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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
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| NOVEMBER 25, 1998 12:25 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sierra Club Judith Vidaver, (707) 964-2742 Mary Pjerrou, (707) 877-3405 |
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| Sierra Club Asks GAP, Inc's Fisher Family To Stop Destroying Redwood Forest | ||||
| SAN FRANCISCO - November 25 - The Sierra Club is asking the Fisher
family, founders and executives of the Gap clothing store chain, to halt clear-cutting,
logging of old growth trees, spraying herbicides and logging during wet weather on 235,000
acres of depleted forest in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. The Fisher's purchased
Louisiana- Pacific Corporation's redwood forestlands this summer. The Sierra Club is encouraging Club members to educate themselves and the public about the critical condition of the Coast Redwood forest and the urgent need for enlightened management of these lands. "After two decades of liquidation logging by Louisiana-Pacific (L-P), these forest lands are extremely over-cut and the ecosystem is severely damaged," said Judith Vidaver, Vice Chair of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter. "Coho salmon, along with nearly two dozen other species, are approaching extinction in these forests. There is almost no old growth left. The Fishers' logging company needs to stop the kind of forest practices that led to this devastation." The Fisher family of Gap, Inc., purchased all of L-P's forests and mills in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties on July 1, 1998 and established Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC). Robert Fisher, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Gap, Inc., describes the MRC as a Fisher family investment. Since assuming ownership, MRC has been clear-cutting, logging the last of the old-growth redwoods in the area, and spraying herbicides on redwood forests on the Navarro River, the Albion River, Big River, Elk Creek, Flynn Creek, and elsewhere on the Mendocino coast, according to Vidaver. In addition, MRC currently has eight logging plans in the Albion River watershed, all of which allow logging during wet weather. "Logging when the ground is wet is especially harmful to endangered fish such as the coho salmon, because silt from muddy roads, landslides and clear-cuts flows into the streams," Vidaver said. Recent fish surveys have failed to find any coho salmon in most of MRC's streams. Coho salmon, once the source of a thriving fisheries industry, is now on the endangered species list. The coho population in the Albion River is one of the few wild coho salmon stocks remaining along the North Coast. This population may be critical to the recovery of this commercially important salmon species. At a recent meeting, John Fisher and MRC president, Sandy Dean, were asked to stop the pattern of destruction that has reduced this once-magnificent Redwood region to a 2x4 farm and to invest, instead, in restoring the ecosystem all living things depend upon. Mr. Fisher asked, "Who's going to pay for it?" "It is clear Mr. Fisher's bottom line is the dollar and not the environment," said Vidaver. ### |
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