Redwood Reader

(I apologize for losing the formatting tools. I'll figure it out sooner or later.)
While our little experiment in one portion of the Mattole River drainage may not be huge, the lessons provided are there for all to see. So it is with the roads in Hoopa, subject of a story in the Times-Standard this week. http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_3467995 . There was so much damage from the New Years storm they have not even been able to assess conditions off the main roads. Pictures of failed roads along rivers indicate vast new influxes of sediment into an already distressed river. This bodes ill for warm water season, as storms of that magnitude should be scouring sediment out to sea and improving in stream conditions. The new influx will not only fill in any pool building already occurring but will bleed sediment for some time until repairs and healing can take effect. The tribe would do well to look at the rolling dip model of road maintenance rather than level grading, which necessitates in board ditches, culverts and necessitates seasonal scraping adding to the up-slope destabilized sediment in the watershed. A little knowledge can go a long way, and times of big damage are times to reassess.
Storm damage in the Arcata Community Forest came from blow-down. Interestingly, it is the model used by Forest Planners in the first place and so wasn't a total surprise, although Nature has a way of letting us be right even when we are wrong. So the damage came from an unexpected direction and was limited to a specific elevation range. This was similar to a storm about ten years ago that took out most of the large black oaks on the north facing side of the hill. An unusually warm fall, heavy rain, sudden freeze and then a wind storm, and the damage was done before the storm concluded with snow. These trees all turned up their roots so we also lost their ability to stump sprout. We applaud the managers for careful planning and good decisions, and recognizing dollars are not the primary function of forests. http://www.times-standard.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3464203
Climate Prediction Center reported Thursday water temperatures in the North Eastern Pacific were cool and indicating a La Nina in the coming months. La Nina is the opposite of El Nino and usually indicates cool wet weather in the Northwest and drier than normal conditions in the Southland. We are basically on the edge and could go either way. I am not sure how this affects upwelling but I am sure they are related. http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_3472222
We continue to be depressed over the style used in global warming issues. The unrelenting headlines tell us no amount of land management can influence the issue. The english, especially, make some pronouncement about once a month repeating this, as if to say we are only causing problems with industrial emissions. Last month the argument was that trees emit methane as they grow. The tree is entirely composed of material gathered from the atmosphere and the emission is a tiny fraction of the biomass. Yet they multiplied the methane by the size of standing forest, took no account of subsoil activity inside their gas collection apparatus and as usual, took pains to be clear that this was a problem with no solution. We couldn't disagree any more. This is similar to a blurb in the Advocate showing marijuana users are in twice as many accidents. All the way at the end and not in the release was the statement that alcohol users are six times more likely to be involved in traffic accidents, and we applaud the Advocate for reminding us of the power of spin and misdirection.
This leads us to George Clarks rant on Harvesting Humboldt’s lifestyle, a personal issue of longstanding interest, and goes directly to Arcata’s attempts to challenge corporate personhood. It is hard to say where America would be without the durability, financing and teamwork. We could argue whether we'd be better off. But a whole mountain of protection and privilege have gone to the corporate players at the expense of everything else. Every item along the way that impedes a corporations’ path is challenged, often with local support. We see Confusion HiIl and S.R. 299 closed again- is it in any large corporate interest to see these roads opened quickly, or to spend the money to permanently fix these problems. There will be if they find gold or some other valuable in sufficient quantity. And the gold could even be a market starved for certain commodities. In the meantime, we are a backwater with a nasty attitude and so capital rich outfits are really not interested. For many of us, that means our lifestyle options that brought us here remain intact.
Mr. Clarks piece is one of the new blogs that are currently the rage around town. The Times-Standard and the Northcoast Journal both seemed to discover local blogs a week or two ago. Also, Redwood Reader doesn't come up in a search of Humboldt in blog titles, although it appears in the description box. We hope someone will run a natural resources blog in a larger outlet locally. My most dedicated readers are in Japan, especially readers using the Western Red Cedar and Good Deck ISPs. Translating the ISPs home page shows how bad Internet translations can be, along with a high potential for humor. (TS Blogs)
We came here believing we could restore cutover and flood damaged lands to a stable and profitable landscape. It started with getting fish back in the stream and has led to many fields of activity and interest. However, we are dependant on climatic and ocean conditions for the fish themselves, and by all reports, bad things are occurring in the Pacific. Blamed mainly on lack of steady winds, the upwelling natural to the area has not been anywhere near normal. Upwelling circulates nutrients from the ocean floor back into the growth zone, where plankton feed and create the base of the food chain. No upwelling, less plankton, and all the following reports: Starving orcas in Puget Sound because the 100,000 normal salmon didn't arrive, thousands of dead cormorants and murres along the Washington/Oregon coast, glaucus seagulls hatching less than 100 birds, starving auks not mating in the Farallones, and hatched chicks being killed by their parents, a 90% decline in white sturgeon in the San Joaquin/Sacramento system in the last five years (from DFG reported on KTVU SF), delayed crab season in the North (interesting because in early December the TV report said Eureka crab were in good shape but with Crescent City included the crabs did not have enough meat. I am not sure but it looks like including the entire North Coast hurt Eureka crab fishermen disproportionately since the crab was good right from the beginning.)
Reading Frank Keating’s’ Hunting and Fishing column in the old Long Island Press throughout my youth taught me many marine species cycle through population boom and busts, and we saw several scares where species were disappearing and made strong comebacks, some by human interference and some by natural rhythms. So size restrictions on striped bass were put in place, but the fishery in NY recovered after PCBs were found to be the cause of the crash and restrictions put in place. Disappearance of blue claw crabs put an end to my crabbing days but when we visited in the early nineties there was a bumper crop. A hot debate was brewing over whether to return egg laden females to preserve the fishery with one side contending the bumper crop happened on its own and so there was no need for regulation. Good guys returned the females but where was the science? It is also likely the bumper crop had more to do with conditions in other parts of the coast further south.
We applaud the State Supreme Court ruling giving the Water Quality Control Board jurisdiction over projects that impair water quality throughout the State. We note that PL has complied with this order voluntarily in contested regions. PL claimed they were within all legal guidelines by following CDF. The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed that argument because the Forest Practice Act doesn't limit another state agency’s jurisdictions. http://www.northcoastjournal.com/020206/news0202.html