on the cover / By Cristina Bauss

Parting The Redwood Curtain

And 299? On the road from Redding — which is arguably as scenic, curvy and dangerous as 101 — a fully funded project is out of the question, Caltrans District Two Public Information Officer Michael Mayor said: According to a study conducted by the agency, the estimated cost of making the entire route “Freightliner-safe” is about $250 million. Caltrans is, instead, investing in substantially smaller projects on the road, including a $4 million realignment of some of the sharp turns on a half-mile stretch near Buckhorn Summit. The project is going up for bid soon, and is slated for completion this summer.

Reaction fromthe businessowners who would be most affected by the project has been wary. “All I know is, the solution to this is a bypass across the river,” Singing Trees owner Patti Watson said at the Wharfinger meeting. “It should have been done 20 years ago, when it would have cost only $150 million or whatever … And what kind of wall are you going to build?” Not only is Watson’s business across from the proposed location of the wall — her home is below it as well. On that note, another audience member questioned the value of “yet another graffitied wall in the county,” to which East responded that the purpose of the proposed Richardson Grove retaining wall — which was added to the proposal after the Sept. 27 meeting — is “to minimize impacts to trees, endangered species, and property owners.”

Dan Baleme, owner of One Log House Espresso & Gifts, expects to close his business and lay off his employees while the project is completed. Why? “Caltrans has never been good at communicating with local businesses,” he said on Feb. 28. “Our business went down to about 10 percent of normal the other day, when they were doing core samples; they blocked the road right at [the Grandfather Tree] with a flagman, so my driveway was blocked.” Baleme further alleged that repeated attempts to address more efficient traffic control have gone unheeded by Caltrans.

On a different note, Baleme asserted that currently, “the 53-foot trucks go through the grove all the time, maybe 10 a day. They almost never get caught; when they do, it’s because they’ve been pulled over for some other violation.” Paradoxically, he feels that closing his business would be worth it, if the proposed project was more substantive. “They’re not going to remove any of the trees that really address safety; they’re just going to meet the letter of the law. I wouldn’t mind if they were really going to do something, but I see the project, as it is, as a waste.”

Baleme’s neighbor Keith Bowman, owner of Cook’s Valley Campground, the Grandfather Tree, and the Patriot fuel station, isn’t opposed to the project, but agrees with Baleme’s point of view: “I can’t hardly picture that it’ll make that much of a difference,” he said, noting that, ironically, Southern Humboldt locals “seem to have forgotten that in the 1980s there was a big row of eight redwood trees, right next to the white line at the Hartsook Inn. The state came in and took those out, and now people who drive past the spot forget that they were ever there. What they’re doing now is nothing.”

Ultimately, the controversy hinges on each stakeholder’s vision of the area’s future. Should Humboldt County residents look inward, and keep their beef and dairy products strictly local — or should they encourage businesses such as Arcata’s Cypress Grove to keep reaching outward, and export their goods? Should the fact that 101 is inaccessible to STAA trucks be a source of pride, or a source of shame? Should we approach the concept of an increasingly globalized economy with fear — for which there are many valid reasons — or with hope, for which there might be just as many?

Every person who has spoken out about the Richardson Grove proposal believes strongly in his or her own vision for that future, and every one hopes approval of the project is not a fait accompli — that the Powers That Be will consider all those visions, and that in the end, the final decision will be the result of a democratic, albeit thorny, community process. But Dan Baleme, for one, isn’t holding his breath. “Caltrans is like an earthquake,” he concluded with a weary laugh. “You can’t really do anything about it — you just prepare for the aftermath.”

Caltrans will release a draft environmental document in April, at which point it will invite further public comment and hold another round of public meetings. More information is available at www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1projects/richardson_grove.

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