By Mary Pjerrrou – Mendocino Commentary, July 26, 1990
Judge Eric Labowitz, of the Superior Court in Ukiah, yesterday issued a two-week temporary restraining order forbidding any timber harvesting activities by Louisiana Pacific Corporation on three timber harvest plans near the town of Elk, involving a total of 654 acres. One of the plans, a half mile upstream from the Elk town wells, was approved in 1985. The two others involve recent plans to log in Greenwood Creek watershed and on Greenwood Ridge.
A hearing on a preliminary injunction will take place August 2. At issue are the cumulative impact of previous Logging, depletion of the Greenwood Creek and Navarro River forests and fisheries, and endangerment of the Elk water system, which is dependent on two wells at the mouth of Greenwood Creek.
Named petitioners in the suit include the Elk County Water District (which last week voted unanimously to sue the California Department of Forestry, for their approval of these L.P. Logging plans), the Greenwood Watershed Association, a non-profit environmental group in Elk, the Stewards For Bandito (a group of property owners adjacent to one of the plans), and Fifth District County Supervisor Norman de Vall.
—Mary Pjerrrou,
Greenwood Watershed Association