Lumber Company Withdraws Two Harvesting Plans

Faced with a lawsuit challenging its clear-cutting of virgin redwood forests, Pacific Lumber Co. has acknowledged mistakes in its timber-harvest plans and has temporarily withdrawn two of them from consideration.

The decision was made in a hearing Wednesday before Del Norte County Superior Court Judge Frank S. Petersen, who had been asked by environmentalists to temporarily restrain Pacific Lumber from cutting any more trees until its harvest plans were reviewed.

Petersen delayed a decision on that matter until the second week in August, after Pacific Lumber rewrites its state-mandated harvest plans to include logging roads and other details that were excluded from the original drafts. Pacific Lumber has agreed to refrain from logging in the disputed areas.

Meanwhile, however, Petersen said he will consider two other requests by the plaintiffs in the suit--a pair of southern Humboldt County environmental groups called Environmental Protection Information Center and the Rural Institute.

Two Other Requests

One request is that environmentalists be allowed to personally monitor tree harvesting on Pacific Lumber property to make sure that the company adheres both to its own harvest plans and to state law. The second is a challenge of Pacific Lumber’s right to withdraw a defective plan once it has been submitted.