Maxxam/Palco to Clear-Cut More Redwoods

Timber firm wins OK to clear-cut redwoods

Thursday, March 17, 2005

A state water agency, in a controversial move, approved new timber harvest permits Wednesday for Pacific Lumber Co., a frequent target of environmentalists.

At a meeting in Santa Rosa, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board granted the company 75 percent of its requested timber harvests for the Freshwater Creek and Elk River watersheds. The company has been criticized for logging practices on its 200,000 acres of redwood land.

The ruling follows a decision last month by the board's executive director, Catherine Kuhlman, that granted the company permission to proceed with about half its 2005 timber harvest plans for the two watersheds. Kuhlman's decision allowed the company to harvest about 550 acres of second- growth redwoods.

Wednesday's ruling will allow Pacific Lumber to clear-cut an additional 400 to 415 acres, pending certain restrictions. Pacific Lumber will have to provide downstream residents affected by flooding with drinking water and undertake projects such as dredging, streambed clearance and bridge reconstruction to minimize flood damage.

The approved logging permits will also count against any future permits when and if watershed-wide timber plans are drafted for both drainages, board members said.

The two drainages have been heavily logged by the company over the past 15 years, and are marred by landslides and heavy erosion. Downstream homes and farms have flooded - the result, residents say, of the company's logging.

Pacific Lumber executives say the landslides and flooding generally are a result of clear-cutting that occurred before the company was bought by Maxxam Corp. in 1985.

Neither environmentalists nor Pacific Lumber executives were pleased by the board's 5-3 vote.

"What the board has done is completely unsupportable," said Mark Lovelace, the president of the Humboldt Watershed Council, a group generally opposed to Pacific Lumber. "What I don't understand is that 75 percent figure," said Lovelace. "They pulled it out of thin air."

Pacific Lumber representatives have said they might go bankrupt if they don't get 100 percent of their timber harvest plans approved. "I'm disappointed by their decision," said Robert Manne, Pacific Lumber's president and chief executive officer. "I thought we put some serious offers on the table that would satisfy downstream residents, benefit the environment and keep this company going. But now I don't know if we can do it."

At the beginning of the meeting, board chairwoman Beverly Wasson angrily chastised Pacific Lumber executives for threats one of their representatives allegedly made to Kuhlman.

"It's outrageous and probably illegal," Wasson said.

Kuhlman said she was in a meeting with two Pacific Lumber representatives and her attorney when the threat was made.

"He basically told me if we didn't give them the harvest plans they wanted, I would have no future, no career," she said.

During the meeting, a Pacific Lumber representative acknowledged the threat, apologized for it and said they wanted the name of the rep so they could investigate.