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| Pacific Lumber Recalcitrant As Humboldt Court Orders Halt to Logging Permitted Under Headwaters Deal For Immediate Release - Contact: Karen Pickett, Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters 510-548-3113 Pacific Lumber on Friday appeared to thumb its corporate nose at a court order halting logging on its 211,000-acre holdings. It is not known whether crews continued logging over the holiday weekend, but protesters and litigants are poised to challenge them when the business week resumes. Late on Thursday August 29, California Superior Court judge John Golden ordered a halt to all logging operations by PL after three years of delays by permitting agencies in a case brought by environmental groups challenging the PL Habitat Conservation Plan/Sustained Yield Plan (HCP/SYP) that was part of the Headwaters deal in 1999. Because irreversible damage would be done to wildlife, the environment and public trust resources before the merits of the case could be heard, Judge Golden found that harm to the public was potentially at hand and ordered all parties to the legal proceedings to halt all activity carried out under several permits, including Incidental Take Permits (ITP), 1603 permits and PL's Sustained Yield Plan (SYP). Golden ruled "The stay is issued for the protection of the public interests." An ITP is essentially a permit to kill endangered species, and issuance was part of PL's Habitat Conservation Plan, part of the Headwaters Deal in 1999, of which the SYP was part as well. 1603 permits are issued for streambed alteration and stream crossings. The delay stems from state agencies' failure to provide a complete administrative record for the court, which the plaintiffs need to proceed with the case. The case was filed by the Environmental Protection Information Center and the Sierra Club. Though the order clearly suspends all logging operations being carried out under these permits, stating that "no party to this proceeding shall take any action whose validity depends upon the validity of" these permits until "further order of the court," PL maintains they have a different interpretation of the court's ruling that allows them to proceed with logging plans that have been approved by the California Dept. of Forestry, one of the agencies responsible for delays in the case. PL continued logging operations on Friday after the stay was issued. Another party to the SYP case is the United Steelworkers of America union. They responded with a concern about economic sustainability, which the SYP must address as well. David Foster, USWA Distr. 11 Director said, "Irreparable harm could be done to the long-term economic viability of communities through PL's logging practices if proper legal safeguards ...were not observed. Our union has long believed that there is a direct connection between sound environmental practices and sustainable economies that produce good paying jobs over the long term. Laying waste to the environment inevitably leaves ravaged communities alongside a ravaged landscape." Contract logging crews hired by Pacific Lumber have been operating at a break neck pace in several areas, including the Mattole River watershed, where helicopters are hauling old growth trees off of steep slopes, and in the Freshwater watershed, south of Arcata, where there are two tree-sitters, one who just completed her fifth month in the tree. Forest defenders say they will monitor logging activity vigilantly particularly in relation to this court order, and are prepared to present crews in the woods with the court order if necessary, if logging takes place on Tuesday. ###  << Back to Press Release Archive | Latest Press Release | Newsroom | | 
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