Lockyer Seeks to Protect Sequoia Monument

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer filed a motion Wednesday in defense of the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument.

Tulare County, logging interests and recreation groups are suing to reverse President Clinton’s April 2000 authorization of the monument, which made ancient sequoias and the surrounding forest off-limits to logging, mining and off-road vehicles.

Lockyer’s motion to intervene, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, comes a month after environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed to join the federal government in defending the monument’s creation.

“Californians have a strong and long-standing interest in achieving permanent and effective protection for these unique and irreplaceable giant sequoias,” Lockyer said.

The plaintiffs contend that the creation of the monument failed to meet the requirements of the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to safeguard objects of historical and scientific interest without congressional approval.

They want the designation overturned or at least reduced to the 6% of the monument that actually contains the ancient sequoias, which are already protected by a 1992 executive order signed by President George Bush.

Environmental groups say that although most of the monument does not contain sequoias, the surrounding forest and watershed also must be protected to ensure the giant trees’ health.

Tulare County Supervisor Steve Worthley said he is very surprised by Lockyer’s decision.

“If he was interested in the original intent of the settlement agreement, I would have thought he would have joined the suit on the part of the plaintiff,” he said.

Worthley said the agreement was intended to ensure a place in the forest for a host of uses, and to ensure that the county and its school districts continued to get a portion of the fees the U.S. Forest Service collects from logging operations. The monument designation means million-dollar cuts to the fees given to the county and school districts, he said.