Mendocino County Today: Friday 4/5/24

Cold | Brooktrails Snow | FB Roundup | Guns & Violence | County Agenda Notes | Yorkville Snow | Circle Questions | Generator Theft | Ed Notes | Wagner Show | Dam Concerns | Coast Guard | Historical Society | Barn Sky | Sheehy Projects | History Day | PV Observations | Forks Cafe | Petit Teton | Local Cinema | Yesterday's Catch | Wine Shorts | Pushrods | Water Plan | Snyder Reading | Waste Land | Springtime | Remember When | Zacatecas Love | Heat Rising | Shrimp Picker | Three Strikes | Coastal Sax | The Worst

UNSEASONABLY COLD STORM systems will continue to bring light rain and mountain snow showers through the weekend. Late season cold air will bring widespread inland sub-freezing temperatures tonight. Drier and much warmer conditions will develop next week with building high pressure. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A crisp 40F under clear skies with a fresh .99" of rainfall collected. Another inch. The highest temp I saw yesterday afternoon was 48F, darn cold. Cold, clear & windy today then slowly warming thru the weekend. Spring returns next week they say.

FORT BRAGG CITY MANAGER MARCH ROUNDUP

Sister City, Street Rehab, City Employee Spotlight, New Hires, Business Assistance, CV Starr Center, Sports, City Council Recap, Garden Project, Blood Drive, and more…

city.fortbragg.com/home/showpublisheddocument/5357/638478243539018671

BLAKE’S ASSAULT & 37-GUN ARSENAL

On Wednesday, Marc 6, 2024, the Ukiah Police Department (UPD) was notified of an anonymous letter that was sent to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors regarding a potential domestic violence incident that occurred on the 500 block of Capps Lane, Ukiah. The letter reported that a Blake Cox, 28, of Ukiah had assaulted his wife while having numerous firearms in plain view. 

The initial investigation concluded that no physical altercation or threats had occurred between Cox and the 20-Year-Old victim. 

On Thursday, March 21, 2024, at approximately 3:46 pm, the investigating UPD officer was re-contacted by the 20-Year-Old victim of this incident. During the investigation, it was reported that Cox pulled the victim off a bed, dragged her by her hair for approximately three feet, and kicked her numerous times while holding their small child. Cox was also reported to have prevented the victim from leaving the scene for a period of time. No firearms were used during the altercation. 

During the course of the investigation, an assisting UPD officer located Cox’s vehicle traveling eastbound near Low Gap Road and North Bush Street in Ukiah. A traffic stop was conducted on the vehicle, where Cox was found to be the sole occupant. A legally owned and registered firearm was located inside of Cox’s vehicle during the traffic stop. Cox was interviewed and ultimately arrested at the scene. 

The 20-Year-Old victim was provided with Domestic Violence resource paperwork. 

Cox was known to possess numerous firearms. A detective with the UPD Detective Bureau authored a search warrant; it was granted by a Mendocino County Judge, and served to obtain the firearms at Cox’s residence. A total of thirty-seven (37) firearms were ultimately located and seized. 

The firearms included handguns and long guns, twelve (12) of which were determined to be illegal assault weapons due to them with various characteristics in violation of the penal code for Possession of an assault weapon. 

Cox was transported to the Mendocino County Jail and booked for domestic battery, kidnapping-forcibly, or instilling fear, steals, takes, holds, detains or arrests any person; false imprisonment, willful cruelty to child and possession of assault weapons.

The UPD would like to thank personnel from the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office Investigative Services and the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in this investigation. 

As always, our mission at UPD is to make Ukiah as safe a place as possible. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cell phone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website; http://www.ukiahpolice.com 

COUNTY AGENDA NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

A MEASURE B REPAYMENT PLAN?

Item 4b on next Tuesday’s Board agenda is “Discussion and Possible Action Including Direction to Staff Regarding the Proposed Loan Repayment Plan for Funds Borrowed Against Measure B Fund as Matching Funds to Construct the Behavioral Health Wing of the SB844 Jail Building. (Sponsors: Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector and Executive Office)”

This is long overdue. It was requested by the Board in October when the they first “borrowed” about $7 million from Measure B. The attached proposal is to repay Measure B over ten years at 2.5% interest (which is less than inflation), running about $800k per year for ten years. 

We will be following this discussion closely to see if they ask the Measure B committee for input (there’s no evidence that they have; the Measure B committee was ignored when the money was borrowed to cover what was hoped to be the last overrun jail expansion project overrun; in fact the committee has been ignored on just about everything associated with Measure B, not that anyone seems to care); where they’re going to find the $800k per year (in addition to the similarly sized previous commercial loan repayment they already have to pay back to cover the previous jail expansion overrun); what they (or the Measure B committee) will do with the repayments; whether the state’s (possible) $9 million grant will be factored in; how the PHF planning is going; whether they will really repay all of it or some fraction and what guarantees there will be (if any) that it will be really be repaid; and if they consider not repaying it at all on the tenuous grounds that the new jail wing is some kind of mental health service facility, as they previously pretended.

Prediction: no matter how the discussion goes, we expect it to be very long, very contorted, occasionally digressively nutty, and without any resolution — i.e., back to staff for more delay, er, analysis.

* * *

TINY MINDS TO TALK TINY HOMES

Item 4d on next Tuesday’s agenda is: “Discussion and Possible Action Including Acceptance of Presentation Regarding Regulations for Tiny Homes; and Possible Direction to Staff Regarding Regulations for Movable Tiny Homes. (Sponsor: Planning and Building Services)”

What are the odds that “possible direction to staff” will include the preparation of any “regulations,” much less any possible specific regulations other than obstructionist rules that will make “tiny homes” impossible to build, buy, or install? Zero? 1 in 100? Snowball’s Chance in Hades? Between Slim and None? The odds of winning the MegaMillions lottery? Oh, the range of choices! 

From our discussions with private parties on this subject, the most contestable tiny homes issue could be the property tax question. Tiny homes typically fall in the gray area between obviously taxable and obviously not-taxable. If they are “movable” as the item suggests (with wheels/axles), then they would have a DMV license like a trailer/mobile home and therefore would not taxable as a property improvement; if they are not movable and/or have some kind of foundation (or pier blocks?), they might be taxable. The County probably prefers to make them taxable, but requiring them to have a foundation will be not only raise the cost, but involve considerably more delay. Where will the line between taxable and non-taxable be drawn? What “regulations” will they impose, if any? What will they define “movable” to be? With wheels? On skids? On a large pad with multiple tiny homes? There are also the usual questions of zoning, density, water, sewer, neighbors, permits, setbacks, noise, traffic, parking, etc. Is this Board capable of taking any reasonable action on this subject? Or will they just blather for a while and “accept” the presentation and go back to sleep? (See the range of odds and its inverse above…)

* * *

ANOTHER AG COMMISSIONER?

