Headwaters Forest is the last sizable stand of old-growth redwoods left unprotected in private lands. Along with the precious few ancient groves preserved in state and national parks, it is a remnant of what was once a magnificent two million acre temperate rain forest stretching from the Oregon border to Big Sur. Less than 4% of this ancient forest remains; the rest has been cut and lost forever, or has come back as second growth and then re-cut again and again.
Headwaters is made up of six groves of virgin trees - the main 3,200 acre Headwaters Grove and five smaller ones - totaling over 6,000 acres. These groves are separated from each other and surrounded by second growth forest, "residual" old-growth (mixed with second growth) and cut-over lands. The entire Headwaters Forest Complex totals some 60,000 acres, and is considered by biologists to be the minimum necessary for the survival of the ancient redwoods and the endangered plants and animals that depend on them for habitat.
Until twelve years ago, Headwaters was owned by century-old Pacific Lumber Co., which prided itself in sustained yield forestry. This all changed in 1985, when corporate raider Charles Hurwitz and his Maxxam Corporation forced an "unfriendly" takeover of PL, financed by junk bonds and a failed savings and loan. Hurwitz has doubled the rate of cut, raided the employees' pension fund, and considers two thousand year old botanical elders "assets" to be liquidated for the almighty dollar.
Hurwitz has not gone unchallenged. Since the takeover, EPIC (Environmental Protection Information Center) has filed numerous court challenges, winning many, has monitored PL/Maxxam's forest practices and prodded state and federal regulators to do their jobs.
Earth First! has taken the struggle to the point of production, blocking access to logging roads, building rapport with workers, and dramatizing the issue to where Headwaters is now front page news worldwide.
Trees Foundation has done media relations and fund raising, and supported activists.
The Sierra Club has lobbied legislators, joined in litigation and done nationwide public education.
The Rose Foundation has also done lobbying and fund raising, and has promoted the "Debt-for-Nature" proposal (forgiving Hurwitz the $1.6 billion that his savings and loan debacle cost U.S. taxpayers, in exchange for Headwaters).
Forests Forever has canvassed door-to-door and sponsored Prop. 130 (attempted public purchase of Headwaters and logging reforms).
Groups like the MEC, the Bay Area Coalition to Save Headwaters Forest and Bay Area Action (Palo Alto) have done outreach in their regions, networked diverse efforts and mobilized thousands of people to join the annual mass rally on PL/Maxxam's turf in Humboldt County.
In the last few years momentum has picked up: these organizations have started new projects, new groups like Native American Stewardship Plan, Taxpayers For Headwaters, and Voice Of The Environment have formed, and established ones like Greenpeace and Rain Forest Action Network have jumped on board.
September 15 is the portentous date each year when the marbled murrelet nesting season officially ends, freeing PL/Maxxam to engage in unregulated exemption ("salvage") logging in the old-growth groves. The Headwaters campaign has focused on this date, and last fall's demonstration was the largest ever on forest issues in this country. Nearly 7,000 people participated, with over 1,000 arrested for symbolic trespass on PL/Maxxam property.
The next day a sustained series of protests began, emanating from an Earth First! base camp and continuing for over two months. Participation averaged around a hundred people per day, with several "actions" per week - vigils, tabling and street theater as well as nonviolent civil disobedience at log road gates and in the woods. Over 200 people were arrested, many more than once, with dedication, tenacity, imagination and community being the orders of the day.
This year's big demonstration will be on Sunday, September 14, the day before PL/Maxxam may resume exemption logging in the ancient groves. Base camp actions will start the next day. Stay tuned for location and details.
The "Deal"
On Saturday, September 28 of last year, headlines proclaimed "HEADWATERS SAVED!", leading many readers to believe that Headwaters had been saved. Creating this delusion was what the "parties" - Maxxam Corporation, the Clinton administration, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Governor Pete Wilson - had in mind. Unfortunately, a quick reading of the text of their "deal" revealed major shortcomings and problems, and it was quickly denounced by all of the groups in the Headwaters coalition and by other environmentalists.
The details of the "deal" are complex and convoluted, but the basics are clear. It would protect only the main Headwaters Grove, the smaller Elk Head Springs Grove and a surrounding buffer area for a total of 7,500 acres. This is too small a preserve by far to maintain a viable old-growth ecosystem, and the contingent Habitat Conservation and Sustained Yield Plans would likely spell death to old-growth dependent creatures like murrelets, spotted owls and coho salmon, and to the remaining 200,000 acres of PL/Maxxam timberlands. Also, many feel that Charles Hurwitz should not be paid $380 million by taxpayers when he owes us $1.6 billion.
As this article was being written, it was announced that the House Appropriations Committee had stripped the $250 million federal share of the "deal" from an Interior Department spending bill. Although this allocation may be restored by the full House and the Senate, the already tenuous situation became even more so - not necessarily a bad development, since most environmentalists didn't like the "deal" in the first place. On the other hand, if the "deal" is scuttled, a moratorium on logging in the 7,500 acre heart of Headwaters Forest will die with it, and it will take increased heroics to defend against PL/Maxxam's onslaught.
For thorough analyses of the "deal" and "sustained yield" plans, see Gary Ball and Linda Perkins' articles in the Spring 1997 issue of this MEC Newsletter.
The Cut Goes On
With the announcement of the "deal" and the onset of winter, many people got the impression that logging in Headwaters stopped last fall. This is far from true. Two, and possibly three, kinds of logging have continued in the Headwaters Complex: Exemption ("salvage") logging, Timber Harvest Plans, and alleged illegal cutting of old- growth trees.
