Valley People (March 16, 2022)

PHILIP THOMAS: The Anderson Valley School Board has placed a school renovation bond, Measure M, on the June 7 ballot. The elementary school, built in 1948 and the High School, built in 1957, have served generations of kids and have been modernized in sections through the many decades of use but the infrastructure is worn out after more than 60 years. Age and the elements have taken their toll. We have surveyed our community and the “wish list” is long. Measure M will allow funds to renovate classrooms at the high school, upgrade heating ventilation and air conditioning systems to improve indoor air quality, replace leaking water pipes, repair deteriorating roofs, potentially build a multi-purpose room at the elementary, refresh the gym at the high school, upgrade septic and fire safety systems, replace failing solar inverters, and upgrade doors and lock systems for security. This list is long. We won’t be able to do it all, but we will be able to create a substantial difference in our students’ educational experience and create a campus that is on par with other county school systems. The district has used bond funds effectively in the past matched with State funding and grants to maximize past bond funds installing large solar arrays to off-set energy bills, renovate locker rooms at the high school, replace large sections of roofs, renovate classrooms at the elementary school, install some HVAC systems, and complete a first wave of improvements back in 2010. That was twelve years ago, and the deferred maintenance needs of these 60-year old properties continues to grow. Prior generations provided us with a quality local school environment for kids. It’s time to continue the legacy by protecting and improving these vital public assets. Please join business leaders, teachers, parents, grandparents, and neighbors by voting YES on Measure M.

WHAT SOUNDED LIKE a routine call to Anderson Valley's emergency services Saturday night about 10:30, turned out to be a wild encounter with a berserk Fort Bragg man who, before he was finally subdued by a CHP officer and two AV first responders, damaged a first responder's private vehicle and broke out the driver's side window of a Philo-based fire truck driven by Don Gowan. Jesse Blanton of Fort Bragg had been seen lying on the highway and stopping traffic on Highway 128 near Handley Cellars before a CHP unit out of Ukiah arrived to restrain him. Blanton fought the officer who tazed Blanton several times and, with the help of Gowan and another AV volunteer, finally wrestled Blanton into custody. Blanton, as they say, “is known to law enforcement.” In 2014 he was sentenced to state prison for an assault and he’s been in and out of jail several times since then.

HAZMOBILE IN BOONVILLE, Saturday, March 19, 2022, 9am-1pm, Fairgrounds parking lot. 

BILL KIMBERLIN: I have been clearing some of the ground falls below the trees on my property in Boonville. I have been told this will prevent grass fires from having fuel to climb the trees. They say you want the fire to “laydown.” Chainsaws and I don't get along, but today I won a round.

TOWN OF MENDOCINO FACING WORSE DROUGHT THAN LAST YEAR — as Mendo’s Drought Task Force sits idly by. (From latest report by the Town’s Water-Sewer District) — “The average depth of Mendocino’s water table on February 25, 2022, measured at 16.71, compared to 19.61 on February 16, 2021.”

GASOLINE was $5.09 last Wednesday at CostCo in Ukiah. My Ford hybrid, 38 miles to the gallon, cost $47.69 to fill up. Does it need mentioning that these prices are a killer for most people.

FRIENDS OF FAULKNER PARK: Thought EVM [PG&E’s Enhanced Vegetation Management] couldn't get any worse? SB396 would allow PG&E to access your private property to chop down your trees without your permission, without review by a qualified expert, and without compensation for any damages. Please consider reaching out to your elected officials asking them to oppose this atrocity. Spread the word on social, write letters to editors, tell your friends.

ATTENTION GROOVERS: Life returns to the Anderson Valley:  “Ok…gonna try this again! DJ Nasty Nate dance party at Anderson Valley Brewing this Fri & Sat at 4:30 pm. Friday show includes a visual screen. Both are outdoor shows, dress warm but not too much…need room to wiggle!” 

AV SENIOR CENTER will host a game after afternoon and take-out dinner on Wednesday, March 23 from 3-5pm. Masks required. For more info or a ride or to sign up for the games and/or (free spaghetti) dinner call the Senior Center in advance by March 23 at 895-3609.

FIRE CHIEF AVILA said Wednesday night's reports of a major fire in Philo was a false alarm. “It was a glow from a greenhouse that someone thought was a structure fire,” the Chief said Thursday afternoon.

THE OLD PHILO MIILL is for lease. Located in central Philo complete with structures the imaginative could put to productive purpose, the mill hasn't milled in many years. Nice site for hurry-up housing on its several acres with a good water source. I’m sure the Supervisors will take a close look. 