Item 6b for the closed session on Tuesday is “Public Employee Appointment - Agricultural Commissioner/Sealer of Weights and Measures.” 

Is the Board going to finally appoint a permanent, fully licensed and qualified Ag Commissioner? Odds on this one are a little higher than on the above, but still low. If they have an appointee in mind, will they fully disclose the troubled history of the position and the previous appointments and their relatively short tenure to the potential applicant? 

* * *

STILL STALLING MEASURE P DISTRIBUTIONS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Item 3d on next Tuesday’s consent calendar is: “Acceptance of the Essential Services Sales Tax (Measure P) Allocation Method for Fiscal Year 2023-24, as Proposed by the Mendocino County Fire Districts Association of Elected Officials. Second Quarter; Acceptance of the Mendocino County Camping Transient Occupancy Tax (Measure D) Allocation Method for Fiscal Year 2023-24, as Proposed by the Mendocino County Fire Chiefs Association; Second Quarter; Acceptance of the Mendocino County Proposition 172 Allocation Method for Fiscal Year 2023-24, as Proposed by the Mendocino County Fire Chiefs Association. Second Quarter; and Authorization for the Chief Executive Officer or Designee to Negotiate and Enter Into Agreements with Fire Agencies and the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, Not to Exceed the Amounts Appropriated.”

The Measure P revenues for emergency and fire services in the County, as is obvious from the item, are still held up. And, “Second quarter”? What happened to the first quarter? Why quarter by quarter? How contorted can they make this process, considering that they already passed a resolution two years ago that the voters approved which specified exactly how the revenue would be “allocated”? Note that it’s been almost a year and a half now since Measure P passed (52% to 48%) and they are only now getting around to “accepting” an “allocation method.” This is for what most Mendolanders would consider to be high priority funding for essential fire and ambulance services in the County. So, of course, as far as the Low Gap Brain Trust is concerned: no rush.

* * *

MORE PRIVATIZATION OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES? 

Item 3j on the consent calendar is “Approval of the Interim Fleet Maintenance Service Agreement with Ukiah Car Center, LLC in an Amount Not to Exceed $50,000 for County Fleet Repair and Maintenance Services.” 

According to the attached details the $50k “will be funded by existing budgets and savings in salaries.” (I.e., layoffs at the County Garage.) But there’s no budget or staffing analysis included. Before any in-house staffing is farmed out to private business, the County should do a careful, balanced analysis of the pros and cons. But they never have. There was never even the slightest analysis when they privatized the much bigger contract for mental health years ago — then-CEO Carmel Angelo simply decreed that it be privatized and that was that. No discussion at all. Two-thirds of the Mental Health Department were laid off. (Some of them went to work for Ortner and the Schraeders, but they didn’t last long, either quitting or retiring.) Will this board at least ask for some data or cost/benefit analysis before they farm out these fleet maintenance services? (See odds above.)

* * *

MORE OUTSIDE INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES

Item 3o on the consent calendar is: “Approval of Agreement with Oppenheimer Investigations Group, LLP in the Amount of $50,000 for Professional Investigation Services, for an Agreement Term Effective upon Execution of Agreement, through December 31, 2024.” … “Human Resources (HR) conducts and oversees employment related investigations. Depending on the nature and complexity of the incident being investigated, HR may conduct the investigation internally with assistance from County Counsel, or for the most complex investigations, utilize Oppenheimer Investigations Group, LLP to assist in managing the investigation. Oppenheimer Investigations Group, LLP specializes in employment law and has extensive knowledge and understanding of public agencies.” 

The $50k is estimated to be an annual expense. Where will the $50k come from? The item is not in the current fiscal year budget, so the agenda item says the money will come from: “Unanticipated investigation costs.” Yes, that’s what the budget note actually says — the equivalent of either “Who cares?” or “We have no clue.” They get away with irresponsible gibberish like this by burying it in the consent calendar all the time. 

* * *

THE REGULAR ‘RETROACTIVE’ HANDOUT TO THE SCHRAEDERS. 

Item 3v on the consent calendar is: “Approval of Retroactive Agreement with Redwood Community Services, Inc., in the Amount of $450,000, to Provide Congregate Emergency Shelter Services for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in Mendocino County, Using California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council Grant Funds for the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, Effective January 1, 2024 Through June 30, 2025.”

THAT’S RIGHT. A “retroactive” handout to the Schraeders of almost half a mil for coordinating and financing homeless grant funds on the consent calendar. A handout that has already happened and the Board has no choice but to approve. We have never seen any money allocated for actual housing; just these huge “retroactive” no-bid handouts to the Schraeders (and others) for homeless grant paperwork — on the consent calendar! No discussion needed since it’s already been done, no consideration of doing it in-house or competitive bidding… It’s the Schraeders. No need to bother with niceties like county contracting procedures. No need to analyze the hell out of the handout like they do with the Measure P money. When it comes to the Schraeders they just hand out the big bucks on the spot without even bothering the Supervisors or General Services/contracting office or County Counsel; then they put it on the consent calendar for retroactive rubberstamping without fear of the slightest question or objection from the Supervisors. But deliver taxpayer-approved sales tax revenues to the local fire districts? Oh no — can’t do that. They need to spend months on agreements, and County Counsel reviews and analyses, and formulae, and board discussions and contracting options (despite the fact the allocation has already been proposed by them and voted on and approved before Measure P was put on the ballot and the agencies involved are not private companies but sister government agencies); and breaking it up into teensy little quarterly segments which need to be reviewed and re-reviewed and parsimoniously parceled out piecemeal each quarter, and wait for the underfunded fire districts to beg for it the next quarter.

PLEASE STOP LEADING US IN (TRAFFIC) CIRCLES: 

Open Letter to City of Ukiah Complete Streets Ad Hoc Committee, sent 4/1/24

Please Stop Leading Us in (Traffic) Circles

Council Members Mari Rodin and Doug Crane

City of Ukiah Civic Center

300 Seminary Avenue

Ukiah, CA 95482

Dear Ms. Rodin and Mr. Crane,

I am writing to express my opposition to the street design plan you and two other council members approved on July 19, 2023.

I have explained the reasons for my opposition in articles that have been published in the Anderson Valley Advertiser and Mendofever. I have attached an updated version of those articles to this message, and I hope you will read it.

I have also started a petition to offer those who oppose this plan the opportunity to have a voice. While the article and petition offer plenty of detail to which I hope you will respond, I would especially like to know your views on the following:

1) Do you think five days was an adequate time frame for the city to notify the public and achieve maximum community participation prior to a council vote that may have a dramatic and long-lasting impact on the streets of Ukiah?

2) Are you aware of any reliable data that indicates traffic circles are needed in Ukiah, due to traffic congestion or any other reason? If so, are you willing to share that data and its source with the public?

