Family that founded the Gap wants to wrest Palco away from Hurwitz
In one of the more curious storylines emerging from the Palco bankruptcy drama, the billionaire Fisher family of San Francisco, founders of the hip-clothing-super-chain-store, the Gap, wants to invest $200 million into Palco, but only if the judge removes the company from the control of Maxxam's Charles Hurwitz, and puts it under the control of the Fishers' company, Mendocino Redwood Co., based in Ukiah.
The proposal emerged late Thursday in a last-minute court filing before a Friday hearing in federal court in Texas, where the Palco bankruptcy case is being heard. The Times-Standard's John Driscoll touches on the Fisher family proposal in his story this morning about the Friday hearing. The San Francisco Chronicle's Tom Abate, a former Arcata resident and one of the co-founders of the North Coast Journal (I believe), has more information about the Fisher family proposal in today's Chronicle.
The Fisher family proposes to restore Palco's heavily logged forests, in contrast to Palco's proposal to sell of huge tracts of its forest to developers to build exclusive estates that would be marketed to the mega wealthy. All of Palco's creditors have scorned this proposal.
The Garberville-based Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) supports the plan to consolidate Palco with Mendocino Redwood, which the Sierra Club has praised for its forest management practices. Mendocino Redwood has also been "accredited" by the Forest Stewardship Council, a group that audits timber companies' logging practices.
However, Palco is apparently not impressed with all this praise for Mendocino Redwood Co.
"I would say that we are both good stewards of the land," Palco general counsel Frank Bacik told Abate.
Comments
That's funny -- a low blow disguised as a compliment.
Posted by: Heraldo | December 22, 2007 01:33 PM
Thanks for not singing the praises of FSC. They are not exempt from scrutiny or skepticism in my book. What they certify as sustainable varies wildly.
http://www.fsc-watch.org/
I do think that Mendo Redwood Company is a bit better than Maxxam's PL though.
Posted by: John Doe 86 | December 22, 2007 10:33 PM
I don't anything about the FSC.
Just about any ownership other than Hurwitz is better.
Posted by: Andrew Bird | December 23, 2007 04:42 AM
"Mendocino Redwood has also been "accredited" by the Forest Stewardship Council, a group that audits timber companies' logging practices."
You fail to mention that PALCO is also accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 2, 2008 11:28 AM
Andrew, PL is certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), which is the timber industry's own program. FSC may still have its detractors, but it has far more credibility than SFI.
Posted by: Mark Lovelace | January 10, 2008 08:51 AM
gap has a lot of action already in mendocino county. have exceeded looging plans as well as divided up and sold parcels for residental use.
Posted by: margaret krefting | January 14, 2008 12:25 PM