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STORY |
STAGE DOOR | DIRT August 4, 2005A careful walk in the woods with PALCOReggae moves upriver
FORTUNA MAYOR TOM
COOKE DIES SUDDENLY: Fortuna Mayor and longtime public official Tom
Cooke died last weekend while visiting family in Santa Cruz.
Cooke, 52, who was known for his careful and judicious dealings
in local affairs, died in his sleep at his brother's home, where
he stayed overnight on his way back from a California League
of Cities meeting in Monterey. The cause of Cooke's death was
unknown at press time, but he was reported to have had heart
problems in the past. Before he began his stint on the City Council
in 2000, Cooke was the general manager of the Humboldt Community
Services District and had worked for more than 20 years for the
Fortuna Public Works Department. On Tuesday evening, the Humboldt
Community Services District Board held a meeting to discuss how
to fill Cooke's position. The city of Fortuna has 30 days to
decide whether to appoint a new council member or to hold a special
election for the vacant seat. Cooke is survived by his wife,
Cynthia, and his son, Garet. A memorial service has not yet been
scheduled. A careful walk in the woods with PALCOby HEIDI WALTERS Deep in the forest was a pretty tableau: Several dozen people lounging in the ferny duff, amid the tall trees and towering crisscrossed wooden pillars of an old railroad trestle, eating lunch from boxes. In the middle of the scene languished a tea-colored puddle in a muddy gulch called Bridge Creek. Along one bank of the creek, two gentlemen reclined against a log listening to the conversations around them and playing cribbage, the little tan board set on the brown earth, the cards in their relaxed hands flashing bright spots of color. A conversational murmur and the occasional titter or guffaw barely rippled the peaceful silence. One half-expected everyone to drop amiably into a nap, slip into the past, safe from the pressing inland summer heat just beyond the trees. But this was no ordinary picnic, the amiability was hard-won and the heat did press in -- the heat of ire between neighbors, geologists, activists, state officials and the Pacific Lumber Co, some of them embroiled in lawsuits. This was the mid-day break during last Friday's tour of the Freshwater Creek and Elk River watersheds, attended by about 80 people packed onto two buses. The tour was put on by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, in coordination with Palco, which owns nearly 80 percent of the two watersheds, so board members could see in person the land subject to its staff's draft "watershed-wide waste discharge requirements." The watershed-wide waste discharge requirements are aimed at alleviating "nuisance floods" and reducing the sediment load in channels, problems residents started complaining about in 1997, said water board engineer Adona White. The WWWDRs propose significantly reducing logging in the watersheds and recommend against reducing buffer zones around streams. Palco's not too excited about the WWWDRs and, in fact, preempted the state tour two days earlier with a press conference in which it dissed the state's sweeping watershed-wide, model-based approach to controlling runoff and landslides. Palco prefers site-specific engineering fixes at three flood-prone areas -- raising the roads, for instance, and clearing debris from channels -- which it believes will alleviate flooding much more quickly and efficiently than the state's long-term approach. Palco blames the excess sediment on earlier, poorly built roads and "legacy" logging, as well as historically landslide-prone areas, and not on current logging practices. Nevertheless, the opponents "agreed not to point fingers" on the tour, said one water board staffer on the bus in-between stops. The first stop was along the frequently flooded Howard Heights Road in the Freshwater Creek watershed. White said the road now floods two and a half times a year; the historical record doesn't go back far enough to say what normal flooding is, she said. Many residents, however, say the creek has changed dramatically and flooding has increased. Palco partly blames non-native blackberry brambles for trapping sediment, narrowing streambeds and promoting flooding. Some residents agree with Palco. But Freshwater resident Alan Cook said logging "is a major contributor to the sediment." He said he's happy that Palco is examining engineering solutions downstream at the flood-prone sites, "but they will be buried by sediment" unless the problems upstream are dealt with. "As far as those blackberries -- those blackberries are not pulling soil off the upper watershed. That's a preposterous suggestion," Cook said. Mark Lovelace, head of the Humboldt Watershed Council, added: "It should be very clear that the vegetation in the channel is an effect of the sedimentation coming down, not the cause of the sedimentation." Resident Cletus Isbell said that "every year, the flood gets higher and higher," and in 2002 the water invaded his house. The tour visited sites where Palco has logged under different guidelines over the years, from early forest practice rules to its interim habitat conservation plan guidelines. Under the conservation plan, Palco is required to "storm proof" 75 miles of road per year, at a cost of $34,000 per mile, said Palco forester Adrian Miller. Scientists pointed out a major landslide area where about 1,600 cubic yards of sediment slid in 2002, mostly into the North Fork of the Elk River. There had been tractor-guided logging above the slide, but no actual road, and Palco geologist John Oswald said "landslides have been going on for thousands of years here." White said it is "very difficult to make associations between landslides and harvesting," which is why her staff favors the watershed-wide approach of looking at overall patterns of harvesting and landslides "as opposed to site-specific problems." The tour also went to Elk River resident Kristi Wrigley's apple orchard, where her family has farmed since 1903 -- and there the civility almost ended. Atop high ground, where her house sits, looking down on the sickly apple trees heavily draped in lichen, their trunks choked in deep silt, Wrigley described her trouble over the past eight years. That lichen, for instance: "Lichen will monopolize a tree that