In an unprecedented action against a major timber
company, California suspended Pacific Lumber’s operating license
this November. The Humboldt County company, locked in confrontation
with environmentalists over the giant coastal redwoods of the
Headwaters Forest, was cited for numerous violations, including
cutting trees too close to streams and driving heavy equipment in
spotted-owl habitat.
Paul Mason, with the
Environmental Protection Information Center, applauded the state’s
crackdown, calling Pacific Lumber “such a disreputable and
dishonest timber company that they shouldn’t be allowed to run a
chainsaw in their own forest.”
Pacific Lumber
logging crews will likely be out of work until next year – the
company has already laid off 180 employees. But its sawmills will
keep on humming with stockpiled timber and logs provided by
independent contractors not affected by the
suspension.
Spokeswoman Mary Bullwinkel says her
company is “taking this very seriously.” She adds that company
president John Campbell is anxious to meet with state officials to
get crews back in the woods as soon as
possible.
Environmentalist Mason is guessing that
the suspension may undermine federal and state efforts to buy the
old-growth redwoods of the Headwaters grove (HCN, 9/14/98). The
$380 million deal calls for a 50-year Habitat Conservation Plan to
protect species like the marbled murrelet and the spotted owl on
all of Pacific Lumber’s lands.
* Stanley
Yung
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Loggers told to stop cutting.
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