Headwaters Forest Wilderness Forever!
The Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH) has been building support through educational outreach and grassroots organizing in the Bay Area and other urban centers for the preservation of redwood forest ecosystems since its inception in 1993. BACH acts as the conduit for connecting local Bay Area environmentalists with North Coast forest activists in the fight to preserve the last of California?s old growth redwood and Douglas-fir ecosystems. (read more)


Headwaters Action Video Collective
Thanks to our many supporters, Headwaters Action Video (read more)


Earth First! Keeps Up Its Forest Defense

While Governor Davis continues to add Corporate Timber dollars to his war chest, the forests of the North Coast continue to be ravaged by chainsaws. The Hole in Headwaters is one of many areas sacrificed by the Headwaters deal, and as other stories in this Update report, a timber harvest plan is pending here. North Coast Earth First! (NCEF!) is prepared to defend the 705-acre area, home to one of the five remaining Coho salmon spawning runs in the state. (read more)


Let's Not Make the Same Mistake Again

In March 1999, the 7500-acre Headwaters Reserve passed into public ownership. Much ado was made about saving this priceless stand of ancient redwoods for the survival of endangered species and the inspiration of future generations. However, logging on adjacent timberlands now threatens the Reserve. A quick look at the history of other redwood parks shows that a second round of acquisition was often necessary to protect the original parkland. Right now, we have a unique opportunity to complete the Headwaters Reserve by acquiring the rest of the South Fork Elk River watershed before logging-related landslides and sedimentation further degrade the resources the Reserve was supposed to protect. (read more)


Pepper Spray Plantiffs Win Appeal

?A rational juror could easily conclude that there was sufficient evidence for a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. Accordingly, we reverse the district court?s decision to enter judgement for the defendants Humboldt County and its Sheriff?s Department. We remand this action for a new trial.? ~ Appeals court ruling (read more)


What's the Next Step to Permanently Protect Headwaters?
Now that a portion of Headwaters Forest has been acquired and placed under (read more)


What is Headwaters Forest?
For the past 15 years, Headwaters Forest has been the premier old-growth redwood preservation effort in Northern California. Located about 10 miles southeast of Eureka, these vast unprotected ancient redwood forests were controlled by the Pacific Lumber Company, which was purchased by the Texas-based Maxxam Corporation in a hostile takeover in the mid-1980s. Due to the extreme debt burden that resulted from the takeover, the new owners of Pacific Lumber radically accelerated the liquidation of these ancient redwood stands. (read more)


Will the Hole in Headwaters Be Logged?

Nestled among maturing second-growth redwoods and Douglas-firs, the South Fork Elk River harbors one of the most important populations of wild, naturally spawning coho salmon left in California. Part of the new Headwaters Reserve falls within its boundaries, but more than three-quarters of the watershed was left unprotected by the Headwaters deal. Recognizing the importance of the watershed, but apparently ignorant of basic biology, government negotiators acquired only a narrow buffer strip along the river, connecting the northwest and northeast corners of the main reserve. The result was an acquisition with a hole in the middle, popularly known as ?Hole in the Headwaters.? (read more)