Logging in Headwaters Forest Rejected : Conservation: The state Board of Forestry acts to protect the marbled murrelet, a rare fishing bird. Environmentalists and Wilson’s office hail the decision.

The state Board of Forestry, acting to preserve the largest stand of California redwoods remaining in private hands, rejected plans Wednesday by the Pacific Lumber Co. to begin logging the Headwaters Forest.

By a vote of 5 to 3, the board ruled that plans to harvest 564 acres of the remote Northern California forest would seriously endanger the marbled murrelet, a rare fishing bird found only in the Headwaters Forest and two other regions of the coast.

The decision was applauded by environmentalists and the office of Gov. Pete Wilson, who hope the move will buy enough time for the state or some other public entity to come up with money to purchase the entire 3,000-acre forest.

“I’m delighted,” Sierra Club spokeswoman Gail Lucas said after the vote. “I think the board did the only thing they could do. The marbled murrelet is threatened even more than the spotted owl.”

But attorney Jared Carter, who represents Pacific Lumber, expressed frustration with the decision saying, “It was a little confusing.” He said the timber company must decide whether to take the matter to court, submit a new logging proposal or come up with a new plan of action.

In its action, the board upheld an earlier decision by Harold R. Walt, director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, rejecting the logging plans because they did not provide sufficient protection for the marbled murrelet.

Although the bird has not been officially declared to be threatened or endangered, officials of the state and federal governments testified that the murrelet has dwindled to such low numbers that harvesting the Headwaters Forest would threaten the entire species in the state.

C. John Ralph, a researcher with the U.S. Forest Service, said that fewer than 2,000 marbled murrelets survive in California’s remaining old-growth redwood forests, with 300 to 500 of them dwelling in the ancient trees on Pacific Lumber’s property.

“If one removes the old-growth (redwoods), we lose the marbled murrelet from that area,” Ralph told the board.

The National Audubon Society and other environmentalists have appealed to the state and the federal governments to declare the species endangered, a decision that would strengthen protections for the bird.

The board, in denying Pacific Lumber’s logging plans, left open the possibility that a subsequent harvest proposal for the Headwaters Forest could be approved.

“This is not to be interpreted by the people here today as the denial of the legal right of Pacific Lumber to harvest timber in that area,” board Chairman Carlton S. Yee said after the board reached its decision.

Pacific Lumber’s plan called for logging two parcels that cut into the middle of the Headwaters Forest. But company officials pledged they had no immediate plans to log and would not begin harvesting the trees for at least a year.

Some environmentalists had suggested that winning approval of the logging plan was simply a maneuver to drive up the price of the property in the event the state was to attempt to buy it.

The forest is conservationists’ first priority for acquisition. However, two November ballot measures, Propositions 128 and 130, which would have allocated bond funds to buy the forest, were both rejected by the voters.

Wilson, shortly before his inauguration, joined with environmentalists in urging the Board of Forestry to reject Pacific Lumber’s logging plans.

But during the board hearing, company attorney Carter attacked Wilson for sending a letter to the board and charged that it was an improper attempt to influence the board.

A spokesman for the governor later defended Wilson’s letter as entirely proper and dismissed Carter’s charge as “public posturing.”

More than 200 people, many of them timber company opponents from as far away as Arcata, packed the hearing room for the six-hour session. Thirty people testified against the logging plan and some protested by wearing animal masks representing the spotted owl and other endangered species.

“Look into your hearts,” Matthew Laster, a spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters told the board. “It’s not just a legal matter. It (the Headwaters Forest) is a resource for the entire world.”