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Tonight at the Silver Lining:
Live Music this Friday, Jan 27, 7-9 pm by The Hudson Hound Dogs playing acoustic rock. Kitchen open til
11, Bar open til midnight.

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By Daniel Mintz
Press Staff Writer

A five-county program assessing impacts on salmonids has named unpermitted grading as a major impact, and one county supervisor said the effects of illegal grading connected to marijuana grows are bad as those seen during the dark years of the timber industry.
Supervisor Mark Lovelace, who was one of the county’s most active environmentalists before being elected, made those comments as the results of a new regional study on habitat protection policies were presented at the Jan. 10 Board of Supervisors meeting.
Dr. Richard Harris, the researcher who coordinated the study, said unregulated and illegal grading – including the grading that enables marijuana grows – is a problem. And Lovelace described its scale as massive in Humboldt County.
“It’s phenomenal,” he said, referring to photographs of grow-related grading that he’s seen. “And it’s shocking – and it compares with the worst of the worst from some of the bad years of the timber industry.”
Lovelace suggested that some of the culprits may even fashion themselves as environmentalists. “I think some people have a tendency to think that because they want to consider themselves good stewards of the land, that alone should mean that the work they’re doing is okay,” he said.
He added, “It’s very clear that there’s a tremendous amount of earth being moved around without any engineering, without any analysis and without any consideration of the potential impacts.”
Supervisor Ryan Sundberg said the effects of restoration efforts are being offset by the illegal grading, which he called a “huge elephant in the room.” He’s also seen the photographs and is disturbed by them.
“It’s massive amounts, it’s shocking how large and how many there are,” Sundberg said. “All that stuff has to go straight into the stream, so we’re focusing on fixing stuff here and then there’s someone upriver or up the hill that’s making it for naught.”
Sundberg recommended that the county try and get funding to “define what those impacts are and try to address them.”
County Public Works Director Tom Mattson said unlike many other counties, Humboldt has a grading ordinance – which sometimes isn’t heeded. Speaking generally about the problem, Mattson said his department works with local non-profit groups like the Southern Humboldt-based Mattole Restoration Council and Eel River Watershed Improvement Group and the Redwood Community Action Agency to improve compliance.
The Five Counties Salmonid Conservation Program began in 1997 and the study described by Harris evaluates how the policies and procedures of each county have improved watershed protection.
Harris said that overall, municipal practices associated with land development, road maintenance, fish passage construction and repair and culvert work have improved since the program started.

To repeat: There will be exceptions.

For example, once a month we print information about all the venues participating in McKinleyville Art Night. Most of the venues are private companies. We’re giving them free advertising. But this is something that we’ll continue to do.

On the other hand, there are companies that donate money to non-profits and want us to print an announcements about their donations. From now on, what we’re going to do is require that the companies buy advertising space to make the announcement. However, the McKinleyville Press will chip in by donating a percentage of the advertising space, thereby helping the company get the announcement at a discounted rate.

Oh, and did we make it clear that there will be exceptions to these rules?

On the flip side, we have good news for regular advertisers in the McKinleyville Press. Companies that regularly advertise in the print edition will get free advertising on our website, blog and on Facebook. It’s an “advertising enhancement.” We’re still working out the details. Also, we’ll clearly mark these as advertisements so there’s no confusion between paid content and editorial content.

Public Health Branch Clinic helps
keep world travelers healthy

Planning and packing are pertinent parts of preparing for a family trip, but
when traveling overseas, it is also important to remember your vacation vaccines.

“It’s a really good idea to protect yourself, your family and your community from diseases that are more common in other places than here in the United States,” said Susan Buckley, director of the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Public Health Branch.

Currently, the Public Health Branch Clinic, at 529 I St in Eureka, is the only place locally to offer a comprehensive pre-travel vaccination and health consultation program. During a scheduled appointment with a nurse, travelers can obtain health information about the country they are planning to visit and also get educated about and immunized against diseases that might pose a risk to their health while they are abroad. Which vaccines are needed depend on a number of factors, including a person’s destination, whether they will be spending time in urban or rural areas, the time of year a person is traveling and the traveler’s age, health status and previous immunizations.

The Public Health Branch follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines when it comes to keeping travelers healthy and safe. The CDC recommends people get immunized at least four to six weeks before leaving on a trip.

“Most vaccines take time to become effective in your body and some vaccines must be given in a series over a period of weeks or sometimes months,” said Susan Wardrip, a registered nurse and immunization coordinator for the Public Health Branch Clinic.

Most of the time, people don’t have reactions to vaccines, Wardrip said.

