Timber Industry Withdraws Appeal, Sierra Club Victory for the Sequoias Stands Strong

June 10, 2008 was the day the Sierra Club was scheduled to defend the world’s largest trees - the giant sequoias - in the 9th Circuit federal appeals court. However, at the 11th hour, the timber industry withdrew their appeal, marking a critical victory in the fight against the Bush Administration's widely discredited strategy of boosting logging under the guise of preventing forest fires.

The last groves of giant sequoias lie scattered amidst the conifer forests on the western slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains. At the end of his term, President Clinton established the Giant Sequoia National Monument to provide lasting protection to these cathedrals of nature. The Bush Administration, however, chose to propose logging in the Monument - under the familiar pretext of "fire prevention," even while the timber sales removed larger, fire-resistant trees. The Sierra Club challenged several individual logging projects and the Bush Administration's "Management Plan" for the Giant Sequoia Monument, in a critical test of the Administration's logging strategy.

The Sierra Club won in the trial court in 2006, but the timber industry appealed the decision. By choosing to withdraw their appeal, even the timber industry seems to be implicitly acknowledging that the Sierra Club’s efforts have brought the Bush Administration’s destructive pro-logging regime to a halt.

Read more about this case here!

Sierra Nevada Forests and Threatened Wildlife Gain Protection from Bush Admin Logging Plans

On May 14, 2008 the Sierra Club succeeded in putting a stop to the Bush administration’s plans to allow intensive logging in the scenic Sierra Nevada forests of California. A victory in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will protect large swaths of forests that are habitat for a diverse array of threatened wildlife. The Forest Service attempted to justify their plans to open up sensitive tracts to loggers by saying that the sale of timber is necessary to raise money for fire prevention. However, the Court saw through this rationale, vindicating the position of the Sierra Club and other groups that the Forest Service neglected to consider available alternatives. The fallacy of the Forest Service's approach is is backed up by the science. "Logging large trees away from populated areas does not address the real fire risk presented by more flammable understory growth near the forest floor," said Dr. Phil Rundel, Distinguished Professor of Biology at UCLA. "Fire scientists widely agree that logging can actually increase wildfire threats by eliminating large, fire-resistant trees and encouraging understory thickets that can ignite and spread wildfire into residential areas." Judge Noonan lists a number of means by which the Forest Service could obtain funding for fire management, other than by auctioning off the very forests that they are responsible for preserving.

The Sierra Club, along with the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Wilderness Society, and Sierra Forest Legacy filed for an injunction to stop this project in September, 2007. This action came in response to the Forest Service’s announcement that it intended to advertise and award logging contracts for sites throughout the Sierra Nevada region. In October 2007, a California district court denied the Club’s motion; however, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling reverses the district court’s decision, and succeeds in preserving forest habitat that is critical to the survival of a number of already threatened animals and birds.

Read more about this case, including the latest news, here!

Sierra Club, Communities Work to Oppose Massive Refinery Expansion

Citizens living near the site of Marathon Oil's Detroit refinery are already suffering from asthma, mercury poisoning and cancer. Now, Marathon has proposed a massive expansion of this facility, which would release even more toxic pollution into the already overburdened neighborhood of Fort-Schaefer. On April 30, 2008 Sierra Club staff and volunteers stood up with community members in publicly voicing their opposition to the proposed expansion. In addition, the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program has submitted extensive technical and legal objections to this dirty facility.

"Instead of making another short-sighted investment in yesterday's dirty, polluting industries, Michigan should be investing in tomorrow's clean energy economy, bringing green jobs to Detroit and clean air and water to our communities," said Rhonda Anderson, Sierra Club's Environmental Justice Regional Representative. "Extracting the tar sands harms Native communities in Alberta, and refining the oil harms disadvantaged communities in Detroit."

Marathon is the only oil refinery in the state of Michigan, and its low-income neighbors suffer from the toxic pollution spewing from the facility and nearby toxic incinerators, coal-fired power plants and assembly plants. Expanding in order to process dirty tar sands from Alberta, which are major contributors to global warming, would impose further suffering on Detroit's most vulnerable residents. The Sierra Club Environmental Justice and Environmental Law Programs will continue to work to support community members in their quest for clean energy solutions and their opposition to dirty, outdated technology.

Read more about this case and the work of EJ Organizer Rhonda Anderson!