A coalition of businesses is fighting a federal plan that could triple logging levels across a large swath of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. In a letter to U.S. Forest Service officials being made public today, 52 business leaders in the region ask the agency to reject a plan for dramatically increased logging, saying it would harm tourism and recreation. The coalition is indicating that it will go to court if necessary over the plan, which is a version of a plan developed by the Quincy Library Group, a controversial consensus effort of some local environmentalists and timber industry reps. “We’re a tourism economy now, and people come up here to see trees standing, not on the ground,” said Paul Jorgensen, owner of an oriental rug store in Nevada City, Calif.
