Pacific Lumber Faces New EPIC Lawsuits

Humboldt County, CA - The Environmental Protection Information Center EPIC came out swinging this week when they filed two new lawsuits against Pacific Lumber Company (PL) and government agencies entrusted to hold PL in compliance with federal and conservation laws. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries will have to defend themselves in Federal Court against the 49-page lawsuit, in which EPIC alleges the agencies violated the Endangered Species Act by not considering new information when allowing Pacific Lumber to log habitat crucial to the survival of the marbled murrelet, Northern spotted owl, coho salmon, chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and coastal cutthroat trout.

Other allegations include violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, violation of the Clean Water Act, and unlawful and fraudulent business practices.

In addition, PL will have to defend against allegations of “unfair, deceptive, untrue or misleading advertising.” PL racked up a record number of logging violations in the last five years, but has bombarded Humboldt County residents with expensive ad campaigns touting PL’s assurance of the best dang environmental practices in the country. EPIC released a report last May called Setting the Record Straight, which detailed PL’s logging violations, breaking them down by type of environmental SNAFU, as well as the agency that recorded the violations. According to the report, PL racked up 227 Fish and Game violations between March 1999 and May 2004, while the Department of Forestry counted 98 violations in the same time frame.

In the second lawsuit, EPIC and Friends of the Van Duzen will face off with the California Department of Forestry, who in early October approved six PL timber plans under so-called “Option A” logging guidelines. According to the lawsuit, the “Option A Plan did not receive the environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)” and the Forest Practice Act. Five of the harvest plans are in the heavily logged Van Duzen watershed. EPIC and Friends claim the public was cut out of the process by not being made aware changes Option A would bring to the plans.

Under the Forest Practice Act, any timber company must demonstrate that its operations will achieve maximum sustained production (MSP) of high-quality timber products. Far from the “scorched Earth” type of operations Pacific Lumber is notorious for, MSP requires there be a balance between tree growth and removal over time.

PL has logged more than a quarter of its 24,000-acre holdings in the Van Duzen in the last five years. Some of the latest plans call for logging trees as young as 35 years old, which EPIC says is clearly a sign of unsustainable logging. “They’ve clearly logged too much, too fast,” said Cynthia Elkins of EPIC.

Like another controversial PL timber plan in the news the last few days, one of the six plans at issue in the suit borders state park land. The plan, called “Scattered Root,” stretches more than 300 acres along the Van Duzen River, with it’s Northern portion bordering Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park. There are currently several active logging plans in the Van Duzen, and Pacific Lumber contractors Columbia Helicopters are maintaining their characteristic combat zone-like presence in the area. The low-flying double-propeller helicopters can be observed transporting logs from a viewpoint within the park. Visitors to Grizzly Creek State Park campground may want to pack your earplugs.

EPIC and Friends of the Van Duzen want CDF to withdraw it’s approval for the six plans, which they say will “cause immediate, irreparable, and permanent damage” to the land, aquatic resources, wildlife habitat, and other aspects of the environment.