Though our recent rains have alleviated some concerns, our brush with drought this winter has many gardeners rethinking water use in the landscape, and rightly so. There are many areas where we waste water or use it frivolously when a minor change could make a big difference. However, cutting off the water to your existing […]
Outdoors
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Otter Spotter
While hiking the King Range, I saw a flash of brown just up Cooksie Creek. Then a splash. The small, slicked head of a Lontra canadensis created a gentle wake as it spiraled upstream away from me. The river otter kept a wary eye but never stopped its aquabatics until I entered the creek to […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
March To-Do List
The dry weather through much of winter has allowed energetic gardeners to get out and complete most of the obvious gardening tasks, but there’s still plenty to do in March. A few final pruning jobs put the wrap on last year’s growing season, and then we get to look forward by preventing spring weeds, protecting […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
King of the World
Stands of manzanita and groves of knobcone and sugar pine grow within sight of the ocean. Redwoods are nearly absent. Golden eagles ride the thermals along the ridges, and you can find rattlesnakes right down to the edge of the beach. All this makes exploring the King Range National Conservation Area a unique experience in […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Humboldt’s Hidden Treasures
Over an after-work round of brews, healthcare worker Jessica Davis pipes up, “Well, I’m a treasure hunter,” she says, “I look for GPS locations with hidden treasure caches.” She slips out of the room and proudly returns moments later with two jewelry box-sized treasure chests. One contains a miniature mountain lion, smooth chunks of colored […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
February Gardening
Though February is usually a cold one, it’s a month filled with hope as we are just starting to see fruit trees, crocus, daffodils and others emerge from dormancy. It’s the perfect time for that primal surge that tells us to wake up and start thinking about the garden again, because there are a few […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Ben Kelsey: Arcata Founding Father, Trail Builder, Indian Killer
Last summer, when I first encountered the Kelsey National Recreation Trail which runs east-west across the north side of the Marble Mountains, I thought, “I just hope this isn’t the same murdering scoundrel Kelsey who helped found Arcata.” Hope on. The trail is indeed named for Ben Kelsey, one of the leaders of the infamous […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
A Home in a Redwood
Maybe you’re feeling low, a little too close to the ground. You want a place of retreat to elevate, inspire and get you floating again. For Humboldt County resident Crystal Miller, a longtime lover of great trees, that meant a treehouse in a redwood in her backyard. Miller and her fiancé Arif Malik bought their […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Rise and Fall of Dyerville
This year marks the centenary of the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad link between Eureka and San Francisco. The four-span bridge across the Eel River, just 40 miles south of Eureka, is a picturesque reminder of the once and no-future railroad. Driving south, as you approach the Honeydew/Founder’s Grove exit, look to your left. […]
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Red Gold and Greenwashing
Do you want to see me hug a tree?” We are trotting behind an ebullient Neal Ewald, who was recently promoted to senior vice president of Green Diamond, formerly known as the Simpson Timber Company. The tree about to be hugged is a second-growth redwood, about 30 inches in diameter and approximately 32 years old. […]
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Humboldt Outside
With December comes the freeze. Moisture settles as fluff on the high peaks and passes, slicks roads and parking lots, frosts rooftops and windshields and, on occasion, bounces pellet-like onto the coastal landscape. Night-dark comes early; headlights barely pick out that elk herd clustered on the highway shoulder, or the thick-furred bear racing across a […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
December Gardening
December usually alternates between stretches of cold, clear weather and weeklong downpours, so there’s usually plenty of time for both indoor planning and crafts as well as some of the normal outdoor garden care. Here’s what to do in the December garden. Protect tender plants. This December has shown us some of the coldest weather […]