By Greg King – Earth First! Journal, August 1, 1987
The Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO or P-L), in Humboldt County, California, currently faces immense legal, social, and direct-action challenges to its attempted liquidation of the world’s largest private holdings of old growth Redwood forest. These challenges have created the most fervent environmental battle in the history of northern California.
The illegal buyout last year of Pacific Lumber by Houston-based Maxxam Corporation—controlled by billionaire Charles Hurwitz—and its subsequent accelerated clearcutting of the last de facto Redwood wilderness, have met intense challenges. These include: national and local direct actions, most recent being the de flagging of a proposed logging road designed to cut through the 3000-acre Headwater Forest, perhaps the world’s largest unprotected contiguous virgin Redwood stand; four lawsuits challenging the legality of the takeover and a fifth accusing Maxxam and the California Department of Forestry (CDF) of submitting and approving illegal timber harvest plans (THPs); the State Department of Fish and Game’s recent condemnation of PALCO’s old growth clearcuts; investigations by the US Attorney’s office and the Securities and Exchange Commission; state legislation that may hinder Maxxam’s accelerated clearcutting; and official denunciation of corporate forest liquidations from the International Woodworkers of America (see next chapter).
Ecoteurs Deflag Route Of Road Proposed For Virgin Redwood Forest:
Creating perhaps a week’s employment while illustrating the destructive of Maxxam’s plans, three ecoteurs in June deflagged five miles of proposed road through Headwaters Forest, 10 miles southeast of Eureka. The flags, said Humboldt County resident Calm Post, began at the end of a road near the highest point (1,700 feet elevation) of the Little South Fork of the Elk River, wound through the southern portion of a proposed P-L 124-acre clearcut (THP #1-87-240), ran northwest into the northern half of THP #240; then wound along Little South Fork’s northeastern ridge into the heart of the forest, where there are presently no proposed logging plans. The road then forked, heading north into the high ridges, and southwest toward the Little South Fork drainage. Post stated that, although the flagging ended before reaching the stream, the watercourse itself was flagged (either for road culverts or to mark the requisite yet meaningless “stream protection zone”) far beyond the boundaries of any THP.
Humboldt County Earth First!ers christened Headwaters Forest this year for its unique location at the highest points of Salmon Creek and Little South Fork. The latter drainage may be the only existing Redwood stream with totally intact headwaters and virgin Redwood ridges flanking both sides. Two P-L logging plans—THPs 240 and 241—this year proposed clearcutting 265 acres of Headwaters Forest. These plans currently are stalled in litigation.
The deflagging is but one of the many direct actions recently aimed at Maxxam. Since October last year, P-L and Maxxam have faced demonstrations at corporate offices in San Francisco, Santa Monica, Marin County, Houston, New York, and Scotia (the companyowned P-L mill town). Recently EF! demonstrated at a State Board of Forestry meeting in Eureka and at CDF’s Coast Forest District Headquarters in Santa Rosa. On May 18, EF! hosted its National Day of Direct Action to stop Maxxam’s clearcutting (Chapter 16)
These EF! actions have generated extensive media coverage. UPI and AP reports have appeared around the world. Major newspapers and TV networks have coveted the story.
Recent unverified reports of monkeywrenching against Maxxam, however, have not been covered by the media. Reported actions include: stuffing epoxy into padlock keyholes on gates a-cross logging roads, damage to machinery in the forest and in mills (sources say vandalism against the company often is perpetrated by disgruntled employees), and purposeful work slow-downs by mill workers. There have not been reports of spiking of P-L trees.
Internal actions against the company have resulted from Maxxam’s changes of P-L policies. Employees face increased work hours and reported shirking on overtime pay, a gutted $60 million pension fund that now rests in Hurwitz’ pocket, a 25% rent increase for housing in Scotia, etc.
Maxxam Attorney Admits State Agency Violated Logging Laws
Five civil suits are now pending against Pacific Lumber and its former board of directors, the California Department of Forestry, Maxxam, and various businesses and individuals associated with the takeover and the accelerated logging. The most vital suit is that brought by the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) in Garberville. The EPIC suit charges PL, CDF, and Maxxam with violating the State Forest Practice Act (the Act), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Federal Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, the State Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, and the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the California and US Constitutions.
