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A federal-court lawsuit on the Owl Creek logging, due for trial in July, may determine how seriously logging firms must take endangered-species regulations. Mark Harris, a young lawyer for EPIC, which brought the suit, is bitter about Pacific Lumber and Maxxam. "They're hosing this county," he says. "If they've got a new Blazer in the driveway, that's their environment." In April EPIC also sued the California Department of Forestry for "failing to lawfully respond to environmental issues" in approving old- growth cutting. Lasting protection of the old-growth redwoods, however, depends on Congressman Hamburg's Headwaters bill. The catch is price. Maxxam doesn't want to sell the whole 44,000 acres -- about one-fifth of Pacific's holdings -- on which fast-growing second- and third-generation redwoods are reaching market size. But it is willing, perhaps eager, to sell Headwaters and a logged-over 1,500-acre buffer zone for something more than $500 million, the Forest Service estimate of the value of the timber. Hamburg thinks the figure % is far too high.
Deep in the Headwaters forest, as these matters simmered, activist Thron spent his day making photos, then hiked back down the trail after dark. Last fall Hurwitz's lawyers threatened to sue Thron unless he ceased his photographic raids and stopped giving the Headwaters show. He and Ingrey kept on trucking. The two were married last week in Arcata and plan to hit the road with fresh slides.
Hurwitz, in the meantime, regards the world contentedly from the cover of a magazine called Leaders, which flatters CEOS with softball interviews. (Sample question: "You see opportunities where others may not see them?" Hurwitz's reply: "Yes.") He tells Leaders that his lumber people are looking into operations in New Zealand, South America, Mexico and Russia.