California Wilderness Coalition Releases " California's Vanishing Forests"
12/6/98
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Title: California Wilderness Coalition Releases " California's Vanishing
Forests"
Source: California Wilderness Coalition
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 12/6/98
The California Wilderness Coalition recently released "California's
Vanishing Forests" a comprehensive report which documents for the first
time since 1979, the devastating losses of California's national forest's
potential wilderness areas; and the losses are staggering. The report
shows that California has lost over 675,000 acres of wild forest in the
past two decades - an area almost the size of Yosemite National Park.
This amounts to ninety-seven acres of wild forest land destroyed every day
since 1979. Over 16 million acres of national forest land in California
has been logged, roaded, mined, degraded and developed to a point where it
no longer meets the Congressional definition of wilderness. By contrast
only 3.8 million acres of agency certified roadless areas remain in our
national forests. With the release of California's Vanishing Forests, we
are now well equipped with information regarding the rarity, importance,
and vulnerability of California's last roadless areas. With only 3.8
million acres of roadless area remaining, it is simply imperative that we
protect every last acre. President Clinton's recent roadless area policy
exempts nearly all of California's roadless areas from protection - this
is just not acceptable. We must strive to achieve unilateral protection
for all remaining roadless wilderness areas in every national forest. We
desperately need to seize this opportunity. For a copy of the report
contact Paul Spitler (530) 758-0380.