Protect Sierra Forests from Massive Logging
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Center for Biological Diversity
May 2014

ACTION

Decades of science have shown that burned forest is essential to maintaining biodiversity. Black-backed woodpeckers, olive-sided flycatchers, mule deer, mountain bluebirds, pallid bats, fox sparrows and spotted owls are just a few of the many species that thrive in burned forests like those created by the Rim Fire.

When allowed to naturally regenerate on their own, burned areas teem with life. Wildflowers follow wildfires, goes the saying -- and dead, burned trees provide critical food and homes to woodpeckers and other animals.

Tell the Forest Service to protect, not log, the post-fire wildlife habitat created by the Rim Fire.

Sign on online petition

And/Or better yet, make direct contact:

Susan Skalski, Forest Supervisor
Stanislaus National Forest
[email protected] 

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Burned forests are not wastelands waiting to be logged. As your own scientists have stated time and again, burn areas provide critical sanctuary to many animals, including black-backed woodpeckers. These birds are the first to arrive after a fire, and by making nests in the dead trees they also create homes for other wildlife that arrive in the area soon after. If the dead trees are logged, the entire Sierra ecosystem will suffer as a result.

Instead of logging, the Forest Service should use this opportunity to educate the public about the critical role that fire plays in the Sierras. The Service could explain why it's important to protect severely burned forests in order to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem integrity; it could highlight the beauty of these areas. If left unlogged, post-fire forests will teem with wildflowers, shrubs and regenerating trees -- as well as hummingbirds, woodpeckers, deer and many other animals. Logged areas, on the other hand, are not only destructive to the ecosystem but also an eyesore that will discourage tourism and recreation.

Withdraw your massive logging proposal and protect this rare and beautiful landscape. The 44,000 acres of public land at stake deserve to be protected for wildlife and the general public, not handed to the timber industry at taxpayers' expense.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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