Sequoia Monument in peril. Call your reps, tell them vote NO on HR 5760.

[zonkers]

Time is of the essence. Floor vote can be as early as this Thurs.
Here's the details:

On July 11, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California's 21st
District introduced bill HR 5760 -- the 'Giant Sequoia National
Monument Transition Act of 2006,' which would allow expired timber
sales to be implemented in the Monument. The purpose of the bill is to
arbitrarily counteract the court decisions of 2005 that halted timber
sales grandfathered in by the Proclamation and to forestall a protective ruling
by Judge Breyer on the suit filed by Sequoia ForestKeeper and other concerned
organizations against the Forest Service's management plan for the Giant
Sequoia National Monument.

The bill would allow chainsaws into the Monument before the
ink has even dried, leaving Sequoia ForestKeeper and other conservation
groups no choice but to watch as the trees we have worked so hard to protect
are cut down and removed for profit. The bill states: "Effective upon the
date of the enactment of this Act, implementation of the timber sales
described in subsection (a) may proceed immediately and to completion,
notwithstanding any previous or future amendments or revisions to the
Sequoia Land and Resource Management Plan or the Giant Sequoia National
Monument Management Plan."

Also, a pending rider by Rep. Conrad Burns, modifying the Interior
Appropriations Act in Congress, would allow the Bush Administration to
reverse Sequoia ForestKeeper's other court victories that prevented
logging projects, nation-wide, of 1,000 acres or less from being
categorically excluded from environmental impact analysis. Thus, if the
rider is passed, timber-cutting projects of less than 1,000 acres can
go forward with no public review. Although it might not sound like much,
1,000 acres is the equivalent of approximately 1.6 square miles, a very
large portion of land to denude of its natural cover.

If the rider and the bill are approved, the laws of the land would be
rewritten so that these violations can continue. These sales would then
be exempt from comment and appeal by citizens.


HR 5760, which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture as well as
the Committee on Resources for review, could be voted on in the Resources
Committee in the House of Representatives as early as this Thursday,
July 27. Call your houe reps TODAY and ask them to vote no on the Giant Sequoia
National Monument Transition Act of 2006 (HR 5760), and to support The Act to Save
America's Forests (S.1897).

It is beginning to look like our only hope for Giant Sequoia National
Monument protection is the passing of the Act to Save America's Forests
(S. 1897), which would remove the Giant Sequoia National Monument from
Forest Service control, and place it in the care of the National Park
Service, which is the appropriate agency to care for national parks and
monuments.

The Act to Save America's Forests, introduced by
Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), is
supported by many of the world's leading scientists, including Dr. E.O.
Wilson, Dr. Jane Goodall, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, as
well as over 100 members of Congress.

Even if you do not reside in California you can make a difference by
encouraging your representative to support the Act to Save America's
Forests, which is an act that protects all forests nationwide. You can
reach your representative by calling the capitol switchboard at (202)
224-3121 and telling them your zip code.

Thank you on behalf of the trees and animals of the Sequoia who cannot
speak for themselves. For more info, visit www.sequoiaforestkeeper.org.

[katty]

1. need to put this in CA section of site - thanks!

[zonkers]

2. Done! But you do know, the Sequoia Monument belongs to all of us (pic)

[msongs]

3. is there a Dem running against this guy in Nov? nt

[zonkers]

5. Here's his pic & link to a page blasting his voting record. He's awful.

Here's from Visalia. Super blue area.

Some details on Nunes:

TIES WITH THE GOP LEADERSHIP

* Nunes received $5,000 from GOP Whip Roy Blunt's "Rely on Your Beliefs" PAC.
* Nunes voted with President Bush 93% of the time.
* Nunes voted the GOP party line 96% of the time.

TIES WITH TOM DELAY AND JACK ABRAMOFF
Nunes has taken:

* $10,000 from Tom DeLay's ARMPAC.
* $1,000 from Abramoff associate and former Bob Ney chief of staff Neil Volz.

With all of these ties to the DeLay/Abramoff mess, is it any surprise that Nunes has:

* Voted to weaken House ethics rules when DeLay proposed doing so as GOP Majority Leader.
* Voted with Tom DeLay 96% of the time (through 3/31/2006)

TIES TO DISGRACED FORMER CONGRESSMAN RANDY "DUKE" CONNINGHAM
Nunes has taken:

* $1,000 from MZM founder Mitchell Wade, whose purchase of Cunningham's home for a hugely inflated price was recognized as a thinly-veiled bribe.

SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS

* Rep. Nunes voted to continue awarding contracts to Halliburton even if the Pentagon's own audit processes found that more than $100 million of their contractor's costs in Iraq were unreasonable.
* Rep. Nunes opposed expanding access to the military's TRICARE health insurance program to thousands of Reservist and National Guard members, even though 20 percent of all Reservists do not have health insurance, and 40 percent of Reservists aged 19 to 35 lack health coverage.

