As the clock sped toward a midnight deadline on March 1, state and federal negotiators huddled with Maxxam/Pacific Lumber officials in a title company office in Eureka, California, signing the documents that would transfer part of Headwaters Forest to public ownership. They also finalized the terms of a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and Sustained Yield Plan (SYP) allowing Maxxam/PL to kill endangered species and destroy habitat on the rest of its property.
The Headwaters Forest Agreement, ardently opposed by EPIC and the other conservation
groups that had defended Headwaters for over a decade, was consummated with
seven minutes to spare. The deal, a compromise from the beginning, went through
several last-minute changes and reinterpretations. Additional loopholes found
their way into the deal the week before the deadline, and proved critical
to the company's last-minute decision to take the money. A state-level "side
agreement" adopted on March 25 clarified that a few ancient groves not
slated for public acquisition would be "set aside" from logging
for a full 50 years.
However, this frenetic endgame really began last summer, when Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz restructured Pacific Lumber once again, taking on $867 million in debt secured by the timber on company property. PL's draft HCP and SYP hit the streets only a few days before the restructuring; those plans would have allowed the company to log at a rate that would pay its staggering debts.
Hurwitz made one critical mistake last summer. He assumed that state and federal agencies would entirely ignore public and scientific comment submitted last fall, which would normally be a safe assumption because few such plans are exposed to the level of public scrutiny that this plan received. The agencies, however, did improve the plan somewhat following the public comment period, temporarily prohibiting logging on steep " inner gorge" slopes, unstable areas and near seasonal streams. When the California Department of Forestry incorporated those changes into the SYP and announced its final calculations on February 26, the company realized it would not be able to log enough to make its annual $65 million debt payments.
That day, the Boards of Directors of PL and Maxxam claimed that they could not accept a deal that would leave their bondholders unpaid. Those of us familiar with the Headwaters issue, however, knew that Hurwitz had nothing to lose by threatening to reject the deal, because he knew that he could extort additional concessions from the government behind closed doors over the weekend. The government apparently didn't disappoint him.
An additional loophole was added to the HCP Implementing Agreement the day after the close of public comment: a process by which the company can propose changes at any time to logging restrictions on steep hillsides and unstable areas. Over the weekend, federal negotiators apparently promised the company that this loophole could be exploited in order to generate enough timber to service the debt Ð about 45 million board-feet per year that would be taken from such sensitive areas as active landslides, steep inner gorge slopes and the buffer zones along seasonal streams. In short, all of the gains made by the public and independent scientists in the final HCP were thrown back into question.
EPIC is now reviewing the final documents and considering the legal means we may have for closing some of these dangerous loopholes. As our long-time Programs Director, Cecelia Lanman, remarked, "It has taken ten years of litigation and protest to secure even partial protection for the marbled murrelet and the old-growth redwoods. It may take ten more years to save the salmon."
Although various politicians and some environmentalists are congratulating themselves and each other over this deal, we believe that every single ancient tree still standing today remains because of tremendous grassroots efforts on the part of caring citizens throughout California and the nation. The people who supported the hard work of litigation and protest over the last decade are truly the ones who deserve credit for whatever protection this deal provides. Although we clearly have a long way to go, at some point we must look back at the past twelve years and realize that we have come a long way already.
The journey is not over. Ancient redwood and Douglas-fir forests are still threatened, by Pacific Lumber and others. Additional large timber companies are waiting in line for their own HCPs. A new administration and legislature will have to be held to the promises they have made to reform the state's logging rules. And the knowledge we have gained throughout the Headwaters struggle must be brought to bear on forest issues throughout the North Coast and beyond. We hope we can count on your support as we continue our work to conserve the forest watersheds and threatened creatures of this beautiful place we call home.
