An environmental group is filing a lawsuit in hopes of stopping a logging operation approved for Neely Hill above the Russian River. The recently approved Silver Estates timber harvest plan means redwood and Douglas fir trees can be logged on over 220-acres of land near Guerneville and Monte Rio. The Guerneville Forest Coalition says Cal Fire and the logging plan don’t meet the standards that had been set by the California Environmental Quality Act. The suit also says Cal Fire has not done enough to assess what the impact of the project could be on flood-prone areas and wildlife. The logging zone is home to the 340-foot-tall and about two-thousand-year-old Clar Tree, which some believe is the tallest tree on private property in the world.
Congressman Jared Huffman says he voted on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2023 which had money for ocean and Great Lake waters. He says the bill will address climate change because it has protections for oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. The Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) also passed with protections for the North Coast. He says the bill will work to prevent illegal fishing and forced labor, eliminate shark fin sales in the country, enhance marine mammal conservation, research, and stranding response, study stormwater impacts on salmon and restore resilient coral reefs with a reauthorized and updated Coral Reef Conservation Act related to climate change, ecosystem loss, disease outbreaks, and other threats.
US Senator Alex Padilla says his bill to strengthen FEMA’s wildfire preparedness and response efforts known as the FIRE Act unanimously passed and heads to the President for signature. The FIRE Act was also led by Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) in the House. It updates the Stafford Act from which FEMA is governed and was written with hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods in mind. Now it will include response to wildfires so FEMA can pre-deploy assets during times of highest wildfire risk, as Cal Fire has been doing. The bill also improves counseling and case management services specifically for disadvantaged communities.
Fort Bragg is being recognized for wave energy. It’s being noticed across the state for working towards a Blue Economy, a way to get money from the ocean while not taking resources away or causing unnecessary environmental harm. A Canadian company working globally with wave energy makes freshwater and found Fort Bragg as a partner for them to test their desalination device. The City Council approved the company Oneka and went to the state to get a $1.5 million grant. The company says since Fort Bragg has big ocean waves all year round, which is prime real-estate for their technology. The city is also looking at using solar and wave energy, and environmentally friendlier reservoirs.
Due to the wet weather, the State Route between Navarro and Route 1 is closed because of flooding on the Navarro River. It’s not unusual this time of year as winter rains come in and the river swells. Caltrans announced yesterday they’d close the road until the waters receded, which could be Sunday. Each year at this time, the river’s mouth gets filled and moves out and floods the road until the sandbar is breached and the road is re-opened. The river forecast is that it should crest early Sunday morning, but the road won’t be re-opened until Caltrans decides and will announce that.
Deja Vu in Calif. A surge of COVID could be around the same case load as we had last winter when the omicron strain wreaked havoc nationwide. The latest case numbers per day went up to 78-hundred, nearly twice the amount we saw a week ago. There’s also been a slew of cases in hospitals too, up 150-percent ove r last month. State officials say they’re concerned as many regions are back in the high-level zone. Like in Los Angeles County, which is reportedly very close to reinstating mask mandates for indoor spaces.
A new bill in the Legislature, that, if it passes, would cap how much landlords can charge for security deposits. The draft says it should only be one month. The Legislator who’s behind the bill says if it passes, it will have a huge impact on housing affordability for families. It’s currently cool to charge two months, but three if the unit is furnished. The state has the nation’s second-highest overall rent price, with the average landing at about 16-hundred dollars for a one bedroom.
History made in Windsor with the election of their first Latina woman as mayor. Rosa Reynoza was elected to the council in May of 2021 and has now risen to the top spot and sworn in Wednesday night. Before being elected, she had lost three attempts to get a seat on the council. And Tanya Potter was also sworn in as Windsor’s District Four town councilwoman. The former Mayor Sam Salmon is now vice mayor and will represent District Two.
It’s happening again, a delay in the start to the commercial Dungeness crab season in California, as a protection for humpback whales. Once again, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife reported commercial crabbing is on hold until at least Dec. 30th, with them revisiting the situation around the 22nd of the month. This is the third delay this season. Things usually get started on Nov. 15th for the waters between the Mendocino County line and the border with Mexico. It’s considered a popular dish for the holidays in Calif. But the conservation group Oceana says it was a smart choice as whales getting entangled in fishing gear has become the new normal. Humpbacks can drag the ropes they get caught in from heavy commercial traps, for months, and become injured, starved or so exhausted that they can drown.
Due to so many fentanyl overdoses at schools, they may soon be required to have Narcan on hand, an anti-dote to an overdose of opioids. The Legislature is looking at proposing the nasal spray be kept on public school campuses as a requirement as they come up with ways to get information out about fentanyl on K12 campuses. The drug can kill and can be taken without knowledge as its laced into other drugs like oxycodone and Adderall. At least seven teenagers had od’d on the drug in LA County after taking pills, including a 15-year-old girl who died in September. An Assembly Bill introduced this week would mandate schools in California have at least two doses of emergency naloxone or Narcan doses on campus in case of an overdose.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has approved an agreement to give COVID Stimulus payments to county employees. In the “side letter agreement” the rest of the unions with expired contracts, which includes the Service Employees International, have all agreed to get a one-time only payment from the American Rescue Act. It’ll be $3,000 for full-timers and $1,500 for part-timers. At the same time they are continuing to negotiate new deals with the union which may be picked back up next week. Also at the meeting this week, the Board heard about a budget deficit and discussed a 3% reduction across all departments because of lower cannabis revenue and lower sales tax revenues.
