Redwood Forest Owner Denied Logging License
12/24/97
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Headline: Redwood Forest Owner Denied Logging License
Source: Los Angeles Times
Date: 12/24/97
Author: Frank Clifford, Times Environmental Writer
Copyright Los Angeles Times
Redwood Forest Owner Denied Logging License
Timber: Firm whose land includes Headwaters grove is
accused of carelessness, failure to control erosion.
Citing chronic violations of the state's forest protection law,
the California Department of Forestry has taken the unusual
step of denying a license to cut timber next year to Pacific
Lumber Co., owner of the embattled Headwaters Forest along the
North Coast.
Forestry officials said the agency took the action because
the company had committed more than 100 infractions of the Forest
Practices Act in the last three years.
Most of the infractions stemmed from Pacific Lumber's
careless logging operations during wet weather and its failure to
control erosion across much of the firm's 200,000 acres of
timberland, the officials said.
By weakening hillsides and plugging up streams, erosion can
jeopardize fish and wildlife habitat and lead to landslides and
floods.
"This is the first time ever we've had to take the action we
did with a company as big as Pacific Lumber," said Gerald
Ahlstrom, the department's deputy chief of enforcement and
litigation.
The firm, which owns the largest private stands of ancient
redwood trees in the world, is one of the five largest timber
companies in California, he said.
Despite the license rejection, which Pacific Lumber learned
of Tuesday, Ahlstrom said ongoing discussions with the company
could lead to a "provisional" license for 1998 that would be
subject to special conditions.
Even without a provisional license, the company could conduct
logging operations by hiring outside contractors to do the work.
"The point of denying a license isn't to stop logging but to
get people out there who will do the work without damaging the
environment," Ahlstrom said.
John Campbell, president of Pacific Lumber, expressed
confidence Tuesday that the state would issue a license by the
beginning of the year. "We are taking the issue very seriously,
and we are looking for a satisfactory resolution," he said.
Conditions of the license, he said, will probably require new
erosion control safeguards on logging roads as well as closer
supervision by licensed foresters employed by the company.
At the same time, Campbell said he believes that the state's
action resulted from lobbying by environmental groups that have
been criticizing the firm's forestry practices for more than a
decade. Last year, more than 1,000 people were arrested outside
one of the company's mills. This year, thousands of activists
descended on the area for a save-the-redwoods rally.
"I think this is coming out of intense pressure on the
agencies from the environmental community with really a focal
point on fisheries," Campbell said. "People are concerned about
sediment entering watercourses."
Salmon are among several endangered species that live in the
forests and streams owned by Pacific Lumber, and salmon spawning
grounds are often destroyed when sediment accumulates in stream
beds.
Pacific Lumber is negotiating a $380-million deal that would
transfer the core of its old-growth redwood forest to joint state
and federal ownership. The grove amounts to an island amid the
company's broader holdings.
Even if Pacific Lumber can continue logging, the Forestry
Department action is an untimely slap in the face to company
officials in the midst of such a high-profile transaction with the
Clinton and Wilson administrations. Part of that process requires
the firm to develop a conservation plan for any of its land that
harbors endangered species.