SACRAMENTO — Timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries will pay the lion’s share of a $122.5 million cash-and-land settlement to end a federal lawsuit stemming from the 2007 Moonlight Fire, which consumed 65,000 acres and more than 15 million trees in Northern California.
Terms of the deal, announced Tuesday by Benjamin Wagner, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, call for SPI to convey 22,500 acres of its California forest land holdings — to be selected by the U.S. Forest Service — to the federal government. The company will also pay $47 million in cash. SPI contractors and various landowners will pay the remaining $8 million.
