Flod Disaster

keep our area's economy healthy."

While this region begins to clean up the damage and reports pour in telling of the destruction, national park supporters plant the seed in the public's mind that logging in the area caused much of the damage by cutting trees in the watersheds.

D. W. Cooper of the University of California's agricultural extension service at Eureka contradicted the preservationist appeal by saying that logging contributed in no u)q.y to the llooding. Cooper said his studies show. that young trees and dense herbaceous growth on newly harvested sites have moisture capacity and soil stability equal to or better than that of untouched old-growth redwood sites.

Even in view of the facts that the redwood logging industry's excellendy managed timberlands in many cases survived the flood better than virgin timber and existing park lands, the national park supporters want to take over valuable forest lands and watershed. In November, one preservation group claimed the entire Mill Creek watershed as its number one objective to be kept intact to prevent the lower parklandsfrom being flooded, it says.

The tragic flood, however, again proves this claim wrong. Miller Redwood Company, which owns 73 percent of the Mill Creek watershed. recorded more than 60 inches of rain during the flood. Yet, Miller Redwood did not lose one'bridge or a road in any location, wr d,id Mill Creek eaen ouerflow its banks. The only silt deposits in Jedediah Smith Park, the concern of the park supporters, are back-up from the the Smith River which carried water from deep in the virgin timber of the U.S. Forest Service in the Six Rivers National Forest!

The flood did, however, point out the fact that the redwood area needs a stable industry-such as the logging and wood products industry-on which to base its economy. A national park just cannot replace this industry for this region.

In Del Norte and Humboldt counties alone, according to the Redwood Region Conservation Council, more than 4,000 men are currently out of work, representing a weekly payroll loss of $529,000, because of the flood. A survey compiled by the North Coast Timber Association indicates that if shipping lanes are out for as long as four weeks, Humboldt and Del Norte counties will have 6,642 mill em- ployees out of work representing a weekly payroll of -$798,550. These two counties normally employ 13,500 in tle forest industry, representing an annual payroll of $89,400,000.

"The prospect for our economy looks pretty grim for the next three monthg" said R. F. Denbo, manager of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce. "I hope people who want to put a national redwood park in here take a good look, because it would have about the same efiect on the economy -mills shut down and thousands jobless."

But in this aftermath of the flood, the shutdown is only temporary-not permanent as would be the case if a national park is established. While the park supporters say that a national park can replace the logging industry as the base for the economy, the park proposal put out by the National Park Service itself does not proj' ect as much revenue from a national park five years from now as it would eliminate from the pr€sent economy with the erasure of one redwood company. Arcata Redwood Company would rbe destroyed if the park proposal is successful.

Look at the men temporarily out of work and the many millions of dollars lost because of the ,C.hristmas woek flood. These men and many more will be out of work permanently if a national redwood park is estallished according to the current pro' posals.

The damage done by this flood would be small compared to the hardships created in this area by the establishment of the park. Is it worth it?