The State - News from June 14, 1988

The state Board of Forestry has approved a controversial timber harvest plan that will permit a lumber company to log 319 acres of old-growth redwoods near Fortuna in Humboldt County. Meeting in Redding, the board, by an 8-0 vote, reversed a decision by Jerry Partain, director of the state Department of Forestry, denying Pacific Lumber Co.’s timber-cutting proposal. Partain’s ruling followed protests by the state Department of Fish and Game that Pacific Lumber failed to supply complete information on the timber cut’s impact on wildlife. Board members noted that the land in question is zoned for timber production and that the plan calls for selective cutting in most of the area. Environmentalists have been campaigning for an end to logging of stands of old-growth redwoods, where trees remain as they were before the extensive settlement of California in the 19th Century. About 100,000 acres of old-growth redwoods remain, with 80,000 acres under protection.