3) Are you aware of any reliable sources that indicate traffic circles are safer for both pedestrians and bicyclists? If you are, are you willing to share those sources with the public?

4) Do you or anyone you know regularly ride a bicycle on the streets of Ukiah? What active steps have you taken to learn how bicyclists in our community feel about traffic circles?

5) Given the evidence I have provided that traffic circles add risk for bicyclists, how do you explain moving forward with this plan under the auspices of ‘complete streets’-- i.e. designing streets to benefit all users? If you conclude as most experts have that traffic circles do not benefit bicyclists, will you withdraw your support for the Perkins and Gobbi traffic circle plan and move for the City to terminate the consulting agreement with the contractor who created this plan?

6) Have you consulted with Neil Davis, the head of Walk & Bike Mendocino and current head of the City of Ukiah Parks Department, who clearly expressed in a 2016 Planning Commission meeting that traffic circles are not appropriate anywhere in Ukiah? Since he is currently a member of Ukiah city staff, are you willing to share his input with the public?

7) How do you justify your support for entrusting a lifestyle brand– purchased by Adventist Health in 2021 for $78 million– to design our streets? Can you explain why the city opted not to seek the services of a well-established, reputable design firm?

8) Are you aware of the $10,450 invoice (dated 11/30/23) issued by Blue Zones LLC to the City of Ukiah? Can you describe the exact services this contractor is claiming to have provided for that amount? Do you know why, four months from its issue date, the City of Ukiah has not paid this invoice?

I hope you will share your thoughts about these important questions. Thank you for working on behalf of everyone who uses our streets.

Sincerely,

Andrew Lutsky

Ukiah

THAT’S NOT YOUR GENERATOR, TONY…

On Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 1:01 A.M., Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Deputies were advised of a possible theft of a generator within the 500 block of Pomo Lane in Ukiah.

Sheriff's Office personnel responded to the area and obtained evidence to suggest a theft of a generator occurred. Deputies began an investigation into the theft and learned the generator may be located at a nearby residence. Deputies responded to the residence and contacted a subject who was identified as Tony Dale Nelson, 54, of Ukiah.

During the course of their investigation, Sheriff's Office personnel located the generator within a structure on the property. The generator was determined to be valued at over $950. Deputies obtained information indicating Nelson was the person who committed the theft of the generator. Sheriff's Office Dispatch determined Nelson was on active summary probation out of Mendocino County.

At the conclusion of their investigation, Sheriff's Deputies developed probable cause to believe Nelson committed the following crimes: Felony theft of over $950, and Violation of summary probation.

Nelson was arrested and subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $17,500 bail.

ED NOTES

I CAME BACK from several hours at Mission Bay on a glorious spring Tuesday where me and mine were much encouraged by Dr. William Ryan's rosy prognosis that it appears likely I will stumble on for a few more years. 

I've since learned that Ryan is a well-known surgeon, that I was lucky to have him in charge of my throat excavations. He's brief and to the point, and I can't say I've ever been more in awe of a person with his rare combination of genius and physical abilities. Think of all that goes into the making of a surgeon!

The doctor was followed by speech therapist, Erik Steele, an earnest fellow who assumes I'm eager to resume verbal communications. I'm not, but I'll master the various voice options just to keep everyone in my family happy.

Objectively reviewing my vanished powers of speech, and having written whatever's been on my fragged mind for so many years, including stories and messages to my grandchildren, why not continue as mostly mute? Speech seems much overrated, especially at my age, and lack of it saves the daily deluge of redundant conversation. 

People ask me how I'm dealing with the pain. I'm not because there isn't any. The hard part of the recovery process is breathing through the hole in my throat, which involves a plastic larynx with a filtering plug at the exposed end of it via which a daily deluge of choking slobbery drool is emitted that prompt mild panic attacks when the whole works backs up, cutting off my oxygen. This slobber-drool period — a month of it now — is about to end to be followed up by several weeks of radiation “whether or not it's needed.”

Sleep has been difficult since it was thrown totally off by three weeks in the hospital with its round-the-clock interventions, one of which scared hell outta me. A cadaverous Asian woman loomed up in my face one 5am to pronounce, “Blood!” in such a peremptory tone I thought I was either being robbed of my precious bodily fluids or The Reaper had sent an assistant to carry me off. She appeared two mornings in a row. I dreaded a third but she'd apparently drunk her fill.

Doctor Ryan flatters me by saying stuff like, “You've done amazingly well. Whatever you've done all these years…” Whatever I've done? Self-indulgence leavened by daily bouts of fierce exercise. Pure luck except maybe for the exercise regime.

There is much that is mildly excruciating about all this, but for me the most overall painful has been psychic. The infantilization that comes with total dependence on young nurses for what for all my long life had been private has been… well, cringe-inducing. “We've seen it all, Mr. Anderson. Don't worry about it,” a young nurse laughed when I asked her to secure my gown to conceal my scarifying rear end. I've never seen it but its visual terrors are a safe assumption. The nurse got a big laugh out of my modesty. “Scarifying. I like that,” she said.

The man who saved my life says I should be able to fully resume exercising in another month, while in the meantime I walk more and more around the house fighting off a temptation to see how many push-ups I might manage. There's no cure for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

TWO DAMS ARE COMING DOWN ON CALIFORNIA’S EEL RIVER. WILL IT THREATEN WATER SUPPLIES?

by Kurtis Alexander

POTTER VALLEY, Mendocino County — Nearly 120 years ago, when the West still hummed with gas lighting and horse-drawn wagons, a San Francisco man named W.W. Van Arsdale, once described by a local newspaper as uncharacteristically enterprising, set out to help rural Mendocino County find a bridge to the young 20th century.

The entrepreneur, in a move that would forever change Northern California, hired immigrant Chinese labor to bore a mile-long tunnel in a mountain near the county seat of Ukiah and piped water from the Eel River through it to power a new hydroelectric plant.

The Potter Valley Project, as promised, delivered “cheap” energy and “immense possibilities,” as chronicled by Ukiah’s Dispatch Democrat newspaper at the time. But it wasn’t the electricity that turned out to be the windfall. It was the water.

Outflow from the power plant, which takes the bounty of the Eel River and puts it in the East Fork Russian River, gave new life to communities in the Russian River basin, from Ukiah to Sonoma County and points south. Orchards and cattle ranches around the powerhouse boomed. Downstream cities like Cloverdale and Healdsburg could grow with fewer water worries. Wine Country flourished.

This welcomed excess, however, may soon be no more, and the daily water supplies of potentially hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of shrinking.

Over the next several years, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the current owner of the Potter Valley Project, is planning to retire the hydroelectric plant and remove two dams on the Eel River that provide water for the facility. With power production shut down, tunneling water into the Russian River won’t be necessary — for PG&E.