IT WAS ONE OF THOSE MARCH DAYS when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold, when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade. — Charles Dickens

A BILL intended to make it easier to kill feral pigs has been introduced in the State Senate. “We’re a step closer to controlling these destructive, non-native animals which are endangering sensitive habitats, farms and other animals,” state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa said as he introduced SB 856, probably at the behest of the wine industry, one of the old boy's primary backers. 

DODD'S BILL is no big deal, merely expediting hunting by replacing the wild pig tag, which costs $15 per kill, with a season-long validation, also for $15, that allows hunters to mow 'em down. Fortunately for these interesting and adaptive beasts, many land owners keep pig hunters out.

I WONDER, though, if Dodd has his history right. He says that “feral swine descended from pigs set free by Spanish missionaries and other European colonists as far back as 250 years ago.” I thought the pigs we see frequently in the Anderson Valley, for instance, were descended from the herds raised in the late 19th and early 20th century when they were driven like cattle from the Anderson Valley either to Cloverdale or Ukiah to meet the southbound train for Bay Area slaughter houses. Some of those porkers got loose and here their descendants are today, rototilling great swathes of open country. 

JEFF FOX:

Regarding the wild pigs in California, domesticated pigs became feral when settlers in the 18th century allowed them to free range. Then in the 1920’s a rancher in Monterey imported some European wild pigs (a far different animal than the already feral domestic pigs) to release onto his land so he could hunt them. I had heard as a kid that several European immigrants brought them because they preferred the meat and enjoyed hunting them. Ultimately the Euro pigs interbred with the already feral domestic pigs and created the hybrid that’s out there now. The physical features of the European boar persist, far more hair, long floppy tail, etc.

As for the hunting regs, when I was a little kid there were no hunting restrictions at all as they were considered an invasive. Later they were declared a “game animal” by the state (undoubtedly viewed as a potential revenue source from hunters) and the DFG started requiring a hunting license. Later pig tags were required, but it was very inexpensive around $6 for a book of five tags, often enough to last a season for an active hunter. Later in the early ’90’s DFG converted to a single tag at twice the price of the book of 5 tags. Now the single tag is nearly $25. Meanwhile, over time landowners (especially the urban transplants) have become more restrictive in allowing hunting on their parcels. They complain about pigs but an old hunter like me struggles like hell trying to get access to land to hunt on. Pigs are highly intelligent animals and quickly figure out which lands lack hunting pressure and spend most of their time there, so if you are a landowner that doesn’t allow hunting it’s no surprise that you will have more pigs present.

The bottom line is the proposed legislation will do little to nothing because it does little to encourage an increase in actual hunters. Switching back to a single validation that allows harvesting a larger number of animals will help, but it’s effect is that the very few that have access to land can kill a lot more animals rather than increasing hunting at large. Providing better incentives to landowners to allow hunting, such as tools for screening potential hunters, releasing owners from liability, etc. would go a long way towards dealing with the pig population. It would also help feed people as well, both the hunter’s families and others that get gifted the meat (food banks are a common recipient).

JEFF FOX'S interesting riff on feral pigs got my nostalgia going for my scant experience with the wild creatures. I say “scant” because I've spent many happy hours hiking the Mendo outback, still marveling all these years later at how wild it is not far from the pavement. I hit a slow-to-take-off buzzard one night coming down the Ukiah Road near Bell Valley one night, cracking my windshield so thoroughly I thought for a second the thing was going to join me in the driver's seat. Hit a deer in almost the same spot another night, and there went another windshield. I've caught glimpses of bobcats, never have seen a mountain lion or a bear, but by far my most memorable wildlife interface was with a coyote, me at one end of a culvert, him at the other just off Anderson Valley way, maybe a hundred and fifty feet from the front door of my old place. The coyote stared at me, I stared back, and on we stared at each other for several minutes, me finally walking on. Not to go all woo-woo on you here, but I could have sworn that coyote was messing with me, laughing at me, and I understood, I thought, why the coyote figures so prominently in Native American mythology as having human characteristics.

I BOUGHT GAS at CostCo on Wednesday for $5.09 a gallon. Thursday, it's $5.19 at CostCo and an average of $5.40 countywide, prompting lots of Brandon memes aimed at Poor Old Joe from the political right. Anybody care to speculate how the orange blusterer would have handled inflation? Ukraine?