Logging foes have attacked this arrangement as an unacceptable compromise that would denude hillsides and send silt cascading down into the Elk River, a fragile spawning ground for endangered salmon. The Sierra Club and the Environmental Protection Information Center filed suit after Pacific Lumber got Forestry Department permission earlier this year to use helicopters to haul timber off 595 acres of the property. The activists contend that noise from the huge, twin-rotor choppers will spoil the wilderness experience for visitors to the protected forest, which is separated by a ridgeline from the area slated for logging. It's this phenomenally deep, rumbling roar. For some people, whatever we do won't be good enough.
Environmentalists say such steps are fine but fall short.
They note that Pacific Lumber agreed as part of last year's deal to abide by the nation's strictest logging rules on its 200,000 acres in California. Pacific Lumber officials counter that the rules don't apply because the property inside Headwaters was approved for harvest before last year's deal was struck. State forestry officials agreed. Although the agency's advisory board recommended that public hearings be held, department officials approved Pacific Lumber's altered plans after a cursory review earlier this year. Louis Blumberg, a Forestry Department spokesman, said Davis had no involvement in the agency's decision-making process.