Sierra Club Challenge to Wilson’s Forest Bills Fails

SACRAMENTO — Forest protection measures backed by Gov. Pete Wilson passed their toughest test Monday as the Sierra Club failed to persuade an Assembly committee to tighten restrictions on logging in old-growth timberlands.

Warned by Sen. Barry Keene (D-Benicia) that any changes would unravel the delicate compromise that produced the legislation, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee rejected a series of amendments offered by Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica). Hayden’s amendments were designed to make clearer distinctions between the types and ages of trees that could or could not be harvested under the proposals.

The closest vote came on an amendment that would have removed provisions in the legislation that the Sierra Club contended provide a loophole to allow the Pacific Lumber Co. to log 30,000 acres of old-growth forest with few restrictions.

Several competing timber companies complained privately to legislators and environmentalists that the provision had been added to the bill to get Pacific Lumber’s support for the legislation, but backers of the compromise and a company lobbyist hotly denied the accusation.

Committee Chairman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto) said he was concerned that the legislation provided a loophole for the company, but until he had proof he was not prepared to jeopardize the compromise.

After defeating Hayden’s amendments, the committee voted 8 to 4 to approve the package of four bills that Wilson has said would stop logging interests from depleting the state’s 7.6 million acres of private timberlands.

Although Sierra Club lobbyists said they would continue to fight for changes in the legislation, they acknowledged that the vote in the committee killed their best opportunity to derail the measures. Two of the bills are expected to pass easily when they come to the Assembly floor on Friday.

“If we have another opportunity we will still try to do something,” said Sierra Club lobbyist Michael Paparian. “The flaws here are so fundamental they really must be addressed somewhere.”

The measures would prohibit clear-cutting in ancient and old-growth forests, establish stream protection zones, restrict other forms of harvesting in ancient and old-growth forests, provide more environmental representation on the Board of Forestry and limit clear-cutting, where it is permitted, to 20 acres, with provisions that under certain circumstances the limit could be extended to 30 acres.

The committee’s vote followed hours of testimony from environmentalists and industry representatives who were bitterly divided on the issue. Many large timber companies and several prominent environmental groups supported the legislation while other logging interests and the Sierra Club strongly opposed it.

“Without question this is a very, very substantial strengthening of current law,” said Gary Patton, president of the Planning and Conservation League, an environmental organization that helped negotiate the compromise.

Opponents objected to the measures for markedly different reasons, with industry representatives calling them too restrictive and Sierra Club officials saying they were not restrictive enough.

The Simpson Paper Co. complained that the new limits on harvesting would force such severe cutbacks that 17,000 jobs in the North Coast would be lost during the next four or five years. Many small landowners contended that it would no longer be feasible to conduct logging operations on their lands.

The Sierra Club argued that many provisions in the legislation were vaguely worded so that state regulators would still have the leeway to permit over-cutting of the fragile forests.