December 31, 2010
In a devastating but still little-publicized move, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently exercised his line-item veto power to completely eliminate the state Dept. of Fish and Game’s (DFG’s) budget for inspecting logging in vast timber-producing regions of California.
The governor’s action came at the close of the long and wearying battle over the state’s 2010-2011 budget.
The cut represents fully two thirds of DFG’s timber harvest inspection budget for the entire state and affects primarily the Sierra Nevada and northern interior California, where by far the most clearcutting is taking place.
As one outraged citizen wrote in a letter to the editor of Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat soon after the veto, “It only took a single stroke of a pen for the Terminator to ax the Department of Fish and Game's Timber Harvest Plan (THP) review program from the state budget… How will the remaining three or four employees be able to review plans as required by law?” On-the-ground timber harvest inspections are one of the ways the state protects the natural resources of its public and private forests.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the state’s largest clearcutter, as well as a major campaign contributor to Schwarzenegger, Sierra Pacific Industries will be the budget cut's biggest beneficiary.
In recent years DFG has been the only environmentally responsible agency to maintain a reliable presence in pre-harvest inspections, providing vital information to agencies, environmental advocates, the concerned public and the timber operators themselves. With DFG out of the picture, and with citizens not allowed on pre-harvest inspections unless by invitation of the CDF or the timberland owners, there will not be a watchdog in the forest.
With more than 7.6 million acres of private and industrial forestland within California to safeguard, the DFG’s review function is vital in maintaining water quality, biological diversity, and other environmental values. The governor’s funding cuts jeopardize all those values, not just in the short term, but for generations to come.
This is a serious bummer. I hope that California's state environmental standards do not continue to sink to the level we have in Oregon, which is terrible.
ReplyDelete"In recent years DFG has been the only environmentally responsible agency to maintain a reliable presence in pre-harvest inspections, providing vital information to agencies, environmental advocates, the concerned public and the timber operators themselves."
ReplyDeleteSorry, that is total BS. And what basis do you make this statement? What about Water Quality? What about CGS? USFWS?
Water Quality has delegated it's authority over THP review to DFG, and USFWS has no authority over state or public lands in California.
ReplyDelete