California must address the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from clear-cutting

Lawsuit Filed Over Sierra Nevada Logging Plan’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Press release from the
Center for Biological Diversity
August 13, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO – Today the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Forestry over the agency’s failure to analyze the carbon and climate consequences of clear-cutting when it approved a logging plan in the Sierra Nevada.

Despite well-established law that state agencies must analyze and mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions from a project when they approve it, the Department of Forestry failed to carry out any project-specific analysis of the emissions that would result from a plan by Sierra Pacific Industries to clear-cut over 400 acres in Tehama and Butte Counties.

“If California is serious about actually reducing its greenhouse emissions, it must start addressing the substantial carbon dioxide emissions resulting from logging our forests,” said Brendan Cummings, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Unfortunately, state agencies continue to approve clear-cut logging without any regard for the serious carbon consequences of doing so.”

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“While forest management in a changing climate is increasingly complex, one thing is abundantly clear: You cannot clear-cut your way out of the climate crisis,” added Cummings. “California should quickly move to ban clear-cutting.”

To read the entire press release and find our more about the Center, visit their website: Center for Biological Diversity.