Sierra Keystone Forest

KEYSTONE FORESTS Maine Woods Keystone Forest Blue Ridge-Appalachia Keystone Forest Florida Panhandle Keystone Forest Upper Great Lakes Keystone Forest Northwest Rockies Keystone Forest Mogollon Keystone Forest Sierra Keystone Forest Klamath-Siskiyou Keystone Forest Pacific Northwest Volcanic Keystone Forest North Cascades Keystone Forest Alaskan Coastal Temperate Keystone Forest

In most Sierra Nevada counties over the past 25 years, the primary areas of growth in the economy have been in the areas of recreation and tourism, currently providing more jobs and roughly the same total amount of wages as all the commodity-based sectors combined. Recreation includes hiking, boating, hunting, rock climbing and fishing. This keystone forest, in particular, provides a significant proportion of California’s drinking and agricultural water, including all the drinking water for San Francisco.

Threats
In 2001, the historic Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment ("the Framework"), affecting 11.5 million acres in 11 national forests, was signed into law. The Sierra Nevada Forest Amendment was the result of 14 years of research, planning and cooperative efforts by the Forest Service, scientists, community activists, business owners and environmentalists. The Framework was the Forest Service’s first comprehensive, Sierra-wide plan to reduce the threat of wildfire and to protect forest habitat. It included: 1) a commitment to restore and protect old-growth forest conditions, including all existing old-growth stands one acre or larger; 2) a prohibition against the cutting of large trees (20 inches diameter or greater); and 3) protection for imperiled aquatic species by establishing a comprehensive aquatic and riparian habitat conservation strategy for all of the national forest lands in the Sierras. Despite widespread support for this plan, the Forest Service, responding to pressure from the Bush administration, announced sweeping revisions to the Framework. The revisions nearly triple the amount of logging on national forests and limit safeguards for water and wildlife.

This keystone forest is also threatened by livestock grazing, conversion to tree plantations, fire suppression, air pollution and pathogens.

Efforts to Increase Protected Areas
The California Wild Heritage Act (S.1555) would designate some 2.5 million acres of wilderness in California and create more than 400 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers. Many of these additions are located within the Sierra Keystone Forest.

Written by David G. Graves
Sierra Nevada Forest Protection
Campaign
www.sierracampaign.org

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