Knowing When to Take a Good Deal

The California timber industry is trying to squirm out of a deal to reform forestry practices in the state. That’s a serious mistake, and could lead to another costly ballot initiative to protect old-growth forests.

The bargain was struck by Sierra Pacific Industries, the state’s largest timber company, and three environmental groups, with the Sierra Club’s Gail Lucas as lead negotiator.

When the pact was announced more than a week ago, Lucas said that the environmental groups would prefer stricter controls on timber practices, but both sides “made large concessions to reach a compromise.”

One important agreement would give lumber companies a transition period to sharply reduce clear-cutting, in which parcels as big as 120 acres now can be stripped of every trunk and branch.

Sierra Pacific said much the same thing, adding that the company could live with the new rules. But the Timber Assn. of California, which represents about 50 other firms, thinks otherwise.

The association offered its own version of a compromise Monday, proposing to split the difference--not between proposals offered by environmentalists and Sierra Pacific but between plans offered by Sierra Pacific and the rest of the timber industry.

The timber industry plan does not come close to the kinds of protections contained in the Sierra Pacific package. Even that agreement is less strict than a forestry initiative, Proposition 130, that was narrowly defeated last November.

Clear-cutting would not be banned entirely, but the acreage limit would be reduced from 120 acres to 20 acres. Old stands of redwoods near the state’s northern coast could be cut, but harvesting would be limited to half of the trees every 25 years. Sierra Pacific also agreed to plan its timber harvests and replacement plantings in ways that eventually would mean cutting at the same rate as new trees matured.

When negotiations began, the plan was to write any resulting agreement into a bill that had already been introduced by Sen. Barry Keene (D-Benicia). Keene also has intro-duced a bill calling for a bond issue to finance state purchase of one 3,000-acre stand of ancient redwoods.

Keene says he plans to go right ahead with the plan, as he should. That could prod the timber industry to come around to Sierra Pacific’s position, and it could also keep the environmentalists on board rather than off writing another ballot initiative.

The most logical argument for making the deal stick is that it will mean better forestry practices. But the timber industry must not forget that environmentalists are determined to keep taking stricter reforms to the voters. Chances are that sooner or later Californians will see it the environmentalists’ way.