EPIC’s suit contests approval of three P-L clearcuts of virgin old growth. Two of these timber harvest plans would take 265 acres from Headwaters Forest; the other THP would clearcut 111 acres of the last virgin forest on the Mattole River, a stream now undergoing extensive restoration due to past clearcutting. This is the first lawsuit directed at Maxxam’s accelerated logging, and the fourth challenging CDF’s “rubberstamp” approval process. (In 1985, prior to the take-over, P-L received CDF approval to selectively cut 5,000 acres; last year, after the takeover, CDF approved nearly 11,000 acres of P-L clearcutting, 10,000 acres of which old growth.)
On July 1, during the first preliminary hearing for this lawsuit, P-L attorney Jared Carter said that “there is an error in the manner in which 230 was handled,” and that THP 240 “was incomplete in a material way…The THPs should have been denied” by CDF.
PL’s admission of illegalities appeared to be a tactical move to remove 230 and 240 from the lawsuit. The company submitted a writ that agreed to an injunction to stop logging until CDF received amendments for the plans that P-L contends would bring them into compliance with state legislation.
The EPIC suit also contests the THP process administered by CDF. “The process,” says EPIC attorney Jay Molder, “is so unfair, insipid and irrelevant that it violates EPIC’s constitutional due process rights [and] the California Environmental Quality Act…The Forest Practices Rules and Regulations…have been amended and altered to an extent which now renders [their] certification a nullity…EPIC contends the last ten years of amendments at the behest of the timber industry has finally rendered the THP process a bad joke.
In addition to the EPIC challenges, Maxxam currently faces four suits brought by former stockholders. They claim that Charles Hurwitz (Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer for Maxxam) and Maxxam and its parent company, MCO, swindled stockholders with an unfair purchase price for the company.
State Wildlife Expert Condemns P-L Clearcutting
During a recent CDF review team meeting for the three P-L clearcuts under litigation, California Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist John Hummel blasted Maxxam and P-L for eliminating wildlife species associated with old growth stands, and criticized CDF’s contentions that clearcutting old growth will “improve wildlife.” Hummel noted that some mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, and non-aquatic species depend on old growth. “If their habitat is taken away from them you’re going to lose a significant number of the population of certain species. They don’t have the ability to move from one spot to another unless the habitat is the same.”
North Coast old growth forests sustain the Bald and Golden Eagles, Osprey, Red Mountain Vole, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, Black Bear, Marbled Murrelet, and rare amphibians and plants.
Following CDF’s example, P-L this year began adding a disclaimer to its old growth clearcut THPs: “Transition from old-growth to young-growth provides beneficial environmental effects (1) Increased wildlife habitat and carrying capacity. (2) Increased wildlife species diversification…” Hummel attacked these statements.
“Once you reduce that stand down to ground level, whatever the population and diversity of species that existed there before are not going to be there,” he said. “The species that are…keenly associated with old-growth stands are going to be absent.”
Proposed Law May Hinder P-L Clearcutting
State Senator Barry Keene recently submitted a bill (SB 1641) that proponents say will slow P-L’s logging. The bill would place a 20% limit, based on a three-year average, on yearly logging increases for anyone watershed. Big Timber opposes the bill, yet some environmentalists also oppose it, contending the bill’s weak wording and its stipulation that the CDF Director may exempt THPs from the mandate have rendered the legislation to meaningless. Keene introduced the bill specifically to slow P-L’s clearcutting, but he says it also is designed to discourage corporate takeovers and liquidation of California timber companies and their forests.
North Coast California Earth First! says Keene’s legislation—which also would increase penalties for tree-spiking—”is incomplete without amendments establishing as felonies violations of the California Forest Practice Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, among other state and federal statutes with authority over logging.” EF!’s proposed amendment says, “Corporate timber interests and the CDF routinely violate CEQA and the Act, forcing local residents to enforce these laws via costly civil suits, such as that recently filed by EPIC. Although CDF regularly overlooks, even aids, corporate logging violations, the state agency will occasionally issue citations. These wrist slaps result in minuscule fines and never bring jail sentences. Meanwhile, fragile coast ecosystems are suffering irreparable damage.” EF!er Darryl Cherney recommended that first-time felony violators of CEQA or the Act be permitted to pay their debts to society via community service work, such as stream restoration or reforestation projects.
US Attorney’s Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission Investigate Maxxam Takeover
Two federal agencies are probing the Maxxam takeover of P-L. Although neither the SEC nor the Attorney’s office will disclose information about their queries, it is known that of particular interest to the feds is the Drexel Burnham Lamberti / Ivan Boesky / Maxxam connection.
