Treehuggers: Nose. Face. Ow.
California environmentalists--including a tribe of tree-sitting protesters--piled some seriously strict regulations on a logging company called Pacific Lumber. Especially important was the protection of "old growth" redwood trees up in Humboldt County.
Now Pacific Lumber has gone bankrupt, in large part because of regulations:
``We agreed to the most stringent environmental regulations ever placed on timber harvesting in California,'' she said. ``In exchange, we were given guarantees that we would be able to harvest at agreed-upon levels. We have lived up to our end of the contract. We believe the state has not. As a result, it has put us in a situation where we are not financially viable.''And now as part of their bankruptcy they may no longer be bound by the agreement they negotiated, and the old-growth redwoods may be headed to the sawmill.