269 



Statement of Bonnie Raitt 



Committee on Agriculture 

 Sub-Conunittee on Specialty Crops and Natural Resources 



October 13, 1993 



Good Moming Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. I have come here 

 today to respectfully urge your support for the Headwaters Forest Act proposed by 

 Congressmen Dan Hamburg and Pete Stark from my family's district in Northern 

 California. 



Time is running out for us to preserve what litde remains of the ancient growth 

 redwoods which have such an important part of our area's economic and environmental 

 survival. I've been returning to these majestic groves for spiritual and creative 

 inspiration for as long as I can remember, and I know I sp«ik for the millions of 

 travelers and residents who would be as horrified as I am to find out just how many 

 acres of their beloved forest have been sacrificed in the name of Maxxam corporation's 

 need for junk bond interest payments. 



I've been brought to tears of fiiry and grief after flying over miles of mutilated 

 clear-cut mountains where, in a cruel charade, only a hundred yards of trees have been 

 left standing along the highway so as not to alarm the tourists driving by. In the years 

 since Maxxam's takeover of pacific Lumber's territory in 1986, I have personally seen 

 our community's economy and morale decline to a heartbreaking degree. With little 

 regard for fragile ecosystems or long-term repercussions, MAXXAM's years of 

 aggressive timber management threaten what litde is left of pristine habitat. 



Soon the old-growth logging mills will be closed down, costing forests and 

 surrounding businesses, including tourism, thousands of jobs—all because of the lack of a 

 sustainable long-term policy that could have saved the counties from their current 

 downhill plunge. More and more, the environmentalists and loggers are seeing the issue 

 from the same side— not just some symbolic preservation of a few endangered creatures 

 and parklands, but the very survival of the region as a whole. 



As today's testimony shows, so-called private stewardship of this irreplaceable 

 national resource has been disastrous. To save 3.5 % of the ancient forest diat once 

 was, is not, as Charles Hurwitz says, "enough". Once these ancient trees and the 

 miraculous microcosm of life and history they represent are gone, they are gone forever. 



What right have we to let this magnificent and absolutely unique link to our past 

 and future be eradicated by the shortsighted greed and mismanagement of a few? This 

 bill is what responsible forest policy is all about. Please enact it now. 



Thank you. 



