Posted on 01/14/2003 12:38:06 PM PST by cogitator
Headwaters Logging Leads to Mudslides
SCOTIA, California, January 9, 2003 (ENS) - Mudslides caused by logging activities are burying ancient redwood trees and salmon streams in California, environmentalists charge.
Redwoods along California's Avenue of the Giants are being buried alive in sediment torrents originating in Pacific Lumber's logging sites in northern California, warn the Humboldt Watershed Council and the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters.
Neighbors of the controversial timber sales are reported to be working to save their houses, vehicles and other possessions from the storm related torrents that originate in hillsides laid bare by logging.
"This is a travesty, because logging can be done in a responsible manner, in a manner that respects the rights of downstream property, and our irreplaceable heritage," said Jesse Noell, a local licensed timber operator, and long time foe of irresponsible logging.
The environmental groups say the storms of December 2002 have exposed the failure of the Headwaters Deal, signed in 1999, that included a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) aimed at protecting the threatened species residing in forestland on California's north coast. The Headwaters Deal allowed the preservation of the largest remaining privately owned tract of old growth redwoods on Earth, about 7,500 acres.
In exchange for selling the tract to the state and federal governments, Pacific Lumber received guarantees under the HCP that critics say will allow damaging levels of logging that could endanger a number of rare species and the health of the forest as a whole.
As many as eight landslides are now visible along roads into active logging operations in Nanning Creek near the historic mill town of Scotia. These virgin ancient redwood stands are being clearcut by Pacific Lumber as permitted under the HCP.
These forest stands were once home to the marbled murrelet, an endangered seabird, and the endangered coho salmon. Those two species are among threatened and endangered species subject to an "incidental take permit" issued as part of the Headwaters deal HCP process that allows killing of endangered species and habitat destruction, normally prohibited under the Endangered Species Act.
Once crystal clear salmon and steelhead fishing streams are now choked with mud, and local residents are cleaning up from flood damage that used to occur only during extreme storms.
One resident of the Elk River valley reported that he waded through almost two feet of mud slurry contaminated with floating septic spoils inside his home as he tried to save his family's possessions from the flood waters flowing from Pacific Lumber's lands. Other families in Elk River were evacuated by emergency response teams late into the night on December 27.
"We are seeing no one in the legislature, the agencies, or the county government who has the courage or integrity to speak up," laments Ken Miller, a local physician. "They are all … bound by contract to defend this Headwaters Agreement even though it is violating laws and destroying the natural resource base of our economy."
Al Cook, a chiropractor who lives in Freshwater, was separated from his family by floodwaters several times in December.
"We are not against logging," Cook said. "Good logging makes good neighbors. But the pace of Pacific Lumber's clearcutting wreaks havoc on downstream residents. Pacific Lumber has cut nearly our entire watershed in 12 years. The county has reduced the appraisal and tax assessment value on my house as a result of damage over the past four years."
The Regional Water Board convened a panel last summer to look at the relationship between Pacific Lumber's rate and intensity of logging and the impacts to the streams.
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