PL's last available old growth being logged
John Driscoll
Eureka Times Standard
The Pacific Lumber Co. is logging some of the last old-growth trees it will be allowed to cut under a 1999 federal plan, beginning a test of the plan's assumptions about marbled murrelets in decades to come.
Since November, Palco has been cutting in a grove of trees along Nanning Creek. The trees, some of which are 12 to 15 feet in diameter, are considered high-quality habitat for the sea bird that nests on big branches of old redwoods and Douglas fir. The murrelet is endangered in California, Oregon and Washington, with a population of about 21,000 birds, though another population thrives in Alaska at nearly 1 million.
As part of its habitat conservation plan crafted during the 1999 Headwaters Forest negotiations, Palco and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service anticipated that the southern population of murrelets would decline for several decades.
”Right now we're going through a kind of bottleneck period,” said Mike Long, field supervisor for Fish and Wildlife.
The plan also set aside about 8,000 of Palco's 210,000 acres for murrelets, much of which is old-growth, and some of which are second-growth stands expected to eventually be suitable for nesting murrelets. About 10,000 acres of varying quality for murrelets has been harvested by Palco under the plan.
The Headwaters Forest and two smaller groves, which Palco and Elk River Timber Co. sold to the state and federal governments in 1999, are some of the best habitat for murrelets, as are adjacent Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and Redwood National and State Parks to the north.
Palco biologists did not return the Times-Standard's phone calls.
The set-aside property and strategies in the conservation plan are meant to eventually help reverse the decline of the species. Whether that will work is still a question, since an oil spill in 1999 killed more of the birds at sea than first believed. And researchers at Humboldt State University are finding that murrelets in Redwood National and State Parks aren't faring as well as once thought.
Long said that Nanning Creek is the largest cluster of high-quality murrelet habitat on Palco property. But cutting the stand won't jeopardize the southern population of the murrelet in the long term, Long said, even if their numbers decline in the short term.
That's because more than 90 percent of the unentered old-growth redwood stands as of 1999 have been protected, Long said, and because second-growth groves will grow up to support murrelets.
Richard Golightly, an HSU murrelet researcher, said studies in Redwood State and National Parks and ocean surveys are showing that murrelets aren't reproducing well, and face problems with jays and other predators often drawn by human use of the parks. The conservation plan in part hinges on strong reproduction on public lands, he said.
”Is the present population in a precarious position?” Golightly said. “It certainly is in a precarious position in California and Oregon.”
A 2004 Fish and Wildlife report found that the bird could be extinct in California, Oregon and Washington in as little as 40 years.
The Nanning Creek logging has drawn protests, and three trees are reportedly occupied by tree-sits. On different dates, activists have locked themselves to gates and log trucks and some have been arrested. The largest protest drew about four dozen people.
Even though Palco has been cutting in Nanning Creek for more than a month, said activist Kim Starr, she believes it would be worth it for the company to stop.
”We're just humans trying to guess when we're bringing a species to extinction,” she said.
Activists have asked Palco to stop logging so they can raise funds, but no money has apparently been gathered.
Some of the protests have been in downtown Scotia, near Hoby's Market, where Palco supporter Mel Berti has worked for 30 years. He said Palco's willingness to set aside property, sell land for parks and work under strict logging guidelines should be recognized, and called the Nanning Creek protests way off base.
”There got to be a time when they can harvest what they've got left,” Berti said.
http://www.times-standard.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3356901
From EF! Media Center
Eureka Times Standard
The Pacific Lumber Co. is logging some of the last old-growth trees it will be allowed to cut under a 1999 federal plan, beginning a test of the plan's assumptions about marbled murrelets in decades to come.
Since November, Palco has been cutting in a grove of trees along Nanning Creek. The trees, some of which are 12 to 15 feet in diameter, are considered high-quality habitat for the sea bird that nests on big branches of old redwoods and Douglas fir. The murrelet is endangered in California, Oregon and Washington, with a population of about 21,000 birds, though another population thrives in Alaska at nearly 1 million.
As part of its habitat conservation plan crafted during the 1999 Headwaters Forest negotiations, Palco and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service anticipated that the southern population of murrelets would decline for several decades.
”Right now we're going through a kind of bottleneck period,” said Mike Long, field supervisor for Fish and Wildlife.
The plan also set aside about 8,000 of Palco's 210,000 acres for murrelets, much of which is old-growth, and some of which are second-growth stands expected to eventually be suitable for nesting murrelets. About 10,000 acres of varying quality for murrelets has been harvested by Palco under the plan.
The Headwaters Forest and two smaller groves, which Palco and Elk River Timber Co. sold to the state and federal governments in 1999, are some of the best habitat for murrelets, as are adjacent Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and Redwood National and State Parks to the north.
Palco biologists did not return the Times-Standard's phone calls.
The set-aside property and strategies in the conservation plan are meant to eventually help reverse the decline of the species. Whether that will work is still a question, since an oil spill in 1999 killed more of the birds at sea than first believed. And researchers at Humboldt State University are finding that murrelets in Redwood National and State Parks aren't faring as well as once thought.
Long said that Nanning Creek is the largest cluster of high-quality murrelet habitat on Palco property. But cutting the stand won't jeopardize the southern population of the murrelet in the long term, Long said, even if their numbers decline in the short term.
That's because more than 90 percent of the unentered old-growth redwood stands as of 1999 have been protected, Long said, and because second-growth groves will grow up to support murrelets.
Richard Golightly, an HSU murrelet researcher, said studies in Redwood State and National Parks and ocean surveys are showing that murrelets aren't reproducing well, and face problems with jays and other predators often drawn by human use of the parks. The conservation plan in part hinges on strong reproduction on public lands, he said.
”Is the present population in a precarious position?” Golightly said. “It certainly is in a precarious position in California and Oregon.”
A 2004 Fish and Wildlife report found that the bird could be extinct in California, Oregon and Washington in as little as 40 years.
The Nanning Creek logging has drawn protests, and three trees are reportedly occupied by tree-sits. On different dates, activists have locked themselves to gates and log trucks and some have been arrested. The largest protest drew about four dozen people.
Even though Palco has been cutting in Nanning Creek for more than a month, said activist Kim Starr, she believes it would be worth it for the company to stop.
”We're just humans trying to guess when we're bringing a species to extinction,” she said.
Activists have asked Palco to stop logging so they can raise funds, but no money has apparently been gathered.
Some of the protests have been in downtown Scotia, near Hoby's Market, where Palco supporter Mel Berti has worked for 30 years. He said Palco's willingness to set aside property, sell land for parks and work under strict logging guidelines should be recognized, and called the Nanning Creek protests way off base.
”There got to be a time when they can harvest what they've got left,” Berti said.
http://www.times-standard.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3356901
From EF! Media Center
Starmail - 31. Dez, 10:20
