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STATEMENT OF CECELIA LANMAN, 

 ENVlRONMENfTAL PROTECTION INFORMATION CENTER (EPIC) 



COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE 

 Sub-Committee on Spedaity Crops & Natural Resources 

 October 13, 3993 



Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee for the 

 opportunity to testify today in support of the Headwaters Forest Act, H.R. 

 2866. 



My name is Cecelia Lanman. I have been a small forestland owner in 

 Humboldt County since 1977. I have done restoration work to improve 

 timber stands and planted thousands of trees to prevent erosion and siltation 

 of nearby streams. My children go to school with children of logging families 

 whose parents used to work in the small mills that dotted every watershed. 



I am currently the Project Director for the Environmental Protection 

 Information Center (EPIC), a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting 

 the health and biodiversity of our region's forests. I have served as a 

 member of the EPIC Board of Directors since 1982. I have been active in the 

 Ancient Forest Alliance since its inception in Portland in 1988. I am also the 

 president and a founding member of Forests Forever. 1 am committed to 

 protecting the ecological integrity of the redwood region. 



The ancient forest of California's North Coast is unique among our Nation's 

 major forest bioregions. The diverse forests of the region include redwood, 

 hardwoods and Douglas fir and provide habitat for many endangered species 

 including the Northern spotted owl, fisher, red tree vole, marbled murrelet, 

 Olympic salamander, tailed frog and Coho salmon. Unlike the Klamath and 

 the Sierra forest bioregions, which are mostly within federal jurisdiction, the 

 coastal low elevation forests are predominantly on private lands and are 

 under intensive corporate management. 



96% of the original two million acre ancient Redwood ecosytem is gone. 

 76,000 acres remain in fragmented groves within the park system, and the 

 remaining unprotected andent forests are slated for logging. The 

 fragmentation of the ecosystem has resulted in severe degradation of water 

 quality, soil productivity, fisheries, wildlife habitat, and other ecological 

 processes which are critical to sustain the health of the forests and rural 

 economies in the North Coast region. In less than a century, corporate 

 exploitation has brought spedes to the brink of extinction and threatens the 

 livelihood of our communities. 



The ecological crisis in the redwoods, the takeover of Padfic Lumber by 

 Houston- based MAXXAM corporation and the subsequent liquidation 



