In March of 1995, after reading about the Coeur d'Alene's tribe's Nation Indian Gaming Commission's approval of the tribe's plan for a nationwide lottery, I got the following idea for saving Headwaters Forest. Using the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's precedent what if a local tribe or consortium of local tribes ran a new statewide lottery using their tribal gaming rights to do so to raise the enormous money needed to purchase Headwaters Forest, all 60,000 acres of it, as ancestral land? I went on in 1995 to make my second contact with the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria. My first contact with them was in the Spring of 1990 when they were searching for a larger rancheria site for their 250 tribal members and I knew of an old homestead 80 acre piece located near the Bear River watershed but they chose a 60 acre site nearer to where most of them lived and worked.
About May of 1995 I went before the Bear River Tribal Council and pitched the first Headwaters lottery proposal that I wrote with Sharon as lottery advisor. They voted to let me go ahead with the organizing of the project with the Tribal Council's Vice-Chairman. About a year later, Don Brenard returned to the reservation and immediately wanted to help. It was Don who developed the Heartlands concept for developing an inter-tribal spiritual and cultural sanctuary in the pristine old-growth redwood groves of Headwaters Forest Headwaters Forest for the recovery of traditional values for Native Americans, many of whom have lost much if not all of their tribal cultural teachings as European-Americans swept across the continent conquering and decimating tribe after tribe. Together, Don and I fashioned the Heartlands proposal for the tribe with Don's inspiration for creation of an inter-tribal spiritual and traditions recovery sanctuary and my environmental forest management plans.
Now that the dust is has settled on the Headwaters Deal finalized at the last minute it should be clear to environmentally concerned citizens that all the past years of environmental protest activism to save all of Headwaters Forest, all 60,000 acres and all the old growth groves on Pacific Lumber Co. land, haven't worked. In the end, it was once again politicians and Chas. Hurwitz calling all the shots on how Headwaters should be "saved". Protest environmental activism seems to work only up to a certain point in getting environmental protection results, usually only to the point of bringing the issues to the general public's attention. Which is good, but isn't enough to actually finish getting the environmental protection measures accepted into law. The finish work is done by the lawmakers and the principle parties involved which are not environmental protest groups, however much they may wish to think so, but the owners of the land at stake and the legal representatives of state and national government.
For over three and a half years Headwaters environmental activists groups have refused to work with the one forgotten legal stakeholder in the Headwaters negotiations. That stakeholder is the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria whose ancestral lands included all of Headwaters Forest, actually all of Pacific Lumber Co. land that was stolen from Humboldt Bay area tribes in California's Indian War period from 1858 to 1864. The Bear River Band is composed of the descendants of the survivors of that Indian Holocaust period that nearly wiped out the Wiyot, decimated the Mattole and Bear River tribes, and utterly annihilated the Northern Sinkyone and Nongatl tribes.
The same white settler death squad that committed the atrocious Indian Island Massacre in February of 1860, one of the largest if not the largest massacre of Native Americans in American history, (see inset below), a few months before wiped out Nongatl Indians living in the Yager Hills area within the 60,000 acres of Headwaters Forest. Nine years later, Pacific Lumber Co. was incorporated and new "owner" of thousands of forest acres that was previously under Native American stewardship for thousands of years before the coming of European-Americans. Genocide against Native Americans isn't over. It just isn't carried out by guns and knives anymore but by local zoning ordinances and "we-don't-want-them-here" community protest groups lobbying against Native Americans whenever they try to regain even a tiny portion of their ancestral lands. But who would have thought the "we-don't-want-them-here" crowd would include environmental activists leaders? Click here to learn about another side to the Headwaters story you won't find elsewhere.
Above: 1851 "Eel River Indian" Reservation map
The Eel River Indian Reservation would have been around 80,000 acres in size. The U.S. Congress refused to approve the proposed reservation and nine years later, on February 20th, 1860, the Indian Island massacre took place. Our Heartlands proposal calls for 60,000 acres to be returned to the Bear River tribe's ownership,
Below: Headwaters map showing proximity of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria site.
Eureka Times-Standard: September 11, 1996 headline on our first Bear River Headwaters Lottery plan.
Outreach Letters
from Don Brenard
National Environmental Policy
(42 U.S.C.A. 4331) Congressional declaration of national environmental policy:
(a) Creation and maintenance of conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony.