“I can’t get away from my concern about what happens if the water supply goes away,” said grower Dan Todd, before taking a walk on a recent afternoon past rows of pear trees irrigated with project water in Potter Valley, where the plant operates. “I think about water every day.”

The project’s closure is prompted by its age and unprofitability, PG&E officials say. The shutdown, though, has long been the goal of many living in the Eel River watershed who see the darker side of what was billed as progress a century ago.

As on other Western waterways, the dams and water diversions have taken a toll on the federally designated “wild and scenic” Eel River, most visibly by lowering flows and choking off access for salmon and other fish to hundreds of miles of cold, perennial waters. Some view the long-ago development of the river as a greedy and unjust power grab. Should dam removal proceed, the 200-mile-long Eel would become the longest free-flowing river in California.

“We see this as a really big opportunity to create a salmon stronghold,” said Charlie Schneider, a project manager for the conservation group California Trout. “We really feel an urgency for the fish to get these dams out.”

But for Todd and others in the Russian River basin, the prospect of losing water is unthinkable. The Potter Valley Project provides a portion of the water supply for large swaths of Mendocino and Sonoma counties. In Potter Valley, about 15 miles northeast of Ukiah, it’s almost everything.

Residents of the town of about 500, living amid sprawling vineyards with a market, saloon, high school and smattering of businesses, are acutely aware that things here are about to change dramatically.

Todd’s oldest son Andy Todd, who had moved to Santa Rosa, returned to Potter Valley several years ago with his wife and twin children to reconnect with his hometown — and to help run the farm.

“We saw this as building something not only for our family but for my kids to take over in the future,” Andy said. “Now that’s all up in the air.”

Residents of Potter Valley are among those counting on a newly created water authority that’s working to keep Eel River water flowing through Van Arsdale’s tunnel once PG&E is gone.

The success of the Eel-Russian Project Authority, though, is far from certain. Not only must the agency figure out how to finance, acquire and run a piece of PG&E infrastructure, it has to navigate concerns about pulling too much water out of the Eel.

Even if the authority succeeds in taking over the tunnel, less water is expected to be imported to the Russian River basin and at a much greater cost.

The agency is not interested in continuing power production.

“We’re trying to come away with a consensus project that will have enough support to carry forward,” Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency, one of the founding members of the Eel-Russian Project Authority, told the Chronicle. “We have to find an outcome that will be restorative of both river systems.”

Sonoma Water, which provides wholesale water to communities serving about 600,000 people from north of Santa Rosa to Marin County, doesn’t get much of its supply directly from the upper Russian River, where the Eel River contributes water. But it does have a stake in Eel River supplies.

The agency manages Lake Mendocino, a reservoir on the main stem of the upper Russian River. Part of its responsibility is to make releases from the lake to keep water flowing in the lower Russian River. Should Lake Mendocino not have enough water for the releases, the agency could be forced to tap its main water source, Lake Sonoma.

Hydrological modeling cited by Sonoma Water and others in the region suggests that in the absence of Eel River water and without significant intervention, Lake Mendocino would go dry in two of every 10 years.

Equally alarming, in eight of 10 years, the lake wouldn’t have enough water to meet all the demands of water-rights holders in the upper Russian River basin. This includes small cities, community water systems and farms, mostly vineyards. Water cuts would be unavoidable, and those with the least senior water rights would be hardest hit.

“We’re not at the top of the pecking order,” said Jeff Kay, city manager for Healdsburg, where residents learned recently how bad things can get when Lake Mendocino runs low.

In 2021, during the depths of California’s latest drought, residents and businesses in the Wine Country community were forced to cut water use by 40% over the prior year.

“We don’t want to do that again,” Kay said, noting that city leaders were expanding the water supply in part because of the pending closure of the Potter Valley Project. They’re working, for example, to recycle more water.

Growers in the Alexander Valley are just as concerned. The prestigious wine region, which runs from north of Healdsburg to the Mendocino County line and boasts some of California’s most celebrated Cabernet Sauvignon vines, relies heavily on the Russian River.

Scores of vineyards here are tethered to water rights that are subject to restriction when river levels drop. During the recent drought, hundreds of water-rights holders were forced to stop pumping — a scenario many believe was a preview of a future where the Eel River doesn’t continue to supplement the Russian.

“It’s going to make things a lot harder,” said Harry Black, vineyard manager at Rancho Miguel in Geyserville, one of those who had to stop irrigating in 2021. “Yields might be down, and costs may be up.”

Economic projections for the Potter Valley Project’s closure, including dam removal, suggest an initial boost for the region because of investment in the demolition, including the creation of more than 1,000 new jobs. In the long run, however, the gains tail off.

A report commissioned by the Sonoma County Farm Bureau estimates that, because of chronic water shortages, agricultural, commercial and municipal losses could run into tens or hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Black, who grows mostly Cabernet, Chardonnay and Merlot, isn’t confident that the region’s water managers will negotiate an arrangement to keep water flowing through the diversion tunnel.

“It’s going to be hard to jump through all the hoops and do what needs to get done,” he said. 

The Eel-Russian Project Authority, which met in March for just the second time, is already facing headwinds.

The agency’s leaders had hoped that PG&E would retire its Potter Valley Project in tandem with the authority’s effort to take over the diversion tunnel. This doesn’t appear likely, though.

PG&E confirmed that it intends to file its license-surrender application and decommissioning plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January 2025 without a proposal to continue moving water between the rivers. That means the Eel-Russian Project Authority will have to pursue its plan independently.

PG&E officials told the Chronicle they support the authority’s aims but don’t want it to slow them down. The power plant hasn’t been running for three years because a transformer stopped working properly. The utility hopes to get FERC approval for permanent closure, and begin taking out the dams, as soon as 2028.

“We look forward to working collaboratively towards a solution, which balances the needs of water for people and the environment, while not delaying the decommissioning effort,” said Dave Canny, a regional vice president for PG&E.

The bigger challenge for the Eel-Russian Project Authority is balancing the demands of those who want to minimize the amount of water taken from the Eel and those who want to maximize it.

The authority, which consists not only of Sonoma Water but Sonoma County and several Mendocino County communities, is governed by a board that includes the Round Valley Indian Tribes. The tribe, based in the Eel River basin, has grappled with a history of exploitation of the river and ancestral fishing grounds. Members are wary of water exports.

“Personally, as an individual and tribal member, I don’t like (the diversion tunnel),” said Lewis “Bill” Whipple, president of the Tribal Council of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. “The water is just diverted and sold. It’s our water. Every year it seems the river is getting lower and lower.”

But, Whipple added, “as president and leader of our community, we’re working on a compromise. We’re doing our part. (This diversion) may continue, though it won’t be as much, and it’s only going to be when there’s enough water to allow it.”

