Water Board OKs Fifty Percent of PL's Logging in Disputed Watersheds

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BACHsters:
This piece, written by Remedy, covers the decision made yesterday by the Water Board regarding the contentious timber harvest plans that Maxxam/PL has been trying to get approved by threatening bankruptcy (see previous BACH alerts). Your BACH rep attended the hearing in Eureka Feb. 23 when both PL and the watershed residents presented their arguments to the Water Quality agency, just before the executive officer made her decision. I will give a more detailed update on that hearing and related issues at the next BACH meeting (Thurs. March 10, 7 pm at the Rockridge Library in Oakland). Press coverage of the decision follows Remedy's excellent summary.


Water Board Gives Green Light for Logging in Freshwater and Elk
by Remedy Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005


Despite lack of facts, the Water Quality Board ok's more logging above Freshwater Creek and Elk River.

Eureka, CA - Maxxam/Pacific Lumber will be allowed to clear-cut more steep hillsides in the blighted Freshwater and Elk River watersheds, the Regional Water board decided Friday. The decision flies in the face of independent scientific data that shows logging by Maxxam/PL is causing permanent damage to the two Northern California areas that are listed as sediment impaired under the Clean Water Act.

"At this point I am prepared to approve timber harvest plans that will allow Pacific Lumber Company to harvest up to 50 percent of the annual harvest limit set by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for these watersheds," said Catherine Kuhlman, the North Coast Regional Water Board's Executive Officer in a press release. "Staff inspections this week have assured me that excess sediment will not run off from those operations."

Residents of the two damaged watersheds question how the Board could have come to that conclusion when they don't have PL's coveted landslide data. While acknowledging that 50% is better than 100%, or even 80%, "the decision is nonetheless arbitrary and improper, as it is made in the absence of the necessary landslide data," said Humboldt Watershed Council president Mark Lovelace. "Without this data that PL has been refusing to provide, the Regional Board simply cannot make a qualified decision,"

The timber corporation is also unhappy according to a press release, which said it is "very disappointed" in the decision that did not give it 100% of its logging plans. It went on to say PL will continue to work to convince the Water Board to release all the trees they intend to cut.

In negotiations with the Water Board, PL offered to remove sediment from the clogged rivers and creeks, possibly with the assistance of the California Conservation Corps, a tax-payer funded program. Local residents scoffed at such a prospect, saying it is more of PL's attempts to externalize costs of the damage created by their lucrative pillaging of the land.


It's not yet clear which plans will be cut, though four plans released under "interim" permits last December will be included in the 50%. Those plans have already been cut. Included in the possible Freshwater plans is the McCready-Cloney harvest plan, where the ancient redwoods known as "Jerry" and "Everlasting Life" still stand. In the spring of 2003, more than 40 people were arrested in protest of PL's logging of that area, which is on steep slopes above Freshwater and McCready Creeks. Jerry has been occupied by treesitter "Willow" since November 11, 2003.


Holding PL to 50% of their allotted annual logging in the two watersheds is "some progress," said watershed restoration expert Richard Gienger. "We're culturally trying to turn over to a standard of recovery, not maintain the damage," which is all the acreage limits imposed by CDF do. By the time the limits were imposed in 1999, logging by PL had already caused numerous landslides and flooding that prompted lawsuits by affected residents.


The fifteen or so logging plans that have been the focus these last few months only account for PL's intended logging in the first quarter of the year.
www.contrast.org/treesit
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http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2734079,00.html

Water Official Offers Slashed Harvest To PL

By John Driscoll The Times-Standard

Regional water officials split the baby Friday, deciding to permit half of the Pacific Lumber Co.'s plans to log in Freshwater Creek and Elk River.=

The decision, which follows Palco's warnings of looming bankruptcy and a heated public workshop Wednesday, was not favorably viewed by the company or residents of the watersheds who say they've been flooded out, seen property damage and been endangered because of the company's logging practices.

Palco had applied for permits to log on 1,100 acres over the two watersheds. The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board's executive officer, Catherine Kuhlman, said she's prepared to approve half of that figure -- which is half the yearly limit set by the California Department of Forestry.

"Staff inspections this week have assured me that excess sediment will not run off from those operations," Kuhlman said in a statement.
The Times-Standard could not reach Kuhlman late in the day Friday to ask how she arrived at her decision.

