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>from http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/headwaters18.htm Published Saturday, July 18, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News Headwaters Forest plan has politicians at loggerheads Saying it's not enough, Sher holds up agreement BY PAUL ROGERS Mercury News Staff Writer For the past 12 years, environmental activists have chained themselves to trees and hung off the Golden Gate Bridge trying to save the ancient redwoods of Northern California's Headwaters Forest from logging. Yet in perhaps the most important showdown yet, the struggle has moved away >from the TV cameras and the police in riot gear to a new arena: Gov. Pete Wilson's office. And now it's crunch time. A $380 million deal to buy 7,500 acres of the forest from Pacific Lumber Co. of Humboldt County is tangled up in negotiations this weekend among ``The Big Five'' -- Wilson and the top Sacramento lawmakers haggling over the state's budget. One person more than any other is responsible for holding up the redwood deal: state Sen. Byron Sher, D-Redwood City. And environmentalists couldn't be happier. Congress already has approved $250 million for the deal. The remaining $130 million must come from Sacramento. But the deal shortchanges taxpayers and doesn't go far enough to protect salmon streams or old-growth trees, Sher says. So, the 70-year-old Stanford University law professor, widely viewed as the environmental dean of the Legislature, earlier this year succeeded in pulling the state's $130 million share out of the budget, where Wilson wanted it. Instead, Sher wrote a separate bill demanding tougher logging rules across all of Pacific Lumber's remaining 200,000 acres as a condition of receiving the money. But he has found himself caught in a powerful bipartisan squeeze from Wilson -- California's most powerful Republican -- and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- the state's most powerful Democrat -- both of whom painstakingly negotiated the deal with Pacific Lumber owner Charles Hurwitz and now want to see it survive. ``It's high noon for this deal,'' said Carl Pope, national executive director of the Sierra Club. ``Byron Sher is under a tremendous amount of pressure. I'm delighted he has been firm.'' The question now is who will blink. The answer could come any day now. Wilson and the Republicans could go along with Sher and require the tougher standards. That could happen under a scenario where Wilson compromises on Headwaters to win from Democrats his top goal, a cut in the state's car licensing fees. But one risk is that Hurwitz will walk away from the table. Or top Democratic negotiators -- Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, and Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles -- could abandon Sher, cutting a deal with Wilson that gives them what they want on issues such as education funding. Environmental and timber lobbyists have spent weeks frenetically trying to sway lawmakers. ``Of course I'm nervous,'' said John Campbell, president of Pacific Lumber, based in Scotia, near Eureka. ``We've spent over 10 years at this. And now at the 11th hour people are saying it's not enough.'' Sher's bill, said Campbell ``is too restrictive. The company could not remain economically viable.'' Feinstein also says Sher is driving too hard a bargain. ``There have been at least 10 separate efforts to save Headwaters over the last 12 years,'' she said, describing herself as ``incredulous.'' ``Every one of them has failed. This saves virtually more redwood than any other effort I know of.'' If Sher keeps pushing for a stricter deal, she said, that could endanger $250 million in federal money already approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton. Funds coveted ``There are murmurs back here from other senators about what they would like to do with the money instead,'' said Feinstein. ``I can say 100 percent that if this doesn't go through, then the federal money is gone. I feel I've done everything I could over a long period of time to get the best I could. At some point people have to trust that and recognize that.'' Headwaters Forest, 15 miles south of Eureka, is the world's largest privately owned old-growth redwood forest. It has been a flash point of national controversy since 1985, when Hurwitz, chairman of Houston-based Maxxam Inc., acquired Pacific Lumber in a hostile takeover, doubled the rate of logging and threatened to clear-cut Headwaters Grove. After huge protests, Feinstein and other officials reached an agreement with Hurwitz in 1996 to buy 7,500 acres -- about half of it old growth -- for parkland. The deal also requires Pacific Lumber to prepare a ``habitat conservation plan'' for managing its remaining 200,000 acres of forest during the next 50 years. This week, details emerged in a 2,000-page document from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, negotiated with Pacific Lumber. The plan calls for banning logging within 30 feet of endangered salmon streams. By contrast, Sher's bill calls for 170-foot buffer zones. And although the plan would preserve 11 smaller old-growth groves, Sher wants another, Owl Creek. He said he's not scuttling any deal, just representing the taxpayers of California. ``I know that Senator Feinstein has invested a lot in this,'' Sher said. ``She deserves credit for getting the agreement. And she was instrumental in getting the appropriation. ``But I don't believe I was elected by my constituents to rubber-stamp a deal that was made behind closed doors in Washington. The Legislature had no influence over it, and then they say OK, give us $130 million.'' If he were almost any other Senate member, Sher probably would have been steamrollered by now. But on environmental topics, he carries considerable influence. As an assemblyman in 1988, Sher wrote the state's Clean Air Act. In 1989 he wrote the law that required California cities and counties to reduce by 50 percent their trash, through recycling, by 2000. He also has written laws to toughen drinking water standards, monitor acid rain and put scenic rivers off limits to dams. ``We have a responsibility to see if this is a good deal for the state of California,'' said Sher. ``And frankly it has serious flaws in it, particularly in protecting coho salmon.'' So far, Sher appears to be winning. In