The Pacific Lumber Co.'s chief nemesis has sued the timber company not just for cutting big old trees, but for logging very young trees -- evidence, the environmental group says, that Palco is over cutting its land.

The Environmental Protection Information Center on Thursday filed suit in Humboldt County Superior Court, claiming a slate of timber plans and a 100-year management plan were approved by the state without public notice or environmental review.

The plans are filed for the Van Duzen watershed, heavily logged in recent years. Most of them call for logging trees as young as 35 years, while others aim to log old-growth redwoods next to Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

In the past five years, Palco has logged more than a quarter of its 24,000 acres in the watershed. The plans it has submitted are to log on another 2,500 acres.

Palco refused to comment for this report, and state officials did not return the Times-Standard's phone calls.

The suit claims the California Department of Forestry and Palco breached the state Forest Practices Act and Environmental Quality Act.

"They're so desperate now they're going out and clearcutting 35-year-old trees," said Cynthia Elkins of EPIC. "They've clearly logged too much, too fast."

Most timber companies don't begin cutting stands until they are 50 years or older, with some exceptions. The California Board of Forestry, however, approved of Palco's program to cut younger trees.

EPIC also sued Palco in federal district court in San Francisco this week, claiming federal agencies should have reexamined Palco's Habitat Conservation Plan after a slew of state and federal violations, and since new information on protected marbled murrelets and salmon now exists.

The environmental group also says those violations show Palco's advertising campaign -- which touts the company as operating sustainably -- is bunk.

Palco is certified with Sustainable Forestry International, an industry led group that heralds an intensive review program. Nearly all major timber companies on the West Coast are also listed as sustainable under SFI's terms.

Environmentalists say SFI's program doesn't come close to promoting the standards of more strict sustainable labels.