Forestry foes turn over a new leaf.

A skirmish over a tract of swampland near Plymouth has brought an armistice in the longstanding war of writs between environmentalists and timber companies. Now it's up to Tacoma, Wash.-based Weyerhaeuser Co. and environmental groups to forge a peace process.

"The rubber hits the road in terms of implementation," says Rob Olszewski, Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp.'s director of environmental affairs. "All of us in the industry are watching to see how this works."

He is referring to a "conservation partnership" that grew out of a five-year court battle between five environmental groups and Weyerhaeuser. At issue was whether Weyerhaeuser, under the Clean Water Act, needs a permit to convert hardwood wetlands into pine plantations. In 1991, the Environmental Defense Fund, National Audubon Society, Sierra Club, North Carolina Wildlife Foundation and North Carolina Coastal Federation sued the Environmental Protection Agency and Weyerhaeuser, the state's largest private landowner. The battleground was the Parker Tract - an unspectacular 11,000 acres of low-lying woods.

During negotiations, Weyerhaeuser agreed to join with environmental groups and the state to protect sensitive plots and wildlife.

As a response to the suit against it, the EPA came up with broad guidelines for establishing pine plantations...