Pacific Lumber files for bankruptcy

[Gregorian]

The Pacific Lumber Co. has filed for bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in Texas.

The company and its subsidiaries, including Scotia Pacific and Britt Lumber Co., cannot pay their debts, according to a news release. Palco claims regulations on timber harvesting have caused a financial crisis and have reduced revenues, leading to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing.

Palco sued the state in December for breaching the 1999 Headwaters Forest agreement, which transferred 7,400 acres and two smaller groves to the public at a cost of $480 million. It also imposed strict regulations as part of a conservation plan. Water quality agencies also have clamped down on logging in Freshwater and Elk River, in an effort to improve water quality and begin reducing flooding risks.

The failure of the state to live up to the terms of the Headwaters agreement has prevented Pacific Lumber and (Scotia Pacific) from remaining economically viable without restructuring, the release said.

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_5043530

I find this particularly interesting on several levels. From the corporate Wall Street takeover by Hurwitz, to the possibilities of what will happen to all of the land they own. We all saw this coming.

[villager]

1. forest-killing assholes -- couldn't happen to a "nicer" company

n/t

[laylah]

4. Took the words right outta my brain. n/t

[maxsolomon]

2. silly rabbits, humboldt county is for killer buds!

:smoke:

sitting up in that tree wasn't so crazy after all! i heart Arcata!

[Webster Green]

3. Maxam destroyed the company...sucked it dry.

Fucking predators trash the woods, and the workers, and then leave with their carpetbags full.

[Ferret Annica]

5. As a tree sitter that has fought in that timber war

I am filled with loathing and disgust at Charles Hurwitz's latest gambit. I could write a huge rant, but I won't except to say he got Palco through ill gotten gains by his gutting of a savings and loan and saw Palco as an opportunity to gut standing assets and move the capital gained out of the country.

He destroyed a company that was family owned, had a cutting edge sustained yield cutting plan, free worker housing, a no lay-off policy, college loans for worker's children and turned it into a forest pillaging monster.

Palco should be confiscated from Maxxam and Hurwitz should be jailed with Climber Dan as his cell mate to give the larger man a chance at making the bastard his cell bitch and make him wash his socks for him.

Filthy criminal bastards, all of them. Earth First!

[Webster Green]

6. Earth First!

I'm proud to have been involved in direct-action against PALCO myself.:hippie:

[Shakespeare]

13. CLIMBER FUCKING DAN!!!

I remember him well from the shows Free Speech TV ran on tree sitters. What a despicable piece of shit HE is.

[Shakespeare]

12. I was just about to post that.

The old PALCO actually tried to manage their cutting with a modicum of sanity, common sense and conscience. And they took good care of their workers. Maxxam is nothing but a vicious, voracious parasite.

[donkeyotay]

7. Basically a tragedy for everyone except Hurwitz and his gangsters

Bad for the forests and the planet. Bad for the community. Bad for the creditors and anyone else about to get ripped off in bankruptcy court. Since corporations have personhood conferring rights, why don't they have the same penalties as individuals? Hurwitz should go to jail, but he won't.

In China they say now that to get rich is glorious. They should add, before it's too late, that to be a greedy, despicable, social raper is still not so glorious.

[EFerrari]

8. I can't believe this is happening.

I didn't see it coming but haven't been north for years -- since the days when you couldn't use a 7/11 restroom without seeing Palco logos on everything from the ceiling tile to the paper towels.

[mike_c]

9. I'm rejoicing over this-- I live in the community affected by PALCO...

...and I will be happy to see them go under, if that is indeed what eventually happens. Pacific Lumber was once a reasonably responsible company, at least for an industrial timber company, but the Hurwitz takeover turned them into a rapacious beast. Good riddance!

[alfredo]

10. Didn't they obtain their holdings with a hostile takeover of a

mom and pop business? At that time there were discussions about the amount of debt they were taking on .

[kineneb]

11. Hurwitz MO:

buy up company with junk bonds
extract maximum profits (=cut down as many trees as possible)
then drive it into the ground
declare bankruptcy, blaming it on environmental standards
walk away

assh***

he should be tried and sent to a SuperMax prison...

[Porcupine]

17. It's Loot and Scoot capitalism.....

The legacy of Ronald Reagun and the Bush crime family. The thieving bastards do not care what damage they leave in their wake.

[hippiechick]

14. Is that the one that * owns ?

... remember, Kerry called him on it in an '04 debate ... and Georgie replied with "Wanna buy some wood?"

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

19. no, totally different....

n/t

[R_M]

15. Charles Hurwitz is the owner of PALCO's parent firm, MAXXAM.

He is one of those 1980's Reaganista junk bond kings who bought up companies and soaked them dry to fill their bank accounts at the expense of the workers.

[harpboy_ak]

16. LP & the Japanese did the same in Alaska

In the 1990s, after 45 years of mowing clearcuts across the Tongass National Forest, pulp & chip prices hit world lows, and Alaska pulp or chips were no longer competitive in the Far East high quality pulp (rayon) market.

The Russians have been mowing down the Russian Far East instead. Easier to bribe folks there, easier to ignore Russia's lackluster environmental laws. No EIS required, no forest management plans, no cutting setbacks along streams.

The timber industry blamed "the environmentalists" and the Carter and Clinton administrations for the loss of heavily subsidized jobs, when world prices were far below what it cost to cut timber.

An effort to add value by opening a veneer mill failed because it wasn't competitive. The loggers are still whining that the Forest Service isn't making timber available when there's no market for it.

[Gregorian]

18. Dupe

...

[Gregorian]

20. This just in- Eel River Brewing has moved into Mill A.

They had an open house a few days ago. Mill A was closed down some time ago, when there were no more old growth logs.

The person I spoke with also mentioned that the town of Rio Dell is in the process of annexing Scotia. And Pacific Lumber, one of the few company towns in America, is getting ready to sell the homes on their Scotia mill property to private buyers.

Stay tuned, as I'll be talking with Palco's real estate man in the next few days. I've been trying to buy land from them for years. I imagine bankruptcy filing would preclude land sales, but I'll find out.

Here's the old grapple loader by the pond. I've got numerous photos of logging and Scotia. Not to mention experiences with the "man". I hate large scale logging with a passion. But as an engineer I find it interesting. I even managed to get into Scotia's machine shop. The old old steam hammer that looms out of the roof beams. Some guy used to stand there and risk his life swaging the ends of steel cables.