Firm's logging rights restricted
Water board cuts Pacific Lumber's request by half
February 26, 2005
Pacific Lumber Co. was given permission Friday to harvest about half
the timber the company wants to log on its North Coast lands in the
coming year. But environmentalists said even that would be too much,
predicting catastrophic landslides.
Catherine Kuhlman, executive officer of the North Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board, granted the Humboldt County company rights
to log about 250 acres on the Freshwater Creek drainage and 300 acres
on the Elk River drainage.
That represents 50 percent of the allowable logging limits set by
the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Robert
Klamt, the acting chief of the timber harvest division of the water
quality board.
The board is responsible for approving timber harvest plans on private
land in areas where water quality may be compromised by siltation
or landslides.
Klamt said officials based the decision on studies of logging's impact
on watershed protection and recovery goals. "Our staff has spent
the last two days up there examining the company's erosion control
efforts," he said.
Pacific Lumber spokesman Chuck Center said he was "disappointed
by the board's decision," but said the company still hopes to
improve the terms.
"We'll continue to work with them," Center said. "We've
made offers and proposals to fix the flooding and will continue to
do that."
Company critics argued the water agency didn't take enough account
of the landslide risk.
Mark Lovelace, the president of the Humboldt Watershed Council, said
the decision "was not as bad as it could have been, but it was
arbitrary and based on inadequate science."
The water quality board "only considered sediment from surface
sources, like roads," he said. "They didn't take into consideration
sedimentation from landslides, which are the major problems on these
drainages."
Both the Freshwater Creek and Elk River drainages have suffered from
landslides and heavy flooding since Pacific Lumber and its lands were
purchased by Maxxam Corp. in 1985, and logging was greatly increased.
Environmentalists charge that the slides, floods and siltation are
directly linked to the increased timber harvest. Pacific Lumber maintains
the problems are the legacy of logging practices of the past.
Recently, Pacific Lumber executives said the company was on the verge
of bankruptcy because of strictures enforced through a 1999 agreement
involving the transfer of the 7,500-acre, old-growth Headwaters Forest
for $480 million. As part of that deal, the company agreed to a "habitat
conservation plan" that limits logging on its remaining 200,000
acres of land.
In recent years, the company has claimed financial losses ranging
from about $30 million to $100 million annually. It has closed three
mills and laid off about half of its 1,700-member workforce.
Officials say the approval of 11 pending timber harvest plans for
Freshwater Creek and Elk River are essential for company solvency,
but those plans have been held up by the water quality board's concern
about further erosion. Center said he wasn't prepared Friday to talk
about the specific financial impact of the water board's latest ruling.
Sheryl Schaffner, the legal counsel for the water quality board, said
the agency was still considering other proposals by the company that
could lead to increased logging in the two drainages.
"These proposals include things such as dredging the streams
to reduce flooding potential and improving bridges to allow better
evacuation in case there is flooding," Schaffner said. "We
won't know if these plans are acceptable until we look at them closely."
The board will consider the proposals at a meeting scheduled for March
16 in Santa Rosa, Schaffner said.
E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin@sfchronicle.com.