Boesky, who recently admitted to illegal insider stock trading that earned him millions of dollars, bought $40 million—or 5%—of P-L stock three days prior to the takeover. Boesky’s purchase was allegedly designed to hold this stock for Hurwitz. As Humboldt attorney Bill Bertain details in his lawsuit on behalf of former stockholders against Maxxam, Hurwitz was anxious to buy up P-L stock, yet he did not want to own as much as 5% prior to his takeover bid, due to a P-L antitakeover provision prohibiting a merger into an entity already controlling 5% or more of P-L shares unless 80% of P-L shares voted for the merger. Maxxam would not have gained 80% approval.
Woodworker Union Opposes Maxxam Liquidation
Fifteen years ago, during the fight to expand Redwood National Park, loggers, mill workers, and truck drivers drove in a caravan to Washington, DC, to show opposition to the expansion. Today these same laborers, represented by the International Woodworkers of America, have come out against corporate cutand-run logging, specifically that of Maxxam.
Referring to the takeover of Pacific Lumber, IWA Local #3-469 representative Donald Nelson said, “We are very much opposed to that kind of takeover, specifically that one [Maxxam’s] because of the damage it causes to the whole industry.” Nelson recently released a statement condemning P-L’s clearcutting.
Conclusions: Some of the challenges now facing Maxxam have slowed and could further curtail clearcutting. Letters to CDF that have pointed out THP illegalities have forced P-L to withdraw or substantially alter many timber harvest plans. Earth First! direct actions have greatly increased public outcry against the clearcutting. The EPIC lawsuit has stopped, at least temporarily, three clearcuts. The deflagging and other forms of ecotage have slowed logging while inspiring others to take their own initiative.
But the question remains: What will it take to save these last vestiges of virgin Redwood forests? A local EF!er, contemplating the lack of state and federal legislative action toward accomplishing the preservation, recently voiced his solution to the crisis: “If thousands of people from throughout the US came to Humboldt County and took turns blockading every PALCO logging road, we could save these forests.”[1]
Epilogue 1: Question: How does an EF!er, surrounded by P-L security while trespassing on a controversial logging site, avoid arrest? Answer: Take a CBS News crew along. On July 6, CBS News correspondents, camera technicians, and I visited the 47-acre clearcut of virgin Redwood at All Species Grove. Scarred by tractors and trashed with slash, the area looked nuked. The film crew had a field day.
After filming an interview in front of a 15-foot diameter stump, we walked through the moonscape. We felt alone. Until, that is, four shotgun blasts sounded from the north border of the clearcut. I attributed the intrusion to a rancher getting his rocks off, and we continued our work. Fifteen minutes later I saw two flashes of light from a ridge high above. I suspected the sun’s reflection off binoculars, and began to worry. I then spied a vehicle traveling slowly along the road. I asked the cameraman to zoom in and see if it was pick-up truck: P-L security drives only large white pick-ups. “It’s a white pickup,” he said.
We packed our gear for the exodus. Suddenly, four more shotgun blasts sounded from the south. Through his lens the cameraman saw a pick-up parked at the south edge of the clearcut. A fast exit was necessary, but quickly reaching the crew’s rented Lincoln Continental a mile away was not feasible. I expected arrest, but consoled myself with the realization that it would probably air nationally. This seemed to be P-L’s thought also, for we escaped unencumbered. I later called P-L chief forester Bob Stephens to see if he knew of the incident. He did not, and seemed angry that I would “make such…charges.” P-L public relations flack Dave Galitz also had not heard of the shooting. “Our guys don’t carry any weapons of that sort.”
So I wonder who was shooting at us.
Epilogue 2: In a recent deposition filed for the current lawsuit against Maxxam, P-L forester Bob Stephens for the first time revealed the company’s forest holdings. The most significant revelation was that the company owns 16,069 acres of virgin forest, 11,000 more than that estimated by Earth First!. Of the 16,069 virgin acres, 8,000 is in a contiguous block, in the Headwaters Forest area—making the “new” Headwaters Forest the world’s largest unprotected contiguous virgin Redwood stand. P-L also owns 56,207 acres of “residual” old growth forest, tracts with up to 50% of the old growth trees left during the company’s days of selective cutting. Combined, this acreage nearly equals the 76,000 acres of old growth preserved in all California Redwood parks. This acreage represents crucial habitat islands between Redwood National Park and Humboldt Redwoods State Park, 40 miles apart. PL’s liquidation of its old growth could eliminate many rare wildlife species dependent on these connecting islands for migration and habitat.
[1] Beginning in 1995 and each year after, the coalition to save Headwaters (which included Earth First!) was able to organize 1,000s of demonstrators each fall.