Freshwater Watershed Under Siege from PL’s Logging
March 1, 2003
State and federal officials hailed the 1999 Headwaters Deal for preserving 7,400 acres of redwood forest and imposing on Pacific Lumber what they claimed were the strictest logging standards in California in the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and the Sustained Yield Plan (SYP) for PL’s 211,000 acres of forest land. But from the outset independent scientists and environmentalists charged that the HCP and SYP were seriously flawed plans that would enable PL to log the critical habitat of endangered species.
Unfortunately those warnings have proven true as the Headwaters Deal continues to haunt the embattled residents and wildlife that live downstream from PL's timber harvest plans, leaving a devastating legacy of eroded hillsides and landslides, flooded homes, and ravaged watersheds. PL has even begun logging of so-called “E stands” occupied habitat of the endangered marbled murrelet, whose population on the North Coast has plunged to just 4,000 as of 1997. This is the first time ever that logging has been permitted within areas "occupied" by nesting marbled murrelets because the bird is so critically endangered.
As part of the Headwaters Deal, PL was required to conduct analyses for 22 watersheds in which the timber company operates. Freshwater, located south of Arcata, was the first watershed to undergo such an analysis, which was used as a template for developing analyses of PL’s 21 other watersheds. These watershed analyses were meant to identify and address factors that are inhibiting the watershed under study from attaining “Properly Functioning Aquatic Habitat Conditions (PFC) based on a 1997 matrix created by the National Marine Fisheries Service, to aid the wildlife agencies and PL in developing prescriptions that would allow the watershed to ‘trend’ toward attainment of PFC, which is the centerpiece of the HCP’s Aquatic Conservation Program, the heart and soul of the HCP. But instead PL has used the Freshwater analysis to weaken the HCP and SYP, blaming sediment erosion in the watershed on “legacy” logging and poor roads rather than its own shoddy logging practices. PL is using these claims to weaken streamside protections and increase logging in riparian areas.
PL's analysis of the Freshwater watershed was used as a basis for agency development of logging prescriptions for Freshwater. The CDF has approved THPs for nearly 2,000 acres of redwood forest in the Freshwater watershed, allowing the equivalent of 500 acres of clearcuts per year, with more PL logging plans in the pipeline. Less than 5% of the original forest in the 20,000-acre Freshwater watershed remains today. Yet PL continues to clearcut residual old-growth and second-growth groves on steep unstable slopes, with complete disregard for the residents and wildlife.
Watershed residents and forest defenders have fought back. Freshwater has been the sight of a record number, with more than 15 activists putting their lives on the line to protect some of the best remaining marbled murrelet habitat on the North Coast. In addition, over 40 activists have been arrested in the last few months, many attempting to enforce a court-ordered stay on PL logging. The Environmental Protection Information Center, the Humboldt Watershed Council, and Salmon Forever have mounted legal challenges to PL’s logging operations by petitioning the Water Quality Board.
Meanwhile, CDF has approved THPs in E-stands of residual old-growth groves near Grizzly Creek State Park (over 100 acres), Jordan Creek over 150 acres, near Avenue of the Giants), and Nanning Creek (over 50 acres, near Scotia). In accordance with the HCP and SYP, once PL finishes logging 90% of its lower quality habitat, the Dept of Fish and Game and CDF may grant the timber company permission to log higher quality habitat. The crisis is urgent because logging of occupied marbled murrelet habitat is proceeding at a breakneck pace and is nearly complete while the watershed analyses are in early stages.
