‘Sierra Summit’ Aims to Halt Toll on Ecosystem : Environment: A ‘bio-regional council’ is called for to guard against the range’s increasing deterioration. Logging, pollution, overgrazing, overdevelopment are cited as threats.

On some days, the smog in the Sierra Nevada is as bad as it is in Los Angeles. Overgrazing, water pollution, timber harvesting and overpopulation and development are taking a toll on the spectacular range.

Alarmed by the increasing environmental deterioration of the Sierra, top government officials and experts gathered for a “Sierra Summit” Monday to consider how to protect the 430-mile mountain range as a single ecosystem.

State Resources Secretary Douglas Wheeler, who sponsored the conference, called for the swift creation of a “bio-regional council” to coordinate development, logging, recreation and other uses of the Sierra.

“What we must do, no matter how we do it, is plan for the future impacts of growth and development on this region,” Wheeler said. “This is a regional resource, to be sure, but it is critically important to the entire state of California.”

In a sign of mounting concern among federal officials, the chief of the U.S. Forest Service in California said he plans to reduce logging and give higher priority to wildlife, recreational uses and the health of the forest.

No longer will the annual timber harvest be the starting point for planning how to use Forest Service lands in California, Ron Stewart said. The Forest Service is the largest single landholder in the Sierra.

“We’ve begun to change philosophically toward broader environmental concern,” Stewart said. “It’s a different balancing of the equation. Rather than being driven by a timber target, it (planning) will come out of the need that the land has.”

More than 150 participants at the Sierra Summit heard speaker after speaker address the serious degradation of the mountain environment brought on by the state’s growing population and its need for resources.

The Sierra Nevada, which extends from the Mojave Desert to Lassen Peak, includes six of the state’s 10 fastest-growing counties. Its population is expected to double to nearly 2 million people during the next 20 years.

Much of the state’s water and timber come from the Sierra. With Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, Lake Tahoe and 20 major ski resorts, the region also is one of the most popular recreation areas in the nation.

Already on summer days, the average ozone level in Sequoia National Park exceeds the level in Los Angeles. In the winter, the state’s highest level of respirable particles is found in the air at Mammoth Lakes.

Overgrazing and timber harvesting have destroyed wildlife habitat, depleted the soil and contributed to silting of rivers and lakes. The sediment, in turn, has damaged the Sierra’s fisheries, particularly at lower elevations.

Abandoned mines have left behind high levels of mercury and other toxic chemicals that pollute the water. New roads have brought more development, cars and people into the mountains.

Meanwhile, nearly a century of active forest-fire suppression has altered the character of the forest, reducing the balance among species, such as the ponderosa pine, and allowing a very few stronger strains of trees to dominate the woods.

The Sierra Club, in a report issued for the summit conference, charged that at current rates of logging, the Sierra’s ancient forests in parks and wilderness will vanish in 25 years.

The environmental group called for the consolidation of national parks and some other federal lands into one park to be called the Range of Light National Park.

Among most participants at the summit, however, the idea of creating regional coordination for land use in the Sierra offered more hope for an immediate improvement in the health of the mountain range.

Since Resources Secretary Wheeler joined Gov. Pete Wilson’s Cabinet earlier this year, he has promoted “bioregional” councils as a way to manage entire ecosystems, not just individual timber harvests or local developments.

Wheeler argues that such regional coordination, involving federal, state and local officials, offers the hope of preserving species before they become endangered. By setting aside key areas for wildlife, he contends, uses such as timber harvesting and development could continue.

The Sierra Summit, however, brought criticism from environmentalists and business interests alike. Environmentalists argued that the conference did not go far enough in its solutions for the Sierra. Loggers and rural officials maintained that Wheeler has a hidden agenda and is seeking to wrest control of the region from local government.

“We’ve been accused of planning to do too much,” Wheeler said, “and we’ve been accused of planning to do too little.”