Since 1995 the Redwood Rabbis have actively opposed the rapid large-scale clear-cutting of forestry in Northern California.
Now the three Humboldt County rabbis, with the help of the Sierra Club, have appealed to Gov. Gray Davis, asking that he help prevent the same kind of clear-cutting in the Sierra Nevada area.
In an open letter to Davis, printed in both Northern and Southern California news media last month, Rabbis Margaret Holub, Lester G. Scharnberg and Naomi Steinberg condemn the clear-cutting occurring in the redwood region. They call it a “tragedy” that adversely affects “the millions of Californians who are dependent on water from the north” by polluting streams and rivers.
They implore Davis to “provide bold and swift leadership” for the residents of the Sierra, “who face the coming evil of a million acres to be stripped of every tree,” by prohibiting the logging of ancient forests and outlawing large-scale clear-cutting.
Furthermore, in the wake of Tu B’ Shevat, which celebrated the new year of the trees, the rabbis are asking all Californians to support the anti-clear-cutting effort by also writing letters to Davis. The letters should be sent by March 15 to the Redwood Rabbis, P.O. Box 315, Carlotta, CA 95528.
Once all the letters are collected, the Redwood Rabbis plan to meet with a member of Davis’ staff and drive their point home.
“We’re trying to build a bridge between activists on the North Coast and in the Sierras and down south to build a statewide coalition that can stand up to the lumber companies who fund the governor heavily,” said Steinberg during a telephone interview from her Carlotta home. “We want to tell them not to do to the Sierras what they are doing to the redwoods.”
Steinberg, who leads Temple Beth El in Eureka and the B’nai Ha-Aretz congregation in Redway, explained that the Redwood Rabbis’ mission is a Judaic imperative, originating in the book of Genesis.
“We’re told that the divine placed the earth being in the Garden of Eden, and we’re told to work and watch over it. So we have responsibility to be shomrim adamah, or guardians of the earth.”
Allowing clear-cutting, a system of logging that removes trees of all ages from an area of land, is not the way to fulfill this responsibility, she said. She listed some of the negative effects caused by clear-cutting, saying erosion is the most serious, particularly when it comes to slopes.
“After a few years the roots of the remaining stumps lose their strength, and it’s that strength that holds up our hillsides,” Steinberg said. “As a result we see mudslides. We had a dramatic one that hit the town of Stafford in 1997 and destroyed several homes. It’s only by the grace of God that nobody was killed.”
Steinberg also said the erosion pollutes the water sources. And because excessive clear-cutting “requires vast spraying of the ground with herbicides,” this is “a grave public health concern,” she alleged.
Clear-cutting also completely destroys the wildlife habitat of the forest, she claimed.
Instead of clear-cutting, the Redwood Rabbis encourage selective-cutting, which targets only a certain percentage of trees from any particular site and does not require the use of herbicides. Steinberg said she and the others have attempted to establish their position with executives in the lumber industry, but “our efforts have not yet borne fruit.”
On the legislative front, the rabbis have had tough sledding as well. For instance, while the state and federal governments preserved a portion of virgin oak growth in 1999, they simultaneously opened up other areas “to rapacious clear-cutting,” said Steinberg.
And despite litigation following the 1997 landslide in Stafford, policies about logging on steep hillsides “have not been revised,” she said.
One item of success for the Redwood Rabbis, however, was an effort spearheaded by the Sierra Club to oppose two of Davis’ appointees to the board of forestry, a policy-making board that oversees the California Department of Forestry. The opposition was due to the appointees’ former dealings with the timber industry, she said.
“We let Sen. John Burton know we were not satisfied with these appointees, and he did not bring them for confirmation.”
Meanwhile, Steinberg said she feels distressed when she wakes up in the morning to the sound of helicopters and chainsaws. She added that it’s shocking to drive down Highway 36 near her home, because there are now “patches of clear-cut trees everywhere you look.”
She said the Redwood Rabbis had high hopes for Davis when he was elected in 1998, because “he promised he would take action to preserve ancient forests and ensure sustainable logging of young forests.”
Now in this election year of 2002, “We’re still hoping that he will come through on that promise.”