


So here is the article Steven Robinson claims proves that we don't need a National Monument for Sequoias:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/26/public-land-sequoia-national-monument-wildfires-logging
I just don't see that.
Steven wrote:
Steven, as usually, resorts to name calling.
The "posts above" Steve is referring to:
It really comes down to Steven doing whatever he can to support industry.
WHY, Steven?
Why won't you support humans, animals, plants and the survival of the planet?
Why won't you support BENEVOLENT industries, small business and individuals who strive to make this planet a sustainable home for all?
Mohave County is one of the most beautiful counties anywhere, yet your party's love for Disease, Death and Destruction (DDD) left our county with above average poverty and crime and lots of DDD.
How long have Republicans run our county into the ground?
Can't you see that all you create is DDD?
From the article:
Worthley, an attorney and former corporate counsel for Sequoia Forest Industries, argues that the government isn’t doing enough. “We have had a passive system and it ain’t working – we are losing giant sequoia groves because we aren’t taking care of the land,” said Worthley. “If we’re going to have groves in the future, we have to get back to active management.”
The typical industry argument: "We need to LOG and MANAGE"
Seriously?
Do you not realize how long these trees have survived WITHOUT any human interference?
All of a sudden, because they want to increase their profits, after many MILLIONS of years of doing JUST FINE, these trees need to be "protected" by logging companies?
We DO need to protect their ECO SYSTEM from human activity, that's all.
And my point is of course also made in the article:
A 328,000-acre connected protected area on the slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada would be transformed into small pockets of no-logging zones covering just the sequoia clusters themselves – a plan that some scientists warn would degrade the wider ecosystem and, ultimately, the sequoias.
Giant sequoias, the bulkier cousins of the coastal redwoods found along California’s coast, only grow in scattered sites along a 260-mile stretch of the Sierra Nevada’s western face. A precise cocktail of moisture, elevation and temperature help provide the trees’ heft. General Sherman, the most famous giant sequoia of all, is 275ft tall and 36ft in diameter at the base. Some trees are even taller, taking 2,000 years and longer to push more than 300ft towards the heavens.
Here are some more very relevant excerpts from the article:
“There is so much fuel that when a fire gets going it’s like a nuclear bomb,” he said. “We have lost great sequoias. They can handle a bit of heat but they are still living things and the heat is so intense, the tree just fries.”
Hanson is scathing about this stance, pointing to numerous studies that show how fire has actually been suppressed in many protected areas – to the detriment of giant sequoias. Worthley, Hanson said, is “completely ignorant and knows nothing about tree ecology”.
Giant sequoias have evolved for millions of years alongside fire. They drop serotinous cones that open up in the heat, with the half-inch seeds found inside germinating best in the ashy remnants of a recent forest fire. The trees are also extremely hard to kill off with fire – a thick hide of bark protects the living tissue within. Flames can gouge holes in the trees, creating cave-like “cat faces” that can house hibernating bears, but this doesn’t usually doom the tree.
Hanson also quibbles with the idea that logging removes fire fuel. The timber industry, after all, wants to remove sizable trees – which aren’t the things that spread fire. The debris left behind, the scraps of bark and branches, along with bushes, provide a more effective kindling for flames.
“If you curb fire even more, that will harm the sequoias,” Hanson said. “We have been loving them to death, in a way. They depend on fire to help release seeds and reproduce.
“Opening up the monument to more logging won’t reduce fire intensity, it will just damage the habitat. We need to let more fires burn in remote areas, and suppress them near people and property. Let fire be fire out in the forest.”
Culling trees outside the sequoia groves also puts at risk a broader web of biodiversity. The black backed woodpecker, for example, relies upon fire-damaged trees to create its nests. The cavities the birds leave behind provide a home for a host of animals that can’t do this beak-breaking work themselves, such as bluebirds and wrens, as well as flying squirrels, martens and chipmunks.
A fire that tore through 29,000 acres of the southern Sierra Nevada last August has resulted in a “beautiful, spectacular regeneration” for wildlife, according to Hanson.
“The giant sequoia ecosystem isn’t just the sequoia groves,” he said. “They are the centerpiece but there is a broader landscape that includes rare species that have huge home ranges. If you only have protections for the groves, the ecosystem would start to unravel and fall apart.”
Hanson said this process would ultimately harm the giant sequoias, either through the lack of reproductive fire or the loss of groundwater through the stripping away of trees that knit together the landscape. “Eventually the risk is that you’d have older trees dying and not being replaced,” he added. ...
Let's just STOP repeating industry lies and focus on the fact that this is a UNIQUE ecosystem that MUST be protected.