Redwood Reader

A new program announced at Community Central Credit Union in Garberville that is offering loans for Australian large capacity water storage tanks for local residents. The tanks hold from 12000 to 62000 gallons and are intended to help keep private homes, farms and ranches from using river water in summer when low flows are thought to be caused by use. At any rate, this is a great opportunity for residents. Water is a scarce commodity in summer and all storage is valuable. This would have people go to tanked water after August 1. The program may have some effect on the flow regimes but I believe that is a matter of the storage capacity of the soil in the watershed. Lets not forget recovering lands with open canopy and lots of brush are transpiring large amounts of water without the storage capacity fully recovered. The concentrated effect and small size make the Mattole an ideal area to investigate the effects of destruction of the water holding ability of the land. There is some point at which the canopy closes in and soil water capacity exceeds vegetative needs throughout the summer. At this point the streams are running all year and people can’t dry up the stream simply because too much water is circulating through the watershed. Plus, we need more swimming holes.
Stockton Pacific Pulp Mill was officially sold today (Jan 21, 2005) to Lee Man of Hong Kong. I can’t say if this was a good deal for the sellers, but the people of Humboldt have acquired a promising new partner in the community. Privately held, and producing material for their own manufacturing takes the market variations out of the picture for this plant, promising stable employment and production. The union has signed a contract outlining raises for the next three years. Management has said nearly everyone working there now will be back when the mill reopens. This was an important deal for Humboldt Municipal Water District as well since it appears that the new mill owners will pay old water bills of over $500,000. The mill owed so much there was talk of the Water District facing bankruptcy this year, and that Eureka and Samoa would see large rate increases to make up for the 50% cut in usage closure would have meant. Fairhaven Power Plant, also in sale negotiations with a separate buyer, hung in the balance as they use the mills effluent outlet to dispose of their wastewater. Finally, the village of Samoa’s fire protection is from the mills water supply, although the tap water is not. With a solid long term player perhaps some way can be found to open the market for chips so that fire risk reduction and TSI work can have a place to dispose of material that may bring a little return and start us into profitable sustainable forestry.
Pacific Lumber announced closure of the night shift at its Fortuna mill citing lack of logs. 38 workers are out of jobs. The company said failure of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Board to approve 12 THP’s already approved by CDF accounted for the problem. The THP’s are located in Freshwater and Elk River watersheds. PL has recently put new mills into place in a significant upgrade to new forest conditions. These new machines are set to take advantage of the smaller trees. More tree sitters have joined the countersuit against PL and the actions of the tree sit remover Eric Schatz, raising the total to seven.
A federal judge said she had no jurisdiction in the Klamath River suit between downstream users and the farmers upstream. People seem puzzled by the announcement. Another judge in Oregon refused Pacific Legal Associations challenge to coho protection in the Klamath. The Trinity received good news this week when Westlands Water District said they would not go to the Supreme Court to appeal previous court decisions on flows. This was seen as a major victory for tribes and fishermen.
There is more good news to report on the culvert replacement program. Since 1997 over one hundred miles of spawning habitat have been reopened simply by replacing culverts that blocked fish passage. Fish are showing up in places they haven’t been for decades. There has been a general stabilizing of the landscape since the flood of 1964 and the Forest Practice rules of 1972. Insults occur but in general there is far less widespread surface scarring occurring today. Except in recently worked areas there is less sediment and rivers should be recovering, but there is enough upslope activity to negate any gains in removing streambed sedimentation, and destruction of the glomalin base has resulted in streams inability to transport sediment. This flies in the face of NOAA’s intention to remove areas from protection that currently have no fish, rather than areas that historically had fish. We see here 100 miles of spawning ground inaccessible to fish reoccupied within a year of culvert replacement. I hope someone pointed that out to them. In fact, this IS a NOAA program. Let keep connecting those dots.