To make an appointment for a pre-travel consultation, call the Public Health Clinic at 268-2108. CDC guidelines can be viewed at cdc.gov/travel.

By Jack Durham
Press Editor

McKinleyville may get its own community forest, complete with old growth Sitka spruce, trails and ocean views.
The McKinleyville Community Services District has applied for state grant funds to purchase the property, located adjacent to the Beau Pre Heights subdivision on the hillside east of the Beau Pre Golf Course in McKinleyville.
“It’s awesome,” said MCSD Parks and Recreation Director Jason Sehon about the forest. There are towering old-growth Sitka spruce, existing trails, ocean views, a wetland and wildlife.
The property is owned by Danco, the developer of the Beau Pre subdivision. According to Sehon, the Department of Fish and Game is requiring that Danco preserve the 60-acre site, which is off limits to housing development and logging.
The MCSD has applied for a grant to purchase the forest through the state’s Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, better known as Prop. 84. The $5.388 billion bond fund includes $500 million for parks and nature education.
The only hitch with the MCSD’s grant application, Sehon noted, is that the district also applied for a Prop. 84 grant to purchase park property near School Road and Washington Avenue in McKinleyville (See story, page 1). That grant may get a higher ranking by the state, making the success of the forest grant application uncertain.
However, even if this grant application is unsuccessful, the district may still be able to acquire the property by negotiating with Danco for a possible donation.
If the MCSD does acquire the forest, it won’t be able to selectively log it like the City of Arcata does with the Arcata Community Forest. According to the City of Arcata’s website, the Arcata Community Forest is comprised of 2,134 acres. Arcata has a forest management plan which allows limited, eco-groovy logging.
“Timber harvest revenue funds forest operations, habitat restoration and management of the forest for recreational uses,” states the city’s website.
If McKinleyville obtains the Beau Pre forest, the MCSD would probably form an open space maintenance zone. The 80 parcels in the adjacent Beau Pre Heights subdivision, which has yet to be developed, would be assessed a monthly fee on their water bills. That money would be used by the MCSD to maintain the trails and pick up trash.
Access to the forest would most likely be from Norton Road. A small parking lot would be developed, although the exact details have yet to be worked out.

school property design aerial with dimensionsBy Jack Durham
Press Editor

Sometime this spring, McKinleyville will have a new park on the south side of town.
The McKinleyville Community Services District Board of Directors voted unanimously at a special meeting Thursday, Jan. 5 to purchase three acres at the corner of School Road and Washington Avenue.
The MCSD will pay the McKinleyville Union School District $128,894 for the undeveloped site. The MCSD will most likely pay for the property using money from its general fund, A grant application with the state is pending. If the MCSD wins the grant, it would reimburse itself, thereby obtaining the acreage without any cost to the district.
After the MCSD completes a lot line adjustment with the County of Humboldt and escrow closes, work can begin on opening the property for public use. The MCSD is hoping this can happen in the spring.
MCSD Parks and Recreation Director Jason Sehon said that the first order of business is to “clear all invasive plants” including Scotch broom. The MCSD does not intend to cut down any trees, but it does need to clear the property enough so that its mower can be used about three times a year to keep the grass down, Sehon said.
The MCSD will need to consult with the County of Humboldt to determine the best location for a small parking lot, he said. Two potential “access points” have been identified – one off Washington Avenue just south of Dena Drive, the other at the south end of Oakdale Drive.
There are no immediate plans for any major recreation facilities at the park.
“I suspect natural trails will start” as people begin walking around the property, Sehon said.
There’s a possibility that the park could substantially grow and be tied into other park facilities in nearby subdivisions.
The three acres is part of a 10.3-acre parcel that’s being sold by the school district, which bought the property years ago for a campus. Later it discovered that an earthquake fault crossed the property, making it unsuitable for a new school.
The MCSD has applied for a separate state grant to purchase the remaining 7.3 acres from school district.
MCSD Manager Norman Shopay said that if the MCSD obtains a grant for the 7.3 acres, it would have to open up new property negotiations with the school district.
Both the Furtado and Santos subdivisions, under construction downhill and west of the new park, will include small park areas and trails. They may be linked to the MCSD park.
The developers of both those subdivisions will end up paying about “a couple hundred thousand dollars” in Quimby Funds, which would be available to the MCSD for park development.
The Quimby Act requires developers to provide park facilities in their subdivisions, or pay Quimby fees in lie of providing parks. There’s a formula for how large the park facilities should be based upon the number of residents in the subdivision. In the case of the Furtado and Santos subdivisions, the developers will provide a combination of facilities and fees.
Sehon said that plans for the new park will ultimately be brought before the MCSD’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and the MCSD Board of Directors.