As a result of Susan Moloney’s heroic 52-day hunger strike to pressure Gov. Gray Davis to make good on his 1998 campaign promise to end logging of old growth trees in California, a legislative hearing on old growth was held in Sacramento on January 28. The Senate Natural Resources Committee scheduled the hearing to "determine what the State can and should do to guarantee adequate protections for our old-growth trees." The Committee heard testimony from Susan as well as Julia Butterfly Hill and scientist Michael Soulé.
Committee member and long-time champion of forestry reform Byron Sher became a hero of the day when he posed pointed and tough questions to CDF director Andrea Tuttle and California Forestry Association president David Bischel about recent flooding and effects on downstream trees in protected parks, and suggested to Tuttle that it was perhaps time to revisit limits on amount of harvest in watersheds. A result of the hearing is Sen. Don Perata’s (D-East Bay) introduction of enabling legislation to put the Old Growth Initiative on the ballot.
