House OKs $250 Million to Buy Part of Ancient Forest, but Veto Looms

The House of Representatives on Friday approved $250 million sought by the Clinton administration to purchase the heart of Northern California’s besieged Headwaters Forest, but the measure still faces a veto threat from a White House critical of “anti-environmental” provisions attached to the bill.

As a result, the fate of a deal to preserve the nation’s largest unprotected stands of ancient redwood trees remains in doubt, with some environmentalists in Congress opposing the bill in its present form and many Republicans, initially skeptical of the Headwaters purchase, supportive of the pending legislation.

The measure, which the Senate is expected to vote on next week, also authorizes the $65-million federal purchase of the New World gold mine site next to Yellowstone National Park.

The proposed mine would create an industrial operation in the midst of wilderness and grizzly bear habitat next door to the nation’s oldest national park.

Securing the money for Headwaters and for the mine has been a top environmental priority of the Clinton administration. The bill authorizing the expenditures, however, is laden with qualifications and riders attached by Republican members of Congress generally at odds with the administration’s environmental policies.

Late Friday, after the House vote, the administration issued a qualified threat of a veto.

“There are some very important environmental initiatives in this bill, in particular funding for our agreements to protect Yellowstone and Headwaters and a substantial increase in national park funding,” a White House spokesman said.

“We have previously threatened to veto over a number of anti-environmental provisions. Since that time, a number of changes have been made. We’re taking a very close look at the final language. But until we have a chance to decide whether the bill is satisfactory, we are not withdrawing our veto threat.”

Speaking on behalf of the bill, the congressman who represents the Headwaters region, Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Windsor), called it a “fair-minded balance between job protection, environmental preservation and private property rights.”

Riggs became a supporter of the legislation after he was able to secure an extra $10 million, beyond the $250 million for Headwaters, to offset loss of revenue to surrounding Humboldt County when the forest becomes off-limits to commercial logging.

But the bill was condemned by major environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, which have long endorsed proposals to acquire the Headwaters Forest.

“It is loaded up with special favors for the timber industry, livestock interests and others who think Uncle Sam owes them a break,” said William H. Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society.

Most objectionable to the administration is a series of riders that in its view would restrict the government’s ability to adopt new, more environmentally sensitive management plans that could reduce commercial logging in more than 40 Western national forests. Many of them are in the Columbia River Basin area of the Pacific Northwest and in southeast Alaska.

In addition, administration officials complained that the riders would encourage continued road building by logging companies in national forests. The administration had sought to discourage that practice by restricting a system of financial breaks that companies are given to offset the cost of the new roads. The pending legislation lifts the current $25-million cap on such credits.

Administration officials are also critical of another feature of the legislation that, they say, would create loopholes in an existing ban on exporting raw logs from national forests.

“In many ways, the bill is a heavy-handed effort by Congress to micro-manage the national forests,” said one White House official.

The House bill also could complicate negotiations over both the Headwaters and the New World Mine--strengthening Congress’ hand in the bargaining over Headwaters and making the mine purchase contingent upon the transfer of other mineral rights from the federal government to the state of Montana.

The proposed Headwaters purchase, which also requires $130 million from the state of California, targets about 7,500 acres of forest, including an intact 3,500 acres of ancient redwoods. The deal was struck last year by the Clinton administration, Gov. Pete Wilson and the Pacific Lumber Co., which owns the trees. It was meant to put an end to more than a decade of lawsuits, demonstrations and failed political schemes to preserve the largest cluster of ancient redwoods not under government protection.

Successful completion of the negotiations depends on California’s ability to come up with its share of the purchase price through bonds that the public must approve.

Clifford reported from Los Angeles and Hook from Washington.