Aldaron’s Walkabout
A journey along Humboldt Bay to see where the ocean might come in
(Jan. 5, 2012) The South Bay gleamed dully at low tide, its exposed flats an expanse of greenish-brown mud. A watery blue, dendritic network of tidal channels, thick with eelgrass, cut across the faintly reeking ooze, as if an enormous, mythical tree made of heavy sky had fallen from above, landed deep and remained, capturing sea water and reflection. Up one trunk of this water-tree two kayaks glided, following the channel’s sinuous course to the middle of the bay. The channel grew smaller. Narrower, deeper. The mud walls closed about them. No birds called out. All was quiet. As they reached the middle of the emptied bay, the channel began opening up again. It seemed like another world, from another time. Rounding a bend, the men suddenly came upon a colony of seals lounging in the mud. The seals humped their graceful pale bodies into the water and, disappearing then reappearing, surrounded the two kayaks — heads craning above the water, dark eyes, set deep in soft ghost-dog faces, watching.
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In May 2011, Aldaron Laird set out to explore the entire 105-mile perimeter of Humboldt Bay and its three major sloughs. Keeping the tides’ peculiar hours, he launched his little white kayak from dozens of locations, sometimes negotiating slippery slopes and thick brambles. He walked tirelessly, squishing through mud and teetering along rock-tumbled barriers. Frequently he paused, put down his pack, and pulled out digitized maps to ink in adjustments. He shot thousands of photos.
His mission: Record the current conditions of the bay shoreline and sloughs and determine where it is vulnerable to inundation, either from erosion combined with super high “king” tides or from sea level rise driven by long-term climate change. He had been awarded a $33,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy for what he had hoped would be mostly a tranquil wander by kayak. That’s not quite how it turned out.
Laird is 58, not very tall, and hasgreenish eyes and a short graying blond goatee and mustache. He drives an old black Isuzu Trooper, hoping its decrepitude will deflect thieves. Slogging around the bay with a black visor jammed onto his shaggy head, he is laden with gear. A monopod for fending off pit bulls, balancing on loose rip rap and testing the mud depth before venturing onto it. Ray Bans perched on his head and reading glasses hanging from a cord around his neck. A blue-and-gray Camelback daypack with a “Tap the Mad, Drink Local Water” water bottle stuffed in a side pocket — a token of his service as a director on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board. And, for the 400-some photographs he sometimes shoots in one day, the Nikon SLR camera he bought with a small inheritance from his dad, who died last November.
A gentle person who cultivates bonsai trees in his off time, Laird likens his unprecedented bay wander to an Australian walkabout, or to traipsing the John Muir Trail. Born in eastern Canada, he grew up on the move as his family shifted back and forth between Montreal and Winnipeg, following his Canadian Army dad’s assignments. He’d gone to nine elementary schools by the time he was 13 — the last one in Los Angeles, where the family moved in 1965 when Laird’s dad retired and found work in the private aerospace industry. Laird always loved being outdoors; when he was a little kid, living on the base outside of Winnipeg, he set up a fur-trapping line and tromped through the snow tracking animals. In California he made friends with climbers and backpackers, and before long he was spending his summers in Yosemite and other Sierra Nevada haunts.
He came to Humboldt County in 1975 to study biology and began exploring the local mountains and rivers. After graduating in 1978 from Humboldt State University, he and some friends started a business called Northcoast Reinhabitation Group; Redwood National Park had just expanded its boundaries, and the group was hired to do the park’s first watershed restoration work. Then they planted trees in clearcuts on national forest lands. Eventually they were doing stream inventories and salmon restoration. Laird started his own businesses, Trinity Associates, to continue doing environmental planning work.
As he travels the bay, Laird has been fine-tuning the details of what he already knows: that 80 to 90 percent of the shoreline is artificial, altered by human endeavor — earthen dikes and railroad beds, roads, rip-rapped low walls and other structures; and that only 10 percent of the native salt marsh remains, some of it growing on artificially altered shore. Laird has been noting where human structures could be inundated. He also wants to know where existing salt marsh has room to migrate inland as sea level rises and where it might drown because something — most likely a human development — is in the way.
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on the cover
Railroad!
Proposed lines ‘set rich blood a-tingling’ in early 1900s
Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
Choo-choo Fantasies
Exposing this east-west rail nonsense
seven-o-heaven
Undeterred Will
Will chides Andrew for lack of attention to detail and makes plans for his inevitable victory.
Recent on the cover
May 17
Ring of Fire
Sun and moon will perform a rare pas de deux in Humboldt skies on Sunday
May 10
District Soup
Racing for the top county seat in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts
May 3
A Place in the Woods
As park closure deadline nears, a scramble to save what we can
Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Flow 2012 Fashion Show
STAFF PICK / events / 8 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Student designed and produced clothing. Fundraiser for Arcata Arts Institute. $35/$25 students. artsinstitute.net. 822-1220.
Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
events / 8 a.m.-noon. Woodside Preschool, 900 Hodgson St, Eureka. www.woodsidepreschool.com. 445-9132.
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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EIGHT Comments
Comment / By Riley Quarles / Jan. 5, 8:08 a.m.
What a well written article! I love how it bounces back and forth between real time observations (in italics) and background information on Aldo’s walkabout.
I have spent many an hour drifting quietly with Aldo in our kayaks, out into the middle of the South Bay. I highly recommend it for anyone seeking a fresh perspective on our beautiful water laden bioregion.
