Comment / By Steve Lewis / Nov. 28, 2009, 2:42 p.m.

Did Palco have to shut down because of lack of trees to mill? No, it shut down because the previous owners and the new owner had no vision to keep Palco going. In fact, most all the parties involved in the old Timber War pitting enviros and their lawyers against Maxxam’s lawyers, were devoid of creative vision to keep Palco going on despite any slowdown in harvestable logs.

Due to Hank Sims inability to have the NCJ publish anything I write accept for this blog which is evidently still relatively free of censorship, readers of the “Reinventing Scotia” article will never learn about how close Scotia and all of Palco jobs came to being saved through a partnership between Palco workers and Bear River’s Heartlands project to finance a Palco workers buyout of Palco that would have infused a new and independent source, running a worldwide Native American lottery system. This lottery system for the financing of new products development would have allowed not only the existing small Palco crew to keep their jobs but also would have added hundreds more employees bringing the figures back up to those halcyon days when Palco truly was Humboldt County’s largest employer.

Bear River through the Heartlands Project made a bid for inclusion in the Palco bankruptcy hearings but unfortunately did not follow through and we members of the Heartlands Project didn’t have enough community support behind us due to so few even knowing our project existed—thanks to censorship of people like the NCJ’s editor.

Comment / By Hank Sims / Nov. 28, 2009, 5:44 p.m.

Goddamn it Steve, I’m the ONLY one who gave you press!

Comment / By Steve Lewis / Nov. 29, 2009, 4:40 a.m.

my my my my…such a fibber, shame on you, Hank. How many letters to the editor from me have you censored over the years, huh, Hank? The Times-Standard did run one report on our Heartlands Project but I sure don’t remember YOU doing any such thing. You got proof that NCJ did a report on us? It would be news to me. You are just another one of those piss-ant editors who like to play political God with community news reporting. Thanks to editors like you the NCJ never would do any investigative reporting on the Other Side of the environmentalist war against timber companies which was enviro activists ignoring the eco-damage that their money base was doing, homesteaders in unregulated homestead developments. Playing God put the whole community behind for almost two decades in facing and dealing with that eco-damage. And our Heartlands Project was always something practically none of the activists we met in our outreach attempts except their leaders ever knew about because those enviro leaders, like you wanted to play God with community information so tribal politics won the day and Bear River and the Palco working community lost their chance at reestablishing Palco as a local community owned and operated successful timber products company.

Comment / By Harry / Nov. 29, 2009, 7:03 p.m.

Thank-you for such an informative article on Scotia, a subject not well known. Great news about local matters and what visions we have for our neighboring communites. It is interesting to note the concerns of the youth and what they have in the ways of structured recreational activities. Small town kids need good programs to develope into fine citizens. We always pride ourselves in diversity lets extend that to the games that we play. We would be the only community on the Northcoast with such an indoor sports complex. Indoor Archery,Soccer, Volleyball and Inline Hockey would be awesome!

1 ! Great stuff in rainy weather.

Comment / By Steve Lewis / Nov. 30, 2009, 3:51 a.m.

I talked yesterday with a friend who rents one of those Scotia homes and asked if he would buy it when it came up for sale. He said no because it needed practically everything redone, perimeter foundation, wiring, plumbing, sewage, and wouldn’t be worth the asking prices he’s heard these homes will be going for. With no real reliable and sustainable employment possibility at HRC it’s going to be a hard sell to gentrify Scotia or Rio Dell for that matter. It will happen eventually as most all places in California eventually become gentrified and upgraded due to population pressure offsetting bad economic times but for the foreseeable future I can only wish Scotians good luck.

Comment / By Thirdeye / Dec. 3, 2009, 10:28 p.m.

One sloppily written article relying on old memes and ridden with factual errors. The idea that MRC was ever a PALCO creditor is absurd on its face. And the meme that the old PALCO did sustainable forestry is easy to discredit. No strategic management of timber lands or investment in timber production, just partial cut and walk away. They were decades behind professionally managed companies such as Weyerhaeuser and Simpson, and ultimately lost control to Maxxam as a result.

Comment / By Hank Sims / Dec. 3, 2009, 11:20 p.m.

The idea that MRC was ever a PALCO creditor is absurd on its face.

Whoops, yeah. That’s my fault. MRC’s partner, Marathon, was the major creditor. We’ll run a correction.

Comment / By Thirdeye / Dec. 4, 2009, 3:09 p.m.

Actually, the bondholders that Maxxam owed the money to were the major creditors.

Comment / By Hank Sims / Dec. 4, 2009, 3:54 p.m.

Yes, yes, yes.

Ryan wrote “a” major creditor. Marathon was a major creditor.