Editors note: In this article Rich mentions Alan Carlton, chair of the California/Nevada Regional Conservation Committee (CNRCC) organizing a listing of Sierra Club forest policy. The policy was actually retrieved from the National Sierra Club website and re-posed to the CNRCC mailing list.  You can review the "Forest Management in the United States" policy at http://sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/forest.aspx. Additional Sierra Club policies are available at http://sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/.

Tehipite Chapter boundaries surround the Sierra National Forest, the Hume Lake Ranger District portion of the Sequoia National Forest and the northern part of the Giant Sequoia National Monument (GSNM). It is an enormous job for environmental activists to watch over that much land. But a handful of Tehipite Chapter activists are currently engaged, as is the national Sierra Club’s Resilient Habitats Campaign. With U. S. Forest Service planning changes afoot, we will need more activists, Sierra Club staff members, and more funds to commit. Tehipite Chapter is already contracting with an attorney to provide expertise on GSNM matters.

Every indication is that this National Park Service (NPS) plan will generate plenty of public interest and controversy.  Congressmen are already calling upon the NPS to open the Half Dome cables to everyone by installing additional cables.  Major interest groups are calling for the area to be removed from the designated Yosemite Wilderness, apparently with the misguided notion that crowding would then not be a problem.