I'm up here with representatives from Pacific Lumber and the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department, and everyone is very sickened. Schwartz said that he hoped Luna could be saved, but that no answers would be forthcoming until professional arborists were consulted. The ridge that Luna sits on is southwest of the community of Scotia, an area that frequently receives heavy winds, particularly during winter storms. There is no evidence that timber industry workers are responsible for the act, authorities emphasized. But lingering local resentment over the Luna accord and an earlier pact that protected the nearby Headwaters Forest, a 7, 500-acre grove of ancient redwoods, has engendered suspicion among some environmentalists.
Loggers know that.
The question comes down to who did it. I'm not saying Pacific Lumber or their agents did it, but there are a lot of questions left to be answered. There's a lot of concern that the agreement might have been breached. Pacific Lumber doesn't own Luna or the adjacent buffer zone and is therefore not directly responsible for the tree, Bullwinkel observed. We can't stop them all.