The tribe is among several parties protective of the Eel River that have been meeting with water users in the Russian River basin since the future of the project first came into doubt. The goal of the discussions has been to find a path forward that everyone can agree on — and to avert a full-fledged water war.

U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, as well as California water and wildlife officials, have stepped in to help. Any future water diversions from the Eel must be signed off by state regulators.

Many who are supportive of the Eel, like Whipple, have expressed a willingness to concede at least some water to the Russian River given the benefits that will come with dam removal.

Taking out the dams, advocates say, will fulfill the longtime goal of Indigenous communities to free the river, improve water quality and, most fundamentally, provide a boost to struggling Pacific lamprey, steelhead trout and chinook salmon.

The 63-foot-high Cape Horn Dam was built in 1908 to create Van Arsdale Reservoir, to capture water for the diversion tunnel. The 138-foot Scott Dam upstream, which impounds the larger Lake Pillsbury in Mendocino National Forest, was built 14 years later to store water for the tunnel when the river and Van Arsdale Reservoir run low, thereby ensuring year-round diversions.

While Cape Horn Dam is equipped with an old fish ladder to facilitate fish passage, Scott Dam is not. The lack of access to the upper reaches of the watershed is believed to be one of the reasons the river’s salmon population has crashed. Annual runs of chinook today are a small percentage of the nearly 1 million fish that historically migrated up the river.

“It’s not just hundreds of miles of habitat (that’s blocked off). It’s hundreds of miles of excellent, cold-water habitat,” said Alicia Hamann, executive director of Friends of the Eel River, a conservation group that has long pushed for dam removal.

When the dams come out, officials at the Eel-Russian Project Authority envision a pump station to move water from the Eel into the diversion tunnel. The pumps are widely viewed as the best way to draw water out of the river without harming fish.

The pump station is likely to be one of the authority’s biggest expenses, and its recent approval by the agency’s board raised questions about the overall cost of the venture. In the past, Eel River water was largely surplus and free. The new operation will have to cover its bills by charging for the water.

Elizabeth Salomone, general manager of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, is among those waiting to see how much her agency will have to pay for water. The district expects to pass along increased costs to the farms and communities that it serves in Mendocino County.

“Our hope is that the outcome will be an affordable and equitable water supply,” Salomone said.

A sign posted on a shed in Potter Valley (Mendocino County) signals the opposition to dam removal on the Eel River. With removal of Scott Dam, the larger of two dams planned for demolition, Lake Pillsbury in Mendocino National Forest will permanently drain.

In Potter Valley, Steve Elliott sat in his office late one afternoon, flanked by maps of the area and an American flag. As superintendent of the Potter Valley Irrigation District, his job these days is nothing short of figuring out a future for the community.

The district, which manages a maze of canals that carry water to vineyards, orchards, pastures and cannabis grows, enjoys a longtime agreement with PG&E to provide a bounty of inexpensive and reliable water from the hydroelectric plant, as much as a third of all the imported Eel River water, on average. That contract is what turned the community into the farming powerhouse that it is today.

If and when PG&E closes its operation, however, the district’s contract is gone.

“You’re going to see a major crash here if we lose the water,” Elliott said.

Any new deal the district secures is expected to be far inferior to the current contract. Water deliveries will likely be limited to the wet winter season, when the Eel River is full, which doesn’t bode well for summer irrigation needs.

Also, groundwater wells that serve homes and businesses could dry up if irrigation water doesn’t saturate the land, according to Elliott. It’s said that the countryside here is so wet, that its green shimmer can be seen from space.

Elliott and others have been devising ways to deal with the looming water scarcity. They’re working to convert irrigation canals to pipelines to avoid water losses from evaporation and seepage. They’re also looking to create new storage, so they can collect additional water when it’s available, both in small reservoirs and underground.

Some in Potter Valley are holding out hope that PG&E’s plan to close the power project and remove the dams falls through. Signs and bumper stickers demanding “Lake Pillsbury” are common.

For Shawna Valley, who works the cash register at Hopper’s Corner Store, it’s not just about losing water but losing customers as people stop driving through town en route to the reservoir, which won’t exist once the dams are gone. The market is a popular place to grab soda, beer, firewood and “floaties” for the lake.

“We won’t have water, and we won’t have tourists,” she said. “Yeah, it’s a big deal.”

Back at Todd Family Farms, on the north side of Potter Valley, one of Dan Todd’s strategies for confronting water shortages has been to replace many of his flagship pear trees with more water-efficient vineyards. It hasn’t been easy.

He recalled going out to bulldoze an 80-year-old orchard and not having the heart to do it: “I backed the tractor away, and I farmed it another two years,” he said.

With his son having returned to the farm, vines of pinot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc are now the heart of the family business. The family’s grapes are purchased by several winemakers, both large and small.

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen next,” Todd said. “Everyone’s just trying to come up with a plan. I don’t know that anyone is expecting things to remain unchanged. We just hope we can keep farming.”

(SF Chronicle)

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY'S 1920s SPRINGTIME SOIREE

A Benefit for the Society: Our first annual dinner and auction!

Transport yourself to the 1920s at our Springtime Soiree in celebration of the upcoming opening of the Held-Poage Memorial Home Museum that will be set in the 1920s. Join us at Barra of Mendocino Winery & Event Center to enjoy music from the era and a delectable dinner and desserts inspired by 1920s menus. There will be a live and silent auction filled with unforgettable Mendocino County experiences. We invite you to dress in 1920s attire, however it is not required. See you there on Saturday May 18, 2024 from 5 - 9 P.M.! Go to the Event Page 

One of the live auction items for the event!

Follow our Facebook event page to preview more items in the auction.

Buy Tickets

 Tickets are on sale until April 26th

$100/General Admission

$1000/Table of 8 - In addition to supporting the HSMC, your table will include priority seating close to the auction stage, and special extras at your table as a thank you!

To buy tickets contact us: 707-462-6969 or info@mendocinocountyhistoy.org

Or click the button below to purchase online.

Buy Tickets Online (https://HSMCbenefit.eventbrite.com)

Do you have an auction item?

Another way you can help support the HSMC is by donating items for us to auction at this event. Some examples and ideas might be:

Vacation Home Use - Gift Certificates - Dinners - Event Tickets - Wine - Services - Artistic Creations - Unique Experiences - Sports Tickets - Jewelry - Gift Baskets - Overnight Stays

If you have something in mind, please reach out to us: 707-462-6969 or info@mendocinocountyhistoy.org

Thank you in advance!

Become an Event Sponsor

Another way you can help support the HSMC is by becoming a sponsor for this event!

There are three sponsorship levels:

Gold $1000 - Business name on social media advertisements, displayed at the event, in the program, and a personal thank you at the event.

Silver $500 - Business name on social media advertisements, displayed at the event and in the program.

Bronze $250 - Business name displayed at the event and in the program.

