How can Maxxam continue to log these ancient groves if they are protected by state and federal laws?
On paper, they can’t. Over the past 10 years, the Garberville-based Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) has won numerous lawsuits against Pacific Lumber and Maxxam, slowing, but not stopping, the destruction of ancient redwood forest illegally approved by the California Department of Forestry (CDF). Long an ally of Big Timber, CDF has approved old-growth redwood logging plans even after losing lawsuits over similar plans. Had CDF officials properly enforced state and federal laws, Headwaters Forest would today contain thousands of additional acres of old-growth redwood forest. After losing round after round of litigation, Pacific Lumber recently changed tactics and began submitting “salvage” logging proposals to CDF under a major loophole in the California Forest Practices Act. These plans, requiring no public involvement, agency review or monitoring, have allowed Pacific Lumber to remove downed old-growth trees trees the ancient redwood groves, causing irreparable damag