is stressed," she said. She blames the intensified logging upstream between 1985 and 1995, and subsequent flooding in the 1990s. The farm is in a flood plain, certainly, tucked in a big U-shaped bend of the north Fork Elk River -- that's what makes it fertile. But she said flooding used to only get to the first two trees. "Now the whole orchard is inundated," she said. Water quality also has declined, she said, and she's given up on maintaining the high deer fence and bear gate. She took the crowd down to a brown creek trickling alongside the hill. She said it used to be rocky-bottomed and clear. "We're pro-logging, we grew up logging, but it's just intensified over time," she said. Jim Holdner, one of her downstream neighbors, challenged Wrigley's memories of better times. "I grew up near here, and I distinctly remember your deer fence had holes in it," he said. "We used to fish all the way up the river -- and, yes, we stole some of your apples." He said he remembered the stream near her house being muddy, and only becoming graveled and clear above her property. "Well, that's a nice memory hang onto it," Wrigley said. "But I'm closer to the land here, and I have more knowledge." And then the tour went on to another site. Palco scientists said they don't dispute there's a sedimentation problem. But what's causing it, and what to do about it -- that's the subject of the current debate. At the end of the tour as the buses rolled to a stop at Freshwater School, one woman exhaled abruptly and declared, "Well, that was a civilized day." The water board has extended the public comment period on the watershed-wide waste discharge requirements. Comments are now due Aug. 8. Public hearings will be held in September. Meanwhile, there are the battles to get back to. Palco last month sued the state water board over its June 16 decision that stopped logging in the Freshwater Creek and Elk River watersheds. The state board's ruling -- spurred by a petition from the Humboldt Watershed Council -- negated the regional water board's previous decision to allow Palco to harvest trees in the watershed before completion of the WWWDRs addressing cumulative impacts. Palco had said it needed to cut trees in order to pay off escalating debts -- or else declare bankruptcy (and possibly wreak havoc on the county's economy). And, the day before the friendly tour, the Environmental Protection Information Center announced its attorney would appear in Humboldt County Superior Court the next day to appeal Palco's appeal. Reggae moves upriverby BOB DORAN This weekend as thousands of music fans descend on Piercy for the 22nd annual Reggae on the River, the festival's organizers, the Mateel Community Center and People Productions, are eager to assure them that Reggae on the River will be back next year -- new and improved -- at a slightly different location on the same river. "A lot of people think this is the last Reggae on the River. It definitely is not," said Carol Bruno of People Productions in a call from her Redway office. The doubts arose earlier this year after there was a breakdown in negotiations with Pat Arthur, owner of French's Camp, the site of Reggae since Bruno and friends put on the first concert in 1984. (See "Reggae: The last year at French's Camp?" April 14) When Arthur balked at an extended contract for use of the property, only agreeing to a one-year lease, festival organizers began a search for a new site. It turned out they didn't have to look too far. Last week People Productions announced that they have signed a 10-year agreement for use of the Dimmick Ranch, upriver from French's Camp, as Reggae's future home. "It's a beautiful site," said Bruno. "You go to the South Beach swimming hole and look across the river, that's where it is. It fronts on the river all the way around. It felt like the best choice. It's right next door; it's in an area we know." The changes in the concert's future came amid changes at People Productions. Bruno's former partner Paul "P.B." Bassis left the company last year to form Infinite Entertainment. "Infinite as in anything's possible," explained Bassis, who represented Tom Dimmick in lease negotiations. "The beauty of it is, this is the same place, right around the bend in the river from where Reggae has always been," said Bassis, touting the benefits of the move. "It's pretty isolated with mountains on one side, the highway on the other. There are almost no residences anywhere near it. It's really an ideal location." Bassis also noted that site access will be easier, since the ranch is on the west side of the river. The French's Camp location requires annual installation of a bridge across the Eel River, a process that was delayed this year due to late spring rains. The first move in the long-term plan is already in place. This year Reggae added new wooded camping sites and parking in an area known as Cook's Valley on property owned by Keith Bowman next to the Dimmick Ranch. The additional space, with room for 2,500 campers and 1,000 autos, will bring in new revenue (fees for Cook's Valley are $100 per car, $300 per RV). It also allowed concert organizers to sell more tickets this year. While attendance is between 11,000 and 12,000, only 9,000 tickets were sold this year, up from 8,500 last year. (The volunteer nature of event operations accounts for the number of comp admissions.) "Parking is the limiting factor," said Bassis, noting that negotiations for future use of French's Camp for parking and camping are near conclusion. "It's everyone's hope that we can continue to work with the Arthur family to be able to incorporate their property and blend these properties together," he added. If all goes as planned, the result will be a concert complex with three times as much room as French's Camp and the potential for greater attendance. And, Bassis confirmed, the new lease does not rule out additional concerts on the new site, although at this point, "there are no definite plans," for other concerts or specifics on how next year's Reggae will utilize the new site. Bruno was just as indefinite about plans for the future. "We haven't worked out all the details yet. First we have to finish producing this year's festival, then we'll start working on the next one." [Aerial photo courtesy of People Productions] COVER
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