Rain drips from the sky virtually every day and night this time of year in Humboldt County, California. From the South Fork of the Eel to the Klamath, rivers run chocolate brown, bearing tons of silt and mud washed down from failing roads and crumbling hillsides upstream. Only a few scattered creeks run clear as the rain comes down, their steep banks shaded by old-growth redwood and Douglas fir, spared from the chainsaws and bulldozers for another season.
The ancient groves of Headwaters forest still stand, far removed from the political and financial maelstrom that holds their future in limbo. After another year of actions, rallies, lobbying, lawsuits, advances and retreats, Headwaters remains caught in an argument between politicians looking to shore up their shoddy environmental credentials and ruthless financial manipulators who just want to make another few hundred million bucks. Meanwhile, a broad-based popular movement continues to demand that this natural treasure be protected once and for all.
Clinton administration officials, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz announced their Headwaters "deal" 18 months ago but left critical details unresolved. Now another Feinstein-brokered compromise has been reached, stating the principles that will guide a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the 210,000 acres of forest land Maxxam/Pacific Lumber will own if the deal is completed. The state/federal purchase of 7,500 acres of the 60,000-acre Headwaters forest is contingent upon completion and approval of the HCP.
Negotiations over the HCP's effect on two species, the marbled murrelet and coho salmon, had been deadlocked for many months. With deal-related deadlines becoming less flexible, Feinstein and Deputy Interior Secretary John Garamendi intervened in the HCP negotiations in early February, finally arriving at a compromise on February 28. As Headwaters activists expected from the very beginning, the inevitable meddling of politicians in this process produced a total biological sham.
Eight years of citizen litigation and constant pressure finally convinced the government to "set aside" three of the four ancient redwood groves not acquired by the deal as marbled murrelet habitat. These "set-asides" are not permanent protection by any means, but simply areas Hurwitz agrees not to log for the next 50 years. Nonetheless, Hurwitz will have an opportunity to cut at least one large, vital complex of murrelet-occupied ancient and residual redwoods. Owl Creek was the first grove protected from logging under the Endangered Species Act. Following a successful federal lawsuit by the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), in truly chickenshit fashion, the feds "set aside" Owl Creek for now, but will allow Hurwitz to cut the grove if he can demonstrate that another complex of ancient and residual murrelet habitat near Grizzly Creek State Park has been "conserved."
Grizzly Creek is vitally important to the murrelet's survival and recovery, as is Owl Creek. Owl Creek, however, contains more than three times the acreage of unentered old-growth redwood. So, if the company finds someone to buy Grizzly Creek, or simply sets it aside under the HCP, it would get permission to cut the far more valuable timber of Owl Creek. Of course, both groves are occupied by murrelets, and no biological justification exists for cutting either location. Thousands of acres of ancient Douglas fir in the Mattole/Bear River headwaters also could be sacrificed.
The so-called "protection" afforded coho salmon and other aquatic species under the HCP is even more dismal. Even Clinton's Option 9 fiasco calls for 300- to 600-foot "no cut" buffer zones along fish-bearing streams. By contrast, the Headwaters HCP provides no logging-free buffers at all. A 30-foot "restricted harvest" band, followed by a 140-foot "late seral selection" band, composes all the protection fish-bearing streams will get under this HCP. Smaller streams in the upper watersheds - which contribute most of the sediment that chokes spawning grounds further downstream - receive even less protection. Even these ridiculous buffer zones can be modified by a company-driven "watershed assessment" process that will allow exceptions to the "default" standards for stream protection.
Thus the HCP fits into the overall pattern now taking shape in the Pacific Northwest with respect to salmon "protection." Cozy industry/government deals, like HCPs and the much-touted Oregon salmon plan, are replacing strong Endangered Species Act (ESA) enforcement. The Clinton administration's long-standing conspiracy to surreptitiously gut the ESA is also getting another shot in the arm, as the national media trumpets the success of an HCP in "saving" the "lesser cathedrals" of Headwaters forest.
The struggle over paying the Headwaters deal's $380-million price tag also continues. President Clinton appropriated the $250-million federal share of the Headwaters buyout last November. California Governor Pete Wilson's plan to provide the state's share of Headwaters funding (a paltry $130 million) via a bond act for either the June or November elections came under fire from State Senator Byron Sher and Assemblywoman Carole Migden, co-chairs of a special Headwaters Committee in the California Legislature. Sher and Migden caused quite a stir by threatening to oppose the bond act if Pacific Lumber's HCP is inconsistent with the recovery needs of marbled murrelets and coho salmon. It remains to be seen whether Sher and Migden will keep their promises or be swept away in the saccharine tide of self-congratulation currently oozing from the offices of Feinstein and Garamendi.
Meanwhile, logging continues at a furious pace. A Timber Harvest Plan (THP) for "residual" old growth at the edge of Owl Creek grove received approval in December and cutting quickly began. Earth First! actions held off logging for awhile, and EPIC filed a lawsuit challenging the THP. In an all-too-common demonstration of Humboldt County justice, however, Judge Dale Reinholtsen sat on EPIC's restraining order request for over two weeks while the ancient trees went down.
Still, there are many reasons for hope. The longest-running tree sit in history continues high above the town of Stafford [see article on facing page]. Long-time residents of Stafford and Elk River Road (familiar site of many Earth First! gate blockades) recently filed lawsuits against Maxxam, Pacific Lumber and Barnum Timber Company, seeking damages for the flooding and landslides that destroyed their property. County residents also plan to put a "soil conservation measure" on the ballot this year. The measure would allow the county to zone high-erosion areas out of timber production, putting the wider community in greater control.
Even the California Department of Forestry (CDF) is showing some signs of life. Citing over 100 violations of the state's forest practices rules during the last three years, CDF very nearly denied Pacific Lumber's timber operating license for 1998 (last-minute negotiations produced a "provisional" license, to no one's surprise). Pacific Lumber was placed on probation for a few of these violations in July of 1997; the company continued to break the law and has been arraigned on two more citations. Unfortunately, at a February 18 pre-trial hearing, company attorneys indicated that some kind of deal with the timber-friendly district attorney is in the works. Justice is fickle in Humboldt County: Very few Earth First!ers around here could get away with flagrantly violating their conditions of probation.
Despite all this, with the HCP practically a done deal, thousands of acres of ancient redwood and Douglas fir forest stand to be cut. Ultimately, it is up to our movement to permanently preserve these forests, creating solid political will out of thin, hot air.