JUDGE EXEMPTS
PACIFIC LUMBER LOGGING PLANS FROM STOP ORDER
JUDGE GOLDEN DELIVERS RULING ENVIRONMENTALISTS CALL "DISASTROUS"
BUT CONTEMPT HEARING STILL ON
In a Humboldt county Superior Court ruling that seemed to contradict his earlier
statements, Judge John Golden acted on a motion filed by Pacific Lumber (PL)
in October asking him to vacate the court-ordered stay on PL logging operations
issued on Aug. 29. PL has ignored that stay, and because of that, is
facing a contempt of court criminal arraignment on Dec. 9. On Tuesday
Nov.26, Golden denied PL's request to vacate the stay, but at the same time,
exempted all approved and under-review timber harvest plans (thp). The stay
on operations relates to a case challenging the PL Habitat Conservation Plan/Sustained
Yield Plan (HCP/SYP) that was part of the Headwaters deal in 1999. Golden
has stated earlier that he intended his stay to apply to ALL thp's on PL land
permitted under the HCP, SYP and incidental take permit, (which, under the
mis-named Habitat Conservation Plan is a license to kill endangered species),
and a "streambed alteration" agreement that applies to their 210,000
acres of land. For reasons perhaps only he knows, Golden explained that he
felt the logging plan exemptions are justified on economic hardship grounds,
but failed to accept the argument showing harm to wildlife and wildlife habitat.
New THPs, however, will not be approved until the stay is lifted, but PL has
stacked up over 100 thps that bring irreversible damage to remnant endangered
species habitat on Northern California's north coast. Protesters have
been trying to stop the frenzied logging, sitting in trees, blockading trucks
and staging rallies and hunger strikes. Susan Moloney, hunger striker and
Director of the Campaign for Old Growth, was joined on her 50th day of a hunger
strike in Sacramento by Julia Butterfly Hill and musician Melissa Crabtree
who committed to fast with her, in an effort to hold Gov. Davis to a campaign
promise to stop the logging of old growth forests in California. The
over-one dozen tree-sits on Pacific Lumber land have been the sites of harassment
and violence perpetrated against young forest defenders as forest activists
have been frustrated by the court's lack of action to carry out the three
month stay on logging activity. Forest and species advocates across
the board were very disappointed and frustrated by Tuesday's ruling.
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Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters} |
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