247 



Statement of Jim Owens 



Forests, Family Farms, and Energy Subcommittee 



September 10, 1992 



Page 2 



Forest in Humboldt County. I've had the opportunity to work with 

 Congressman Bosco, Congressman Frank Riggs, Congressman Pete 

 Stark and a number of local and state legislators and officials towards a 

 resolution of the conflict surrounding the Headwaters Forest. 



Mr. Chairman, this is an issue which must be resolved soon as I 

 have testified in the past. In Humboldt County, the tensions within 

 the small communities which have developed in the region during the 

 past hundred-plus years have never been more divisive than they are 

 today. Neighbors are pitted agairist neighbors, brothers argue with 

 sisters, and school children draw lines in the sand over timber issues. 

 As an environmental leader in Himiboldt County I was cor\stantly 

 threatened by timber workers, and other environmental activists 

 suffered serious injuries in an as yet unsolved car-bombing during a 

 tense summer when timber issues were being hotly debated on 

 California's northcoast. 



EKiring the past several years this Committee has been at the 

 forefront in Congressior\al efforts to understand and resolve the 

 aiudent forest crisis. I have been a frequent spectator while all of you 

 have posed serious questions to land mai\agers, scientists and 

 representatives of interest-groups, and I've been impressed with the 