a key test on Thursday, Republican Cathie Wright of Simi Valley attempted to put the $130 million in Headwaters money back in the budget bill. She was rebuffed by budget conference committee Chairman Mike Thompson, D-Napa. Deal is possible Thompson, who is running for Congress this November to represent the North Coast district that includes Headwaters Forest, signed on two weeks ago as a co-sponsor to Sher's bill. ``Senator Thompson thinks the Sher bill makes the agreement stronger,'' said Ed Matovcik, chief of staff for Thompson. Meanwhile, Wilson's staff hinted on Friday that he may be willing to wheel and deal on Headwaters. ``It has been the administration's preference to pay for the Headwaters agreement out of the general fund,'' said Ron Low, a spokesman for the governor. ``That's the governor's preference. But as to any deals, negotiations are ongoing.'' To approve the funding in any form will require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. If the entire deal collapses, environmentalists will be in court fighting Hurwitz on each timber cutting plan. They say that would be better than the precedent-setting deal. But the company says having the deal fall through would be a disaster. ``I just hope the issue is put to bed,'' said Campbell. ``It's crucial to our 1,500 employees. It will finish a very divisive period on the North Coast. Otherwise, we're back to square one.'' ©1997 - 1998 Mercury Center. The information you receive online from Mercury Center is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Deal near on Headwaters By Robert Salladay EXAMINER CAPITOL BUREAU Tuesday, July 28, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lawmakers, Wilson would pay Hurwitz for part of forest to boost habitat protection elsewhere SACRAMENTO -- The Legislature and Gov. Wilson are near agreement to expand environmental protections for the Headwaters Forest and give financier Charles Hurwitz $130 million for a portion of the towering redwood forest, sources said. Environmental groups, suspicious that a back-room deal will weaken protections for the coho salmon and endangered birds, want the Legislature to scrap more than a decade of negotiations with Hurwitz and take their chances in court using the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws. But Wilson and lawmakers, currently negotiating the state's $75.8 billion budget, want to finish the deal soon, perhaps within days. A do-nothing strategy, they say, would be worse for the Headwaters Forest than a package deal that contains at least some stronger environmental protections. "I think we are coming to the closing moments," said Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, who is helping negotiate a deal. "The governor, environmentalist legislators, as well as those who are not as hard-line, are willing to find a middle ground. Politics is the art of compromise." A tentative agreement allows the government to buy 7,500 acres of the Headwaters redwood grove for $380 million, protecting it from any logging. Wrapped around the deal is a 1,000-page environmental plan for 210,000 surrounding acres that Pacific Lumber Co. would log. The state's share of the deal is $130 million, which would be included in this year's budget. Before giving up the money, California lawmakers want to expand "buffer zones" around streams and tributaries so runoff from logging won't spoil the spawning grounds for the endangered coho salmon. Under the environmental plan already worked out between Pacific Lumber and federal authorities, no logging can take place within 30 feet of large streams and within 10 feet of smaller tributaries. For an additional 140 feet from the water, the company must leave 10 trees per acre standing. The ancient forests, some with trees 300 feet tall, are home to 160 wildlife species, from the furry, weasel-like fisher to coho salmon, plus rare orchids and imperiled salamanders. A deal being considered in the Legislature would expand the stricter no-cutting zones to 100 feet from the water, sources said. That's a significant compromise for environmentalist lawmakers, who wanted far greater protections. "The governor's office actually is kind of in tune with what our office has been doing with Headwaters," said Senate President pro tem John Burton, D-San Francisco. "There are certain conditions that should be met, and they're supportive of that." Sean Walsh, spokesman for Wilson, said the governor was making sure the agreement was something Hurwitz could accept as well. There is a fear that without an agreement with Hurwitz, the state would be taking a perilous chance fighting the logging company in court to uphold environmental restrictions. "Some environmentalists may be able to forum-shop for a favorable judge on the first step or maybe even the second step," Walsh said, "but they will eventually lose." Pacific Lumber, which Hurwitz controls through the Maxxam Corp. holding company, is resistant to changing the environmental agreement worked out with the federal government. The company says environmental protections are adequate and scientifically based. Some state lawmakers, however, are concerned about protections for several old-growth redwood groves -- so-called "lesser cathedrals" -- outside of the main Headwaters area. And they worry about a previously unknown section of the environmental plan that allows Pacific Lumber to build more logging roads. Pacific Lumber president and CEO John Campbell said the company already had agreed not to log in the lesser cathedrals, which are important for the survival of the marbled murrelet, a seabird. The agreement is for 50 years, but environmental groups worry that loopholes will allow for intermittent logging during that period. Campbell also said the current 30-foot buffer zones kept nearly 30,000 acres free of logging. And he said the company would be closing some roads and improving and expanding others, but not adding to the number of roads in the area. "We've got far more environmental protections than are required for any other private forest land in California," Campbell said Monday. "We think we've negotiated a very good deal . . . and it's appropriate for the state to step up and fund the deal." Pacific Lumber has already sued California and the federal government, alleging their land has been unconstitutionally taken from them because of the environmental