The first time I set foot in the Mateel Community Center was in the late 1990s to attend a benefit for a local woman who, it later would turn out, was terminally ill. The venue teemed with people, friends and neighbors who had gathered to provide both emotional support and financial assistance. Toward the end […]
Cristina Bauss
Cristina Bauss also writes for 'The Independent.'
Posted inNews
Roads and Redwoods
*Last week, we described Caltrans’ proposal for U.S. Highway 101 at Richardson Grove and examined opponents’ arguments against it. This week, we take a look at the economic reasons for the project and analyze the weaknesses in both Caltrans’ and its opponents’ arguments. * For any producer of export goods in Humboldt County, the logistics […]
Posted inNews
Roads and Redwoods
Mary Keehn founded Cypress Grove Chevre three years before Maxxam descended on Humboldt County. In 1983, Keehn, a top breeder of Alpine dairy goats, embarked on a new venture: making cheese from their milk, in a time when the American market for goat cheese was extremely limited and virtually no one in the United States […]
Posted inNews
Drive-Thru Redwoods
The public-comment process for Caltrans’s proposed realignment of U.S. Highway 101 at Richardson Grove began with a low-key meeting in late September 2007, held at the Benbow Valley RV Resort. Three agency representatives spent the afternoon answering polite queries from about two dozen Southern Humboldt and Northern Mendocino residents, most of whom seemed content to […]
Posted inNews
Parting The Redwood Curtain
Just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, on the west side of U.S. Route 101, is an old, wooden sign that says “Redwood Highway.” The sign blends into its surroundings, and is easy to miss; it marks the beginning of the 438-mile-long stretch of road — from San Francisco to Grants Pass — that weaves […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
In the Dark (II)
It will always amuse me that people who live in a temperate rain forest are seemingly never prepared for what pours down from a February sky. As often happens on the North Coast at this time of year, our power went out on a particularly stormy afternoon last week, and wasn’t restored until two days […]