As for the doubter about climate change I am reminded of Bradley J. Dibble’s remarks in “Comprehending the Climate Crisis”, when he says “If we are wrong and these measures aren’t as critical as most scientists believe they are, then what will we have gained?
A reduction in pollution, a more resourceful and less wasteful society, and a sustainable solution in terms of thriving long after fossil fuels are depleted, something we as a society will have to face eventually anyway.
But if we are right about the pressing need to change, then we have everything to gain, perhaps nothing less significant than the long term health of our planet and all life on it.”
Comment / By John Griffith / Jan. 6, 6:17 a.m.
Nice article. I love Heidi’s writing. We’re so fortunate to have her in this county.
Comment / By Don Allan / Jan. 6, 10:14 a.m.
A beautifully poetic piece that highlights the very real nature of global warming and sea level rise. Indeed this is a very important piece of assessing what the impacts of sea level rise will have on our landward infrastructure and human uses around Humboldt Bay. Aldaron is one of our restoration pioneers as mentioned in the article. He and other members of NRG were at the cutting edge of watershed restoration which has blossomed into a significant economic force in Humboldt County. He is still at the cutting edge - Go Aldo!
Comment / By Tom Conlon / Jan. 6, 1:57 p.m.
I was fortunate to work with Aldaron while he served on the Arcata Planning Commission. I know his dedication to thorough analysis, his willingness to roll up his sleeves [or put on rubber boots] and his follow through to insure that projects are a benefit to the community. I cannot think of a person better qualified to provide this level of documentation for our most valuable natural resource and the communities [natural and human] that surround it.
We can all “hope for the best”, but when the issue is the infrastructure that supports our community, don’t we really have to “plan for the worst”? Thank you to the Journal and to Heidi Walters for an exceptional piece.
Comment / By Joe Bob Hitchcock / Jan. 7, 12:09 a.m.
First, let me say that Heidi is an incredible writer. I saw and heard what Aldaron experienced thanks to her excellence at description. Bravo!
I have known Aldo for many a year, and first realized his extraordinary knowledge of all things water related as we walked the Eel River in Myers Flat. Aldo explained why there were gravelly riffles here, deep pools there, and pointed out evidence of high water marks invisible to an untrained eye. There is nothing quite like a walk in nature with Aldo.
The state of California faces huge problems with both salt and fresh water issues. From the governor on down, our representatives in Sacramento should hear what Aldaron has to say. He tells the unvarnished truth.
Aldo once told me that someone asked him if he had a Phd. Well, Aldo’s unique body of knowledge is way beyond that. I suggested he answer that question by saying “If there were a Phd in what I know, I would be giving it, not getting it”. Way to go Aldo.
Comment / By Dan Edrich / Jan. 11, 12:33 p.m.
Our coastal wetlands and dune processes are in deep jeopardy. We have done nothing but rip vegetation for well over a decade. If the purpose of the article had anything to do with the front page question “where the ocean might come in?”
The answer can be found on the ocean side of the spit. March of 2010 high-tide just below Table Bluff the Pacific breached- not where our LIDAR suggested but where vegetation had been removed. The best description of our coastal behavior is abject neglect, check-out Manila’s hind-dune Overlook or the disappearing fore dunes. Be prepared for salt-water intrusion, massive loss of wetlands and destroyed wildlife habitat. Talk about puff-pieces!
Comment / By Christy Laird / Jan. 20, 10:17 p.m.
Thank you Heidi Walters for your thoughtful and well-crafted article about “Aldaron’s Walkabout.” In my opinion, you very adeptly captured two precious and unique personalities in your article, that of my husband Aldaron Laird and that of our magical and ever-changing resource, Humboldt Bay. I very much appreciate the “human interest” avenue you took in your chronicle of Aldaron’s Humboldt Bay sojourn and mapping as opposed to lingering upon the potential “doom and gloom” we might expect to occur due to global warming around the bay’s perimeter. I am the one who sees him come in after a day in the field, after slogging through salt marsh and mud, or after paddling in his dagger kayak for 3-4 hours, sometimes against currents, wind, and tides that have come about willy nilly, as much as he tries to plan for the tidal elements and weather. He has slogged around the bay over 70 miles and kayaked countless others, with a couple of sloughs to go when the weather breaks later this week after our big storms. His bay “ground-truthing” is to complete this week and the report will be forthcoming soon to share with agencies, interested parties, and the public. This has not just been a labor or science but a labor of love regarding Humboldt Bay. I feel blessed to hear his extraordinary stories about what he has seen in the field and to view the beauty of his incredible photographs of this extraordinary journey and look forward to his future opportunity to share them with our community. Thanks Northcoast Journal for your interest in this story and to Heidi Walters for your extraordinary reporting and creative writing about Aldaron’s Walkabout. Christy Laird
Comment / By Dan / Today, 11:37 a.m.
The best description of our coastal behavior is abject neglect, check-out Manila’s hind-dune Overlook or the disappearing fore dunes. Be prepared for salt-water intrusion, massive loss of wetlands and destroyed wildlife habitat. Talk about puff-pieces!
Christy this is not an attack on Aldaron or Heidi. It is an observation that Aldaronand Heidi might take to heart. Suggestions for Aldaron would be study- FEMA/NOAA, Cowardin, Coastal Act wetlands and history. How can a person talk about the health of the bay and not recognize a mountain of sand about to enter a waterway burying a forest in the process! What the blazes is up there? This is not a game for the unaware, anyone can allow a dune system to bury a forest. These trees are treasures and irreplaceable habitat for already strained wildlife, someone is ignoring these facts.