Nope! It ain't over, folks.
One would think that after six weeks of community uprising (three years ago) and a court challenge (which went all the way up to the California Supreme Court and resulted in a court order to the California Department of Forestry (CDF) and Louisiana Pacific (LP) to bring the plan into compliance with current forestry rules), that that would be enough to ensure some level of protection to this tiny corner of the forest.
But then CDF and LP put their heads together and talked it over.
"How," they asked, "can we comply with the court order and still not really do anything? How can we make sure that we are just within the letter of the law, but won't have to change any of your plans, LP, to CUT, CUT, CUT to your pocketbook's content?"
So - CDF studied the situation and said, "Here's how."
"Throw some paper at it. But throw the kind of paper that's called a minor amendment. That means that the public won't even know about it and can't comment on it. Or challenge it. We'll approve it. Of course."
But the people did find out and they didn't like it.
"How," they wondered, "can you do a 'cumulative impacts assessment' (that's one of the new rules) as a minor amendment? Isn't assessing the impacts of the Enchanted Meadow plan in relation to the impacts of all the past plans in the Albion and all the possible future plans in the Albion to see if, in total, there is a potential for significant adverse impacts to the environment (whew!) sort of a major undertaking? Shouldn't this at least be filed as a major amendment with public notice and public comment?"
"Oh no," says CDF. "'Cause look here: we already threw a bunch of paper at this other plan in the Albion about four years ago - that's major - and we can throw that same major stuff at this one and add a little of this and that to kind of update it - that's minor - and we're done."
But the people still couldn't go along with it.
And they did some muttering amongst themselves, talking about how many trees have already been cut in the Albion, and how the ocean was brown to the horizon after the heavy rains, and about the salmon stocks that have gone extinct, and the Coho that look like they're sure about to, and all manner of other critters who seem to be pretty stressed, like owls and hawks and warblers and such, and some that we think might be there but we haven't even found yet.
And they talked about failed logging roads and landslides and "fog drip" and "old growth" and "soil compaction" and "WLPZs" and "EHRs" and "ERAs" and "WHRs"; things that people shouldn't have to talk about - and wouldn't - if the agencies were doing their jobs. They talked some about how the Forest Advisory Committee had pretty much proved, once and for all, how depleted LP's lands were and how mills were closing right and left.
And somebody mentioned "cumulative impacts" again and somebody else explained about the interactions among all the parts and started using words like "holistic" and "synergistic", by which they probably just meant common sense. And somebody else suggested that bureaucrats, being noted linear thinkers, it being part of their job description, might not know what "cumulative" meant and, even if they did, how they had never met one they didn't like or couldn't mitigate.
So the people said some of these things to CDF - but only the polite parts.
And CDF said, "No, this is MINOR. That is our Registered Professional Opinion."
And the people, who didn't own any capital letters and had only a plain opinion, certainly not a professional one, and even less so one that registered with the government, went home. (Some of them went back to their watersheds.)
Then some of the people decided to file a lawsuit. And they did.
And the rest of the people decided to let other people - who might not have heard - know what was happening with Enchanted Meadow and that LP was going to be back this spring, and they started talking on the radio and writing letters about all these things.
And they started having meetings, both on the coast and inland, and planning the people's defense against the onslaught, and thinking about demonstrations and such. And they wrote some new songs. And made some jokes. And started having fun just because they were together.
And one person thought, "Oh, WOW! I think this is the beginning of another story."
And it might be. So if you think you'd want to be part of this story, which is probably going to be a lot like the last one in its main parts, and will be happening here and there, not just in Albion, give the MEC a call at 468-1660 and they'll give you a run down on which meetings are where.