Despite recent reports of a dead deal, the Headwaters Forest deal was completed through last-minute closed-door negotiations yesterday between state and federal officials and the Pacific Lumber Company and Charles Hurwitz. The final agreement allows the company to log 178 million board-feet of timber per year. Previous estimates derived from an analysis of the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) had placed that figure at 136 million board feet per year.

This concession to the company combined with the weak logging restrictions of the HCP left many environmental groups extremely skeptical. Serious flaws remain in the agreement despite the state's insistence on restrictions which the company had deemed unacceptable but then accepted in the end. These flaws include the following:

• the allowance of logging of thousands of acres of ancient and residual old-growth forest, which comprises habitat for many endangered species, including the marbled murrelet, the northern spotted owl, the coho salmon, and the steelhead trout;
• loopholes in the watershed assessment process allowing the company to revise stream buffers which would reduce protection after three years;
• the allowance of logging on steep, unstable slopes, creating a serious risk of landslides and damage to downstream human communities;
• the substantial risk of extinction of the coho salmon in the region, according to noted scientists, due to  logging in sensitive riparian buffers;
• the possible harvesting of the ancient tree Luna, occupied by Julia Butterfly for over 14 months, and the surrounding steep hillside adjacent to the landslide that wiped out 7 homes in Stafford in January, 1997;
• the locking-in of these and other weak provisions through a "no surprises" clause for the term of the 50-year Incidental Take Permit; and
• the rewarding of a criminal corporation for its destructive behavior by paying a grossly excessive amount of money, $480 million, for ancient groves
• that should be off-limits to logging through existing laws.

Many environmental groups, including the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, have long opposed the deal, fearing the deal's likely effect of causing the extinction of the coho salmon in the region as well as the destruction of thousands of acres of ancient and residual old-growth forest that provide habitat for endangered species including the marbled murrelet and the northern spotted owl.

"Headwaters Forest is NOT saved by this deal, and we're not going away until the entire Headwaters Forest ecosystem is permanently and irrevocably protected," said Sam Johnston, an activist with the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters.

BACH  / Ecology Center
2530 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley CA 94702
bach@igc.org