restrictions. Without an agreement, "It would force us to restart our litigation, and then we'd be doing everything on a project-by-project basis," Campbell said. "More importantly, from an overall conservation strategy, I think it would be a tremendous setback." But environmentalists and scientists point to federal studies that show buffers zones up to 300 feet are needed to protect the streams and tributaries for habitat. Fraser Shilling, an aquatic scientist at UC-Davis, said anything smaller than a 200-foot buffer zone was inadequate. He said the 10-foot buffer zones around the tributaries must be expanded up as well, and certainly should not be smaller than the buffer zones for major streams. "They're just playing with numbers," Shilling said. "Biologically, it doesn't mean anything." ©1998 San Francisco Examiner Examiner Hot News Feedback ______________________________ Headwaters deal saved by 'miracle' By Nancy Vogel Bee Staff Writer (Published Sept. 2, 1998) <Picture>After 10 years of battling over the grove of gigantic, ancient redwoods known as Headwaters, California has put money on the table to buy the trees. Early Tuesday, in what a key legislator called "a minor miracle," the Assembly agreed with no votes to spare to spend $245 million to purchase Headwaters and at least one nearby redwood grove. The Assembly and the Senate, which approved the measure just hours before, tied the money to tougher stream protections on Pacific Lumber Co.'s Humboldt County land. Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to sign the bill, and a weary-sounding Pacific Lumber President John Campbell described himself as "delighted with the outcome." "After 10 years and 10 failed efforts," said U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who spent two years brokering a deal on the federal level, "the Headwaters is saved." The state money, plus the $250 million Congress set aside two years ago for Headwaters, will buy 9,500 acres of redwoods -- much of it old-growth. If, as expected, state and federal agencies approve a plan to protect endangered sea birds and salmon on the company's remaining 192,000 acres, company owner Charles Hurwitz will get the money and the public will own the groves. Thus will conclude an epic battle over some of the world's most rare forest, its combatants of proportions as exaggerated as the 12-foot-wide virgin redwoods. They include Hurwitz, a Houston billionaire who took over the family-run Pacific Lumber Co. in 1986, activists who padlocked themselves to logging equipment, and a woman named Butterfly who's spent the last nine months living in a redwood tree on Pacific Lumber Co. property. If the Legislature hadn't appropriated money for a Headwaters purchase before the end of the session Tuesday morning, a two-year effort to save the grove probably would have collapsed; Congress had set a March 1, 1999, deadline on use of its $250 million. The deal marks the first time that politicians -- in this case, the California Legislature -- have altered a habitat conservation plan. Such plans are designed to protect endangered species on private land and are supposed to be based on the best available science. The Headwaters HCP invited more political interference than most: It was part of a larger deal that required Congress and California legislators to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars buying land. State Sen. Byron Sher, D-Palo Alto, and several other Democratic lawmakers refused to rubber-stamp the key elements of a habitat conservation plan hammered out last winter by Hurwitz, Feinstein and federal officials. Sher said he didn't think the plan did enough to protect salmon streams, and his bill increased the no-logging buffers along those streams from 30 feet to 100 feet. That standard will be in place for several years, until federal scientists assess each watershed on Pacific Lumber Co. land and write logging restrictions on a stream-by-stream basis. "They said it couldn't be done," said Sher. "When we raised these questions at the beginning, they kind of patted us on the head and said the deal's already made." On Tuesday, Feinstein phoned to thank Sher and three other legislators key to the negotiations -- Sen. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, and Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco. The lawmakers, with backing from Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, added $115 million to California's $130 million share of the Headwaters deal. Of that, $15 million will go to Humboldt County for lost property taxes. Up to $100 million will be used to purchase the 904-acre Owl Creek grove, with the price to be based on an appraiser's estimate. Any money left over will go toward the purchase of Grizzly Creek grove. Under the original agreement brokered by Feinstein, one of those two groves would have been cut. A provision that will stand from the earlier agreement bans the company for at least the next 50 years from logging scattered redwood groves covering another roughly 7,000 acres. The deal approved Tuesday will be incorporated into a habitat conservation plan that must be approved by state and federal agencies by next March. While the Legislature's 11th- hour negotiations put the Headwaters deal on a fast track to completion, grumbling continues. To environmentalists, the logging restrictions still fall short. They had sought 300-foot buffers along streams used by salmon. "What we're seeing is pretty substantial protection for ancient groves," said Elyssa Rosen, Sierra Club salmon coordinator. "Unfortunately, what gets overlooked are the salmon and the streams." The Environmental Information Protection Center in Garberville attacked the financing of the deal, calling Pacific Lumber Co. "some of the best shysters in America." President Paul Mason noted that Hurwitz, who bought the entire company in 1986 for $870 million, may now earn $480 million for giving up less than 5 percent of his land. But Sher and Feinstein said there was no way to preserve the groves without compensating Hurwitz for trees worth $20,000 or more each. "If you start with that attitude that he's an evil man and not one dollar should be paid to him," said Sher, "then these wonderful forests and the chance of survival for these endangered species are going to be lost."
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