Headwaters Deal Saves Redwoods but Not Forest

An 11th-hour compromise to save the Headwaters Forest preserves the ancient heart of America’s last unprotected expanse of virgin redwoods but leaves the great majority of the fog-shrouded primeval forest open to logging as early as this week.

The decade-long struggle to protect the forest--which led to an agreement announced Saturday in Washington--ends the imminent threat of logging in a 7,500-acre island of trees along the Northern California coast just south of Eureka.

“Is this the moon and the stars? No,� said Deputy U.S. Interior Secretary John Garamendi, who negotiated to preserve the Headwaters on behalf of the Clinton administration. “But do we save what most of us mean by the Headwaters Forest? Yes. In that sense, it is a very, very good deal.�

Although the core of the Headwaters and its 1,000-year-old trees would pass into the public domain, the fate of the surrounding forest remains in the hands of Charles Hurwitz, the venture capitalist who once sought to harvest all of the big trees by the beginning of the next century.

In return for the 7,500 acres, the Clinton administration and Gov. Pete Wilson, in a deal brokered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), jointly agreed to pay Hurwitz $380 million in cash and unspecified real estate. The federal share is $250 million and California’s is $130 million. On the brink of collapse, the settlement came together Friday after all sides agreed to adjust their financial sights, Garamendi said. “We were able to increase our offer, as was the state. And he [Hurwitz] came way down.�

Moreover, government negotiators said, Hurwitz dropped an earlier demand that the settlement resolve two lawsuits pending against him by federal banking regulators who have accused him of culpability in the $1.6-billion failure of a Texas thrift in 1988.

Hurwitz praised the settlement in a news release Saturday.

“Assuming its satisfactory conclusion,� he said, “this agreement is a significant achievement. Our companies would be fairly compensated, and our employees’ jobs would be protected.�

But the deal could still founder, Garamendi said, if government officials cannot come up with a combination of cash, forest land and other real estate acceptable to Hurwitz.

Environmental groups, who had been pushing for an accord that would set aside 60,000 acres of forest, quickly expressed dismay with the agreement.

They said that four of the six oldest, largest stands of virgin redwood in the Headwaters, which were off limits to logging during the negotiations, are now vulnerable.

“This deal makes the threat of logging in four of six Headwaters ancient groves a near certainty,� said a statement issued by the Sierra Club.

Yet the accord marks the first time that the public and private sectors have come to terms over any part of Headwaters, a forest that many Americans regard as a national treasure.

It also represents the third time this year that the Clinton administration has intervened to spare a beloved piece of the Western American landscape from the effects of logging or mining.

During the summer, the administration helped engineer a land swap to avert a planned gold mine next to Yellowstone National Park. And earlier this month, Clinton announced the creation of a 1.7-million-acre national monument in southern Utah’s canyon country, including the site of a proposed coal mine.

In the Headwaters settlement, a public preserve would be established consisting of the 3,000-acre stand of ancient redwoods known as the Headwaters Grove, a 425-acre stand of old-growth redwood known as Elkhead Springs, and a 4,200-acre buffer. That buffer includes 150 acres of stream-side forest to protect the coho salmon.

In the end, the deal for Headwaters may hinge on how Pacific Lumber chooses to treat the majority of the 207,000 acres of forest not included in the exchange.

Within 10 months, the company must prepare a habitat conservation plan, a set of guidelines for balancing protection of vulnerable species--the coho salmon, the northern spotted owl and a seabird called the marbled murrelet--with timber needs. If the plan is not accepted by state and federal officials, the deal could be canceled.

The same fate is possible if environmentalists successfully sue to block the habitat conservation plan, a type of forest management not popular with environmental groups.

“To date, HCPs have consistently resulted in a net loss of habitat for endangered species,� said the Sierra Club statement.

“In return for 7,500 acres, we run the risk of letting Charles Hurwitz run roughshod over the rest of the Headwaters,� said Jill Ratner, a lawyer with the San Francisco-based Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment.

During the next 10 months, while Pacific Lumber prepares its habitat plan, the company has pledged not to log in any of the 7,500 acres subject to the proposed exchange.

But elsewhere in the forest, including four groves of old-growth redwoods, a moratorium on salvage logging expires today. Exempt from a habitat conservation plan, salvage logging is restricted to dead and diseased timber. But critics say it is often abused.

Spokesmen for Pacific Lumber, which has been the target of massive protest demonstrations recently, would not say whether the company intends to conduct any salvage operations in the unprotected old-growth redwood groves.

“All we’re saying is that we have the option to go into those groves,� said Brian Oakley of Pacific Lumber’s parent firm, Maxxam Inc. of Houston.