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Headwaters has been back in the media lately because Pacific Lumber is trying to log several hundred acres of the ?Hole in the Headwaters,? a thousand-acre island of industrial timberland surrounded on all sides by the Reserve. The ?hole? and other adjacent properties consist of steep, erodible hillsides above the South Fork Elk River. Fisheries scientists agree that the South Fork Elk harbors one of the most important remaining runs of wild coho salmon left in California. Landslides across the river from the ?hole,? triggered by logging operations four years ago, continue to bleed sediment into the fragile river system. A thin ribbon of public land is all that stands between the South Fork Elk and industrial logging operations.
When government officials and Pacific Lumber Company negotiated the original Reserve, they apparently forgot some important local history. Although the public bought the most valuable part of the watershed, the ancient redwoods of Headwaters Grove, negotiators drew illogical boundaries in the South Fork Elk River watershed that invite future degradation of these newly public lands. We?ve learned with the creation of other parks that biological reserves cannot be protected unless boundaries are drawn at ridgetops so that uphill activities don?t harm the public?s investment. We need to apply this lesson at Headwaters before it?s too late.
At both Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park, logging-related damage to the original parklands led to long, contentious battles over further acquisitions. In both of those instances, logging operations upstream and adjacent to the parks were causing severe degradation of park resources. After a disastrous landslide felled hundreds of giant trees in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Save the Redwoods League and the State Parks acquired the rest of the watershed in an attempt to prevent further destruction of the magnificent Rockefeller Grove. Similar events happened upstream of Redwood National Park, leading to a large expansion of the park into the Redwood Creek watershed. Redwood National Park has since spent over $30 million on restoring the watershed to a condition that doesn?t threaten the park and the river?s salmon and steelhead populations. Although they have made great strides, there are many years and many more millions of dollars to spend before the scars on that landscape are healed.
Unless the public takes action quickly, we are poised to repeat the same mistakes at Headwaters. The South Fork is the healthiest part of the Elk River drainage, flanked by mature second-growth forests and crowned by the massive redwoods of Headwaters Grove. With the recent Headwaters acquisition, the public protected the area?s most magnificent trees, but left the other 3,500 acres of the South Fork Elk in timber industry ownership. Irreparable damage to one of the last best salmon runs in California, despite the public?s massive investment, is inevitable if these lands remain unprotected.
Fortunately, the public now has a golden opportunity to remedy this oversight. Rather than wait for the damage to occur, and then spend millions of dollars acquiring cutover lands and millions more on restoration work, we can buy the South Fork Elk River watershed before any more logging occurs there. State legislation authorizing the Headwaters deal included $80 million for the acquisition of Owl Creek Grove, one of Pacific Lumber?s other ancient redwood groves in the area. With conspicuous foresight, the Legislature included a provision that funds left over after acquiring Owl Creek could be re-appropriated for further acquisitions in the Elk River area. The appraisal of Owl Creek has been completed, although its value hasn?t yet been made public. Any reasonable appraisal would leave many millions of dollars available for protecting the Elk River.
The state is in a rare position to finish what it started. There is an enormous budget surplus, bond money for parkland acquisition, salmon protection money, and a very substantial amount of money already earmarked for potential additions to the Headwaters Reserve. The Davis Administration should seize this opportunity to round out the Headwaters Reserve to the watershed boundaries of the South Fork Elk River. This would ensure that the public gets the maximum conservation benefit from its $380 million investment in the Reserve. There is an old salmon restoration adage, ?protect the best and restore the rest.? The South Fork Elk River is undoubtedly among the best streams remaining for California?s imperiled wild salmon. We should avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and protect it now rather than spend many more years and many millions of dollars trying to put it back together. Because as the other old adage goes, ?an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.?