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Headwaters buyout deal sent to Wilson Robert Salladay EXAMINER CAPITOL BUREAU Sept. 1, 1998 State share for 3 groves: $230 million SACRAMENTO - After more than a decade of protests, lawsuits and back-room deals, the Legislature has sent Gov. Wilson a measure to buy the Headwaters Forest and two other redwood groves for $230 million - one of the highest prices ever paid for a state park. The deal coalesced in the final hours of the Legislature's two-year session, which ended at 12:40 a.m. Tuesday. It capped months of near-constant negotiations between Texas financier Charles Hurwitz, who controls the spectacular forest, and lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. Combined with $250 million already set aside by the federal government, the Headwaters deal means taxpayers will spend about $48,000 an acre to buy nearly 10,000 acres of pristine redwood groves in Humboldt County, protecting them from logging. But state lawmakers also took a federal deal forged by the Clinton administration and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and made it stronger. For 210,000 acres near the Headwaters Forest that will be logged, lawmakers increased protections near streams where the endangered coho salmon spawn and agreed to purchase about 2,100 more acres of forest for an additional $100 million. After nonstop talks Monday with executives of Pacific Lumber Co., which Hurwitz controls through Texas-based Maxxam Inc., the state Senate approved the measure by a 29-5 vote at 8:30 p.m. The Assembly followed with a 54-12 vote that came about 40 minutes after its midnight deadline to adjourn. The Headwaters deal was the last item of the 1997-98 legislative session. Wilson, who participated closely in the negotiations, is expected to sign the measure. "It is in my view a very good package," said Sen. Byron Sher, D-Stanford, an environmentalist who forged the final deal with his chief of staff, Kip Lipper. "It will give endangered species a chance for survival, and it gives us a chance to protect these ancient forests." In a statement early Tuesday, officials of Pacific Lumber, which will log the land, said the agreement "represents the last best hope to save the Headwaters. Today, that hope is one big step closer to being fulfilled." But for many environmental groups, the deal looks like this: The state and federal government will give Hurwitz, a former junk bond trader, $480 million for 10,000 acres of redwood trees he probably couldn't log much anyway because of the U.S. Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws. State Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, who voted against the measure Monday, said the Legislature is giving one of the country's wealthiest and most sophisticated financiers money to pay off junk bond debt, a charge the company has denied. "Extortion!" yelled Cecelia Lanman, programs director for the Garberville-based Environmental Protection Information Center, just moments after the Senate approved the Headwaters bill. "I think they're right: It is extortion," said Sen. Quentin Kopp, I-San Francisco, who voted against the bill, one of his final acts before leaving the Senate this term because of term limits. "Boy, the price of poker went up." The price, a total of $245.5 million to state taxpayers, buys this: *An agreement that Pacific Lumber cannot log within 100 feet of large streams where the coho salmon spawn and 30 feet of smaller tributaries within the 210,000 acres. Then, after a three-year study of mudslides and erosion, the no-cutting "buffer zone" could be reduced to a minimum of 30 feet or increased to a maximum 170 feet. Environmentalists wanted as much as 300 feet for a buffer zone, but the federal agreement had only guaranteed 30. Biologists said buffer zones should be as high as the trees are tall, at least, and they believe even the added protections approved by the Legislature on Monday won't be enough to protect the coho salmon from muddied streams. *The state will spend up to $80million to buy the 925-acre Owl Creek Grove of redwood trees, and $20 million to buy the 1,200-acre Grizzly Creek Grove in the area. These so-called "lesser cathedrals" are home to trees 1,500 years old. About a dozen other lesser cathedrals get protections for 50 years to save the habitat of the endangered marbled murrelet bird and other species. *Lawmakers from Humboldt County secured $15 million for economic aid to the area from lost logging jobs. Another $500,000 goes toward administering the whole deal. "This bill finally puts to rest all of the critics," said Sen. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, whose district includes the Headwaters Forest. Well, not quite. Even before the measure was passed, environmental groups vowed to fight the deal in court. Kevin Bundy, also with the Environmental Protection Information Center, believes the deal weakens federal law by allowing the state Department of Forestry to approve or disapprove timber harvesting plans. And he said the deal sets a bad precedent by paying Hurwitz for the estimated price of the trees, not just the price of the land. Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, also said the agreement doesn't do enough to stop mudslides near areas where roads are to be built. Pope, like other environmentalists, was resigned to the Headwaters deal forged Monday, "but the crucial missing element is the safeguarding of our coastal salmon runs and clean water." Senate leader John Burton, D-San Francisco, said the issue was not how much money the state was paying Hurwitz, but whether the trees should be preserved. ©1998 San Francisco Examiner
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