10 Years On, Headwaters Redwoods Reserve Off Parks' Beaten Track - Maxxam @ $5/Share

[hatrack]

EUREKA — Chris Heppe climbed the trail at Headwaters Forest as sunlight streamed through the towering redwood trees. Moisture glistened off a carpet of ferns. The only sound was the bubbling of a nearby stream. "See that?'' he said, pointing to blue paint on an immense redwood 20 feet around and 1,000 years old. "That means it was going to be harvested. Cut down. But they never got to it."

Ten years ago this week, the state and federal government spent $480 million to buy 7,472 acres from Pacific Lumber and other landowners to create the Headwaters Forest Reserve six miles south of Eureka. The deal ended one of the most bitter environmental conflicts in California history, pitting blue-collar loggers against tree-sitters in dreadlocks, and establishing Pacific Lumber owner Charles Hurwitz as the greatest eco-villain for U.S. environmental groups since the Exxon Valdez's Capt. Joseph Hazelwood.

Today, the misty forest is a national preserve. Some of its trees are more than 320 feet tall — higher than the Statue of Liberty — and were growing during the Roman empire. But because of concerns over endangered species, the federal government has sharply limited public access, with only one year-round public trail into the forest. There is no visitor center and last year just 10,300 pilgrims came to this wooden cathedral, a fraction of the amount who visit Bay Area beaches on a single sunny weekend.

EDIT

"The people of the United States and the people have California have 7,500 acres of the most glorious pristine ancient redwoods protected for all time,'' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who brokered the deal with Hurwitz. "I would dare anybody to go up the trail and say it wasn't worth it.'' Pacific Lumber, shouldered with more than $700 million in debt, declared bankruptcy in 2007. Parent company Maxxam's stock, $57 a decade ago, is now about $5 a share. During the bankruptcy trial last year, a new company formed by Donald and Doris Fisher, the billionaire San Francisco founders of retailer Gap, acquired all 211,000 acres of Pacific Lumber's land and its historic sawmill in the town of Scotia.

EDIT

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_11844764?source=rss