Court Temporarily Bars Logging in Habitat of Imperiled Bird

A state appeals court Tuesday ordered Pacific Lumber Co. to temporarily stop logging in a North Coast old-growth redwood forest believed to be a habitat of the marbled murrelet, a small sea bird on California’s endangered species list.

Pacific Lumber, which began logging in the Owl Creek area of Humboldt County on Friday, said it stopped cutting after the stay was issued. But the company denied the birds were being harmed and said it would seek to dissolve the order.

The stay was issued Tuesday just as the Environmental Education Center prepared to request a similar stay in federal court. The group said a federal stay was now unnecessary but planned to go ahead with a federal lawsuit in about a week.

The dispute centers on a 465-acre grove of old redwoods and Douglas firs in southern Humboldt County. The state’s Board of Forestry has approved Pacific Lumber’s plan to log in 237 acres of the grove.

The robin-sized marbled murrelet feeds at sea but nests in old redwood forests on the Pacific Northwest and Northern California coasts. The Owl Creek grove is important because it is only one of three nesting areas for the bird left in California, according to environmental groups.

This fall, the bird was added to the U.S. government’s list of threatened species; California listed the species as endangered in the spring. Scientists say there are about 2,000 marbled murrelets each in California and Oregon and 5,000 in Washington.

Jared Carter, a lawyer for Pacific Lumber, said the environmentalists and government scientists are wrong in claiming that logging in the area will hurt the murrelet. The company was taking precautions to protect any murrelet nests, and the logging area is tiny compared to about 100,000 acres of publicly owned old-growth forest nearby, he said.