If you would like to support the HSMC in this way, please contact us: 707-462-6969 or info@mendocinocountyhistoy.org

Thank you in advance!

ECO-ADVOCATE LARRY SHEEHY

by Dot Brovarney

Larry Sheehy has lived, mostly quietly, and mostly in Mendocino County, for the last 25 years. During that time he’s lived simply and communally in several places, including on the land at Mariposa Institute. Long a social activist and an advocate for simple living, Sheehy admits to having been more of a dreamer and less a person with a tight focus. Then, he met Canadian Ida Tremblay who introduced him to Ecopalooza, a community green event and his myriad dreams and ideas began to jell.

“I was an environmentalist before I knew it because of my simple lifestyle. But, my focus on green living and our watersheds came after I met Ida,” says Sheehy. “I helped her with the first Ecopalooza event on the East Coast in 2004. It felt natural to keep doing green living work when I returned to Mendocino County.”

Tremblay gave him the Ecopalooza name and her blessing and he collaborated with Kristen Michael on organizing an Ecopalooza program in Ukiah the following year.

Sheehy explains, “After the 2005 event here, I began to focus on where we live and a feeling of a sense of this place.”

A poetry lover since college, Sheehy attended Writer's Read locally and read the Bay Area publication Poetry Flash for years. It was through this publication that he learned about a Berkeley event that inspired his next project. Robert Hass, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995-97 and U.C.B. professor, had started the Berkeley Watershed Poetry Environmental Festival in 1995. Sheehy realized that a local watershed literary program combined three of his great loves — poetry, green living, and Mendocino. After a successful first Watershed Poetry Mendocino in September 2008, Sheehy and other poetry and environmental advocates are planning the second annual celebration to take place between October 3 and 10.

Looking at Sheehy’s early resume, this eco-literary venture, along with many others in his adult life, seems unlikely.

He grew up in San Diego, the son of a Navy man. He served as a Green Beret demolitions expert in the Army Special Forces and narrowly missed duty in Vietnam. He admits his three-year stint in the Army was partly due to his traditional upbringing and partly due to pressure he felt to be macho.

Life changed for Larry Sheehy soon after he left the service and began college in Fresno. There, he learned Gestalt Therapy for treatment of trauma and radical religion as an antidote to early religious indoctrination. He realized that the “tough guy” he’d played in the Army, was just that — a role he’d adopted to cover for his true self. A gentle soul, Larry Sheehy discovered his life’s path in Fresno in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“When I saw that photograph of the village girl burned by napalm, it tore at my heart,” says Sheehy.

He dropped out of college and went to work for the peace movement. That led to social change work in low-income communities, including marches with Cesar Chavez. One of his proudest moments came when the Chicano Party endorsed his runs for city council and mayor in Fresno. Over the next 16 years in the Valley, he lived communally and owned a bookstore and two restaurants. Each business connected to his community work.

“The books promoted social change and the restaurants promoted vegetarianism,” Sheehy says. “And my employees made more money than me, which really didn't matter because the simple life doesn’t require much.”

Sheehy’s path echoed larger social shifts and he became committed to the environmental movement, which ultimately led him to Mendocino County.

The 2005 Ecopalooza event morphed into a web phenomenon when Sheehy realized that no one was promoting green events and activities in North America. With his Canadian colleague's help, he created Ecopalooza Green Events Network. The site provides a web medium for green advocates to list events related to ecology, sustainability, organics, renewable energy, bioregionalism, and more. In 2008, the Network listed more than 800 events. The number is half that this year due to some health challenges that Sheehy has faced. His biggest concern, however, has been that he might not have the stamina to organize Watershed Poetry Mendocino 2009.

Sheehy says, “I have to credit Theresa Whitehill as the inspiration for our second annual event. As Poet Laureate for the City of Ukiah, she envisioned several events coordinated by different interested parties under the auspices of Watershed Poetry Mendocino. And, that's just how Watershed Poetry Mendocino 2009 has evolved. Doug Strong and I are organizing the Watershed Celebration Day for Oct. 3 and Theresa has created programs for Oct. 9 and 10. So, this year, we'll dedicate a week to reflecting on our watersheds – what they mean to us, the many ways they sustain us, and how to care for them.”

Dot Brovarney is a writer, historian, and Ukiah resident.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

A SOUTH COAST RESIDENT WRITES:

Need some help? We are ready to supply some discontent.

What was Richard Shoemaker’s other half’s name? You know, the woman who used to be up in Fort Bragg? Funny thing, for some reason, I have been at the right place at the right time here on the coast from the Sea Ranch to Point Arena, and anything I reminisce about must be under a pseudonym, but there is a story to tell, and as I see it the town of Pint Arena with Shoemaker at the ethereal helm as well as SHN engineering have flown the coop. Sadly, the folks of PA are paying for it. Oh yeah, now I remember, it was Linda Ruffing, who somehow after losing her City Manager position in Fort Bragg mysteriously appeared in Pint Arena without question or review of a CV to relegate a movement for housing. WTF? And sorry, but as a listener to many meetings I witnessed with the Pint Arena mayor (an innocent party), and good old Shoemaker. I determined there was a rat in the woodpile there. This whole thing is wrong, but a story by me in anonymous fashion is necessary as to the waste of funds in the tiny “City.” My personal opinion is that Shoemaker orchestrated the whole tap dance deal with Granite Construction, got paid, and left town followed by his Shoemaker hired assistant, Paul Anderson as City Manager, who conveniently is now out on medical leave. I witnessed a lot of shit there, and the Mayor and I could never figure out how Mill Street would pencil out without being a financial burden to the City. $500,000 over budget on a street repair with a screwed up engineering company like SHN? I wouldn’t have those a-holes carry out my trash!

BILL FROHLICH: Forks use to be a separate town, but it’s now been absorbed into Ukiah. Forks was named because it was a fork in the road where you could continue north to Willits or east to Lake county. The Forks Cafe building and hotel date from circa 1900, records with the exact date do not exist. Cafe sign dates from the 1950s. At the hotel (now apartments) what is now a carport was originally stalls for travelers’ horses. The house across the street dates from before 1900. No records of the exact date exist. (Info from the property owner (over 60) who grew up in the house behind the cafe.)

PETIT TETON FARM is open Mon-Sat 9-4:30, Sun 12-4:30. Along with the large inventory of jams, pickles, soups, hot sauces, apple sauces, and drink mixers made from everything we grow, we sell frozen USDA beef and pork from our perfectly raised pigs and cows, and stewing hens and eggs. Squab is also available at times. Contact us for what's in stock at 707.684.4146 or farmer@petitteton.com. — Nikki and Steve

R.D. BEACON: When the Coast Cinema open the first time it's very first film was the Russians are coming the Russians are coming, I was there, the new theater replaced the old state theater on Main Street, the new Coast theater manager, was Mac McBurney, co-cinema, was part of a chain of theaters in Mendocino County, was the owner living above the theater in Ukiah, in a residence upstairs, which still exists, I believe the owner was William Mann, who originally controlled the theater in Fort Bragg, Willis, and Ukiah.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, April 4, 2024

RACHEL HUNT, Fort Bragg. Harboring wanted felon, controlled substance, paraphernalia, false personation of another, probation revocation.

