Bill Burton, who founded Arcata’s Library Bike nonprofit and is director of LibraryBikes.org (think: checking out a bike like a book), sent a happy but poignant note to the press today noting that the new Three Feet for Safety law goes into effect today, Sept. 16. The law requires drivers to give bicyclists traveling in […]
Heidi Walters
Heidi Walters worked as a staff writer at the North Coast Journal from 2005 to 2015.
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Updated: Mop Up Continues in Hoopa Fire that Threatened Homes
UPDATE: Crews are mopping up the “Bald Hill 3” fire, which as of this morning, Sept. 16, is 95 percent contained and has burned 210 acres. Full containment was expected by Wednesday, Sept. 17. PREVIOUSLY: Hoopa firefighters battled a blaze on Bald Hill, which overlooks the Hoopa Valley, all night and by 9 a.m. this […]
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Merv’s World
Here’s a funny story, Merv George Jr. says, leaning slightly forward in his chair and smiling. It’s mid-August, George is just a couple weeks into his new role as the 13th supervisor of the Six Rivers National Forest, and his new office — the bigger one that his predecessor Tyrone Kelley just vacated to accept […]
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Let it Flow
Tribal leaders praised the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s decision, announced Aug. 22, to let more water out of Trinity River reservoir to improve conditions for the fall run of Chinook salmon entering the lower Klamath River, where drought-induced low flows and resulting warm water temperatures threaten a repeat of the massive 2002 fish kill. The […]
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Gets in Your Eyes, Lungs
Every summer it’s the same, it seems: The woods burn, and the smoke settles in heavily over our inland communities. This season, so far, it’s the Happy Camp and July forest fire complexes, and the Oregon fire in Weaverville, clogging skies and lungs — and the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District has been […]
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Judge Denies Bid To Stop Trinity Water Releases
A federal judge with the Eastern District Court of California today denied a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction sought by Central Valley Project water users to stop extra releases of water from the Trinity reservoir at Lewiston Dam into the Trinity River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation approved those flow augmentation releases last week, […]
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SECOND UPDATE:Trinity Will Get More Water; Suit Filed
SECOND UPDATE: On Monday, Aug. 25, around 5 p.m., the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority filed for a temporary restraining order in Fresno Superior Court to stop the increased flows. Dan Nelson, executive director of the water authority, said Tuesday that the issue is much the same as last year when his agency and the Westlands […]
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Ground Breaking
Lisa Rossbacher hiked all around campus on her first day on the job, July 14, as Humboldt State University’s new president, meeting the people who keep the place humming — the sign makers, the plumbers, the vehicle mechanics, the facility managers, the test coordinator, the grant writers, the ID card makers, the librarians, the printers, […]
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Algae Toxins in the Trinity
These may be the dog days of summer, but ol’ Rex and Rusty better be careful about what rivers and lagoons they go jumping in to celebrate: The poor dogs don’t want to encounter toxic blue-green algae, which can thrive in the low flows and warm water conditions we’re seeing now on local rivers including […]
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PO’d about the Eureka P.O.? There’s a Town Hall for That.
Congressman Jared Huffman is hosting a town hall meeting this Friday, Aug. 22, at 4 p.m. at the Wharfinger Building (1 Marina Way) in Eureka to talk about the feds’ plans to close the Eureka Customer Service Mail Processing Center and send our missives instead to Medford, Oregon, to be sorted. Says the news release […]
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Un-entered Forest
Last week, forest activists partially peeled back a barricade, which has been blocking Humboldt Redwood Co.’s main road into its 8,000-acre Mattole watershed timber holdings since early July, to let a group of foresters, environmentalists and some of their own through to examine an area the company wants to log. And then, after the field […]