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The Headwaters Forest Act authorizes the Secretary of 

 Agriculture to initiate negotiation which over time will result 

 in the transfer of approximately 44,000 acres of redwood forest 

 in Humboldt County from private to public ownership. 88% of the 

 land will be managed for multiple-use including timber 

 operations. 



The groves of old growth, just over 5,000 acres, will be 

 placed off limits for any logging operations. This is the 

 largest remaining unprotected virgin redwood forest in the world. 



Standing 300 feet high in these groves are some of the most 

 magnificent life forms in creation: giant redwoods many over 

 1000 years old, anchor a now rare and fragile ecosystem. Use of 

 bulldozers to harvest old growth trees makes the old growth top 

 soils particularly vulnerable to erosion. Erosion threatens the 

 streams that begin and run through these forests. Located in 

 highly erosive geologic formations, any additional sedimentation 

 threatens the spawning grounds of the anadromous fish that return 

 to these waters. 



I wish to offer today for the record testimony by Dr. Peter 

 Moyle, Professor of Fisheries at the University of California at 

 Davis, and the leading expert on coho salmon in California. 



