A deal intended to protect the world’s largest stand
of privately owned old-growth redwoods, the Northern California
grove known as the Headwaters Forest, got a makeover in the
California Legislature. On Aug. 31, the state Senate voted to
require stricter environmental standards on Pacific Lumber’s
surrounding private land.
The Headwaters Forest
has been at the center of a nationwide controversy for over a
decade. In September 1996, President Clinton and Charles Hurwitz,
the Texas corporate raider who took over Pacific Lumber in 1986,
struck a deal: For $380 million, the federal government and the
state of California would buy the 3,000-acre Headwaters grove from
Hurwitz.
As part of the bargain, the company
agreed to complete a Habitat Conservation Plan for 200,000 acres of
its private forest land.
Environmentalists said
the plan, released in July, was severely inadequate, especially in
its protection of endangered coho salmon runs. In a vote of 29-5,
the state Senate supported significantly tougher protections for
the private land, says Jeff Shellito, consultant to the Senate
committee on Headwaters.
The bill requires
several changes to the plan, including 100-foot buffer zones along
salmon streams, before the state will chip in its $130 million
share of the buyout. The Senate also allocated $100 million to
purchase another 9,500 acres of Pacific Lumber redwoods, including
groves known as the “lesser cathedrals,” and $15 million to offset
the economic impact of the buyout on Humboldt County.
*Michelle
Nijhuis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Headwaters deal gets tougher.
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