Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
Letter to San Francisco Press
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Tuesday, March 2, 1999
The Headwaters deal was a major sell-out--and included serious concessions on the federally mandated Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) that already grossly violates the Endangered Species Act. For example, under the plan, Pacific Lumber (P-L) can liquidate over 8000 acres of ancient redwood forest without the endangered species surveys that are normally required--this means that they are at complete liberty to--and therefore most likely will--take down trees with spotted owl and marbled murrelet nests and nestlings. The State Sustained Yield Plan (SYP) proposes to convert 211,000 acres of biologically diverse conifer forest into a single species tree farm--sacrificing forest habitat for a single species of young, even-aged trees that cannot sustain forest-dependent fish and wildlife.
With this deal, Humboldt County forests will end up just like Mendocino County--severely overcut, with investors like the Fisher family of the Gap coming in to log the last old growth, then convert it all to real estate development.
In addition, some experts say that logging 180 million board feet per year--the number that P-L held out for and got at two minutes to midnight--will log Pacific Lumber right out of business--just like Louisiana Pacific, who packed up and left Mendocino last July, after nearly two decades of liquidation logging.
While everyone's slapping themselves on the back for preserving 10,000 acres, please remember that there are hundreds of thousands of acres on the chopping block in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Remember that at one time people scooped coho salmon by the wagon-load out of the creeks and streams there. Recent surveys show that coho was absent in 90% of the streams on the Fishers' 230,000 acres; where coho were present, their numbers were pathetic: an estimated 200 in the Albion River, 120 in Big River, 100 in the Navarro, 5-10 in Elk Creek. Why? The dense forest canopy that provides the deeply shaded, cool pools that coho require is being destroyed. The clear water that this heroic creature requires to survive is being clouded by sediment from high-impact logging and logging road run-off.
It's not too late to turn this situation around! Abolish HCPs and enforce the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. Tighten and enforce the Forest Practice Rules, especially with regard to cumulative effects and long-term sustainability of forest resources.
Signing of the Headwaters deal is not going to solve the problem of liquidation logging. We will keep protesting until corporate plundering of our public trust resources is a thing of the past--until the notion of destroying the environment for private profit is as contemptible to the public at large as slavery--another form of private property that was once an institution in this country.
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign
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