1. United States
2. Alaska
3. Letter

The deceptively-named "Save Our Sequoias Act" would do immense and unnecessary damage to the wild groves of giant sequoias, including in Wilderness. This bill would allow the federal government to log within giant sequoia groves, including cutting down sequoias even in Wilderness. This would be a dramatic departure from the untrammeled and unmanipulated areas called for by the Wilderness Act. Worse yet, all of this could be “categorically excluded” from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, one of our nation's bedrock environmental laws. Meanwhile, the falsely-named “Fix Our Forests Act” will dramatically change how America’s national forests will be managed, and Wilderness and its wildlife won't be spared. By overriding bedrock environmental laws, the bill could specifically harm Wilderness by allowing more livestock grazing and widespread use of manager-ignited fire in Wilderness. Livestock grazing and manager-ignited fire not only harm Wilderness and its wildlife, but are antithetical to the very idea of Wilderness, which is meant to be free of human manipulation. I urge you to oppose adding SA 6039 (the “Save Our Sequoias Act”) and SA 5890 (the “Fix Our Forests Act”) to S. 4784 (the National Defense Authorization Act).