Ecological Wisdom

If the Green Party is only the collective political voice of the left, then what differentiates this part from any other incarnation of the far left? It is that fact that the Green Party is MORE than that. I feel that sometimes, we forget that that fact.

It is time to resurrect ALL of the Green Values we give lip service.
While we talk about the 10 Key Values, it seems that only a few of them occupy our attention. In recent years, the one that most often gets sidetracked seems to be Ecological Wisdom. Maybe we count on the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to "handle things.' Well, they may do what they can, but that does not mean Greens, as a political entity, should be ignoring the planet.

From the 1970's through the early 1990's the environmental movement pretty much had it's way on a lot of issues. Even Pete Wilson had Doug Wheeler, ex-president of the Sierra Club, heading the California Department of Resources. Starting in the early years of the Clinton Administration, there was a push back, exemplified by the difficulties with land use planning in Southern California and the problems in establishing a Habitat Conservation Plan for the Pacific gnatcatcher, an endangered specie.

We found that there was even more of a tendency in Congress to take nti-environmental positions, as with Diane Feinstein's negotiation of the "compromise" with Hurwitz and the Pacific Lumber Company.

Now, we are faced with a habitat challenge from the California State Government. The State of California plans to log an environmentally significant portion of Jackson State Forest. For years, environmentalists and logging interests have been at loggerheads over plans for Jackson State Forest. Right now, there seems some possibility of a compromise that allows some logging but still protects the environment. That compromise is supported by interests on both sides, but not the government. The time for concerted Green Action on this is NOW.

A draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is out for public comment until February 14, 2006. That is only 5 days in which to take some immediate action on this single issue. The easy action is to go to the EIR Comment Page that has been set up. Most organizations tend to discount duplicated, easy to reproduce commentary. In fact, the originators ask that you edit or personalize the letter. However, if you want to take just a little more time, you might send a direct email from your ID to the California Board of Forestry. It is probably too late to send a snail mail letter.

The State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection maintains an internet WWW page specifically about the Jackson State Forest Management Plan and encourages people to send email input to comments@fire.ca.gov

I would suggest that you tell the Forestry Board that you find the following fact to be unreasonable and indefensible:

It finds that the proposed industrial logging of the forest, including use of clearcut variations on 30% of the forest, will have "no significant environmental impact". Source: http://www.jacksonforest.com/#supervisors_reject