Response from CSERC

To the Editor:

There were many false claims made against CSERC in Jim Costello's June 16 letter. Costello regularly writes strongly opinionated letters to the paper, but there's no excuse for blatant misinformation. First, CSERC has never filed a lawsuit against logging in the Stanislaus Forest — the complete opposite of Costello's claims. The truth is — CSERC has helped defend the Forest Service against anti-logging lawsuits filed by extreme out-ofarea groups, and CSERC has repeatedly worked for doing more thinning logging along with prescribed fire and biomass treatments. CSERC has been a leader with the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions group in successfully getting millions of dollars to do thinning logging treatments in the local forest — not stopping logging.

Costello also is equally offbase in his attack on me personally and CSERC concerning recent comments at a TUD meeting. I corrected a previous speaker for incorrectly stating that CSERC and a retired PG&E manager had supposedly claimed there were “secret water rights.” The fact is that the retired PG&E manager pointed out that instead of TUD having no water rights (which is what TUD representatives had been publicly claiming) TUD actually does have water rights from a 1983 purchase agreement. I also corrected the speaker for falsely claiming that CSERC has somehow worked to stop TUD from getting water for customers when, again, the opposite is true. CSERC has provided grant support letters for millions of dollars in state funding to increase water storage at Phoenix Lake and for other TUD water projects.

Because CSERC staff shows up at key meetings and serves as a voice for the environment, I've come to expect being targeted by those with different priorities. But before anyone writes a letter attacking our center, they should at least get the facts. CSERC consistently works for balanced, win-win solutions, www.cserc.org.

John Buckley

Twain Harte Executive director, Central Sierra

Environmental Resource Center