Greetings! My name is Donald Eugene Brenard. I am a member of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria. This letter is to inform the public that our Tribe is in the process of trying to develop a means of acquiring the property known as the Headwaters Forest Complex.
We are a small tribe, the remnants of local bands that used to range this area of Humboldt County. We would very much like to purchase Headwaters from PL and Maxxam Corp. and have before this time notified them of our intentions, and of our proposed methods of acquiring this property. We have also notified various other governmental and environmental organizations as to our intentions and, I believe because of our small number and limited physical resources, we have not been taken seriously. We have been working on a proposed plan of action that will draw on the assets of private enterprises to incorporate economical ventures that will allow us to achieve our goals.
What we propose to do with this land is, as our Tribal culture was exterminated, we wish to maintain the Old Grove areas as a spiritual and cultural mecca for Native Peoples. As it is widely known the heart and soul of the Native Peoples was deeply rooted in their relationship between Earth and Sky. Many of our peoples, because they have lost their homelands, have lost the connection between the physical and the spiritual. It is our hope that as a result of our efforts we may be able to reconnect this balance and bring about a greater harmony for all.
This land’s borders are a mere four miles from our current Rancheria which is a land base of only 60 acres which currently houses only 9 families out of the 250 members of our Tribe.
There are many policies and guidelines of federal government procedures and grants that are funded by the taxpayers’ monies that we could use to obtain this land. We would prefer not, however, to tie this matter up in the court systems and judicial process for years and countless millions of dollars as this would not be beneficial to anyone but the lawyers. This is why we have chosen the alternatives we have.
Our plans and goals are not designed to be totally self-serving but rather embrace the idea of cooperative growth and development of social and economic achievements. It is our aim and goal to find a harmonic resolution for all parties involved in this dilemma that has embroiled and divided this region and its inhabitants for so long. The details of the financial enterprises are still in the process of being finalized so this prohibits any early release of this information but as soon as these things become final we will be informing the general public of the details.
Heartlands Association
Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria ~ 32 Bear River Dr. ~ Loleta, CA 95551 ~ USA
My name is Donald Eugene Brenard. I am a duly authorized representative of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria of California. We are currently involved in an effort to regain a vital portion of our ancestral homelands. This portion of land has been embroiled in a twelve year controversy involving environmentalists and Chas. Hurwitz of Maxxam Corp., owner of the Pacific Lumber Co. which holds title to our ancestral land. Due to the fact that the United States Government has stepped into the controversy in an effort to resolve it by offering to buy and trade with Mr. Hurwitz to obtain U.S. ownership of the disputed land, it has opened this land to the rules and policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as numerous other Federal policies and statutes. Many of these policies state that any and all local tribes that may have a historic or cultural claim to this land are entitled to due consideration in any decision effecting said land, and that any and all alternative proposals must be reviewed by the duly appointed representatives of the Presidential Staff.
We are seeking to gain national support for our proposal for usage and stewardship of this land. The main source of controversy are the stands of old growth redwood forest in this land tract. These stands are some of the few remaining pre-European timberlands and as such the quality of their wood makes them highly desirable for the timber industry but it also makes them an irreplaceable natural, historic, and cultural resource. What we propose is to place the old growth forest groves under protective status and utilize them only as a sacred ground for the teachers and healers of Native Americans to come to for the practicing and teaching of their arts to other Native Americans, especially those in alcohol and drug recovery programs and also those in pre-release minimum security status. Beyond this, our program would be open to any Native American seeking to reestablish their spiritual and cultural identity or strengthen the foundation of their sense of self-worth thereby solidifying and furthering the philosophy and goals of Native American society.
Our overall plans include a great deal of social economic development over an extended period of time with the majority of this effort aimed at breaking the cross-cultural myths and prejudices that have long prevailed in today’s society. The method that we propose for generating the funds for this endeavor is through establishing a statewide Indian Lottery with the express purpose of purchasing this 60,000 acre tract of forest land and establishing the necessary foundations for the development of the overall project.
What we are in need of is support from the Native American community, not only in the form of verbal or written letters of support but also in the form of qualified Native American personnel who would be interested in making this dream become a reality. We will need leading personnel in fields ranging from the Arts to Zoology; people who will not be afraid to put in long hours for little or no monitory compensation until things are up and running. We need modern-day Dog Soldiers who are not afraid to plant the lance until the battle is done.
