Pact on Ancient Redwood Grove Reignites Uproar

Dozens of environmentalists marched through Eureka, Calif., on Monday to protest as inadequate an agreement arranged by three local politicians to delay logging of a controversial ancient redwood grove called Headwaters Forest.

The 45 singing, placard-waving demonstrators complained that the agreement, reached in secret talks between a logging executive and the lawmakers, does not protect the Headwaters and weakens safeguards for other areas.

The remote and rugged Headwaters Forest--at 3,000 acres, the largest chunk of virgin redwoods outside of state and federal parks in the United States--has become a political symbol of the fight over logging practices in California.

Four separate ballot initiatives that sponsors are now attempting to qualify for the November statewide ballot are based in whole or part on the debate over whether to preserve the forest.

Except for a brief shoving match with police and sheriff’s deputies outside the historic Eureka Inn, where U.S. Rep. Douglas H. Bosco (D-Occidental) has a field office, the protesters Monday were noisy but peaceful. Some were costumed as forest-dwelling animals.

The agreement that sparked the demonstration was announced Friday. Pacific Lumber Co. withdrew its contested request to log parts of the Headwaters, but only as long as its other harvest plans are not challenged by environmentalists.

The agreement also allows the state Legislature to hire an independent auditor to determine if the recent doubling of Pacific Lumber’s normal rate of harvest is damaging the long-term productivity of its forests.

The company denies charges that it is overcutting to pay high-interest junk bonds used by Maxxam Corp. of Los Angeles to acquire the company in a hostile takeover four years ago.

Bosco aide Bruce Taylor said the informal agreement does not inhibit state regulators or environmentalists. He said the clause letting the company back out of the agreement does not give Pacific Lumber special privileges or stop anyone from enforcing state laws. He said it merely acknowledges the company’s right to resubmit Headwaters Forest harvest plans if no other timber source is available.

“It (the agreement) allows the dust to settle and tempers to cool off so people can consider these issues calmly,” he said. He added that the accord will delay logging in the Headwaters Forest long enough to let voters decide on the state forest management ballot measures being proposed.

Demonstrators are angry because under the agreement, Pacific Lumber gives up something it does not even have--the right to log the forest, which the state has yet to permit. At the same time, the company gets to pressure its critics to stop tying up other harvest plans, even in the face of concerns the plans would threaten the environment.

Environmentalists also are upset because they were not invited to join in the negotiations that led to the agreement, even though they are winning most of the legal, regulatory and political arguments over the Headwaters Forest.

Kathy Bailey of Forests Forever, a coalition of North Coast preservationist groups, said the agreement was a “cooked-up public relations move to make the legislators look like they’re doing something on the timber issue.”

Daryl Cherney of the radical environmental group Earth First! grumbled that the agreement consisted of “archenemies of the forest getting together to decide its fate.”

The demonstration began at the Eureka office of Assemblyman Dan Hauser (D-Arcata) before moving on to Bosco’s local office and winding up at the nearby field office of state Senate Majority Leader Barry Keene (D-Benicia).

The three legislators met secretly last month in a Sacramento hotel suite with Maxxam Chairman Charles Hurwitz and persuaded him not to log the controversial grove.

Taylor, Bosco’s legislative aide, said he did not know if the agreement is written or oral.