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http://www.sacbee.com:80/news/news/local09_19991230.html Sacramento Bee Published Dec. 30, 1999 Scotia: Pacific Lumber license renewed Pacific Lumber Co. of Humboldt County, which lost its state license to log last year due to numerous environmental violations, won a two-year renewal of its license Wednesday from the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "We gave them a license because their performance has improved this past year," said Louis Blumberg, deputy director of CDF. The renewal is good for the next two years, with conditions that include giving CDF foresters keys to gates so they can make surprise inspections. In December 1997, CDF threatened to not renew the license because of more than 100 violations involving clogged culverts, logging on wet roads and a lack of erosion control. CDF renewed the license after Pacific Lumber agreed to higher standards and greater scrutiny, but in November 1998, after several major violations, it was suspended. It was not renewed until March 1999. Since then the company has had four violations and no serious infractions, Blumberg said. Without a license, Pacific Lumber Co. could still hire independent loggers. The company owns more than 200,000 acres of redwood forest south of Eureka. In March 1999, the company sold roughly 10,000 acres, including an old-growth grove called Headwaters, to the federal and state governments for $480 million. --Nancy Vogel
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