Palco voiced disapproval at Kuhlman's ruling and said it will continue to negotiate with the board to gain more permits. The company said it was also disappointing that Kuhlman did not entertain its suggestions to build flood walls, clear creek beds and channels to quickly alleviate flooding or provide drinking water to residents whose water supplies have been fouled.

"We are not prepared at this time to comment on how the water board's action will financially impact the company," said Chuck Center, Palco's government relations director. Humboldt Watershed Council President Mark Lovelace said he was extremely disappointed in the decision.
"At this point, we're looking at our options," he said.

The water board staff, Lovelace said, did not have the information it needed on landslides to guide the decision-making process, a critical component in determining how logging would continue to affect the streams. In the end, he said, the figure Kuhlman approved was not credible.=

Whether the amount of logging cleared by the board staff will keep Palco solvent is yet to be seen. Palco had previously claimed it needed most or all of its plans to keep mills open and make debt payments. The water board said it will hear Palco's request for more logging plan approvals at its March 16 meeting in Santa Rosa.

The company's claims of nearing bankruptcy have had investors on edge. Some analysts are not sure it would be the worst thing for the highly leveraged company. Kevin Starke, an analyst for Imperial Capital in Beverly Hills, which represents some of the company's bond holders, said reorganization could allow the company to shed its huge debt and then subsist on a lower level of harvest. "There are obviously valuable assets here," Starke said, speaking of the timber held by Scotia Pacific. "The question is, do they yield enough timber for debt service?"

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=3D/c/a/2005/02/26/BAGA7BH98O1.DTL
NORTH COAST
Firm's Logging Rights Restricted
Water Board Cuts Pacific Lumber's Request By Half

Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer
Saturday, February 26, 2005

Pacific Lumber Co. was given permission Friday to harvest about half the timber the company wants to log on its North Coast lands in the coming year. But environmentalists said even that would be too much, predicting catastrophic landslides.

Catherine Kuhlman, executive officer of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, granted the Humboldt County company rights to log about 250 acres on the Freshwater Creek drainage and 300 acres on the Elk River drainage. That represents 50 percent of the allowable logging limits set by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Robert Klamt, the acting chief of the timber harvest division of the water quality board.

The board is responsible for approving timber harvest plans on private land in areas where water quality may be compromised by siltation or landslides. Klamt said officials based the decision on studies of logging's impact on watershed protection and recovery goals. "Our staff has spent the last two days up there examining the company's erosion control efforts," he said.

Pacific Lumber spokesman Chuck Center said he was "disappointed by the board's decision," but said the company still hopes to improve the terms. "We'll continue to work with them," Center said. "We've made offers and proposals to fix the flooding and will continue to do that."

Company critics argued the water agency didn't take enough account of the landslide risk. Mark Lovelace, the president of the Humboldt Watershed Council, said the decision "was not as bad as it could have been, but it was arbitrary and based on inadequate science."

The water quality board "only considered sediment from surface sources, like roads," he said. "They didn't take into consideration sedimentation from landslides, which are the major problems on these drainages." Both the Freshwater Creek and Elk River drainages have suffered from landslides and heavy flooding since Pacific Lumber and its lands were purchased by Maxxam Corp. in 1985, and logging was greatly increased.

Environmentalists charge that the slides, floods and siltation are directly linked to the increased timber harvest. Pacific Lumber maintains the problems are the legacy of logging practices of the past.

Recently, Pacific Lumber executives said the company was on the verge of bankruptcy because of strictures enforced through a 1999 agreement involving the transfer of the 7,500-acre, old-growth Headwaters Forest for $480 million. As part of that deal, the company agreed to a "habitat conservation plan" that limits logging on its remaining 200,000 acres of land.

In recent years, the company has claimed financial losses ranging from about $30 million to $100 million annually. It has closed three mills and laid off about half of its 1,700-member workforce. Officials say the approval of 11 pending timber harvest plans for Freshwater Creek and Elk River are essential for company solvency, but those plans have been held up by the water quality board's concern about further erosion. Center said he wasn't prepared Friday to talk about the specific financial impact of the water board's latest ruling. Sheryl Schaffner, the legal counsel for the water quality board, said the agency was still considering other proposals by the company that could lead to increased logging in the two drainages.

"These proposals include things such as dredging the streams to reduce flooding potential and improving bridges to allow better evacuation in case there is flooding," Schaffner said. "We won't know if these plans are acceptable until we look at them closely."

The board will consider the proposals at a meeting scheduled for March 16 in Santa Rosa, Schaffner said.
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