A Timber Giant Threatens to Topple (Pacific Lumber)

[quaoar]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-timber21feb21,0,6487993.story?coll=la-home-headlines

A series of layoffs and mill closures culminated earlier this year with Pacific Lumber warning that it was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Company executives began negotiating with a state agency last week over 11 logging permits that they say are critical to the firm's survival.

< snip >

Since the early 1990s, Pacific Lumber has been at the center of one of the country's longest and most volatile environmental battles over the fate of some of the world's tallest trees and the wildlife they support.

To end the strife, six years ago the state and federal governments made a $480-million deal for 7,500 acres of Pacific Lumber's oldest, grandest trees, creating the new Headwaters Preserve. The deal also required the firm to limit logging on its remaining 200,000 acres. But now the company contends that the terms are a huge financial burden and that it can't get enough logging permits to turn a profit.

[alfredo]

1. I wonder how much money they have given

to bush and his campaign? If they gave enough, bush will provide.

[barb162]

3. maybe Bush will turn over Sequoia National Park to them

[alfredo]

7. It is open for logging.

The timing of their claim is rather suspicious.

[BrendaStarr]

23. But I imagine not for clear cut, right?

Clear cut is the cheap way.

I imagine cc isn't allowed right now, but give Bush time.

And can't they go clear out the Tsongas. Wasn't something decided there already?

[barb162]

28. I think the national forests are "open season" in accord with each

forest's manager. (When we all know the decision is coming out of Wash DC)

[alfredo]

30. Not too up on timber issues out west.

Here in Ky we have our own fights with mountain top removal, and logging the national forests.

[merh]

10. I believe the patriarch of the company was one of the WWII

medal of honor recipients that signed the letter supporting the weed during the campaign.

[Erika]

2. Ah, Life is more than a profit

It's about the natural resources we leave our children.

[TexasLawyer]

4. Weak dollar

I thought export-heavy industries like lumber were benefitting tremendously from the weakened dollar. I wasn't surprised to see this later in the article:


"Environmentalists and other critics argue that the company has only itself to blame for its difficulties. They point out that financier Charles Hurwitz, whose Texas-based Maxxam Corp. acquired Pacific Lumber in a contentious takeover in 1985, soon liquidated hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, including a welding division and a farming corporation.

"They have taken so much money out of the company and their debt is so high that without the logs ... they are hurting," said Richard Wilson, who was former Gov. Pete Wilson's forestry chief when negotiations for the Headwaters deal were underway.""

[Benhurst]

8. Texas-based. Wouldn't you know! NT

[CountAllVotes]

5. no skin off of my ass

These people have raped and pillaged the State of California for its fine natural resource of redwood trees. May they rot in bankruptcy court hell. I sure will not miss them! :grr:

Better late than never!!!

:kick:

[Erika]

6. You can only rape the environment so far

until there is no more return.

[callous taoboy]

22. True, Erika- This is a prime example of a corporation

using no common sense, not listening to those "wacko" environmentalists, and going for broke. They way over-logged during the Reagan de-regulation 80's, so now they pay the piper. STUPID!

[Downtown Hound]

9. As a Humboldt County resident who has lived under these bastards for years

Good riddance! The economy here will survive without you contrary to your claims of how important you are to this area. You are the worst of the worst and the sooner you're gone, the better! No more DA recalls, pepper spray in the eyes of children, or massive clear cuts.

Although I will admit, I'm skeptical of their claims as to just how bad off they are. It's very typical of PL to play crybaby about how much they're suffering just so they can get more logging permits when in fact they're really not that bad off. Who knows, maybe this time it's different.

[kineneb]

11. Hurwitz is a jerk

Bought up PL then tried to increase timber cutting to finance his junk bonds. Serves them right to go belly up.

hi neighbor to the north- in Lake Co. here

[meganmonkey]

17. I'm a former Humbolt resident, I used to flip off the PL drivers

I lived just south of Arcata without a car and I would hitchhike into town several times a week. These big Pacific Lumber trucks would go by - usually with just part of one huge tree, and we would just flip them off. They'd honk and flip us off right back.
Probably not the most productive way to save the redwoods, but at the time (I was pretty young and very reactionary then ;) ), I just couldn't stand seeing these majestic trees just dead on a truck for some cheap furniture.

[UpInArms]

34. I think that you are right that they just want

more logging rights!  Hurwitz is one of the slimiest creatures
that ever surfaced from the state of Texas.

[sandnsea]

12. 80's junk bond slime

6. Pacific Lumber, under MAXXAM, has committed over 250 violations of the forest practices act in the last three years. It has been found guilty of misdemeanor violations and lost over seven lawsuits over violations of Endangered Species Act, Calif. Forest Practices Act and other statutes. Many more civil actions are pending.

