Capitol Hill Negotiators Work Out Deal Aimed at Saving Redwoods

House and Senate negotiators completed an agreement Wednesday night overcoming what they said were the major obstacles to legislation intended to protect the core of Humboldt County’s Headwaters Forest, the only remaining stand of privately owned ancient redwood trees in the nation, congressional and Clinton administration sources said.

The forest has been the focus of long-running, complex and at times angry negotiations among federal and state officials and representatives of Pacific Lumber Co., as well as a running series of protests by environmental groups trying to block timber cutting in the region.

Although the legislation is unlikely to face significant hurdles, other barriers remain. These include a final decision by the Clinton administration on whether to support the agreement, new legislative developments that could evolve in coming months and unresolved litigation.

In addition, the fate of heavily wooded land just beyond the borders of the targeted acres remains uncertain, leaving open the possibility that the old-growth redwoods would be allowed to stand but would be surrounded by clear-cut hillsides.

Linked to the agreement is a land swap intended to restrict mining operations on the edge of Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

A spokesman for Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Windsor), whose district encompasses the 200,000-acre Headwaters Forest, said congressional and administration negotiators had reached an agreement that would allow the United States and California to take control of the forest in a swap that would give Pacific Lumber other, less environmentally sensitive timber to cut.

But a White House official said: “We’re not ready yet to buy into it.”

The arrangement’s key provision would give the House and Senate 180 days to pass additional legislation modifying the swaps, raising the possibility that major changes would be made that raise new controversies and incur Clinton’s opposition.

The provision was worked out to mollify the chairmen of the Senate and House committees responsible for natural resources and national parks, who felt that they had been unfairly bypassed when appropriations legislation provided funding for the land deal.

At the heart of the $380-million swap sits 7,500 acres near Eureka that have been under the control of businessman Charles Hurwitz for 11 years. The forest and its streams are home to the marbled murrelet, a threatened seabird that nests in its trees, the northern spotted owl and the coho salmon.

The legislation also has controversial segments, including governing construction of timber roads. Until the language of those provisions is completed, congressional staff members said, the overall agreement will remain unsettled. But the Headwaters provisions were considered the most politically sensitive.