Plan for Giant Sequoia monument limits felling

The federal government's long-awaited plan for managing the health of the largest forest of giant sequoias on earth limits logging and emphasizes fire as the primary means to restore the forest's health. The U.S. Forest Service's plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument in the Sierra Nevada was released Tuesday, and initial readings have environmental groups cheering that logging would be a method of last resort. Then-President Bill Clinton signed a proclamation in 2000 that made the 33 sequoia groves in the forest a national monument. Since then, scientists and environmentalists have been debating how to best protect them after decades of logging and fire suppression across the Sequoia National Forest created unnatural ecosystems across swaths of the monument. The first attempt under President George W. Bush's administration ended when a federal judge rejected a logging-heavy plan as too favorable to timber interests. Sierra Club spokesman Sarah Matsumoto said the plan unveiled Tuesday appears to be an improvement...more