Because of the distress that logging operations cause the marbled murrelet, large areas of PL/Maxxam timberland are off limits during the nesting season of this threatened species, which bureaucrats (not the murrelets) define as April 15 to September 15. Once this reprieve ended last fall, PL/Maxxam resumed their plunder with a vengeance. Supposedly, "salvage" logging in the ancient groves was to have been limited to removal of only downed trees accessed from existing roads. However, operations in the All Species, Shaw Creek and Allen Creek Groves resulted in extensive damage to standing trees - this in addition to the ecological havoc caused by dragging off corpses that had died natural deaths and were trying to turn back into soil.
In the rest of PL/Maxxam's 200,000 acres, the exemption loophole allows removal of "dead, dying and diseased" trees (read: any trees), up to 10% of the company's ownership. Since there is no environmental review or agency monitoring, PL/Maxxam can do pretty much whatever they want, including the slaughter of standing old-growth trees which are mixed in with second growth.
Most logging operations go through the Timber Harvest Plan (THP) review process, which allegedly provides for some level of agency environmental review and public comment. Such plans are almost never denied, and PL/Maxxam has been filing THPs by the dozens in residual old-growth forests for over two years.
However, according to the scientists of the Pacific Seabird Group, which advises government agencies on marbled murrelet issues, residual forests are very likely to be inhabited by murrelets. Protection of these forests thus may be essential to any adequate program of murrelet recovery, and the PSG recommends that all such areas be surveyed for murrelets before any logging commences. Unfortunately, the State Department of Fish and Game regularly ignores the PSG and concurs with THPs without performing murrelet surveys. Ironically, and sadly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended setting aside many of the residual groves that PL/Maxxam is already in the process of cutting!
Pacific Lumber under Maxxam has demonstrated time and again a flagrant disregard for environmental law. They logged Owl Creek Grove on two separate weekends in 1992 without the approval of state agencies, a fact substantiated during the Owl Creek trial (a landmark victory by EPIC recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court).
A recent lawsuit filed by an ex-timber faller alleges further violations, including logging old- growth timber in endangered species habitat without a THP, re-ribboning of THP boundaries in order to access more valuable timber, and even falling trees across roads so that state inspectors could not gain access to logging sites! If proven true, these allegations will confirm that Maxxam has transformed Pacific Lumber into a renegade corporation with no respect for the law.
What's Happening Now
Just as PL/Maxxam's logging in Headwaters didn't stop last year, neither did opposition to it. Here is a brief summary of the activities of groups cooperating in the Coalition to Save Headwaters Forest. This is only a sampling, but gives a feel for the incredible concern and people-energy that is going into saving Headwaters:
Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters maintains a Headwaters Hotline and has an office in the Berkeley Ecology Center. BACH distributes videos, slide shows, posters, tee shirts, etc., publishes a newsletter, and keeps files on Headwaters history. 2530 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, CA 94702; (510) 835-6303.
Earth First! is gearing up for the big rally and mass civil disobedience on September 14 and for continuing actions out of a Headwaters base camp. EF! is conducting nonviolence training sessions, helping people form affinity groups (to engage in nonviolent direct action), doing outreach through house meetings, slide and video presentations, and distributing information packets. Mendocino County, c/o the MEC (707) 468-1660; Bay Area (510) 848-8724; Southern Humboldt (707) 923-3366; Northern Humboldt (707) 825-8911. EPIC
Environmental Protection and Information Center is continuing to work on many fronts to help save Headwaters: litigation, lobbying, media and grassroots outreach. EPIC is particularly concerned with pushing for real enforcement of the federal and state Endangered Species Acts and their relevance to PL/Maxxam's Habitat Conservation and Sustained Yield Plans. EPIC publishes a newsletter, Wild California. P.O. Box 397, Garberville, CA 95542; (707) 923-2931.
Headwaters Sanctuary Project of the Rose Foundation is a campaign to outreach into mainstream society; to expand our ranks in, for example, the faith community, educational institutions and students, scientists, urban and rural community groups, professional associations, business leaders and seniors. Encourages letter writing to government officials and promotes a Debt-for-Nature exchange of Headwaters for Hurwitz' $1.6 billion savings and loan bailout. 1904 Franklin St., Suite 909, Oakland CA 94612; (510) 444-4710.
Jail Hurwitz Campaign is a serious effort to hold Charles Hurwitz legally accountable for his Headwaters-related transgressions, as well as many others. An actual $25,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the arrest, conviction and jailing of Hurwitz. The cornerstone of the campaign will be a website: www.jailhurwitz.com. P.O. Box 34, Garberville, CA 95542; (707) 923-4949.
Old-Growth Redwood Boycott Campaign is a joint project of Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters. Its objectives are to raise public awareness of Headwaters and old-growth forest issues, and to curb the demand for old-growth redwood products via a consumer boycott. Architecture and landscape architecture firms, do-it-yourself lumber retailers and home improvement retail chains are asked to pledge not to promote and sell old-growth redwood, and information on alternatives is provided. Greenpeace, 4549 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; (206) 632-4326. Rainforest Action Network, 221 Pine St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 398-4404.
Trees Foundation is a wellspring for twenty-five affiliated grassroots organizations dedicated to conservation and restoration. Trees provides technical knowledge, media resources and direction, training, strategy review, and access to equipment and technology. Trees is sponsoring the Headwaters Forest Stewardship Plan, an alternative management plan for Headwaters based on the Institute for Sustainable Forestry's Ten Elements of Sustainability. The focus for the summer is community outreach and house parties for information sharing and community imput. P.O. Box 2202, Redway, CA 95560; (707) 923-4377.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited