Monte Sereno Takes Stand Against Forest Destruction & Clear-Cut Logging

The City Council of Monte Sereno this week passed a resolution, put forth by the Forest Protection Committee of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, to call on the State Legislature and Governor to ban clear-cut logging in California.

Monte Sereno becomes the first city in Santa Clara County, second in the Bay Area and the third in the state to pass the resolution.

Daly City and Davis have passed a similar resolution, which highlights the negative impacts of clear-cutting on the climate and water.

A growing movement of communities, environmental groups and fishermen's alliances are calling on the Governor and State Legislature to end clear-cutting in California and ensure that logging in the State is done in a manner that will preserve and protect our fish, wildlife, forests,streams and carbon sequestration.

Clear-cutting is an ecologically destructive form of logging, according to some experts, in which nearly all native vegetation is removed, soils are deep-ripped, and herbicides are applied across the landscape. It harms water quality, wildlife habitat and exacerbates climate change, they say.

Clear-cutting replaces diverse forests with tree farms that can have a higher risk of catastrophic fire.

Timber can be harvested using a less destructive method known as selective logging, some environmentalists contend, which involves the carefully planned removal of some trees while leaving the overall forest intact.

Sixty percent of Bay Area water is stored in and filtered through Sierra forest watersheds, and 15 percent comes from the forested Santa Cruz Mountains.

At least 15 percent of California’s carbon dioxide emissions are sequestered by California forests, and clear-cutting both reduces the amount of carbon forests retain by releasing excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.What happens in the forests – especially in the Sierra Nevada – is tremendously important to Bay Area Cities, activists report.

For more information visit vault.sierraclub.org/clearcutting.