For further information please contact Steve Lewis, Secretary of the Heartlands Association, c/o the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria.
Sincerely,
Donald Eugene Brenard, "Sparky"
Vice-Chairman
Heartlands Association
The Headwaters Ancestral Land Lottery Plan
A Native American Solution to Saving All of Headwaters
History
In 1851 U.S. government agent Redick McKee tried and failed to get the United States government to set aside a reservation for the Native American tribal bands living in and around the Humboldt Bay region. (see top map above). McKee feared for the safety of these ‘Eel River Indians’ from newly arriving white settlers. His fears were well founded. On February 25, 1860, by the minimum account number, at least one hundred and thirty-eight men, women, and children were massacred in Indian Island, South Spit, Bucksport, and Elk River villages. Survivors from these villages were the great grandparents of members of our three local Rancherias, Table Bluff, Blue Lake, and Rohnerville.
Pacific Lumber Co. was incorporated in 1869, nine years after the massacre and eighteen years after Redick McKee’s attempt to establish an "Eel River Indian Reservation" of roughly 85,000 acres. Today, Pacific Lumber Co. land constitutes about one half of the approximately 400,000 acres of Eel River Valley Indian ancestral homelands. And today, the three remaining rancherias or miniature reservations have altogether only one one-thousandth percent of the land our people have lived on for thousands of years prior to the coming of the Europeans.
The Rohnerville Rancheria site for our Tribe’s two hundred and eleven members is only 60 acres. Without an adequate land base our Tribe loses cohesion as members must move away to find housing and jobs. Regaining our ancestral land is one of our highest priorities as our survival as a Tribe depends upon it.
The following summarizes a project that has been developing slowly since March of 1995 for resolving the Headwaters Forest conflict in a new way that really can satisfy all sides in the dispute which the recent Clinton Administration-Hurwitz deal has failed to do. This project will also return approximately 52,500 acres of Pacific Lumber Co. land, the Headwaters Forest Complex area not covered in the 7500 acre Headwaters Preserve, to Native American stewardship.
Summary of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria’s Headwaters Ancestral Land Lottery Plan
Goals
1) To regain title to approximately 52,500 acres of ancestral tribal land held by Pacific Lumber Co. using gaming proceeds from a special California Headwaters Ancestral Land Lottery. This timberland contains perhaps another 2500 acres of old growth groves as well as second and third growth forests and cutover land. After establishing a fair market value for this land, our Tribe will purchase this Headwaters Forest Complex parcel for Bear River tribal ownership and forest management. The remaining old growth groves within the 52,500 acres will be permanently set aside from any logging except for selective salvage logging found biologically necessary to remove diseased trees that pose a health threat to adjacent tree stands and to reduce the risk of forest fire devastation of old growth endangered species habitat.
2) To fund any current Pacific Lumber Co. employee layoff or retraining costs that result from withdrawal of commercial logging of old growth stands in the Headwaters Forest Complex area. Using the Bear River Timber Accord environmental forestry plan, current Pacific Lumber Co. employment will not be drastically reduced by the transfer of ownership of the 52,500 acres of Headwaters Forest Complex. Bear River will contract out logging and milling to Pacific Lumber Co. and the Tribe’s long term sustainable timber production schedule will guarantee timber jobs now and for generations to come.
3) To fund economic development, social services, and educational training for members of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria until the Headwaters Forest Complex parcel is fully purchased and producing significant income for the Tribe from logging and milling contracted out to Pacific Lumber Co.
4) To fund the establishment of a Bear River Credit Union or Tribal Bank to organize and oversee income allocation and investment management from proceeds of the Headwaters Ancestral Land Lottery, logging contracts with Pacific Lumber Co., and income from other Bear River tribally owned businesses.
Basic Assumptions
Lotteries
Lotteries have a long history of use as a popular economic mechanism for raising money for large-scale community and State projects. England’s Queen Elizabeth I used national lotteries to finance the building of London Bridge and the British Museum. In America, lotteries were used to help finance the armies in the French and Indian War as well as funding the construction of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Columbia universities.
