[Sustain] PRESS RELEASE: SF Calls For Ban Of Clearcut Logging In CA

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

Our local SF Green Party helped write and shepherd this legislation to 
victory. Particularly important is that we stuck to our guns and 
insisted that a ban on genetically engineered tree cultivation be 
included in the resolution. Because we stayed firm, both Davis and San 
Francisco have now passed calls for bans on both clearcutting and GE 
tree cultivation.

Eric B

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  June 25, 2014

CONTACT:

Juliette Beck, 530-902-8407 <tel:530-902-8407>
stopsierraclearcutting at gmail.com <mailto:stopsierraclearcutting at gmail.com>
(Photos, video available upon request)

*San Francisco Calls for State Ban of Clearcut Logging and Other Factory 
Tree Farming Methods*

San Francisco, CA—On Tuesday June 24, 2014, the San Francisco Board of 
Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to call on the state 
legislature and governor to enhance protections for California's forest 
watersheds by banning factory tree farming methods based on clearcut 
logging and toxic herbicide application.

“In keeping with San Francisco’s leadership in the environmental justice 
movement, I felt compelled to collaborate with the Sierra Club and 
environmental leaders to introduce this resolution urging the state to 
stop these destructive clear cutting practices," said resolution sponsor 
Supervisor David Campos. "It is incumbent upon us public officials to 
take a stand and fight to protect our natural resources. San Francisco’s 
pristine Sierra water supply and greenhouse gas-free hydro power, the 
integrity of the planet’s climate, and the security of wildlife and 
human health are intimately dependent on the health of our forests. I am 
proud that we received unanimous support from the Board of Supervisors 
for this measure."

California’s forest watersheds store, filter, and gradually release 75% 
of the state’s clean water supply.* Mature forests absorb up to 40% of 
all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently, California law allows all trees to be cut on large tracts of 
forest (clearcutting) followed by the planting of new trees as 
factory-farmed industrial plantations of only one or two tree species. 
Toxic herbicides are applied to prevent the growth of ‘undesirable’ tree 
and plant species. Over a million acres in key watersheds in the Sierra 
Nevada, Cascade, and Redwood forests are in the process of being 
converted to highly uniform, fire-prone tree plantations.

Clearcutting and tree farming create a sterile landscape much like 
factory-scale corn, soy, or alfalfa fields, allowing minimal natural 
plant and animal biodiversity and creating soil disturbance and runoff 
that pollutes waterways and releases large amounts of greenhouse gasses 
into the atmosphere. Maintaining natural, mature forests is increasingly 
recognized as vital in reversing climate change.**

The resolution also calls for a California prohibition of the outdoor 
cultivation of genetically engineered tree plantations, an even more 
aggressive and chemically-intensive form of factory tree farming for 
which biotech corporations are currently seeking approval at the 
USDA.*** Opponents warn that such genetically engineered tree 
plantations, if approved, could make destructive clearcutting even more 
profitable and desirable to the timber and tree pulp industry, and could 
present serious biological contamination dangers to the integrity and 
health of California wildlife.

Opponents of clearcutting call for trees to instead be logged using a 
less destructive method known as selective harvest, which involves the 
planned removal of carefully identified trees, while leaving overall 
forests intact.

Sierra Club spokesperson Juliette Beck hailed the passage of the 
measure, saying “This resolution against clearcutting marks the 
beginning of a turning point in California, away from destructive and 
toxic factory tree farms and toward more ecologically sustainable 
methods of selective logging which will preserve healthy forests, the 
Earth’s climate, and more stable jobs in forest products and tourism, 
far into the future.”


*Sierra Club, 
http://www.sierraclub.org/clearcutting/downloads/Clearcutting-factsheet.pdf

**Nature Journal, 
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature12914.html, January 
29, 2014

***Center for Food Safety 
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/ge_pages_final_nov-1_80728.pdf, 
November 2013, p. 3



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