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<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Lawsuits battle
clear-cutting in Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">L.A.
Times-1/27/10<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">By
</SPAN></B><B><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"
lang=EN>Margot Roosevelt</SPAN></B><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Will
clear-cutting forests increase global warming? That's a contentious issue as
California, which is seeking to slash its carbon footprint, wrestles over rules
to manage the state's private forests.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Today, the
Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, filed
lawsuits against the California Department of Forestry in seven California
counties to halt logging plans for 5,000 acres across the Sierra Nevada and
Cascade regions. The group contends that the agency approved the projects
without properly analyzing carbon emissions and climate consequences under the
California Environmental Quality Act. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"Clear-cutting
is an abysmal practice that should have been banned long ago due to its impacts
on wildlife and water quality," said Brian Nowicki, CBD's California climate
policy director. "Now, in an era when all land-management decisions need to be
fully carbon-conscious, there is no excuse to continue to allow
clear-cutting."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Sierra Pacific
Industries, the timber company that is proposing the logging, responded that its
harvesting would result "in a net sequestration rate of carbon dioxide that far
exceeds any emissions that might occur." California requires that clear-cut
areas be replanted, so that while logging results in emissions of some of the
carbon stored in those trees, replanted areas would eventually
compensate.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"This
out-of-state organization...won't be happy until they have taken away every
forest-related job in California," said Mark Pawlicki, director of Corporate
Affairs and Sustainability for Sierra Pacific. "The plaintiffs do not understand
forestry and they do not understand carbon sequestration." Dave Bischel,
president of the California Forestry Assn., an industry trade group, said that
the logging plans "provide significant data on the carbon sequestration
benefits" adding that 40% of the state's sawmills have closed since January
2000, boosting rural unemployment. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Forests act as
carbon sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through
photosynthesis and storing in the trunks and leaves of trees and shrubs and in
the soil. Forestry experts say that the state's 14 million acres of private
timberland could be managed to sequester twice as much carbon as they do now.
But the technicalities of how to accomplish that are a matter of bitter dispute
between environmental groups, state agencies and the timber
industry.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">California is
poised to adopt a cap-and-trade plan this year that would allow timber companies
to calculate the extra carbon they obtain through changing their management
practices, and then sell carbon credits or "offsets" to polluting industries,
such as utilities and refineries, which are required to cut their carbon dioxide
output. Several environmental groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and
the Natural Resources Defense Council, worked with industry to fashion the rules
adopted by the California Air Resources Board to govern forest offsets. But the
environmental community is split, and CBD is demanding that the board rescind
the rules for failing to account for their environmental
impact.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Today's lawsuits
were filed in superior courts in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Modoc, Shasta,
Tehama and <FONT color=#ff0000>Trinity counties</FONT>. "By continuing to
rubber-stamp Sierra Pacific Industries' clear-cutting plans, the Department of
Forestry is chopping a gigantic hole in the credibility of California's climate
policy," Nowicki said. He added that, last August, Sierra Pacific withdrew plans
to log more than 1600 acres following CBD lawsuits over the greenhouse gas
effect. Several dozen new Sierra Pacific plans are
pending.#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><A
href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/01/clear-cutting-forests-climate-change-sierra-nevada-global-warming.html"><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/01/clear-cutting-forests-climate-change-sierra-nevada-global-warming.html</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>