EUREKA, Calif.- Bureau of Land Management workers bustled about the trail head of the Headwaters Forest Reserve recently, slapping rust-colored paint over the word "Private" scrawled on a metal gate that demonstrators used to chain themselves to and pulling down a "No Trespassing" sign nailed to a redwood.

For the first time, the public will be invited into the forest, home to ancient redwoods and, for more than a decade, battleground for environmentalists and the Pacific Lumber Co.

As a gentle rain fell, workers hauled garbage and erected a "Headwaters Forest Reserve" sign, installed a portable toilet and anchored a narrow wooden kiosk that will display a trail map and warnings about the fragility of the landscape.

For the next three months, however, only a hardy few will be able to enjoy the reserve, which lies about 250 miles north of San Francisco. Hikers will be able to enter only on the north end, via Elk River Road, off Highway 101, just south of Eureka.

From the trail head, they will hike a steep, muddy, 5-mile corridor purchased by the government to a cliff overlooking Headwaters grove, where 2,738 acres of old-growth redwoods stand at the headwaters of the south fork of Elk River.

There is no trail from the northern access point that leads into the old-growth core of the government's purchase, said BLM's Arcata Field Manager Lynda Roush.

But the corridor itself is scenic. It winds along the south fork of the Elk River, where salmon still run, and through second- and third-growth redwood and Douglas fir trees. The bureau, which will manage the reserve, hopes to have interpretive signs up soon that will tell visitors about the salmon, the black bears and deer common to the area and about the endangered species, such as the marbled murrelets, small birds, that also make their home here.

Already, Roush said, her Arcata office has been getting phone calls from people asking whether they can hold weddings in Headwaters grove (yes, if the wedding party is small and willing to hike in and hike out the same day), ride all-terrain vehicles (no), hunt (no), or ride horses (no).

For the next several months at least, no overnight camping will be allowed, and hikers will be asked to pack out anything they pack in. Even tossed orange peels, Roush said, could attract ravens that prey on murrelets. The agency hopes to open the southern access to the park by mid-June.

From that approach, near the logging town of Fortuna, visitors will be able to drive to within 1 1/2 miles of the Headwaters grove before they must park and hike, Roush said. For the time being, there will be no day-use fees for hikers.

A yearlong public planning process that will shape permanent guidelines for managing the reserve will begin sometime in the fall, Roush said.

Few in Humboldt County believe the purchase of the reserve will end the conflict that has racked this rugged North Coast land over the fate of old-growth redwood trees, the endangered species that live in them and the rivers that run through them.

"I woke up that morning, heard there was a deal, and said to myself: OK, what's next?" Humboldt County Sheriff Dennis Lewis said.

Over the years, Lewis' department has arrested thousands of protesters who turned out for rallies, blocked logging roads and chained themselves to trees or buildings. Some activists are suing his department for swabbing pepper-spray under their eyes to break up a demonstration.

Both Lewis' deputies and activists have been injured in clashes. One Earth First! protester, David Chain, was killed by a falling tree last year on Pacific Lumber Co. property.

"Is it over?" asked Lewis, who was born in Eureka. "No. Are these the only trees we're arguing about? No. I've got people living in trees miles from Headwaters."

Earth First! activists have for years scaled redwoods marked for cutting and lived in them, sometimes for months, to protect them from being felled. At least three are living in trees at the moment, and none has decided to come down as a result of the Headwaters deal.

"The tensions that exist in Humboldt County are the result of an unsustainable, liquidation-oriented timber company," said Kevin Bundy, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Information Center in Garberville. "That industry has not changed as a result of this deal and I think that the tensions will remain."

Over the years, EPIC has filed suits against Pacific Lumber and various state and federal agencies, challenging the timber companies' logging practices. Bundy said the nonprofit organization is also considering filing suit over the Headwaters agreement.

The state and federal government paid $480 million for the 7,400 acres recently, after more than two years of bitter negotiations with Maxxam Corp, Pacific Lumber's parent company. The deal transferred land to government ownership and imposed a habitat conservation plan on the more than 200,000 acres of Humboldt forest lands Pacific Lumber still owns. The conservation plan establishes 100-foot no-cut buffer zones around salmon streams on Pacific Lumber property, a 50-year logging ban on 12 "lesser cathedral" ancient redwood groves and other restrictions on cutting.

But it allows the company to fell about 180 million board feet of timber, including some old-growth Douglas fir, outside the reserve, and to harm or kill endangered species such as the marbeled murrelet or spotted owl in those areas. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt rushed to Headwaters days after the deal was signed to declare the agreement historic and order the Bureau of Land Management, which will manage the reserve, to open it as quickly as possible to the public.

"It's real important, after so many years of fighting and so much money," Roush said. "It starts building ownership."

(Copyright 1999)

_____via IntellX_____ Publication date: 12:44 pm © 1999, NewsReal, Inc.

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