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>From Wednesdays's Times Standard (times-standard.com) PL guilty of violating Forest Act By David Anderson The Times-Standard The Pacific Lumber Co. and a subsidiary were fined Tuesday after pleading no contest in Humboldt Superior Court to three criminal violations of the state Forest Practice Act. In return, Deputy District Attorney Ariana Seldon said, eight other criminal misdemeanor counts were dropped. Judge Timothy Cissna imposed $8,100 in fines and $21,600 in restitution on PL and Scotia Pacific Holding Co. The restitution will be paid to the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District, which will use it for erosion control projects. But PL was also arraigned Tuesday on three new criminal charges involving other alleged offenses. A hearing on these was set for Feb. 23. The charges settled Tuesday involved violations allegedly committed between July and October 1998 in the Elk River, Bear River and Freshwater Creek watersheds. In December the California Department of Forestry revoked PL's conditional timber operator's license for these violations. The company is currently negotiating with the CDF for a new conditional license. Eight of the charges were filed against PL itself and three against Scotia Pacific. The former was convicted Tuesday of leaving slash piles along the banks of the North Fork of the Elk River and violating the terms of its timber harvest plan on a site near Freshwater, resulting in the destruction of a spotted owl roost. Scotia Pacific was convicted of driving heavy equipment through the bed of the Bear River rather than building culverts. The three new charges involve burning vegetation in buffer zones along the Elk and Eel rivers. PL spokeswoman Mary Bullwinkel said the company is taking new steps to reduce violations and meet conditions for a new logging license. She said the company will double the size of its compliance team, which will have the authority to stop any operation that violates the law. The team was formed after the company was issued a conditional license in 1998. State officials said PL showed marked improvement in reducing violations for the first six months of that year. Bullwinkel said PL has also hired a team of outside experts to review its logging procedures and recommend improvements. And it has started a series of three-day training sessions for its employees and logging contractors. She termed the steps "an unprecedented effort to demonstrate (the company's) commitment to maintain the highest standards of forest practice." ©1999 Times-Standard Wednesday, Jan. 20, 1999; A1 The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) P.O. Box 397 Garberville, CA 95542 (707) 923-2931 Fax 923-4210 http://www.igc.org/epic/ Contact us at epic@igc.org to join our listserver
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