by Roger and Nancy Hershey
Independence, MO, April 15, 2000 …
This morning’s Kansas City Star sports a headline, “Clinton to protect giant sequoias” which brings back the memory of the 6th Annual Briefing for The Sierra Club Foundation National Advisory Council (NAC) in Washington, DC during the first week in April. We were in Washington for the meeting of the Foundation Board of Trustees April 2 and 3, and extended our stay to participate in the NAC Briefing. The focus of the NAC Briefing was the Wild Forest Protection Plan that President Clinton initiated last fall, which could ban road building, logging, mining, and other destructive activities in 60 million acres of roadless areas within the National Forests. It could involve as many as 38 National Forests and National Grasslands in 38 states. This would almost triple the roadless acreage protected as wilderness. On March 1, 1999 the administration suspended construction of roads in most of the National Forests. The President, on October 19, 1999, instructed the Forest Service to study roadless areas of 5,000 acres or greater. The NAC Briefing also included the Club’s efforts to protect remaining sequoia groves in California. Protection of giant sequoias outside of King’s Canyon and Yosemite National Parks has been a lifetime goal of former Sierra Club President Joe Fontaine. The campaign to permanently protect the groves recently received a huge boost when Honorary Sierra Club President Dr. Ed Wayburn received from President Clinton the Medal of Freedom in recognition of Dr. Wayburn’s lifetime of conservation service. In addition to thanking the President, Dr. Wayburn took the opportunity to ask the President to protect more places, among them, the sequoia groves. On February 14, 2000, President Clinton, citing Dr. Wayburn’s request, directed the Secretary of Agriculture to review the matter and make recommendations regarding protection of the sequoias. Last week, Secretary Glickman recommended that the President establish Sequoia National Monument. As noted, today’s paper reported that the President followed that recommendation and the nation has, through the efforts of the Sierra Club’s dedicated volunteers, saved yet another of the world’s quickly vanishing wild places. The NAC Briefing takes place each spring when the Club invites NAC members and Foundation Trustees to come to Washington, DC, participate in briefings by the Club’s Washington and national staff members, and then “lobby the hill” for that year’s focal issue(s).This year’s Briefing started Tuesday morning with welcomes by Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Foundation Executive Director John DeCock, Foundation President Rob Flint, and NAC Chair Guy Saperstein, and was followed by staff presentations on the Wild Forest Protection Plan, including the proposed Sequoia National Monument, as well as a conservation update by Club Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton on the Club’s national programs and campaigns, and directions from Club Legislative Director Debbie Sease about the scheduled lobbying visits to agencies and members of Congress. Tuesday afternoon abut 40 Foundation Trustees, NAC members, Club staff, and other Club members met with John Spotila, Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, and other staff members from OIRA and CEQ. Carl Pope opened the Club side of the discussion with an overview of the Club’s position on the Wild Forest Protection Plan. As the meeting proceeded, many Club members offered comments, especially focused on their home states. (Our comment was study roadless areas down to 1,000 acres in order to preserve deserving parts of the Mark Twain National Forest for biological diversity and recreational purposes.) At the end of the meeting Administrator Spotila said, “I don’t know how you scripted this but it was very effective.” When told that it was unscripted, he was even more complimentary saying that “Most unscripted meetings are usually less than effective and often disastrous.” We then met with Chris Wood, Senior Policy Advisor to the Chief of the Forest Service about the ongoing study process. He also heard the comments from folks around the nation, with several of us east of Kansas emphasizing the need to consider acreages down to 1,000 acres. He reported that there will be two more rounds of meetings throughout the nation and encouraged us to participate in all of them. (For those of us who had been involved in forest protection for sometime, this brought back memories of RARE I and RARE II and the wilderness designation campaigns in the Mark Twain National Forest. The Wild Forest Protection Plan gives us yet another opportunity to seek protection of Missouri wild places.) The afternoon ended with a briefing by Club Political Director Dan Weiss on the Club’s political briefing. Afterwards we inquired as to possible Club endorsement of Governor Carnahan in his race against Senator Ashcroft. He indicated that the Club had yet to hear from the Ozark Chapter. Dan allowed as how Missouri might be better served by a Senator that is more environmentally sensitive than the incumbent.
Wednesday morning found us gathered at the Capitol for the Sequoia Press Conference during which Carl Pope, Joe Fontaine, and others called for protection for the Sequoias and for the 60 million acres of National Forest roadless areas. We also delivered 650,000 signature cards calling for the protection of the giant sequoias by creation of a new Sequoia National Monument. Dr. Wayburn, at a spry 94 years of age, attended not only the press conference, but the entire NAC Briefing—it is always a privilege to have him with us. It was at this press conference that we truly stood among giants, not giant redwoods, but giants of the environmental movement. That afternoon the group spread out over the Hill to lobby individual members of Congress. We had been unable to schedule a meeting with our Representative, Karen McCarthy, but we dropped in anyway. We spent about half an hour with her environmental aide, who indicated her support for the protection efforts. We met with Senator Ashcroft’s newly appointed environmental aide, Robert Coughlin, whose responses were much less encouraging. We then joined former Sierra Club Foundation President Harry Dalton of South Carolina and Club staff member Joy Oakes for a meeting with Senator Rob of Virginia. Joy took the opportunity to lobby the Senator not only on the forestry issues, but on transportation matters affecting Washington, DC. All in all, it was an invigorating week. Besides the substantive efforts, we enjoyed good weather, good food, good drink, and best of all, good friends, all of whom are intensely committed to saving the planet. It was an upper ! We hope to do it again.