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SEPTEMBER 2,
1998 6:57 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Environmental Protection Information
Center
Paul Mason, 707-923-2931 |
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| Headwaters Deal Passes the California Legislature |
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SACRAMENTO - September 2 - Monday evening the California Legislature approved their
portion of the funding needed to complete the Headwaters Agreement of 1996. EPIC has
opposed this agreement since that time because it includes a Habitat Conservation Plan
(HCP) - a permit to kill endangered species and destroy their habitat. With the
approval of the State money, the largest remaining hurdle is the approval of the HCP.
The Pacific Lumber HCP has been in development
since the original September 1996 agreement, and has been exceedingly controversial.
Negotiated entirely behind closed doors and under tremendous political pressure, the HCP
has fulfilled EPIC's expectation that it is nothing more than a license to kill endangered
species. From the company's perspective, the sole purpose of the HCP is to allow
them to cut trees that would otherwise be protected because they are habitat for a species
on the brink of extinction.
Even after the new protections mandated by the
California Legislature, the PL HCP allows the following:
* destruction of roughly 8,000 acres of ancient
redwoods that are potentially marbled murrelet habitat.
* destruction of 3-4,000 acres of ancient Douglas fir
on the steep, unstable slopes of the Mattole Valley.
* conversion of the majority of Pacific Lumber's
200,000 acres to "even-aged" forests (i.e., clearcut) for at least the 50 year
life of the plan. Only the small buffers along watercourses will be allowed to
mature beyond 40-60 years.
* radically increased herbicide use in conjunction
with the rampant clearcutting.
* inadequate protection for areas at high risk of
landsliding.
After spending two years watching the HCP
process, and the past 5 days in Sacramento, EPIC staffer Kevin Bundy observed "This
is why endangered species are in so much trouble. The decisions about their future
are being made by politicians and not scientists."
Under this deal, Pacific Lumber gets paid up to
$480 million for roughly 9,500 of forest, only half of it old-growth. In most HCPs,
landowners are expected to set aside some portion of their land as mitigation for the
destruction that they are causing on other portions of their land. In this case,
Pacific Lumber is being paid for its mitigations, a dangerous precedent.
"Maxxam bought Pacific Lumber in 1986 for about $850 million, and has extracted over
$1.5 billion from the forest since then. Now they've sold less than 10,000 acres
that were already protected under the Endangered Species Act for $480 million bucks.
These guys have got to be some of the best shysters in America" said Paul Mason of
EPIC.
The final vote in the Senate was 28-5, with
only Tom Hayden speaking against the bill. The bill barely squeaked by in the
Assembly, with a final vote of 54-12.### |
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