* Soil
* Water quality
8 Habitat, endangered species, species that will become endangered if habitat loss continues.
* Gas exchange
* Public trust of ecosystems and resources within them belong to people. Survival depends on living in balance with the ecosystem and not depleting it.
* Forest Protection and Restoration
+ All forests must be protected regardless of ownership or agency jurisdiction, i.e., private, state, and federal need equal protection under federal law.
+ Forestry Reform:
On Federal Lands
* End policy of subsidisation
* No more road building - instead put much of road system "to bed." End log exports and log imports
* Prohibit logging of ancient forests
* Define and practice sustained yield (do not cut more than is growing on any land - 2% POI)
* Run Forest Service as a business - make it profitable to the Federal Government
* Establish Timber Stand Improvement crews to minimize fires around urban areas and to improve timber quality thru thinning, replanting, restoration, etc.
* No mechanized entry of roadless areas
* Minimize heavy equipment in logging and emphasize labor intensive practices
* Research and encourage non-destructive uses of forest resources - uses that do not deplete the resources, but rather demand that the resource stay in tact as a whole.
On non Federal lands
* As above
* Make RPFs state or federal or county employees independent of timber companies
* Finance forestry schools and teach eco-system forestry, not chainsaw, short term profit techniques
* Include oak and other species (not just current "commercial species" in the discussion and regulation/protection.
Enforcement of Public Trust
* Justice Department charged with investigation and prosecution of abuses of criminal activities by Forest Service and timber companies on grounds of violation of Public Trust and Anti Trust laws.
* Violators will be fined to maximum and prohibited from operating in forest until fines are paid and restoration of forest complete and restoration of local communities
* Our only bargaining chip is how much they will pay.
* RE: GATT and NAFTA - need Congressional statement that ecosystem protection policies are inviolate by any extra-national forces
* Create Stewardship programs for local monitoring and enforcement
* Economics
* Discussion to include other forest values: mushrooms, research, pharmaceutical, recreation, fishing.
* Encourage value added products in local communities from which wood or other products emanate
* Reduce automation to employ more workers
* Foster worker's unions
* Shift priorities from infinite growth to sustained development
* Defense money to be shifted from weapons development to defense of ecosystems and restoration
* Private Property vs. Public Trust
* Once we owned people
* Animals can be removed from abusive people
* Zoning Laws
* Eminent Domain
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited