks to all of you who weighed in on the Rim Fire. Together we made a huge impact. Drop Quote “Representatives of both environmental groups and the timber industry informed me that the action alternatives in the EIS proposed more management than the environmental groups thought desirable and the timber industry thought practical. Therefore, I scaled back the scope of (salvage logging) to a size that would be practical to implement, while retaining the key treatments to attain the project’s purpose and need.” -Susan Skalski, Forest Supervisor
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 01:36:45 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015