7. Several Wall Street insiders went to jail for crimes including the
MAXXAM/PL takeover. Ivan Boesky, who made $3 million from illegal insider trading in Pacific Lumber stock, served 2 years in federal prison. Michael Milken pleaded guilty to mail fraud and other illegalities in takeovers such as Pacific Lumber's and also served two years in federal prison. Boyd Jeffries, another broker in the Pacific Lumber takeover, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison for parking stock for Boesky and Milken.

8. MAXXAM looted $55 million from the PL worker pension fund. With the
remaining $35 million left in the fund, it purchased a new fund with
Executive Life Insurance, which went bankrupt in 1991. PL workers and the US Dept. of Labor successfully sued MAXXAM over this, ensuring that retirees would get their full pension. Executive Life, controlled by Milken, had traded favors with MAXXAM in the past, including purchasing $300 million worth of PL junk bonds at the time of the takeover.

17. MAXXAM also owns Kaiser Aluminum, making it one of the 200 largest
industrial firms in the world and one of the top 10 polluters in the U.S.

18. MAXXAM has one of the top 10 WORST Board of Directors of all
corporations in the United States according to Business Week Magazine and other esteemed business periodicals.

http://www.jailhurwitz.com/headwaters_fact_sheet.htm

[liberal N proud]

13. Is this real or something they have cooked up so they can get

the sympathy of people to gain access to un-touched national forest lands?
Or some other regulation that they want to bypass.

[bemildred]

14. Good. Go away. Maybe someone competent can take over the business. nt

[RapidCreek]

36. Exactly!

Because they are shitty business people we are supposed to give them more opportunities to demonstrate their ignorance? It's called natural selection...you eat your own young and shit in your nest, chances are your ilk shall be plucked from the gene pool....as well it should be.

I agree....push them off the road and make way for people who know how to run a timber company without crapping on my world.

RC

[bemildred]

37. Thank you. I remember PL before these assholes took over.

It was one of the best run outfits in Humboldt, people wanted
to work there. They made good money and paid well, and paid some
attention to sustainability issues. It wasn't perfect, but it
was way the fuck better than these morons have done.

[Willy Lee]

15. GOOD F***ING RIDDANCE

Pacific Lumber/Maxxam is a horrible, corrupt environment-destroying, life-killing, lying, cheating corporation that deserves to die a horrible death.

http://www.wildcalifornia.org/pages/page-157

Of course it is the environmentalist's fault. Oh, and the liberals, too.

[Lorien]

24. Amen!

I was shocked to see all the barren mountains when I last visited Washington state. All the topsoil was gone, so even the weeds didn't have a chance to survive. It was like driving across the surface of a lifeless planet in some areas!

If hemp-the sort grown by our forefathers-were permitted again, we would have a fantastic renewable source for all our paper needs. But Bushco hates the idea of anything which drives prices down for his biggest contributors, so it will never happen. :-(

[XemaSab]

25. PL doesn't operate in washington

In california we have the forest practice rules that prevent cuts like those in oregon and washington.

[Lorien]

32. Well, whoever IS operating in WA

should be toppled too, IMHO!

[XemaSab]

33. Oh yeah

Being from California, I was floored at the cutting up there....whole mountains that have been cut within the last 20 years. Shocking.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Couldn't happen to a nicer artificial person

The world will be a better place without it.

[Gregorian]

18. Clearcutting is the only way to make money

I just moved from the heart of Pacific Lumber land. I spent every single day on their property, trespassing. Watching. And having fun on my bike. But the fun turned to sadness and anger when I saw what they were able to begin doing, under the new president. They began raping again. But I guess that wasn't good enough.
Well, I just moved to Oregon. And already, less than 60 days into my stay, I can't leave fast enough. Clearcutting is the norm here. I live on a piece of property in the middle of nowhere. I never ever ever thought that logging trucks would be rolling down the roads at 3 in the morning. That's how they make money here. They deforest. They cut trees down as fast as they can. It's intolerable. I'd take my place in Pacific Lumber land in a heartbeat. God what is wrong with humans? Idiots!

[Gyre]

19. That's a goddamn shame.

Charles Hurwitz should have a redwood stake driven thru his heart!

Gyre

[Toots]

20. BaBye

We have the ability to make artificial wood from recycled goods. The artificial wood is better. It doesn't rot and cleans easier. We need trees for the forest critters not a hundred million dollar CEO paycheck and Politician kickback.

[maxsolomon]

21. a stake in the heart of weyehauser & plum creek would be nice too

eureka is looking more appealing every day.

[msongs]

26. RUSSIA will destroy the US timber industry soon because.........

the worlds largest conifer/pine forest is in Siberia, Russia. this resource has been largely untapped because of Russia's long history of turmoil, but now the Putin mafia has gotten its greedy paws on timber projects there.

the prime customer for this mass of Siberian timber will be Japan and all of east asia, thus killing an export market for US and Canadian timber interests.

You would be shocked to know how much US lumber is used to make throw-away chop sticks in east asia.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[XemaSab]

27. It's a tough issue...

I moved out of Arcata last year. I worked for PL for two summers while in school, and I think in some ways they are unfairly villainized by the EarthFirst!ers, but they also bring it upon themselves in many ways.

