EPIC's report, Setting the Record Straight, includes a 40-page summary of all the violations. Several disturbing patterns and trends stand out. In a staggering number of cases, Maxxam/PL illegally cut trees in riparian areas by "misclassifying" streams (thereby giving the streams smaller buffer zones than required) or by simply cutting over the boundary line.
By no coincidence, many of these violations involved logging very large, old growth trees, including redwoods up to nearly nine feet in diameter. Countless other violations caused serious harm to fish and wildlife, with impacts that will take millenniums to heal.
Blaming the Messenger
It took Maxxam/PL a full week to respond, and there were no surprises when it did. In a repeat of six years ago, Maxxam/PL fired shots at EPIC, claiming our report "intentionally manipulates official statistics in order to distort the facts." But its response provided nothing to back this assertion.In a written statement, Maxxam/PL stated that the majority of its violations (227 of 325, or 64%), were issued as reports of "non-compliance" of its Habitat Conservation Plan, declaring that these do not qualify as actual "violations." Its response states, "[Maxxam/PL] and the agencies consider state violations [of the Forest Practice Rules] to be significant because they usually involve some impact on the environment...on the other hand...Noncompliance reports are most often errors with little to no environmental effect...."
Flashback
Maxxam/PL responded in a similar manner in 1997, when another EPIC investigation uncovered hundreds of violations of the Forest Practice Rules (FPRs) that were issued to the company in the previous three years. There is one startling difference, however, in that Maxxam/PL now acknowledges that FPR violations can harm our forests, fish, and wildlife--an admission that at that time, it steadfastly refused to make.The real life impacts
Just as FPR violations can cause serious environmental harm, so can Maxxam/PL's "non-compliances" with its Habitat Conservation Plan. Indeed, an independent science panel (convened by the N. Coast Water Quality Board) issued two unanimous reports that conclude this plan is not adequate to protect water quality--finding that it allows too much logging around streams, on landslides, and during the rainy season, for example.These are exactly the provisions that Maxxam/PL has been violating--repeatedly. And if these are already too weak to protect fish, swimming holes, and drinking water, it can only follow that serious environmental damage occurred when these inadequate provisions were ignored.
Other violations include numerous instances where Maxxam/PL illegally logged old growth marbled murrelet habitat and northern spotted owl habitat. These caused very serious impacts indeed, and Maxxam/PL's attempt to trivialize its lawless acts illustrates its utter lack of regard for fish and wildlife and other public trust resources. Maxxam/PL is a corporation that has always tried to evade accountability for its actions--this response was entirely predictable.
More disturbing is the response--or rather, the lack of response--from public agencies. For five years, the Dept. of Fish and Game allowed these violations to accumulate, issuing violation after violation without taking action to prevent them--even after clear patterns had developed.
The agency did assess fines when it believed environmental damage was significant, which was a full 70% of the time. However, in all but a small number of cases, these fines were minimal, most totaling around $200--even where giant redwood trees were illegally cut. While there's no way that any dollar amount could compensate for the resulting impacts, it is obvious that in the vast majority of instances, the fines were not commensurate with the damage done, and not even close to the profit made from the violations.
Business must not be allowed to continue as usual. Maxxam/PL has operated outside the rule of law for too long, and it is time for this illegal logging to end. Agencies did nothing to inform the public of these violations when they were occurring nor have they taken preventative actions to stop them from continuing. It is looking like, once again, it will fall on the shoulders of citizens and citizen groups to ensure this reckless Texas corporation does not continue to maximize its profits at the expense of our forests, fish, and wildlife.
