In a slick move to liquidate Redwoods along the South Fork of the Eel River, Pacific Lumber is moving quickly to get approval for a huge Timber Harvest Plan (THP) immediately adjacent to Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The Railcar THP 1-08-008 Hum would liquidate mature forests along the park border, just above the Avenue of the Giants. This area, encompassing the middle portion of the Bridge Creek watershed, has been proposed as a park addition in the proposal that The Nature Conservancy and Save-the-Redwoods League have put forward to resolve the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy.

This forest provides important wildlife habitat, carbon-sequestering giant redwoods and clean water. Clearcutting these trees is likely to harm the park and South Fork Eel River below. If CalFIRE approves the Railcar THP, eight units of prime forestlands will be cut, creating another tear in the fraying redwood curtain.

After two decades of logging ancient redwoods and shipping the profits to Texas, the owners of Pacific Lumber are simply trying to cut as much ancient forest as possible before they lose control of the company. In the last hours of their bankruptcy, PL has submitted six THP's proposing to log mature and old growth forest.

If we allow Railcar to be logged, the cumulative impact will be disastrous. Because Railcar's units remove most of the forest that was left by a past THP ("Bridge 02"), the net result would leave more than half of Pacific Company lands in Bridge Creek in recent clearcuts. This is far over thresholds for maintaining watershed function for threatened fish and wildlife.

Public comment closes on Railcar on Tuesday, April 1st. Please help protect our state park and redwood forests: write to CalFIRE immediately. Please take a moment to write a public comment that will automatically be sent to: santarosapubliccomment@fire.ca.gov.