Assembly Rejects 2 Forest Protection Bills : Environment: The measures, which had the backing of Gov. Wilson, included a ban on clear-cutting in old-growth tracts. Lobbying by the Sierra Club is blamed for the defeat.

Pro-business conservatives and environmentalist liberals joined forces in the Assembly on Monday to engineer the surprise defeat of two forest protection measures that had the backing of Gov. Pete Wilson and a powerful coalition of timber companies and conservation organizations.

Swayed by arguments that the measures could lead to the destruction of ancient forests as well as the loss of hundreds of logging jobs, a bitterly divided Assembly voted against the bills that had been designed to stop overcutting in the state’s 7.1 million acres of privately owned timberlands.

A similar alliance in the Senate failed, however, to stop two other measures in the four-bill package, and they passed easily by separate 22-14 votes.

Buoyed by the Senate action, the bills’ Assembly authors said they would bring the defeated measures up again for another vote, possibly as early as today, but they acknowledged it would be difficult to win passage. Both bills need 41 votes to garner Assembly approval and they drew just 28 and 31 votes Monday.

The legislation, which was the result of a compromise reached after months of negotiations between environmental organizations and timber companies, would ban clear-cutting in ancient and old-growth forests, limit its use in other types of forests, provide protections for forest watersheds and wildlife and place restrictions on timber harvesting that are designed to prevent loggers from cutting more than they can grow.

Although the measures had support from environmental organizations like the National Audubon Society and the Planning and Conservation League, Assembly sponsors blamed a heavy lobbying attack from the Sierra Club for siphoning off key Democratic votes and leading to the unexpected defeat.

“I think the Democratic side bought the Sierra Club argument,” said Assemblyman Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), a sponsor of the package.

Sher said pro-environment lawmakers were drawn to the Sierra Club argument that last-minute fine-tuning of the legislation had led to changes that would exempt 30,000 acres of old-growth forest owned by Pacific Lumber Co. from some of the new restrictions on harvesting.

While he insisted there was no such exemption in the bills, Sher said it may be necessary to make changes to satisfy Sierra Club objections in order for the measures to pass the Assembly.

But in the Senate, Republicans who had backed the bills after winning assurances from Wilson that there would be no changes insisted they would withdraw their support if the legislation was altered in anyway.

“If it takes an amendment to line up Democratic votes, that amendment will cause me and I’m sure many other Republicans to drop their support,” Sen. Tim Leslie (R-Auburn) said firmly.

Insisting the defeat had been motivated by partisan politics, Assemblyman Chris Chandler (R-Yuba City) predicted the measures would eventually pass without any changes with more support from Republicans.

“I think the issue will come together quite nicely (Tuesday),” he said, adding that he expected at least two more Republicans to vote yes.

Other lawmakers agreed, saying that many Democrats had not voted on the measures, preferring first to wait and see how much Republican support they would garner. Some grumbled privately that even though Wilson was backing the measure, only 10 Republicans had voted for the bills while 18 had voted against them.

On the Assembly floor, however, the debate avoided politics and focused on the issues of jobs and ancient forests.

Conservative Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) said the new restrictions would put 17,000 families on the North Coast out of work as timber companies were forced to cut back on harvesting and reduce saw mill production.

“Is it possible that even now, this Administration and this Legislature does not understand the enormous damage which they have done to our economy?” McClintock said. “That even now, while the governor postures about his concern for the economy, he is waging unrelenting war against the remaining job base of our state?”

On the Democratic side, Assemblyman Tom Hayden, (D-Santa Monica), objected to the measures on environmental grounds, arguing that while they banned clear-cutting in ancient forests they also allowed a schedule of harvesting that permitted those forests to be decimated in the next two decades.

“It’s a legalized schedule for their destruction,” Hayden said, “with the possibility held out that a few (trees) will be retained like animals in the zoo.”