In 1961, New Hampshire revived lottery fever in America when they started their state sanctioned lottery that has now paved the way for 35 state lotteries plus new tribally run ones such as the Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho’s National Indian Lottery which is scheduled to go on the Internet within four months and on line nationwide via an 800 number system within ten to twelve months.
In 1989, the conservative Hoover Institute think tank in Washington, DC, proposed a national lottery system to replace Federal income taxes. Also in 1989, Business Week magazine published a proposal by economist Paul Magnusson for an Environmental Protection Agency sponsored "Green Lottery". This "Green Lottery" would pay for lands set aside from commercial use for environmental protection reasons.
Project Feasibility
Lotteries are a thriving multi-billion dollar industry. Barbara Hill, economic analyst for the California Lottery, says Americans spent 25 billion dollars in thirty-six states in 1994 playing lotteries. The California Lottery made 2.6 billion dollars in ticket sales in 1994, up more than 12% from the previous year. Based on earnings of current multi-state lotteries like Power Ball, the Coeur d’Alene’s National Indian Lottery management firm estimates it will be generating around one billion dollars per year. Although our Headwaters Ancestral Land Lottery plan was inspired by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s National Indian Lottery, we have decided against doing a national lottery at this time for two main reasons:
1) Even though the National Indian Lottery has won National Indian Gaming Commission approval, thirty-five State Attorney Generals have threatened suits against the telephone carrier for the lottery’s 800 number system which has forced Coeur d’Alene into legal battles that are continuing to delay the opening of their nationwide lottery. And
2) California is such a populous state we do not really need to go nationwide to generate the kind of monies necessary to buy out the Headwaters Forest Complex parcel. Staying within California borders will free us from interstate legal battles although we do plan to go on the Internet later on.
The real question of feasibility for our Headwaters Ancestral Land Lottery is political. The 7500 acre Headwaters Preserve deal made by the Clinton Administration has failed to meet the demands of environmentalists for protection of all the remaining old growth groves in the Headwaters Forest Complex area. Because these groves contain some of the very last old growth redwood stands left in the world, environmentalists are unlikely to stop their protest actions until the government or someone figures out a way of saving these trees. This means the Timber War between environmentalists and Chas. Hurwitz’s Pacific Lumber Co. will continue on indefinitely.
We think we have created a real "Win-Win" scenario for everyone with our Headwaters Ancestral Land Lottery. Our lottery plan will raise the money needed to set aside all the old growth stands within the 52,500 acres. Our plan will continue employment for Pacific Lumber Co. forest workers and it will provide self-reliance and economic development funds for our tribal community as well. Our plan won’t hurt the local economy by closing off timber production land. In fact, it may very well become an industry model for the resolution of major conflicts between environmental protection and timber production, the beginnings of a headwaters of healing for us all.
The Bear River Forest Management Plan
The Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria’s Forest Management Plan for the 60,000 acres "Headwaters Forest Complex" acquired through tribal economic development projects will establish a new precedent for environmentally sound forestry. Headwaters Forest will be managed using traditional and modern Native American forestry knowledge and practice. Unlike European-American developed forest science that limits ecological management systems to commercial or environmental standards that exclude human-plant-animal community bonds developed over thousands of years, we will return to holistic forest management wherein tribal knowledge and modern science will work hand and hand together to produce a dynamic "sub-climax" forest conditions that will maximize both forest and animal species restoration and regeneration.
Included in this packet is a draft prepared for the U.S. Forest Service Klamath National Forest by Dennis Martinez that presents the Karuk Tribal Module of Mainstem Salmon Watershed Analysis. This detailed report on the rationale for using Native American forest management techniques that fully include traditional environmental knowledge, (TEK), forms a basis for our Bear River Forest Management Plan. For Western eco-science, this Native American stewardship concept is new because it includes the function of the human community, (Tribes), as essential for the full restoration of forest eco-stability as it functioned creating the forest conditions Europeans found here 200 to 150 years ago. It is therefore not based on a fiction of "Natural" forest climax succession outside of human intervention, but recognizes the central player role Tribes played managing the forests with fires, selective breeding of indigenous plants, and control of animal populations, all of which had major ecological impact that created the dynamic, yet stabilized forests found previous to European-American colonization.
With the above in mind, we present here only a very broad outline of our Tribal forest management plans which will be modified with time and study of the actual forest conditions present in the Headwaters Forest Complex area.
