TESTIMONY OF JOHN CAMPBELL

Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appreciate the 
opportunity to appear before you and make this statement.
	At this point, Mr. Chairman, I would like to talk briefly about Pacific 
Lumber Co.'s timber harvesting policies, which have been mentioned in the 
press.
	Pacific Lumber Co. was recently informed by one of the Nation's leading 
forestry consulting firms, Hammon, Jensen, Wallen & Associates, Inc., 
about the effects of Pacific's present harvesting policies on its 
timberlands.
	Hammon, Jensen also made certain comparisons between Pacific Lumber's 
policies and those generally practiced in the industry. In brief, Hammon, 
Jensen & Wallen told us that:
	If Pacific Lumber maintains its current timber harvesting policies for 
20 years, the company's timberlands will still support a substantial 
timber inventory of old growth redwoods and Douglas fir.
	If Pacific Lumber then reduces its harvest to premerger levels, it may 
thereafter maintain a continuous yield of timber in perpetuity. Pacific's 
long run sustained yield harvest level is 216 million board feet per 
year, which is 58 percent above the premerger harvest level.
	Prior to the merger with MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber's harvests as a percent 
of inventory were considerably below the industry average. Pacific 
Lumber's current, increased harvest levels are now within the lumber 
industry norm.
	Pacific Lumber's timber harvesting practices are somewhat conservative 
compared to other timberland owners in California, particularly 
concerning clearcutting.
	Some of Pacific Lumber's current timber harvesting policies have been 
attributed to the merger with MAXXAM. In fact, Pacific Lumber's Board of 
Directors decided to harvest old growth redwoods and resume clearcutting 
before the announcement of MAXXAM's tender offer, on the recommendations 
of Pacific's inhouse forestry experts.
	Clearcutting is one of the logging systems of choice in sustained yield 
forestry. Indeed, the U.S. Forest Service itself uses clearcutting for 
roughly one-third of all of its harvesting.
	As the State of California has stated in court papers, ³a single entry 
clearcut will result in less erosion than multiple-entry partial cuts.² 
It facilitates reforestation, either by planting seedlings or natural 
regeneration, by encouraging rapid growth through ample sunlight, 
moisture and soil nutrients.
	This is especially important for Douglas fir, which are routinely 
clearcut because of their intolerance to shade and their low wind 
resistance if left standing alone. Once a parcel has been clearcut, it 
can be left undisturbed by more logging activity or road building‹²put to 
bed², in lumbermen's parlance-for 40 to 50 years or longer. In fact, 
Pacific Lumber practiced clearcutting from its inception until the 
1950's.
	The alternative to clearcutting, ³selective harvesting², practiced by 
Pacific Lumber from the 1950's until the early 1980's, has been applauded 
by conservationists, not so much because it minimizes logging, but 
largely because it tends to camouflage the results.
	However, it is not appropriate for all harvesting needs. With an 
exclusive reliance on selective harvesting, all of the old growth trees 
would eventually become ³residuals² scattered in small stands over a wide 
area. 
	This would not only make them increasingly vulnerable to wind damage, 
but also more expensive to harvest because of their wide dispersal. 
Moreover, when they were harvested, the damage to tender new growth 
between the residual trees could be excessive.
	Today, as a result of the change in policy by the premerger Board, 
Pacific Lumber uses both harvesting methods. In 1986, only 12 percent of 
the acres harvested were clearcut, amounting to four-tenths of I percent 
of Pacific's total acreage. The volume from clearcutting is expected to 
be about the same in 1987.
	It is useful to note that with all of the controversy over cutting 
virgin old growth, Pacific Lumber cut only 3 percent more virgin old 
growth redwood acreage in 1986 than prior management cut in 1985, before 
the merger.
	It is important to remember that trees are a renewable resource. As soon 
as the company harvests a timber stand, reforesting begins. Much of the 
regrowth will be natural, new redwoods sprout from the old tree stumps.
	In fact, removing the old growth redwoods, which now grow little if at 
all, will allow the land on which they stand to regenerate forests of 
faster growing new trees. In addition, there will be massive replanting.
	In 1987 alone, Pacific Lumber will plant 750,000 seedlings at a cost to 
the company of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some 500,000 of these 
potential new trees will be redwoods. As a result, new forests will be 
growing where the old growth stood to renew the company's basic resource.

	Pacific's compliance with the California timber harvest laws is equally 
significant. The California Forest Practice Act and the regulations 
adopted thereunder exist to protect California's timberlands. Each time 
that Pacific Lumber proposes to harvest a single timber stand, it must 
submit to the State Department of Forestry and Fire a detailed, written 
harvesting plan that is certified by a registered professional forester.
	The government regulators, in a multidisciplinary review including 
representatives of both the State¹s Fish and Game and Water Quality 
Departments, scrutinize the plan to ensure that potentially adverse 
environmental impacts will be mitigated.
	If, after the government review, which includes consideration of public 
comments from the time a plan is filed until it goes through two stages 
of review, the plan is approved, the plan is then subjected to a further 
30-day appeal process.
	Since the merger, all of Pacific Lumber's harvesting plans have been 
subjected to precisely this program of rigorous review. The company has 
not cut a single tree without the prior approval of the State.
	Finally, I would point out that Pacific Lumber has, over the past 50 
years, conveyed to the State of California some 20,000 acres of land, 
including old growth forests, other environmentally sensitive areas, and 
valuable wetlands.
	Examples of this corporate responsibility include: The Avenue of the 
Giants, Bull Creek, Rockefeller Forest, Fern Canyon, Gold Bluffs and the 
Prairie Creek State Park. As recently as 1986, after the MAXXAM merger, 
Pacific Lumber conveyed to the State another parcel of 72 acres adjacent 
to the Rockefeller Forest, with a financial contribution by the Save the 
Redwoods League.
	In sum, Pacific Lumber's coastal redwoods are a precious and unique 
natural resource. Unlike other such resources, however, timber is 
renewable and it responds well to proper management. This is precisely so 
for Pacific Lumber's redwoods, which grow quickly and regenerate 
themselves naturally.
	Pacific Lumber is deeply committed both to the people of the North Coast 
of California and to our longstanding policy of prudent forest 
management. We expect that, through this commitment, Pacific Lumber's 
next century of timber cultivation will be as productive, successful and 
beneficial to the public as was our first.
	Mr. Chairman, thank you.
	Mr. DINGELL. Thank you, sir.