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Pacific Lumber Threatens Bankruptcy, Environmental Destruction

by Remedy
Pacific Lumber threatens bankruptcy over logging restrictions.
palco_proud_2.jpg
Freshwater, CA - Pacific Lumber Company (PL) is threatening bankruptcy to pressure California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow logging in areas already chronically damaged by years of over cutting.

According to the LA Times, Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz, who helped orchestrate the hostile corporate take-over of PL in 1985, took a rare visit to California for a private meeting on January 11 with Gov. Schwarzenegger to promote logging plans PL says would equate to about 750 acres of clear-cuts in the already ravaged Freshwater and Elk River Watersheds.

The State Water Board is withholding a series of Waste Discharge permits after PL failed to turn over pertinent data to the Board, though logging on four Timber Harvest Plans (including one with ancient, irreplaceable redwoods) will go forward. Complying with state regulatory agencies has long been a bane of Maxxam/PL, as seen by their accumulation of at least 325 violations of conservations laws between March 1999 and May 2004.

Dozens of residents in the beleaguered watersheds are suing Maxxam/Pacific Lumber for damages following an increase in logging that led to multi-annual flooding events which continue to worsen. PL also faces a lawsuit by the Humboldt County District Attorney, who charges the corporation submitted false landslide data during the Headwaters negotiations that allowed an inflated rate of cut.

Chief PL scientist [sic] Jeff Barrett has said the proposed clear-cuts will leave the watersheds in better condition than they are now. Mr. Barrett, meet Mr. Orwell.

As PL threatens to unravel the stringent “safeguards” they say were put in place after the contentious Headwaters Deal, one has to wonder what the heck they are talking about. Safeguards? Clear-cuts, landslides, the eradication of every tree over 40 years old and lots of residents buried in silt is not what most of us call “safeguards.”

Out of one side of their corporate mouth, Maxxam/PL claim to be environmental stewards. But out of the other side they say “we’re running out of logs.” A debt-driven rate of cut doesn't lead to sustainability, but Charles Hurwitz already knew that. As he said so succinctly in a deposition years ago, “the function of PL is to throw off cash flow.”

Environmental stewardship doesn’t enter into that equation.
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boicot Palco @ point of comsumption
Thu, Feb 10, 2005 11:59AM
Fredric L. Rice
Thu, Feb 3, 2005 12:34PM
Zanymuse
Mon, Jan 31, 2005 11:20PM
reposted
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many pews
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Zanymuse
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Zanymuse
Fri, Jan 28, 2005 10:45PM
Jeff Hoffman
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Thu, Jan 27, 2005 1:19PM
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