Pacific Lumber Loses License to Cut Trees
11/20/98
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Pacific Lumber Loses License to Cut Trees
Source: The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC)
Earth First!
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 11/20/98
Dear friends, there are two items in this message:
* EPIC Press release: Pacific Lumber Loses License to Cut Trees: CDF
Revokes License Because of Incessant Lawbreaking by PL
* How I explained this all to Julia Butterfly's mom
ITEM #1:
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 15:35:45 -0800 (PST) From: epic@igc.org (EPIC)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Paul Mason @ (707) 923-2931
November 10, 1998
Pacific Lumber Loses License to Cut Trees CDF Revokes License Because of
Incessant Lawbreaking by PL
In a move bound to affect the deal to acquire Headwaters Forest, the
California Department of Forestry (CDF) today informed Pacific Lumber
Company that their license to log was being revoked because of repeated
serious violations of the California Forest Practice Rules. "I'm glad to
see that CDF acknowledges that PL is such a disreputable and dishonest
timber company that they shouldn't be allowed to run a chainsaw in their
own forest." said Paul Mason of EPIC.
CDF sent a letter to Pacific Lumber this morning informing them that all
logging being done by the company pursuant to their Timber Operator's
License must cease within 24 hours. The company contracts about half of
it's logging out to "Gypo" loggers; those operations will not be affected
by this action.
The suspension of Pacific Lumber's license comes on the heals of a long
list of violations of the rules, including:
* Violating the Forest Practice Rules approximately 300 times since 1995.
* Being cited with nine criminal misdemeanors since 1996 (including three
this year).
* Being placed on probation by Humboldt County Superior Court in July of
1997 for FPR violations. In May of 1998 they were convicted again while
on probation, and sentenced to an additional three years of probation.
Pacific Lumber refused the conditions of probation (which involved more
stringent review of their logging operations), and opted to pay a $13,000
fine instead.
* Being issued Cleanup and Abatement orders by the Regional Water Quality
Control Board for destroying the domestic water sources of Elk River
residents.
* Ten violations regarding the logging plan for the steep hillside above
the town of Stafford. A massive landslide originating in a recent PL
clearcut destroyed seven homes there in January of 1996.
* Ongoing problems with their winter operations. CDF Forester Ernie Rohl
may have said it best in a report on THP 96-574 "After a series of high
level meetings, open forums, discussions, etc, we still are having
problems with compliance with winter rules on this ownershipS [I]t is
common to find that violations occur and the cessation of trucking only
occurs when CDF arrives on site and points out sedimentation of Class III
and Class II watercourses. The LTO's are quick to terminate operations
when notified of the violations, but it is my growing experience that the
cessation of hauling depends on CDF's presence on site, not through
monitoring by LTO's...Using my personal experience as my guide, I would
resist all proposed winter operations on this ownership due to the high
incidence of road related violations noted on active inspections."
* Violating the Endangered Species Act. In 1992 PL twice illegally logged
old growth redwoods in the Owl Creek Grove. EPIC successfully sued the
company in Federal court, and received an injunction against any further
logging in the Owl Creek Grove until PL has an approved HCP.
"I believe that the revocation of Pacific Lumber's logging license is the
final nail in the coffin for the Habitat Conservation Plan. If the
agencies try to say that they can trust PL with a 50 year permit to kill
endangered species, they can expect to see us in court" said Mason.
Contact EPIC for a copy of the CDF letter suspending PL's License.
The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) P.O. Box 397
Garberville, CA 95542
(707) 923-2931
Fax 923-4210
http://www.igc.org/epic/
Contact us at epic@igc.org to join our listserver
ITEM #2:
When Julia's mom wrote to me last night, this is what I came up with off
the top of my head, with a couple of revisions and additions. I welcome
any corrections or omissions on my part. Thanks.
Andy
Thanks for the info.
Julia called me today to say PL is found guilty as charged. How did that
affect HCP?
butterfly's mom
kat ~^..^~ bradley
Hi Kat,
Here's how one can understand it.
1) MAXXAM owns a company, PALCO (which used to be called PL-we still call
it PL in tribute).
2) PALCO owns about 200,000 acres of forest lands. 60,000 acres or so of
that territory is called Headwaters Forest. The HCP (Habitat Conservation
Plan) is for all of PALCO's holdings, including Headwaters. It decides
everything about what PALCO can log for the next 50 years on all of "its"
land, including where Julia has been living this last eleven months
(TODAY! ELEVEN MONTHS and not a day on the ground! Gandhian!).
This is because of the No Surprises policy of the Clinton/Babbitt
administration. It will issue "Incidental Take" permits that are permits
to kill endangered species in the short term.
