The Future of the Sierra Nevada

Sierra Pacific Industries, with 13 sawmills and 1.5 million acres of timberland, much of in the Sierra Nevada, makes this the largest timber company in California, and the second-largest landowner in the United States -- after Ted Turner. Sierra Pacific's owner, Archie Emmerson, plans to log about 70 percent of this timber in the next 70 years by a process called clear cutting. Clear cutting involves cutting down all of the trees in one area, instead of selecting cutting timber, and then replanting the logged units. Environmentalists and citizens near the clear-cutting sites are concerned. At issue is the future of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range.