Posted 11/8/96

Recent announcements by Pacific Lumber Company (PL) have now placed Headwaters Forest in imminent peril.

On March 2, PL announced its intention to resume cutting in the pristine 3,000-acre Humboldt County redwood grove. A few days later, the California Department of Forestry approved a key element of PL's plan, paving the way for logging to begin as little as 10 days later.

PL's announcement came only three days after a major legal defeat by PL. In Marbled Murrelet v. Pacific Lumber, filed by the Environmental Protection Information Center in Garberville, California, Federal District Court Judge Louis Bechtle issued a strongly worded ruling against the company's logging activities in the nearby Owl Creek ancient redwood parcel.

Bechtle's precedent-setting ruling held that logging in Owl Creek "and any other significant portion of the Marbled murrelet's critical nesting habitat in southern Humboldt County [emphasis added]," constitutes a clear violation of the federal Endangered Species Act and "will result in a high probability that the remaining population of ...murrelets in this region will become extinct."

PL's announcement took the form of a notice of exemption from any agency approval for cutting "dead, dying and diseased" trees in a 6,000-acre zone including Headwaters. This loophole has been used to justify removing old-growth forest.

As a result, denizens of the world's largest unprotected ancient redwood wilderness live in grave danger. The contiguous parcel of trees ranging in age up to 2,000 years is home to endangered and old-growth-dependent creatures including the murrelet, Pacific yew, red tree vole, Northern spotted owl, flying squirrel, Pacific giant salamander, tailed frog and many others.

The public must now rise up as never before. The impending threat of Headwaters' sacrifice to service a junk-bond-financed takeover scheme has galvanized activists across the state.

Some groups currently are planning demonstrations to heighten the profile of the issue; others plan to file suit to stop the cutting. These are important tactics. Forests Forever's role is to mobilize a ground swell of public demand for a permanent solution to the problem. In particular, we seek to secure the key element in saving Headwaters - a fiscally and politically viable means of gaining forest land. A Debt-for-Nature swap would allow the federal government to acquire Headwaters as a national Wilderness Area in exchange for a $548 million debt - already set forth by the FDIC - owed to the American taxpayer by Headwaters owner Charles Hurwitz.

Please act today by writing:

Ricki Helfer, Chair
FDIC
550 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20249

and

Bruce Babbitt
Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Urge Helfer to vigorously pursue a Debt-for-Nature swap with Hurwitz for his role in the destabilization and 1988 failure of the United Savings Association of Texas.

Tell Babbitt to take strong action to uphold the federal court ruling in Marbled Murrelet v. Pacific Lumber. This would powerfully bolster protection for Headwaters, an even greater prime murrelet habitat.