The HCP is supposed to be a plan that assures the continued maintenance of
endangered species habitat in the long term. The justification for issuing
these Extinction Permits is that the company will set aside enough of its
recovering habitat (e.g. they won't log it), over the next 50 years, that
the degraded habitat will be restored, and become more robust by the end
of the 50 years. The truth is, these Incidental Extinction Permits are
absolutely in violation of the Endangered Species Act, which absolutely
*prohibits* the "Taking" of any individual member of an endangered
species. A taking is defined as the killing, injuring or harassing of an
endangered species individual or group.)
The problem with this concept is that the infrequent, yet intense weather
and disease shocks that inevitably hit fragmented ecosystems every decade
or two, can in a day or two obliterate a species if it only lives in a few
surviving islands of habitat. This kind of assault is occurring all around
the Gulf region nowadays with these wicked hurricanes and tornadoes, which
I believe are intensified by and made more frequent because of global
warming-which the govt. is still doing absolutely nothing about-this is
all criminal activity.).
That's why we need *redundancy* in habitat. We now have to think about
creating habitat *abundance* for the restoration of endangered species,
not scheme to find new legal loopholes to trim yet more billions out of
areas that are already on, or beyond the brink of collapse. Areas that
should, by current laws (if only the criminals in govt. would enforce
them!) have been isolated from *any* human intrusion decades ago. But the
citizenry of the world is not yet aroused enough by these atrocities to
force adequate, definitive action by the politicians and corporations. No
ifs, ands, or buts...!
We *are* demanding that the HCP be tossed out because of this criminal
logging protocol by PALCO and for many other reasons, but there are no
assurances that this revocation will impact the HCP.
3) About half of the logging operations on this land is done by PALCO
employees. The other half is logged by gypo logging businesses
(independent ma-and-pa operations of usually a half dozen or fewer
loggers).
4) Today PALCO lost its ability to use *its* loggers in any logging
operations on *its* lands for the duration of this year. So they announced
today that they are laying off indefinitely their 180 loggers, and will
have to contract more gypos to make up the labor short fall. (Gypos each
have their own logging permits since they are independent businesses)
5) According to attorney Jay Moller, who I spoke with today, there is
nothing to imply that on January 1, they won't have a brand new 1999
logging operator's permit. These are apparently annual licenses, like
fishing licenses. They consider this all about harvesting, right?
6) I think a lot of this is smoke and mirrors. The test will be if PALCO
is refused a 1999 license. Otherwise there is no real enforcement of
criminal logging in this country. And is it a coincidence that this permit
revocation didn't happen until we reached the end of the traditional
logging season, *right* as the daily-rain season begins? The first good
rains started about four days ago. And it has rained a little or a lot on
each day since.
CONCLUSION: We have to do everything we can to pressure the government to
refuse PALCO a 1999 Timber Operator's License until it becomes PL once
again. MAXXAM is a criminal organization running a criminal timber
operation. We should make it pay the penalty. We shouldn't pay it a penny.
So we have to kill the bogus Headwaters Deal (like a drug deal, right?).
We should use this permit revocation to kill the Headwaters Deal and get
back from Hurwitz and MAXXAM assets worth at least the $1.6 billion
Hurwitz and Michael Milken ripped off from the American taxpayers when
they looted and bankrupted United Savings Association of Texas to buy PL.
And we should make damn sure we don't allow the govt. any escape on this
one.
So that means get everyone you know to put the heat on:
The Clinton Admin.:
Bill Clinton
Bruce Babbitt
Al Gore
The US Senators in California who made the deal or who sat on their butts
when Dan Hamburg was trying to get a truly adequate solution passed by
Congress:
Dianne Feinstein
Barbara Boxer
In California, Pete Wilson is only almost history. He made the deal. He's
still governor. Give him Hell. And then give our new Democratic Governor,
Gray Davis the strongest encouragement to do everything he can to keep
PALCO from getting a 1999 Timber Operator's permit. Three strikes and
PALCO should be out for good.
But especially pressure Richard Wilson, director of the California
Department of Forestry, to never give PALCO another TOP for as long as it
is owned by Hurwitz and MAXXAM.
I'll have to dig up e-mails, phone numbers and addresses for all of these
people. I should have them posted at the Earth First! Media Center web
site by this evening, as well as the information on how to comment on the
HCP.http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/9901/
All HCP comments must *be received* by THIS MONDAY, November 16.
Hope this helps, Kat. More in the next day or two.
Out for justice,
Andy
Earth First! Media Center
Andy Caffrey, facilitator
efmc@asis.com
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/9901/
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http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/9901/death_david.html
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