Please Comment: Endangered Habitat On the Chopping Block

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June 27, 2005
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Please Comment: Endangered Habitat On the Chopping Block
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** Please contact California Department of Forestry (CDF). Deadline is July 8 **

Charles Hurwitz's Maxxam / Pacific Lumber Co. is at it again - this time trying to liquidate as much old-growth forest as it can in anticipation of filing for bankruptcy, which it has been threatening for months. Recently prevented by the State Water Quality Control Board from logging his desired volume of trees in the Elk River and Freshwater Creek watersheds, Hurwitz is now turning to the damaged Eel River watershed, looking for quick cash at the expense of the redwood forest.

The so-called "BONANZA" Timber Harvest Plan (THP) # 1-05-097, in the Dean Creek and Nanning Creek watersheds, would log significant and critical old-growth forest and landslide-prone areas, as well as destroy habitat for many sensitive, threatened and endangered species including the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and coho and chinook salmon. Nanning Creek is a tributary of the Eel River, which is already listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act Section 303(d). Maxxam / PL proposes to log in this very sensitive area, even as the company has been battling with the state Water Quality Control Boards over their damaging, sediment-producing harvesting practices (such as clearcutting) that Hurwitz refuses to give up.

Marbled murrelet scientists have identified this area as a priority habitat for the critically threatened seabird. Yet this THP will enable the harvest of old-growth redwoods currently occupied by nesting murrelets!

At 249 acres, adjacent to already clearcut forest, and impacting just about every sensitive ecological resource in the area, the "Bonanza" THP would unquestionably do permanent damage to an area whose recovery is crucial to the Headwaters Forest ecosystem as a whole. This is part of Hurwitz's "end game" for Pacific Lumber. He must not be allowed to rip out precious and irreplaceable old-growth forest while further degrading water quality on his way out of Humboldt County.

MAXXAM / PL'S ILLEGAL LOGGING SPREE MUST STOP!

**Tell CDF to DENY APPROVAL for the "Bonanza" THP 1-05-097 HUM**
The comment period on this THP closes July 8.

POINTS TO MENTION:
- Please disapprove THP 1-05-097 HUM.
- Maxxam / PL's unsustainably high rate of harvest is the cause of the company's current situation. As Maxxam / PL has depleted the resource base in its "boom and bust" management style, watershed activists and scientists have been predicting the current situation for years.
-PL must not be rewarded for their extortion tactics and threats of bankruptcy by receiving special treatment that would result in severe damage to public resources. CDF and other state agencies are legally responsible for protecting those public trust resources.
- Granting this THP will not save the economy and jobs in the long run - only sustainable logging can do that.
-The critical habitat of threatened species is not a renewable resource, but is irreplaceable.

WRITE TO:
Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection
135 Ridgeway Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401
*ATT: Forest Practice
Include in your letter: "Re: THP 1-05-097 HUM"
Be respectful but firm, and as succinct as you can.

You may also fax comments to (707) 576-2608 or email them to santarosapubliccomments@fire.ca.gov

Thank You!



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