Bring on monument review

W e are pleased to see President Donald Trump call for a review of the many monument designations made over the past 10 years, including the Giant Sequoia National Monument designation done by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Such decisions should be subject to review to determine if indeed they were best for the area so designated and protected. Even without changes, a periodic review is needed.

The Giant Sequoia National Monument was hailed by environmentalists as a savior for the more than 30 giant sequoia groves in the Sequoia National Forest, but what we have seen since that was done 17 years ago is a lack of management of the forest and a deteriorating of the overall health of the forest. We feel many of those groves are now in peril because of that lack of management and only environmentalists can be blamed.

What we haven’t seen is a rush of tourists wanting to visit the monument. That is mostly because the promises of money to promote the local monument were not kept. You cannot find a highway sign directing people to the Giant Sequoia National Monument and you are lucky to even seen a sign showing where Sequoia National Forest can be found. If tourism had grown as promised, then we are certain nearly every resort in our local mountains would not be either closed, up for sale, or both.

We are not certain what might come out of the review, but we hope there is a call to better manage our forest and that would include a plan to remove as many of the 8 million dead tress — mostly pines — which today are difficult to remove from the monument.

What we are certain, is the review will not mean a disaster for the forest and certainly won’t mean every sequoia tree left on the forest is going to be cut down, as some hysterical environmentalists have been quoted as saying. It is those outlandish allegations which have left us with an unhealthy forest.