Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman recommended on Friday that President Clinton give national monument status to 355,000 acres of national forest in California’s Sierra Nevadas, a move that would safeguard about half of the giant sequoia groves remaining in the U.S. Federal policy already forbids the cutting of massive sequoias, but Glickman suggested that logging of other nearby trees be banned as well because such logging can harm the sequoia groves. Clinton is expected to designate the Sequoia National Monument soon, perhaps on Earth Day, April 22. He can do so without Congressional approval. Talk of the move is angering some House Republicans, who claim it will hurt the timber industry.
