January 31, 2002 Sunny Brae THP approvedWhen Sunny Brae resident Mark Lovelace saw the final version of a timber harvest plan for land in the hills above his home, he noticed something was missing. "They have taken out three essential elements we had lobbied for to protect safety and quality of life," said Lovelace, who heads the Sunny Brae-Arcata Neighborhood Alliance. The group wanted to restrict herbicide use, limit hours of operation and require pilot cars to escort log trucks as part of the plan. During the plan's second review, Sierra Pacific and the California Department of Forestry appeared receptive to the alliance's concerns, Lovelace said. The neighbors were allowed access to the harvest site to perform an inspection and added their own analysis to the plan's comments. A series of compromise restrictions were drafted. Then on Jan. 18 the approved plan came back from CDF. "The simplest words to describe my feelings are extreme disappointment," Lovelace said. Herbicide use is permitted, pilot cars are not required and the plan's hours of operation are longer than SANA had requested. The plan includes a specific response to Lovelace's activities as with SANA. CDF notes in the document that Lovelace "took it upon himself to alert other residents of the upcoming harvest plan" and "it appears to be the source of misconceptions by the public reflected in the comment letters." For Lovelace, there are only two choices left: "I can be angry but live with it or I can pursue litigation." The alliance will meet Feb. 6 to discuss whether CDF failed to require adequate measures to protect health and safety and if legal action is warranted. "Litigation seems to be the only language CDF understands," he said. Klamath draft: farmers over fishThe federal government has released its first plan for this year's Klamath water allocations, and it looks like the farmers are winning over the fish. The draft environmental assessment scopes out the effects of the Klamath irrigation project. The project, administered by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, feeds water to approximately 200,000 acres of farmland in the high desert of eastern Oregon and California. The largest impact is siphoning water out of the Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River, both home to protected fish species. But that impact receives scarce attention in the report, said Tim McKay, executive director of the Northcoast Environmental Center in Arcata. "The Bureau of Reclamation is saying they have no obligation to provide water to threatened species because their first obligation is to provide water to farmers," he said. The bureau is widely believed to have overallocated the water available to it from the Klamath basin, putting farmers dependent on irrigation at odds with the salmon and other fish that inhabit the river system and lakes. Last year farmers were cut off because the bureau decided the fish needed water. The farmers responded by holding several demonstrations and engaging in civil disobedience by prying open the headgates to the irrigation project. The Bush administration, which oversees the Bureau of Reclamation, expressed sympathy for the farmers. The desire to amend or reinterpret the Endangered Species Act so that it would provide a lower level of protection to species causing economic distress to certain groups was raised by both Interior Secretary Gail Norton and Vice President Dick Cheney. But when the two needs collide, the federal government has to put the fish first, McKay said. "The Endangered Species Act commands federal agencies not to engage in activities that will result in `take,'" he said, meaning killing or contributing to the creatures' deaths. Lowering the level of the Klamath Lake and river will kill fish, he said. The environmental center, which has already been party to multiple lawsuits dealing with the Klamath project, has filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Secretary Norton. No silenceWhen a bomb went off outside the abortion clinic in Atlanta, Ga., where Emily Lyons [photo at right] worked in early 1998, it almost killed her. She was covered with burns from the blast and peppered with roofing nails that had been packed into the device as shrapnel. While that bomb stole much from Lyons -- her ability to play the piano and her left eye, for instance -- it also took her complacency. "They did not silence me," she said. Lyons was the keynote speaker at this year's Six Rivers Planned Parenthood Choices Breakfast, Jan. 25. She speaks publicly about reproductive rights, she said, "to show the bomber that they did not win." The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors has tentatively approved an ordinance governing activities on Humboldt County's beach parks. The ordinance, which restricts driving, horses, dogs, kites, fires and camping, will be brought before the board in late March for final approval. 3rd District Supervisor John Woolley said that would make the ordinance's implementation coincide with the beginning of the nesting season for the Western Snowy Plover, a small shorebird. Concerns over the birds, which are legally protected as a threatened species, had triggered the need for a beach ordinance. They are thought to be easily scared from their nests by beach users. The ordinance has been the subject of public debate because many beach users feared their activities would be curtailed. Some of those fears have been realized -- night driving will be illegal under the ordinance, for instance. But in general, the county opted to impose as few regulations as possible at this point, Woolley said. Proposed daytime beach driving bans, for instance, were left out of the latest version of the ordinance. "Rather than overreaching, we're taking this approach," Woolley said. |