Action Alert: Maxxam/Pacific Lumber's Illegal Logging Spree Must Stop!

U P D A T E and A L E R T from
the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters
June 27, 2005
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Please Comment: Endangered Habitat On the Chopping Block
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** Please contact California Department of Forestry (CDF). Deadline is July 8 **

Charles Hurwitz's Maxxam / Pacific Lumber Co. is at it again - this time trying to liquidate as much old-growth forest as it can in anticipation of filing for bankruptcy, which it has been threatening for months. Recently prevented by the State Water Quality Control Board from logging his desired volume of trees in the Elk River and Freshwater Creek watersheds, Hurwitz is now turning to the damaged Eel River watershed, looking for quick cash at the expense of the redwood forest.

The so-called "BONANZA" Timber Harvest Plan (THP) # 1-05-097, in the Dean Creek and Nanning Creek watersheds, would log significant and critical old-growth forest and landslide-prone areas, as well as destroy habitat for many sensitive, threatened and endangered species including the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and coho and chinook salmon. Nanning Creek is a tributary of the Eel River, which is already listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act Section 303(d). Maxxam / PL proposes to log in this very sensitive area, even as the company has been battling with the state Water Quality Control Boards over their damaging, sediment-producing harvesting practices (such as clearcutting) that Hurwitz refuses to give up.

Marbled murrelet scientists have identified this area as a priority habitat for the critically threatened seabird. Yet this THP will enable the harvest of old-growth redwoods currently occupied by nesting murrelets!

At 249 acres, adjacent to already clearcut forest, and impacting just about every sensitive ecological resource in the area, the "Bonanza" THP would unquestionably do permanent damage to an area whose recovery is crucial to the Headwaters Forest ecosystem as a whole. This is part of Hurwitz's "end game" for Pacific Lumber. He must not be allowed to rip out precious and irreplaceable old-growth forest while further degrading water quality on his way out of Humboldt County.

MAXXAM / PL'S ILLEGAL LOGGING SPREE MUST STOP!

**Tell CDF to DENY APPROVAL for the "Bonanza" THP 1-05-097 HUM**
The comment period on this THP closes July 8.

POINTS TO MENTION:
- Please disapprove THP 1-05-097 HUM.
- Maxxam / PL's unsustainably high rate of harvest is the cause of the company's current situation. As Maxxam / PL has depleted the resource base in its "boom and bust" management style, watershed activists and scientists have been predicting the current situation for years.
-PL must not be rewarded for their extortion tactics and threats of bankruptcy by receiving special treatment that would result in severe damage to public resources. CDF and other state agencies are legally responsible for protecting those public trust resources.
- Granting this THP will not save the economy and jobs in the long run - only sustainable logging can do that.
-The critical habitat of threatened species is not a renewable resource, but is irreplaceable.

WRITE TO:
Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection
135 Ridgeway Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401
*ATT: Forest Practice
Include in your letter: "Re: THP 1-05-097 HUM"
Be respectful but firm, and as succinct as you can.
You may also fax comments to (707) 576-2608 or email them to santarosapubliccomments [at] fire.ca.gov

Thank You!

--

Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH)

2530 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702

With out you we would have never known that epic and bach echo one another.

After a recent trip along the ridgetop of South Fork Mountain witnessed a clearcut that removed almost 100% of the tree cover. The higher altitude species inhabiting South Fork Mountain include white fir and incense cedar. The soil composition is mixed granite gravel with slope grade above 20% in most locations..

Friends of the River describes the impact of mountaintop logging on the nearby South Fork of the Trinity River;

http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/CaliforniaRivers/Rivers/SFTrinity.html

Clearcut logging operations on South Fork mountain ridgetops are responsible for erosion and massive slope wasting over time. The root volume support and leaf litter for future topsoil cannot be replaced by the thin grasses that invade after clearcuts..

Here's a link from a motorcycle club that describes the national forest road #1 that journey's along South Fork Mountain;

http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/SouthForkMtnRd.htm

This road is also accessible to bicyclists, though bringing dry food rations like seaweed, small grains, etc. is needed for a few days trip. Spring water is drinkable and tasty depending on personal sensitivity to microbes. Boiling water is a good idea to reduce possible parasite/bacteria related illness..

The Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity national forests are both heavily logged by Sierra Pacific Industries and their subsidieries. These corporations are focused on bottom line profits, not the long term health of either the human or forest wildlife communities. Many loggers are hired as contracters and do not recieve any health insurance despite their daily exposure to job site hazards. Some risks include being hit by the swinging logs being loaded onto trucks. Many loggers that were injured on the job were not given any compensation from contract logging. Recently a logger named Kelly was killed on the job while felling for Maxxam/PL. There was little media attention given this senseless death from fast paced corporate logging..

great article called "the people vs. maxxam";

http://counterpunch.org/donnelly05142004.html

Other corporations including Simpson, Britt, and Evergreen are practicing the same unsafe logging tactics that the giants Maxxam/PL and SPI also practice. Some of these smaller corporations are owned by larger ones (ex. Britt owned by Maxxam/PL). The practice of ignoring the public health continues from the overlogged forests to the chemically saturated pulpmills and sawmills. Recently Evergreen Lumber has worsened the health of coastal residents in Humboldt with their Samoa pulp mill. This continues from the Simpson mill's fouling of the air and water with toxic wood preserving chemicals including pentachlorophenol ..

more info on toxic chemicals used at Simpson pulp mill;

http://www.wildcalifornia.org/publications/article-17

Evergreen pulp mill is now discharging a toxic stew into the air at their Samoa mill. They claim to have installed new scrubbers to filter out partuiculates, yet nearby residents report experiencing breathing difficulties since Evergreen began emitting particulates into the air.

http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2943756,00.html

Another instance of sawmill pollution occurred in Oroville when a sawmill formerly owned by Louisiana Pacific was bought bu Sierra Pacific Industries. The contamination of the watertable aquifer by LP wasn't cleaned up by either LP or SPI, the shuffling of blame ends up being another burden on the shoulders of the local community already struggliong with higher cancer rates..

more info on SPI's pattern of buying toxic logging/mill sites from other logging corporations and doing nothing to clean up;

http://www.endgame.org/spi.html

Corporate logging leaves forest communities with devastated erosion prone hillsides, sedimented streams, contaminated watersheds and few trees for the future..

An alternative to restore healthy human and forest wildlife communities is to revoke corporate rights to log in national forests and excess private land holdings in the case of Maxxam/PL. Any logging profits should remain in the community where the loggers/workers reside, and also be used to maintain forest health for the future generations (canopy diversity, not plantation forestry). Corporate logging claims a right to log forests for their own profit, forcing local communities into dependency on corporations for work. The forest lands belongs to noone, it is the responsibility of the local people to act as stewards towards the forest and not allow the greed of a few individuals to spoil the health of the forests for future generations..

http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/

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