By Kevin Murphy – North Coast News, Sept. 6, 1990
Two Louisiana-Pacific logging plans near Elk have been halted with a preliminary injunction issued Tuesday by Superior Court Judge James King.
King said that, at a future trial, he will hear arguments on the timber harvest plan process as well as cumulative impacts.
The suit was brought by the Elk County Water District, the Greenwood Watershed Alliance, and a number of individuals, including Mendocino County Supervisor Norman de Vall, who is an Elk resident
Mary Pjerrou, an Elk resident who helped lead the battle against the harvests, said she is very encouraged by the preliminary injunction.
“The judge picked up most of the issues of concern to us as also (being) of concern to him,” she said.
King cited concerns of a stream not adequately classified and the effects of logging on the natural fisheries of the Navarro River.
He also asked that questions regarding the adequacy of the CDF’s cumulative impact analysis on both the Navarro and the Greenwood Creek watersheds be answered in court
The California Department of Forestry had argued that granting the trial based on evidence not considered as part of the THP review process would “seriously undermine” the CDF’s review of THPs.
Bruce Klafter, deputy attorney general, argued for the CDF that the current review process “affords the public ample opportunities for input and participation.”
L-P characterized the concerns expressed by the petitioners as “speculative” and “mere conjecture” and argued that the corporation’s right to its property should not be restricted on such a basis.
But King said the “question of whether the court may receive evidence outside the administrative record…is very much an open issue.”
A third timber harvest plan, approved in 1985, which was the subject of arrests and creative confrontations in Elk recently, was dropped earlier from the suit and currently is being logged.
At press time, it was not clear if those arrested would be prosecuted. Equally unclear is the likelihood of prosecution of complaints filed by some Elk residents against L-P security chief Jack Sweely. Resident Polly Girvin and others allege Sweely ordered trucks to drive through the crowd of townspeople assembled on the access road.
The plan contested by the protestors was subsequently visited by staff members of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, who had been contacted by de Vall. De Vall had hoped to find possible violations of water discharge requirements because of potential erosion on steep hillsides above Greenwood Creek. But the water board staff found no cause for action.
Charlie Acker, president of the water district’s board, said logging in the area has caused steady incremental damage to the town’s water supply.
Pjerrou told the North Coast News she was disappointed in the resource protection afforded through the system. She said she hopes the court case will force the CDF “to do what they should have done all along to protect the resource.”
That requires a complete study of the watersheds, according to Pjerrou.
She also hopes to gain better access for the public. For Pjerrou that means more notification and time for public review of proposed timber harvests. And, she said, more complete and understandable harvest plans. Reading the documentation on the harvest plan above Elk, “you wouldn’t know a town well is at the bottom of the creek,” she said.