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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Headwaters,
California Redwood Forest Victories
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
August
4, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
The
Global Action and Information Network reports on protest and
litigation
on behalf of preservation of Headwaters, the largest
unprotected
grove of giant redwoods left. Recently
U.S. District
Court
permanently banned logging in one of the six Headwaters
groves. Pacific Lumber was found to have misled
state and federal
wildlife
officials when it claimed the marbled murrelet did not
breed
and nest there. This campaign clearly
illustrates the
importance
of multi-faceted environmental advocacy; as non-violent
protest,
citizen litigation and political organizing all move
forest
protection forward. This item was
posted by GAIN in their
gain.ecosystem
bulletin board on econet.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
/*
Written 5:41 PM Aug
3, 1995 by gain in igc:gain.ecosystem */
/*
---------- "Headwaters Forest Update&Victories" ---------- */
==== GAIN UPDATE: Court Victories for Headwaters Forest ====
Earth First! Protesters
Arrested July 5
* * *
GLOBAL ACTION AND INFORMATION NETWORK
* * *
740 Front Street, Suite 355 Santa Cruz,
CA 95060
phone: 408-457-0130 email: gain@gain.org
* * * August 3, 1995 * * *
As many
of you probably already know, the Headwaters legislation
that
made it so far last Congress has not resurfaced this session.
It's
champion sponsor, Representative Hamburg, did not win re-
election.
However
Headwaters protection advocates have enjoyed several
victories
this spring and summer in the courts, winning not only
the
case but then also being awarded $1.1 million in legal fees by
the
Judge in the case. U.S. District Judge
Louis Bechtle
permanently
banned logging in Owl Creek, one of the six Headwaters
groves,
agreeing with the Environmental Protection and Information
Center
(EPIC) that Pacific Lumber had misled state and federal
wildlife
officials when it claimed the murrelet did not breed and
nest
there. "If EPIC had not undertaken its lonely efforts on
behalf
of the marbled murrelet, it is doubtful that the species
would
have maintained its existence throughout its historical
range
in Northern California. This is exactly the type of case
that is
encouraged by the citizen suit provision of the ESA,"
stated
Judge Bechtle.
The
following update is written by EPIC's Josh Kaufman.
HEADWATERS
UPDATE
The
arrest of Earth First! protesters, new state court litigation
and one
of the biggest fee awards ever in a federal Endangered
Species
Act case dominated Headwaters Forest news in June and
early
July. The Headwaters area in Northwest California includes
the
largest privately-owned uncut redwood groves in the world, for
the
past decade owned by MAXXAM Corporation subsidiary, Pacific
Lumber
(PL). The six groves and surrounding watersheds have been
the
object of a dozen lawsuits, federal and state acquisition
proposals
and numerous public demonstrations since the MAXXAM
takeover
of PL in 1986.
Thirty-five
Earth First! activists were arrested on July 5 in
civil
disobedience actions. A pre-dawn "lock down" across two of
PL's
main log hauling roads into the Headwaters area backed up
trucks
for several hours until sheriff's deputies could blowtorch
the
gates away. Later in the morning, as workers were arriving at
the
Fortuna office of the California Department of Forestry (CDF),
the
lead agency that approves all non-federal logging operations
in the
state, 150 demonstrators descended on the building,
occupying
its offices. Two dozen protesters were arrested and
several
were hospitalized when local police used pepper spray to
clear
the parking lot. Earlier in June, nine protesters had been
arrested
after locking themselves to a bridge spanning Yager
Creek.
The group promised to return because of both PL's stepped
up
logging in the Yager basin and state court rulings giving PL
the
go-ahead.
A
lawsuit filed by nature photographer Doug Thron, the
Environmental
Protection Information Center (EPIC) and the Sierra
Club
has succeeded in temporarily stopping a timber harvest plan
(THP).
That THP runs along a three and a half mile corridor of
Yager
Creek, left uncut as habitat "mitigation" for past logging
plans.
An injunction trial was held July 14. Issues in this case
and
three other suits revolve around the effects of further shade
removal
and sedimentation on depressed Yager salmon stocks and
inadequate
spotted owl and marbled murrelet surveys. Lawyers for
the
plaintiffs have argued that those surveys are unreliable,
especially
in light of evidence presented during a federal ESA
trial
that demonstrated a pattern of deliberate misrepresentation
of
murrelet sightings in Owl Creek Grove.
The
final chapter in that case may have been written on June 19,
when
visiting U.S. District Judge Louis Bechtle awarded $1.1
million
in fees and costs to EPIC. Earlier, Bechtle had
permanently
banned logging in Owl Creek, one of the six Headwaters
groves,
agreeing with EPIC that PL had misled state and federal
wildlife
officials when it claimed the murrelet did not breed and
nest
there. The ESA generally prohibits any activity known as a
"take"
that results in the death of federally listed species. PL
had
argued that, absent dead bodies, there's no take. But the
judge
ruled that further logging in the grove could destroy
essential
habitat and, ultimately, the murrelet itself. To argue
that
the destruction of habitat is a neutral act is like arguing
that
the bullet is guilty of murder but never the gunman. For now,
the
obvious intent of the ESA has been settled by the U.S.
District
Court in Northern California and by the recent Supreme
Court
ruling in Babbitt v. Sweet Home.
In his
fee award decision, Judge Bechtle said the following about
the
plaintiff: "EPIC's success in this litigation has
substantially
contributed to the goals of the ESA by ensuring the
conservation
of one of the few remaining marbled murrelet nesting
habitats
in California. If EPIC had not undertaken its lonely
efforts
on behalf of the marbled murrelet, it is doubtful that the
species
would have maintained its existence throughout its
historical
range in Northern California. This is exactly the type
of case
that is encouraged by the citizen suit provision of the
ESA. As
far as the court is aware, this is the first case where a
federal
court has applied the 'harm' and 'harass' provisions of
the ESA
to permanently enjoin logging on private land."
Congratulations
to EPIC and its team of persistent, impassioned
attorneys
led by Macon Cowles and Mark Harris. Josh Kaufman
REDWOOD
BOYCOTT
Saying
"there is no such thing as environmentally correct
redwood,"
Earth First! activists in Northern California initiated
a
boycott of all redwood products on July 11. For more information
on the
boycott, contact Darryl Cherney 707/943-3788.
GAIN
NOTE: There is a Headwaters forest
video that was produced
as an
educational tool in the Headwaters campaign.
The video
producers
state "Our goal is to get this video into as many living
rooms
as possible, to encourage people to lean on Washington to
preserve
the Headwaters forest." Contact info:
Green TV; 1125
Hayes
Street, San Francisco CA 94117;
415-255-4797
--------------------------------------------------------------
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contact GAIN at <info@gain.org>.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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