ANTHONY KROPACZEWSKI, Ukiah. Probation revocation, resisting.

CAMEO LIMA, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

MICHAEL LUCAS, Ukiah. County parole violation, probation violation.

MICHAEL MENKE, Ukiah. Disobeying court order. 

MARK PALLEY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

FABIAN SANCHEZ, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, loaded handgun, not registered owner. 

DEVLIN VINING, Palo Alto/Ukiah. Domestic battery, protective order violation, contempt of court.

RUDY VEGA, Covelo. Paraphernalia, false ID, false personation of another, vehicle registration tampering, failure to appear.

ESTHER MOBLEY

Here’s what’s come across my desk recently: 

The wine industry may be freaking out over Gen Z’s aversion to alcohol, but apparently their elders are drinking too much. “Public health officials are increasingly alarmed by older Americans’ drinking,” reports Paula Span in the New York Times.

At the French grocery store Carrefour, you can buy a bottle of Bordeaux for €1.66 (about $1.80), less than a large bottle of water. According to James Evison in the Drinks Business, Bordeaux winemakers aren’t thrilled.

In Smithsonian magazine, Shana Clarke writes about the boom in U.S. sake production.

(SF Chronicle)

GOVERNOR PROMOTES DELTA TUNNEL, SITES RESERVOIR AS KEY COMPONENTS OF UPDATED CALIFORNIA WATER PLAN

by Dan Bacher

Philipps Station, CA — At a press event to celebrate the above average snowpack survey in the Sierra Nevada on April 2, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled the state’s controversial updated California Water Plan to supposedly “protect California’s water supplies from the climate crisis” while boosting the state’s ability to capture and store water for when dry conditions return.

Among the key components of the plan are the Delta Conveyance Project, Sites Reservoir and the voluntary agreements, anti-environmental schemes that aim to deliver more Delta water to Big Ag oligarchs like Stewart and Lyda Resnick in Kern County at the expense of salmon populations moving closer and closer to extinction.

“In the past few years alone, we’ve gone from extreme drought to some of the most intense rain and snow seasons on record — showcasing the need for us to constantly adapt to how we manage our water supplies,” said Newsom. “The water plans and strategies we’re implementing are each targeted components of our overall effort to deliver clean water to Californians by capturing, storing, and conserving more water throughout the state. This plan is a critical component of that effort.”

The Governor highlighted several examples of what California has implemented since the last Water Plan, including:

• “creating a Flood-Managed Aquifer Recharge program, capturing and spreading flood flows to recharge aquifers — boosting the state’s water capture and storage abilities. - Integrating climate science and research to help vulnerable communities defend against floods and drought.”

California’s other actions to “boost water supplies” cited by Newsom include:

• Nearly $9 billion in water investments over the last three years. - Expanded water supply and storage through groundwater recharge and other projects by over 400 billion gallons. - Streamlining projects and limiting litigation delays to spur new and improved water infrastructure.

However, the Governor said “more is needed to expand California’s water supplies.” And of course, that meant promoting his pet projects — the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir.

“During this year’s storms alone, the Delta Conveyance Project could’ve captured enough water to supply 9.4 million people; the streamlined Sites Reservoir Project could hold enough water for 3 million households’ yearly usage,” Newsom claimed.

“The Delta Conveyance is foundational, it’s critical, if we’re going to address the issue of climate change. It is a climate project. It is one of the most important projects this state can advance,” Newsom concluded.

Newsom said the water plan is directly tied into today’s snow survey, a key indicator of expected runoff that this plan helps both state and local governments capture and store. It recorded 64 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 27.5 inches, which is 113 percent of average for this location and above average overall.

DWR Director Karla Nemeth also gushed about the California Water Plan Update.

“With climate change posing uncertain challenges, California Water Plan Update 2023 highlights the importance of innovation and investments in the state's watersheds, water systems, and frontline communities,” said Nemeth. “This plan helps build a future where all Californians can be more water resilient and how we can all take action to adapt our communities to thrive in more extreme weather conditions.”

Critics of Newsom’s Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and other water policies said the final version of the California Water Plan asserts equity for “frontline communities,” yet ignores the negative impacts key projects will have on them.

In response, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, said, “Governor Newsom cannot claim to put water equity and frontline communities at the forefront of his plans while ignoring the catastrophic impact the tunnel will have on environmental justice communities that rely on the Delta for drinking water, food via fishing and farming, and recreation.”

“Dedicating a full chapter to tribal perspectives in the water plan is a start,” Barrigan-Parrilla said, “but the plan fails to protect tribal water rights for those who have stewarded Delta waterways and relied on the Delta for cultural, religious, and subsistence practices essential to tribal identity. We urge the governor to truly and adequately safeguard equity for frontline and tribal communities and prioritize the Bay-Delta Plan over boondoggle projects like the Delta tunnel.”

On January 22, a coalition of environmental and Tribal organizations took legal action in the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento, against the California Department of Water Resources for violating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by finalizing the approval for Governor Newsom’s Delta Tunnel project in December 2023.

The groups filing the lawsuit against the Department of Water Resources included The Bay Institute, California Indian Environmental Alliance, Golden State Salmon Association, Restore the Delta, San Francisco Baykeeper, and the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. The groups are represented by Jason Flanders at Aqua Terra Aeris Law Group and by attorneys at San Francisco Baykeeper.

“The Delta Tunnel is one of the biggest salmon-killing projects in state history, and Governor Newsom has his hand directly on the spigot,” said Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association. “We are witnessing the creation of the next endangered species: the salmon families across California and Oregon who rely on the health of our fishery for their living, their community, and their culture.”

“The governor is doing everything he can to divert water away from our rivers, fish, and people in a vain effort to appease an insatiable industrial agricultural thirst. The salmon industry is already suffering from the Newsom fishing shutdown. California salmon fishing was completely closed in 2023, and is likely to be closed in 2024, because the governor mismanaged our rivers during the drought,” he explained.

*Background: salmon, steelhead and Delta Smelt continue on path to extinction*

California salmon, steelhead and other fisheries are in their worst crisis ever as Governor Newsom forges ahead with the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir projects.

California salmon fishing was closed in 2023 and will be closed or severely limited this year also. On March 11, the Pacific Fishery Management Council released three recreational fishing alternatives for the Fort Bragg, San Francisco and Monterey Bay regions, including two extremely limited season options and one complete closure option. The Council will make their final decision on April 11.

