By Richard Johnson – Mendocino County Environmentalist, August 1, 1990
While some environmentalists are using nonviolent direct action in the woods, others are filing legal challenges in court to protect a 15-acre pocket of old growth redwood and Douglas fir in the Navarro River watershed 4.21 miles inland from the coast on Highway 128. The case may set a precedent for protection of wildlife habitat on private timberland in California.
Under the color of a timber harvest plan for a clearcut of 40 acres of nearby second growth approved last year. Louisiana Pacific has inserted skid roads into the grove and has taken down ten of some thirty trees there. These range in age from 350 to 800 years old and are habitat to spotted owl, osprey, and other dependent wildlife.
While the company flagged the entire grove for cutting, only some 4½ acres of it is included within the boundaries of the existing THP.
In the early morning hours of July 20 some 65 Redwood Summer activists first occupied the site. When logging crews showed up to work the protesters let them know they were there. Work was halted and the sheriff was called.
As protesters came in the next day, company foresters and employees of the logging contractor pummeled them with stones from ambush. Later that day, a forester reportedly assaulted a protester with an axe handle.[1] Fortunately, there were no serious injuries.
So far, some 39 people have been arrested defending the grove. At the direction of LP security, Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies confiscated film and cameras from three journalists who were among those arrested.
LP voluntarily suspended cutting on the second day of the action. Some fifty police from various state and local jurisdictions were involved in responding to the action.
Redwood Summer activists have also peacefully occupied the driveway in front of the entrance gate into the THP area along Highway 128, displaying signs and singing to traffic along the road to the coast, but not attempting to stop log trucks going into or out of the woods.
Later in the week, the action took a less confrontational tone as protesters began to negotiate with the logging contractor. As part of this effort, neighbors in the area organized as Friends of Osprey Grove have offered to begin raising money to help defray the costs of the Pardini contracting firm as a result of the action.
At the same time, FOG sued the Louisiana Pacific Corporation and the California department of forestry over the timber harvest plan, demanding that the existing THP be recalled based on a failure to declare the grove as part of the cut and to protect wildlife habitat.
After an initial refusal, Mendocino County superior court judge James Luther granted FOG a temporary restraining order on July 23. At that point, Redwood Summer protesters had been at the site off and on for nearly a week.
Pardini’s equipment remained on the site during the temporary stay ordered by the court.
The suit charges LP and CDF with preparation and approval of a plan that failed to report the existence of old growth and to mitigate for the protection of wildlife habitat, for crossing the boundary of the THP, and for failing to notify the neighbors of the existence of the old growth.
Environmentalists have observed spotted owl and ospreys in the grove. New rules protecting the spotted owl on private timberland adjacent to known habitat conservation areas on public land went into effect on July 23, six days after the Redwood Summer direct action at Osprey Grove began.
These rules were adopted at a July 11 meeting of the state board of forestry in Santa Cruz in which Redwood Summer activists testified to the need for such rules. Earlier this summer, the federal fish and wildlife service declared the owl a threatened species, and ordered timber operators to mitigate for habitat protection in timber sales on public lands in or near registered spotted owl habitat conservation areas.
Osprey Grove is just east of a redwood grove owned by the Save the Redwoods league that is a registered spotted owl habitat conservation area.
In court, Judge Luther declined to accept as evidence a videotape that showed plaintiff’s attorney Rod Jones of Fort Bragg pointing out roads that crossed the boundaries of the THP. Luther did allow the tape to be played in court, however.
Also in court, LP resource manager Bob Morris admitted that the company had known for quite some time that the state would adopt new rules protecting the spotted owl, but had made no contingency plan to prepare for that event.
“We were hoping there would be no effect on our operations,” testified Morris. The company owns seven sawmills in northern California, including those in Covelo, Willits, Fort Bragg, and Ukiah. The Covelo mill is to be closed, and there is a shift reduction announced in Ukiah. LP closed its Potter Valley mill last year.
At issue in the Osprey Grove suit is whether the new state rules protecting the spotted owl should be applied retroactively to THPs now if effect, or should govern only new plan applications.
When plaintiff’s attorney Jones asked Morris what would be the effect of applying the rules retroactively, Morris answered. “It would be hard to justify keeping the mills open if there are no logs on the deck.” He added that all of LP’s current THPs in Mendocino County are adjacent to or between registered spotted owl habitat conservation areas.
While the company says it has harvested 45% of its normal annual volume to date, it has a record number of acres under approved THP on its 350,000 acres of timberland here.
Should the court not apply the emergency spotted owl protection laws retroactively, they may not be necessary at all. Only some 400 acres of old-growth are estimated to remain in Mendocino County.
Speaking for FOG, Meridian Greene said that the Osprey Grove logger relief fund had raised about $1,000 in contributions from Sonoma County Earth First!, Judi Bari, Bruce Anderson, and other individuals.
“This is not a fund for all loggers who find themselves out of work because of overcutting,” said Greene, “but for these particular loggers who were displaced by this TRO. These men have the same skills that are needed in watershed restoration and reforestation. A lot of THPs are being held up now, and we need to put some realistic proposals on the table to replace these jobs with real jobs.” she added.
Notes:
[1] In fact, this was done by L-P’s Lee Susan (“A boy named Sue. Another Coast tough guy name of Lee Susan was the L-P forester who took an ax handle to one of the kids at the Osprey Grove timber harvest site during the demos there last month…”, as reported by Bruce Anderson in the “Here and There” section of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, August 15, 1990.