The Four Timber Management Zones of the Bear River Forest Management Plan
The "Natural" Rotation Zone
The 5,500acres of old growth stands within the 60,000 acre Headwaters Forest Complex will be permanently set aside from any commercial logging excepting removal of diseased trees that can be scientifically verified to pose a serious health hazard to adjoining tree stands, or removal of windfall trees that exceed normal or "natural" fallen and decaying tree biomass needs for healthy forest regeneration. With fire suppression in effect for over a century, there are no "natural" forests on Pacific Lumber Company timberlands. It is Nature’s way to end the climax succession cycle of every forest with fire or other natural events that cause old trees to fall which in turn lets sunlight reach the forest floor. Only the ancient redwood giants on alluvial flats or otherwise stable ground seem able to withstand major forest fires that used to periodically ravage our local forests.
In our North Coast area the majority of conifer trees, redwoods, firs, etc. are on hillside ground that is slowly but surely shifting downhill and so the life cycles of our trees correspond to fire and land shifting patterns. Unless very favorably situated, most old growth conifers will die out one way or another after reaching 350 years of age. What can happen when fire suppression is in effect and removal of downed trees prohibited can be seen today in the State Park groves along the Avenue of the Giants. People who have lived in this area for several decades can tell you there are a lot more "dead top" trees now along the Avenue than there were just twenty years ago. Also, an increasing number of windfall trees litter the ground of these old growth stands pointing to a disturbing die-back trend. These old growth trees are falling at a much faster rate that at which they can ever be naturally replaced. It’s true the highway increases the wind corridor effect of the Eel River valley although there are other old growth stands higher in the mountains also suffering heavy windfall damage. Nevertheless, the principle of fire suppression throwing off natural forest cycles holds true for all our forests. Some amount of selective salvage logging of dead, dying and diseased trees may by vitally necessary for forest health when major fires are not allowed to periodically cleanse the forest and let sunlight in to start the forest recovery cycle.
New permanent old growth stands will be established along all fish bearing streams throughout the 60,000 acres of the Headwaters Forest Complex. These late seral stage trees will permanently protect the watercourse areas for the fish and other wildlife dependent on them. The trees will provide canopy shade and woody debris for healthy salmon and steelhead spawning as well as biological corridors for the free movement of wildlife throughout our timberlands. Current forest practice laws governing the widths of watercourse protection zones will be increased and a "working" buffer zone, the Slow Rotation Zone, abutting the Natural Rotation Zone, will insure that all old growth dependent species will have plenty of existing and reestablished old growth habitat throughout all of the 60,000 acres of the Headwaters Forest Complex.
The Slow Rotation Zone
The Slow Rotation Zones interior of the Natural Rotation Zones along all fish-bearing streams will be harvested on a sustainable 200 year rotation schedule. Selected areas will be harvested in "pocket clearcuts" of five to ten acres to mimic fire swathes of major forest fires. Selective logging of individual trees will be used in areas where the slope of the land exceeds 30 degrees. Merchantable local redwood, firs, and other species will be replanted but will have to compete naturally for sunlight with spontaneously returning non-conifer brush and trees until the conifers eventually shade out the smaller tree species and compete with each other for light. In other words, there will be no manual, and certainly never any chemical release of competing vegetation for our merchantable trees within the Slow Rotation Zone. This technique will produce 200 year old merchantable trees in forests that have old growth characteristics to provide excellent habitat for old growth dependent species. It will also produce trees that have the tight narrow growth rings for high quality lumber. And it will allow non-merchantable trees and vegetation to occur naturally in the forest regeneration cycle so that all the plant and animal species dependent on these earlier stages of the climax succession cycle have their place in the whole diversity of life found in our "redwood" forests.
The widths of the Slow Rotation Zones will vary depending on watershed topography and Natural Rotation Zone widths, but both zones together will average over a quarter of a mile in width along every blue line watercourse throughout the 60,000 acres. We call it a "working" buffer zone because it will produce quality wood products from trees with old growth characteristics as well as producing the variety of forest species found in the complete forest regeneration cycle. Managing strictly for late seral conditions may be beneficial for endangered species dependent on old growth, but it does not reproduce the variety of species found in the complete forest regeneration cycle that must start off from bare ground. Ancestral burial grounds and other areas of special concern to the Tribe will be similarly surrounded by this dual zone system.
