Saving California’s Giants

The big trees have survived for centuries, some scorched by fire or damaged by insects. With trunks 10 feet thick, they tower to nearly 300 feet. But their days may now be numbered.

A loophole in state logging laws, similar to a federal exemption approved by Congress last year, could permit the logging of these majestic trees in Northern California’s Headwaters forest by mid-September. That should not happen. These trees are in the last substantial grove of ancient redwoods in private hands.

A Clinton administration land-swap proposal could save the trees, but the president will need to act quickly. At the same time, the grove’s owner, Pacific Lumber Co.--now controlled by financier Charles Hurwitz--will have to acknowledge that intact and standing, these trees are infinitely more valuable to Americans than they would be if cut up into lawn furniture and hot tub decking. Indeed, they are priceless.

The state and federal salvage loopholes exempt a substantial amount of timber-cutting operations in national and privately owned forests from environmental challenges. Salvage logging is intended to remove dead, diseased or dying trees to prevent the spread of forest fires. In practice, however, some loggers have interpreted the rules to permit the cutting of many green, healthy trees and the destruction of some wildlife habitat--to create fire breaks, for example. Pacific Lumber’s planned operations in the Headwaters grove, near Eureka, could include cutting down old-growth redwoods and would be largely free from court challenge under the salvage exemption.

The Clinton proposal would keep many of these trees out of the reach of chain saws. Under discussion is a land swap; Hurwitz would exchange a 7,000-acre Headwaters parcel for federal forest land elsewhere in Northern California and surplus military land with commercial real estate potential in Texas and other areas.

Some environmentalists criticize this deal, arguing that saving 7,000 acres still leaves far too much of Headwaters forest’s 76,000 acres at risk. True enough, but the choice now is between watching these trees become $200,000 worth of lumber each or watching the clouds move above their tall branches.