The above info was found here.....http://www.dccc.org/gopauctionhouse/members/DevinNunesCA-21.html

[zonkers]

6. Steve Haze is the democratic running in the 21st congressional district.

http://haze2006.com/

[doodadem]

14. Thanks Zonk!

I contacted Steve Haze by email, and received this response:

Thank you very much for contacting me regarding your interest in my campaign for Congress. I would be very happy to discuss with you my candidacy and position on the many issues facing all of us in the 21st Congressional District. Could you please reply with a phone number in which I may contact you? I would be happy to meet with you and others in the xxx area. If you review my Bio on the web site you will also know more about the organizations that I support that are involved with the environment. My employer is Sierra Foothill Conservancy – and I am working on water issues through grants from the State of California. I also serve on the Board of Directors for the Sierra and Foothill Citizens Alliance and Revive the San Joaquin. These are examples of groups interested in the environment, conservation, natural resources, etc.

Thank you.


Sincerely,

Steve

So I wrote him back and said, I am so impressed that you answer your own email! I hope to talk with him soon.......

[zonkers]

16. He seems cool. Good for you for caring about your district.

It seems like a nice place to live.

[mod mom]

4. God I hate these greedy short-sighted thugs!

[Ron Green]

7. Here's the fifth recommendation.

[mcscajun]

8. Is there *NO* part of this country they can keep their grubby, greedy

paws away from?

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[Bluebear]

15. No. No, there isn't.

KICK

[jody]

9. Bill says, "so long as trees greater than 30 inches in diameter at breast

height are not harvested for other than safety reasons, as determined by the Secretary."


H.R.5760 says,
QUOTE
(a) Completion of Timber Sales Recognized in Designation Proclamation- The Secretary of Agriculture may proceed with and complete each timber sale located within the boundaries of the Giant Sequoia National Monument--

(1) that was under contract as of April 15, 2000, the date of the designation of the national monument by Presidential Proclamation No. 7295 (65 Fed. Reg. 24095); or

(2) for which a decision notice was signed after January 1, 1999, but prior to December 31, 1999.
UNQUOTE

Any idea how many contracts are involved?

[doodadem]

10. Nunes is my Rep

Unfortunately. He is a complete and utter asshole. He is a tool for the logging industry here. Thanks for posting this here, as I'd have never seen it otherwise. I will definitely check out the site for his Dem challenger, although we are in definite Repug redneck territory here, and he has small chance of succeeding.

Everything I've ever written to Nunes about elicits the standard Repub long-winded and misinformed response. I've even written him back again on some of this garbage, and said, how is it that I know more factual information about these issues than you do? I don't get any response to those letters.

And Conrad Burns! My god! This is the guy that sponsored the original horse slaughter bill in Congress. Like attracts like........

[zonkers]

11. A kick for the trees.

[troubleinwinter]

12. !!!!!!!!!!!! K & R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[struggle4progress]

13. Fire and Sequoia Reproduction

... The records, assembled from fire scars in the annual growth rings of giant sequoias, extend back over 2,000 years, and show that fire typically burned on the floor of sequoia groves every 3 to 8 years ...

A century of fire exclusion in sequoia groves has had a greater effect on sequoia populations than the preceding several millennia of changing climate and fire regimes. Fire exclusion prevents sequoia reproduction. In most sequoia groves today, even the youngest trees are over a century old. Most areas in most groves have not burned for 100-130 years ...

http://www.werc.usgs.gov/fire/sequoia.html

Some background:

... Under the guise of forest fire prevention, the Forest Service released a plan in December 2004 to conduct massive logging in Sequoia National Monument ... When the Monument was established in 2000 on 300,000 acres of Sequoia National Forest, conservationists believed they had finally gained protection for the 34 last remaining giant-sequoia stands in the Sierra Nevadas. Indeed, the proclamation establishing the monument banned commercial logging on the Monument ...

http://65.110.78.8/WhereWeWork/California/sequoiamonument-logging.cfm

Updated: 12:22 a.m. ET Nov 15, 2005
FRESNO, Calif. - A federal judge stopped a logging project in Giant Sequoia National Monument on Monday, keeping intact more than 1,000 acres in a preserve that houses two-thirds of the world’s largest trees ... The Forest Service said timber sales help preserve logging jobs and the natural ecosystem. The project would thin out smaller trees that are fire hazards, not completely clear out the area, spokesman Matt Mathes said ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10052493/

Updated: 11:40 a.m. ET June 8, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Forest Service withdrew a fire protection plan for Sequoia National Forest that allowed commercial logging, nearly a year after a judge ruled the blueprint violated federal law ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13204849/