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STORY: Houston-based multinational corporation MAXXAM is under pressure from local activists for its relationship to logging of old growth forests in Northern California. A group calling itself Houston Earth First is protesting in front of MAXXAM's headquarters here every Monday. It's calling on MAXXAM to change the ways of Pacific Lumber, a California-based logging company that is held by MAXXAM. A local protester describes what took place last Monday: "So we walked into the side entrance holding a banner and yelling, "Hey Hurwitz, you can't hide! We've got you for ecocide!" Charles Hurwitz is the Chief Executive Officer of MAXXAM. Protesters say the direction he's led Pacific Lumber to follow in order to increase profits has led to a horrible environmental record. "The forests don't grow back after they've been cut, in general. And the Redwoods themselves which are thousands of years old some of them, are essentially non-renewable. There's no guarantee that they will grow back in the same number and the same distribution they had before. Often times they don't because the land is dried up. And they take thousands of years to grow." Director of the Northern California based Environmental Information Protection Center, Cynthia Elkins is pursuing a lawsuit against MAXXAM and Pacific Lumber. She describes the effects of the company's logging practices: "In this latest round of storms here in the north coast, we had a number of ancient redwood trees that had fallen in land that is supposed to be protected, it's actually inside the Humble Redwood State Park. And due to logging upstream from this area, by Pacific lumber and Maxxam, it has caused severe impact, which has basically caused the demise of these trees which are supposed to be in public hands and under protection." The effects of the logging go beyond the obvious: "People have lost their domestic water sources. Pacific Lumber is actually now required to actually truck in water to residents because they've lost their water sources from logging." Protesters in Houston say they want to draw attention to what is going on in Northern California for holding the Houston counterparts accountable. So far, there has been no response from MAXXAM. E-mail Renee Feltz at chickpea_@ziplip.com . This story was broadcast on February 5, 2003.