FEATURE
One of the most devastating environmental impacts from this intensive logging was widespread erosion. With each winter’s rains, massive amounts of sediment washes down from barren hillsides and chokes rivers and streams. (see Figure 1). No place has suffered these effects as extensively as the Elk River watershed, a focal point of Maxxam’s liquidation logging from 1988 to 2000. The Elk River's runs of native salmon and steelhead have diminished significantly over the past three decades because of spawning beds that are buried in silt and poor water quality that makes it difficult for juvenile fish to find food. CalTrout is working with landowners, fisheries agencies, and expert scientists to restore the Elk River and give the native salmon and steelhead a chance to return to a semblance of their former glory. One of the key partners is the owner of the former PALCO properties, Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC), which agreed to purchase forest lands from PALCO during the bankruptcy trial.
Although most people have not heard of California's Elk River, it is the largest tributary to Humboldt Bay and historically provided some of the highest quality habitat for salmon (coho and Chinook) and steelhead in the north coast region. In addition to the damage from unsustainable logging, the Elk River has been dramatically altered and impacted by dairy and cattle ranching in the lower reaches of the river and by the wholesale conversion (referred to euphemistically as “reclamation”) of its tidal marshes and estuary. Historically rich and productive tidal marsh areas where juvenile salmon and steelhead once reared in the lower Elk River have been diked and converted to pasture, and much of the tidal flows have been confined by dikes or blocked by tide gates.
The legacy of logging
1863
Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO) formed
1985
Hostile takeover of PALCO by Houston-based Maxxam Corporation
1997
On 12/10, Julia Butterfly Hill begins her 736-day vigil at the top of the redwood tree, Luna
