Winter 2004, Forest Magazine, p. 8

In February 2003, after one month in office, (Gallegos charged the company with submitting a flawed environmental impact report with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention. The report erroneously stated that landslides were unlikely to occur after logging unstable terrain within the company's Headwa-ters land. Gallegos charged Pacific Lumber with deceptively concealing the correct data, which showed great landslide potential after logging unstable slopes, and using the false environmental impact report to fraudulently obtain permits to log them.

The lawsuit claimed the company deliberately gave the right landslide data to the wrong state forestry department employee. Instead of delivering the data to the director, Richard Wilson, Pacific Lumber delivered a corrected landslide report to a department resource manager, who had no responsibility to act on it. The lawsuit stated Pacific Lumber succeeded in its deception by claiming "it had notified CDF [of corrected landslide data] without having effectively notified CDF." Since Wilson never saw what Gallegos called the "fraudulently suppressed" data, Wilson granted the company permits to log 100,000 trees on terrain prone to landslides. The permits were worth $40 million a year, according to the complaint.

Gallegos's lawsuit claimed the company's logging from March 1, 1999, to the day lie filed suit in February 2003 caused landslides that destroyed ancient redwood trees and seriously harmed Humboldt Bay, streams, bridges, roads, homes and Humboldt County residents' property values. He sought $2,500 for each felled tree, for a potential $250 million settlement.

Many Humboldt County residents blame Charles Hurwitz, owner of Pacific Lumber's parent corporation, Maxxam, for the environmental problems they face ("Bleeding Away," Winter 2002). According to the Alliance for Ethical Business website, before Hurwitz headed the timber company, hillsides weren't falling into rivers and homes weren't being flooded. The company had a no clear-cut policy.

But after Hurwitz took over, Pacific Lumber's logging jumped from an average of seventy-four acres per year to an average of 504 acres per year. From 1995 to 1095. the state department of forestry issued more than 100 citations for violation of forest practice rules to the company.

Pacific Lumber made national news in 1999 when the state of California and the federal government paid the company $430 million for 7,500 acres of old-growth forest and created the Headwaters Preserve. The agreement required Pacific Lumber to submit an environmental impact report with a ten-year sustained-yield plan to the state department of forestry for its remaining 211,000 acres of Hcadvaters land.

According to Gallegos's lawsuit, the agency initially allowed the company to harvest 136 million hoard feet per year. But Pacific Lumber requested more than 176 million board feet per year; the extra timber was to come from unstable slopes. The company allegedly lobbied the agency to grant permits to log unstable slopes using the environmental impact report containing false landslide data.

The Committee to Recall Paul Gallegos has strong ties with Pacific Lumber, the largest single employer in Humboldt County. Out of the $27,000 in campaign contributions collected by recall supporters, more than $20,000 has come from people associated with the local timber industry. A vice president of the company, Craig Anthony, donated $1,000.

The recall campaign came as no surprise to Gallegos. "You can't take these guys on without consequences," he says. He calls the campaign against him an intimidation tactic.

At press time, the recall committee was validating petition signatures to determine whether an initiative will appear on the March 2004 ballot.

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