The company would acquire rare roadless low elevation old growth forest in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Two of these roadless areas are Watch Mountain near Randle,WA and Fossil Creek near Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument. Throughout the negotiations for the exchange the public had very little say in the process. This culminated last fall with the passage of Sen. Slade Gorton's last minute rider to the omnibus appropriations which legislated the land exchange. Plum Creek used heavy handed tactics such as threatening to log in sensitive areas in order to ensure a quick resolution to the deal.
Plum Creek is the great grandchild of Northern Pacific Railroad.
In 1864, Congress gave Northern Pacific 40,000,000 acres of public land originally taken from the natives. Most of the lands were never sold back as Northern Pacific spun off into resource extracting companies which in turn eventually gave birth to Plum Creek in 1989. Plum Creek currently has more land exchanges in the works than any other timber company. The deeds are scheduled to change hands on July 18th. If this happens, re-acquisition of these lands should be a top priority.