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Company Quick Facts:

Founded: 1863

Location: Headquartered in Scotia, California with a planer and sawmill in Scotia and a sawmill in Arcata.

Component companies: PALCO; the timber harvesting arm, Scotia Pacific Company, LLC (SCOPAC); and Britt Lumber.

Acreage: Approx. 220,000 acres in Humboldt County, CA., zoned exclusively for timber production.

Wood products: Redwood and Douglas-fir lumber and value-added products

Employees: Approximately 550

Merged with Houston-based Maxxam, Inc. in 1986 upon 82% approval vote of PALCO shareholders.

Environmental Certifications: Sustainable Forestry Initiative ® program

Environmental Quick Facts:

Over the years, PALCO has transferred ownership of nearly 27,000 acres of forest to the public for old-growth protection.

In 1999, PALCO signed an agreement with the State and Federal governments committing the Company to conducting harvest under a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). Collectively, this document and a land exchange are called the Headwaters Agreement, because at the same time, the Headwaters Forest was sold to the State and Federal governments.

With the completion of the Headwaters Agreement, about 85% of the old-growth that was in the Company's position at that time was conserved in the Headwaters Reserve and the Marbled Murrelet Conservation Areas (MMCAs). Of the remaining 15%, much of it is off limits to harvest because of the provisions of the HCP.

Under the interim HCP measures, PALCO is conducting management with the most stringent restrictions in the state:

  • No harvest is allowed on areas prone to landsliding.
  • No harvest or limited harvest is allowed in wide buffers along all watercourses.
  • Trees are left throughout the harvest area for wildlife habitat.
  • About 6,000 acres of land, a large portion of which is old-growth, is set aside for 50 years as Marbled Murrelet Conservation Areas (MMCAs).
  • Large buffers are retained around at least 108 spotted owl sites each year.
  • Watershed analysis, a comprehensive evaluation of site specific conditions in each watershed to determine the appropriate protections, is conducted across the property .

    • The result of these stringent restrictions is that, currently, half of the Company's forestland is off limits to harvest.