>Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 09:21:38 -0800 (PST)
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>From: jkaufman@igc.org (Josh Kaufman)
>Subject: Sacto Bee - PL License
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>Pacific Lumber keeps license: Firm accepts closer monitoring by state
>By Nancy Vogel
>Bee Staff Writer
>(Published Dec. 31, 1997)
>
>Pacific Lumber Co., faced with the loss of its license to log trees
>because of repeated violations of state forestry rules, agreed Tuesday
>to meet higher standards and face more scrutiny than any other timber
>company in the state.
>
>Without the agreement, the Humboldt County company's permit to cut trees
>would have been revoked Thursday by the state Department of Forestry and
>Fire Protection. The company had violated state rules designed to
>protect soil and water too many times in the past three years,
>regulators said.
>
>To avoid losing the license, Pacific Lumber Co. President John Campbell
>and other company officials met through the weekend with forestry
>officials. The agreement they reached will give Pacific Lumber Co. a
>conditional license for 1998.
>
>Already under intense scrutiny by environmentalists working to keep
>Pacific Lumber Co. chain saws out of a grove of virgin redwoods called
>Headwaters, the company will get tighter official monitoring under the
>agreement.
>
>The company must hire a registered forester to inspect at least twice a
>month every logging job carried out on its 300 square miles of redwood
>and Douglas fir forest.
>
>That inspector must then report to the forestry department monthly.
>
>The company also must meet some standards tougher than those spelled out
>in the state Forest Practice Act. For example, between April and
>October, Pacific Lumber Co. cannot use dirt roads on its property after
>a rain, said Gerald Ahlstrom, the state's deputy chief of forest
>practice enforcement.
>
>That rule seeks to limit the sediment washing into streams on company
>property. Most of the 56 notices of violation that regulators sent
>Pacific Lumber Co. in the past three years involved failure to control
>erosion on roads and tractor trails, failure to maintain drainage
>ditches or failure to install culverts.
>
>Should Pacific Lumber Co. violate the tougher standards, Ahlstrom said,
>the conditional permit can be suspended quickly.
>
>The agreement also requires Pacific Lumber Co. to give gate keys to
>state inspectors so they can move freely over company property. Many
>other timber companies have given state regulators such keys, said
>Ahlstrom, but Pacific Lumber Co. has not.
>
>"We had to coordinate with their staff," said Ahlstrom. "It made
>surprise inspections much harder and made our inspectors less
>efficient."
>
>Rarely has the forestry department taken such drastic action against a
>company the size of Pacific Lumber. This year four other companies are
>working under conditional licenses, but all are small firms, state
>officials said.
>
>Mary Bullwinkel, a Pacific Lumber spokeswoman, said the company has
>always taken the violations seriously and is pleased with the new
>agreement.
>
>"These are not deliberate violations -- they are mistakes that are
>made," she said.
>
>Pacific Lumber Co.'s trouble with state regulators comes as other state
>and federal officials hope to preserve Headwaters grove and a buffer of
>surrounding forest.
>
>
>
>
>
David M. Walsh
P.O. Box 903
Redway, CA 95560
Office and Fax(707) 923-3015
Home (707) 986-1644


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