The deal with PL is that they cut trees on their own land, so they don't rely on "Forest Circus"/taxpayer dollars like many other timber companies that cut in the national forests. Also, all the other timber companies in the area, such as Simpson, have escaped the stigma of cutting old growth because they already cut all their old growth down.

I've been to Freshwater and I've seen the situation there too. Up in the headwaters of Freshwater creek, PL is required by law to maintain buffers (from 50-200 feet) around any creeks. The homeowners in the lower part of the watershed are not required to maintain buffers, and if you drive through the neighborhoods you can see that there's very little intact riparian vegetation. I think PL's historic practices have created much of the situation there, but the homeowners in the lower part of the watershed should not be throwing stones, IMHO.

Many people don't understand forestry and forest practices, which exacerbates the anger felt by many. When they see piles of slash (tree branches) left behind on a clearcut site, they don't understand that it's not that the company has left behind garbage, it's that the company is required by law to leave behind the slash to protect the soils and keep essential nutrients on the site.

I think there are many poorly informed environmentalists in Humboldt County, frankly, which doesn't lend credence to their cause. I think there's also a lot of people in the environmental movement who want to end all logging, anywhere, at any time, and they're trying to attack PL to further this goal. I also think a lot of the impetus behind EarthFirst! and similar groups' opposition to logging is spiritual and not scientific, but they should be honest that that's where they're coming from instead of trying to make spurious and pseudo-scientific arguments that are easily deflated, making the EarthFirst!ers look like flakes.

Furthermore, I think it's really easy to hang out and be an "activist" and smoke a lot of pot in Humboldt County. If you want to see real environmental outrage, go to Oregon and Washington and look at the clearcuts there, or go to the Southwest or Appalachia and look at mining operations, or come here to Madera County and look at some of the housing developments going into virgin oak woodlands or on top of vernal pools. Environmental activism, like civil rights, should not be done where it's easy, but where you have a chance to really challenge people and open minds. Everyone in Humboldt County knows which side they're on. PL needs people fighting them, but there are too many other atrocities that are totally ignored.

Personally, I think logging can be an appropriate land use, but it's too often that logging activities turn into a total rape of the land.

I'm not a fan of Pacific Lumber; I think they're not a benevolent company. I've got friends who work for the wildlife and watershed science programs, and I feel bad for them. The company has really done some sleazy things over the years, such as falsifying research. The problem is that the heads of the company aren't foresters, they're businessmen.

Some good books about this are "A Good Forest For Dying" and "The Legacy of Luna." I haven't found a good pro-PL/anti EarthFirst! book, probably because there isn't one, but "A Good Forest For Dying" is fair and compassionate towards both sides.

[CountAllVotes]

29. yeah or ...

Go to Klamath, California and ask the locals about the Agent Orange that was being sprayed in the late 1980s by Simpson Timber Industry. Cancer cases are in abundance *shock*.

These THUGS suck. Believe me I know. There was once a day when the entire north coast was solid redwood trees. Now they are found in the State parks possibly ... possibly ... LP would love to cut those too if they could get their greedy hands on them!

Signed, a 5th Generation California that is NOT a member of EarthFirst

P.S. Most of those redwood trees ended up in Japan fyi; LP sucks and so does Simpson and so does PALCO and so does Louisiana Pacific and so do all of the rest of them that have RAPED the Golden State!

:kick:

[manly]

31. trees

It would just break my heart if they were to go out of business. Maybe they could go into strip mining.

[Doremus]

35. Logging is archaic, unnecessary and short-sighted

Someone else mentioned old-fashioned hemp. I think it was the Hearsts (please correct me if I'm wrong) who sabotaged that industry in order to prop up the price of their timberland. Laws passed made it illegal to use hemp for anything, much to our detriment because it is an easily renewable, cheap replacement for wood in making many products.

So hemp went the way of electric trolley cars because big money had interests in competing industries. And trees, much less easily renewed, are still being ground into pulp for eventual burial in overflowing landfills.

It makes me literally sick to my stomach that a society could be so short-sighted and yearn so dearly for the allmighty dollar that they would denude the entire planet before realizing too late that they screwed themselves as well as all of the rest of us in the process.

How much money is enough for these people? If one has more wealth than one can spend in a lifetime, or in one's children's or grandchildren's or g-g-grandchildren's lifetimes, WHY DO THEY STILL WANT MORE? Is it just something to occupy their time? Is it so ingrained in their psyches that they can't imagine any other activity as fulfilling to them as the attainment of wealth?

I simply don't get it. And don't ever want to.

[XemaSab]

38. Question:

"It makes me literally sick to my stomach that a society could be so short-sighted and yearn so dearly for the allmighty dollar that they would denude the entire planet before realizing too late that they screwed themselves as well as all of the rest of us in the process."

Which society are you referring to here?

All societies use wood. Everywhere. I don't think there's ever been a society that didn't. And the US is far from the worst offender.