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May 30, 2002
Ranch protected
In a move billed as good for
both ranchers and the environment, state Sen. Wesley Chesbro
announced last week that Howe Creek Ranch near Rio Dell has been
approved for a conservation easement grant from the State Wildlife
Board. The $921,500 grant will protect more than 3,640 acres
of the ranch's 4,000-acre spread.
"This is a great project
because it keeps ranchers on the land and the land on the tax
rolls, while at the same time it protects open space and upland
wildlife habitat," Chesbro said in a news release.
The Pacific Forest Trust, a
Santa Rosa-based conservation outfit, will have responsibility
for ensuring that the land is properly protected, managing director
Connie Best said Tuesday. The group is dedicated to protecting
private forest lands while at the same time allowing some logging.
Best said another state agency,
the California Coastal Conservancy, is expected to announce the
provision of an additional grant of $1.2 million at a meeting
in Eureka in June, bringing the total coming from the state to
$2.1 million -- still well short of the easement's appraised
value of $3.3 million. Best said the Hackett family is willing
to sell the land for less than its appraised value. In return,
they get a tax deduction, she said.
The Hackett family has managed
the land for five generations.
Best said that in addition to
growing timber and cattle on the land, the Hacketts have been
good land stewards. "That land produces a lot of salmon
and spotted owls and a host of other resources of public value."
She said the land contains the
three westernmost salmon spawning tributaries on the Eel River
-- including Howe Creek, the most productive salmon stream in
the whole Eel River system.
Builder
honored
In 1986 Dan Johnson built his
first construction project -- a car wash -- and Danco Builders
took off from there.
The company has completed more
than 120 commercial and residential projects including the Northcoast
Surgery Center and Timber Ridge, an assisted living center which
he owns and operates. In 2000 Johnson and his wife, Kendra, and
a second couple bought the entire company town of Samoa from
Simpson Timber Co., property that included industrial land, 90
houses and the historic Samoa Cookhouse. An $85 million master
plan to renovate and develop a large portion of the peninsula
is underway.
Johnson will be honored Friday,
May 31, by the Humboldt Builders' Exchange as its "Construction
Person of the Year."
Johnson is the son of Don and
Carolyn Johnson and the grandson of Carl Johnson of the Carl
Johnson Co. where he worked before launching his own company.
The Builders Exchange is a nonprofit
association of licensed contractors.
Amended
proposal
The Sequoia Humane Society offered
an alternative to its contract proposal at Tuesday's Humboldt
County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Executive Director Kathleen
Kistler proposed that the additional $14,013 a month the society
is asking for in a renewed contract to build a new animal shelter
would instead be used to fund and expand the shelter's ongoing
spay/neuter voucher program.
She also proposed that instead
of the original 10-year contract term the society was asking
for, the length should be shortened to five years to evaluate
the effectiveness of focusing on the spay/neuter program.
If the contract is not renewed
in some form, the county will have to provide its own animal
control services beginning this fall. Such services include euthanizing
about a dozen stray dogs a week.
The board took no action on
Kistler's proposal.
A
new building
The Humboldt Area Foundation
will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a community open house
Saturday, June 8, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Included in the celebration
is the dedication of the foundation's new Community Center building,
on the corner of Indianola Road and the Indianola cut-off.
The new building will house
the Rooney Resource Library and will include a training room
that can hold 25 people and a conference room with space for
65. The meeting rooms will be open after business hours.
"The conference rooms are
free for non-profit groups to meet in," said Deborah Sabin,
communications coordinator for the foundation.
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