The Associated Press

By KIM CURTIS

HEADWATERS FOREST RESERVE, Calif. (AP) - It took years of haggling and $480 million to create the nation's newest wilderness sanctuary, a forest so serene that the sound of a hummingbird can startle the occasional hiker.

That silence could be shattered by huge Chinook helicopters hauling away Douglas firs and redwoods if the Pacific Lumber Co. wins a court battle Wednesday over the so-called ``Hole in the Headwaters.''

A lawsuit to block logging in the preserve's lone remaining unprotected area was filed by the Sierra Club and the Environmental Protection Information Center. They accuse the administration of Gov. Gray Davis of failing to allow public comment on the plan.

``The public and the environment will be irreparably harmed,'' the groups argue in the lawsuit, filed in March. ``Helicopters will trespass upon the reserve's promise of awe and solitude, ruining the experience of anyone unfortunate enough to enter.''

Pacific Lumber is ready to begin logging if the judge rejects the environmentalists' injunction request. Earth First!, whose members have chained themselves to tractors and trees, is already training volunteers for a long summer of civil disobedience.

The decision could have huge implications in the region, where Humboldt State University in Arcata is one of the few major employers outside the timber industry, and tourism hasn't begun to replace the kind of salaries loggers get.

The plot in question is just within the northern edge of the 7,400-acre preserve created more than a year ago 250 miles north of San Francisco.

Pacific Lumber acquired the tract from Elk River Timber Co., which had state approval to log the area using roads that have since become restricted by the Headwaters agreement. Four months ago, Pacific Lumber asked to use helicopters instead.

Company spokeswoman Mary Bullwinkel said the project covers 595 acres and includes buffer zones around streams to protect several protected salmon species. Pacific Lumber said its own biologists conducted surveys to ensure logging would not encroach on habitat of the spotted owl.

The California Department of Forestry approved the helicopter plan within two days of receiving the request from Pacific Lumber ``because all the changes improved the environmental impact,'' CDF lawyer Louis Blumberg said.

Logging in the area was always part of the deal, he said.

The environmental groups say politics is at work and that Davis told his department to rush the approval.

``This is complete supposition on their part,'' responded Stanley Young, spokesman for the state Resources Agency, which oversees the Forestry Department. ``The governor had nothing to do with this decision.''