The Graduated Rotation Zone
The Graduated Rotation Zone is interior of the Slow Rotation and Natural Rotation Zones. It is a narrow transitional zone separating the Slow Rotation Zone from the Fast Rotation Zone. Its main purpose is protecting the taller Slow Rotation and Natural Rotation Zone trees from wind damage. Trees will be selectively logged according to height to create an air flow pattern that directs winds up and over the tops of taller old growth trees instead of hitting their exposed tops broadside. Trees of the Graduated Rotation Zones thus graduate in height with the shorter trees bordering the Fast Rotation Zones or tree farm areas and taller trees bordering the Slow Rotation Zones. Reducing windfalls increases the longevity of the old growth stands.
The "Fast" Rotation Zone
The majority of the 60,000 acre Headwaters Forest Complex timberland, i.e. all the forest areas outside of the 5,500 acres of old growth stands in Owl Creek, etc. and outside the Natural, Slow, and Graduated Rotation Zones, will be on a 80 year rotation schedule. This is the "tree farm" and purposely uses a fairly short term rotation schedule not only for maximum sustainable commercial productivity, but also for sound environmental reasons. Operating under a "politically correct" anti-corporate bias which suppresses any environmental information that financially benefits the timber industry, environmental activists have completely ignored the Global Warming factor in temperate forest management. Thus fast harvesting schedules and clearcuts are almost always condemned by environmental activists in favor of old growth management and greatly reduced logging of any sort. This forest management policy is not environmentally sound for our 21st Century atmospheric conditions that must guide our present forest management policies.
It is established fact that young forests with proportionately more green leaf foliage area produce and release more oxygen into the atmosphere and bind more carbon dioxide into woody tissue through photosynthesis than do old growth forests. Cutting and removing this bound carbon as lumber products for new houses and buildings not only helps the economy on many levels, e.g. providing plentiful cheaper lumber for more housing starts, but also takes carbon dioxide out of the Greenhouse cycle by storing the carbon as wood products and releasing the oxygen back into the atmosphere. Growing forests fast, harvesting fast, providing more and more lumber, is good for the atmospheric environment which ultimately must be protected to insure any sort of long term climatic stability for our native forests. If the overall climate changes due to the Greenhouse Effect, no amount of environmental actions aimed only at protecting endangered species in old growth stands will be effective.
At present, Pacific Lumber Company seems to be using medium to large clearcuts for harvesting their trees. The Bear River Timber Accord plan for the Fast Rotation Zone tree farm areas would use small "pocket clearcuts" (five to ten acres) to mimic fire swathes and to create small open ground rapid tree growth areas that are always surrounded by lines of older trees. This helps minimize soil erosion from our heavy rains and provides cover and habitat for wildlife using the Fast Rotation Zones. Together with the Graduated, Slow, and Natural Rotation Zones, even the Fast Rotation "tree farm" areas will insure plenty of varied habitat for regeneration of all native species of wildlife, not just the relatively small percentage of old growth dependent endangered species that environmental activists seem focused on to the exclusion of other species.
Special concern will be taken with logging roads on our timberlands. Mud and silt runoff from dirt roads exposed to our heavy North Coast rainfall contributes to the degradation of our fish-bearing streams. This is a major problem not only on timberland properties but throughout the rural homestead and ranch lands of Humboldt County. To lesson the problem of mud and silt runoff from roads we will research new ways of using excess river rock and gravel to build up permanent road beds that won’t wash away. Trees and vegetation would be maintained along road boarders to absorb runoff. After use, temporary roads will be recycled back to forest ground. Bridges would be used instead of culverts that have a habit of "blowing out" and creating mudslides.
The Bear River Timber Accord plan can only be outlined at this time. Actual forest conditions on the 60,000 acre Headwaters Forest Complex and the inheritance of Maxxam’s logging practices are mostly unknowns. Bear River Tribal ownership of this land will necessarily entail many surveys of existing conditions, surveys of trees and species counts of wildlife supported by these trees. The bottom line is that the Bear River Timber Accord plan will insure that all the old growth forests would be permanently set aside, thousands of acres of "new" old growth habitat will be created, yet high levels of lumber production consistent with long term sustainability and environmental protection will be maintained.
* *
Don "Sparky" Brenard and me, Steve Lewis, co-authors of the Heartlands Plan
