Time running out for redwoods deal
9/27/96
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Time running out for redwoods deal
September 27, 1996
SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- If the U.S. government can't make a deal with
a private timber company, thousands of ancient northern California
redwood trees will start coming down Monday.
Charles Hurwitz, a Texas financier, agreed to delay the start of
logging for two weeks in a virgin 3,000-acre portion of the
Headwaters Redwood Forest in northern California, the nation's
largest privately held tract of redwoods. But if no deal is reached
by Monday, logging will begin in earnest.
The prospect of thousands of trees falling to the wayside has rallied
environmental activists throughout the region.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Deputy Interior Secretary John
Garamendi and California State Resources Secretary Doug Wheeler have
been negotiating in earnest to find a reasonable exchange that will
make Hurwitz abandon his plans to sell the trees as lumber.
Even former California Gov. Jerry Brown got into the debate, offering
his own radical suggestion to save the trees. "You plant 100
marijuana plants in the Headwaters and you know what the federal
government would do -- confiscate the forest. So you know what to
do," he said.
But the government only has until Monday. Once the September 29
deadline passes -- no agreement, no more holding back.
Environmentalists protest
Fueled by their passion to save the trees, sympathizers in the north
have strung themselves across the canopy of 200- foot-tall trees in
hopes of stopping the chainsaws.
For many, the Headwaters and the redwoods represent the heart and
soul of the environmental movement; this round of legal maneuvering
represents their last glimmer of hope.
Earlier this month, 897 people were arrested in one of the largest
one-day mass arrests ever in California.
Other environmentalists are using an unusual legal strategy to slow
down Hurwitz and his company, MAXXAM Inc., by attempting to freeze
his assets.
Hurwitz once owned United Savings Association of Texas, a savings-
and-loan institution that failed, costing taxpayers $1.6 billion.
"We know that MAXXAM will say that they need to log now to use
profits to pay off the debts," said Jill Ratner, an environmental
attorney.
Others have suggested that the U.S. government offer to swap the
redwood forest in exchange for forgiving Hurwitz' $1.6 billion debt.
But MAXXAM spokesman Robert Irelan refused to acknowledge a link
between the savings-and-loan issue and the redwoods.
"There is no debt. That is a non-starter as far as we're concerned,"
he said.
Still, company spokesmen say they are willing to bargain to preserve
the ancient redwood grove.
There are a number of options, one being that the government could
give the company other less environmentally sensitive land in return
for protecting the redwoods.
"We would swap the Headwaters," Irelan confirmed, "if what we got in
return was just compensation."
But if no resolution is reached Monday, the chainsaws will fire up --
and the protesters will be there, doing everything they can to stop
them.
Correspondent Rusty Dornin and Reuters contributed to this report.