The 2024 stock abundance forecast for Sacramento River Fall Chinook, often the most abundant stock in the ocean fishery, is only 213,600 adults. Meanwhile, abundance of Klamath River Fall Chinook is forecast at 180,700 adults. “These abundance forecasts are well below average,” according to the CDFW.

Endangered Sacramento River spring and winter-run Chinook also continue their march towards extinction. The spawning escapement of Sacramento River Spring Chinooks (SRSC) in 2023 totaled 1,479 fish (jacks and adults), with an estimated return of 106 to upper Sacramento River tributaries and the remaining 1,391 fish returning to the Feather River Hatchery.

The return to Butte Creek of just 100 fish was the lowest ever. In 2021, an estimated 19,773 out of the more than 21,580 fish total that returned to spawn in the Butte County stream perished before spawning

Nor did the winter run, listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Act, do well. Spawner escapement of endangered Sacramento River Winter Chinook (SRWC) in 2023 was estimated to be 2,447 adults and 54 jacks, according to PFMC data.

A group of us, including the late conservationist and Fish Sniffer magazine publisher Hal Bonslett, successfully pushed the state and federal governments to list the winter run under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts starting in 1990-91 because we were so alarmed that the fish population had crashed to 2,000 fish.

Then in 1992 the run declined to less than 200 fish. Even after Shasta Dam was built, the winter run escapement to the Sacramento River was 117,000 in 1969!

Now we are back to approximately the same low number of winter-run Chinooks that spurred us to push for the listing of the fish as endangered under state and federal law over 30 years ago.

Even more chilling, for the sixth year in a row, zero Delta Smelt were collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September through December 2023.

Once the most abundant species in the entire estuary, the Delta Smelt has declined to the point that it has become functionally extinct in the wild. The 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Delta, is an “indicator species” that shows the relative health of the San Francisco Bay/Delta ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the other pelagic species collected in the survey — striped bass, Longfin Smelt, Sacramento Splittail and threadfin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the American shad shows a less precipitous decline.

*The graphs in the CDFW memo graphically illustrate how dramatic the declines in fish populations have been over the years: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee

With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,

And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,

And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.

And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s,

My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,

And I was frightened. He said, Marie,

Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.

In the mountains, there you feel free.

I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter…

— TS Eliot

ALL IS NOTHING, AND NOTHING IS ALL BY SPIKE MCGINNES

Artificial Intelligence, and microwaves. ”What a piece of work is man?” Already miss the print edition, at a time when educators had the time to send a card to congratulate you on a job well done. Were we “worked” at the time? I think not. We were comforted in our standards of performance, and those standards were clear. No edicts of supremacy, but standards that were attainable, respectful and allowed us a premise of consensus. Remember the iceman, the ragman, and the hobos hopping the train? I do, and I fully remember when we saddled them to have a meal at the dinner table. Thought nothing of it, and just assumed we were all equal human beings. 

* * * 

SOLAR ECLIPSE? Who cares? Unpacking a bookshelf to restore a shelf, I found an old scrap book of mine dating back to 1958. That’s a long time ago. In it I found notes lost in time, sent from my teachers in grade school. I found newspaper articles I had pasted in about cub scouts folding the “sacred” US flag. I digressed into how personable the journalists were then. Made me just tingle with the thought that what a world it would be without the internet, mobile phones, artificial non-intelligence 

WHO COULD NOT LOVE A CITY...

by David Bacon

Who could not love a city where a band comes out at dusk, and the musicians walk from plaza to plaza, horns and guitars and drums pumping out those norte polkas? And the young people following along, hugging tight in those ranchera embraces as they dance around and around, up and down? And the guy with the garafon of mezcal, filling up the tiny cups to keep everyone happy and more than a little high?

Zacatecas, I love you. I imagine these youth do too.

ON ‘RISING’: DEBATING BRIAHNA JOY GRAY 

by Matt Taibbi

On Monday, The Hill’s excellent “Rising” show featuring hosts Robby Soave and Briahna Joy Gray featured a segment about controversial comments I made on Substack Notes last week. Briahna, with whom I’ve always gotten along, made a series of statements I believed should be corrected. I wrote, hoping this would be dealt with quietly via corrections, but it didn’t work out, and instead they were good enough to have me on for the above segment today. 

Things got hot. I’d counted at least six issues with the Monday show. For instance, Briahna described reading a recent tweet of mine, in which I posted one of Elon Musk’s texts about shadowbanning me. Appearing genuinely moved to anger that I’d held my tongue about Elon for so long, she exclaimed: So this is a contemporary instance where Taibbi has evidence that [Musk] is censoring a major reporter like Matt Taibbi, and he declined… for a year, almost a year, to actually tell the public of this! But as Racket readers know, I announced all this as it was happening last year, relaying the quote about a “blanket search ban” and explaining “all of my Twitter Files threads had been disabled.” 

I know Brie read that “Meet the Censored: Me?” piece, because she referenced it in a critical way on another Rising segment a year ago. So that’s odd! She added I had “to date, still not really criticized” Elon (I’ve done so regularly), then claimed that “by the way, there weren’t more Twitter Files” to be had at the time I was cut off by Musk, because “as I understand it,” the documents came from “one cache” all the Twitter Files reporters got, presumably at an early juncture. But there wasn’t one cache, but dozens, collected at different times via different search methodologies, and I was still waiting for results the day things fell apart. 

This last claim had particular sting because it implied I was keeping mum about Elon’s peccadilloes for a story I wasn’t even getting anymore. No one’s ever said anything about there only being one batch of files, that’s not in any reporting anywhere. I didn’t know the project was over until Elon went on Spaces and said the story was “done, there’s not much left really… we need to move on.” Again, Brie had to know this, because that Rising segment last year contained clips of me publicly urging Elon to continue the project with another reporters. 

So, how? There was no answer when I asked. All this was delivered in a prosecutorial manner, with Brie talking once and again about what I’d “admitted” and “acknowledged,” like I’d confessed something. Summarizing these admissions, she wondered: “Maybe there’s something other than trying to preserve his relationship with Elon for the sake of journalism.” 

Yikes. In fact there is — it’s a bad business generally to go after sources in public no matter how they behave, because it makes other potential sources nervous about opening up to you — but that’s obviously not what she meant. The plot twist is that all of this got complicated anew today…

MISSISSIPPI, 1911

Lillian Dambrinio, an eleven-year-old shrimp picker in Peerless Oyster Co. She is an American and lives here. Says picking makes her hands sore. (Note the condition of her shoes. One worker said, “The acid in the shrimp eats the shoes off your feet.”) She says she earns a dollar a day when shrimp are big. Goes to school, but not when factory is busy. Location: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

INCIDENT ON THE AL-RASHID COASTAL ROAD

by Jeffrey St. Clair

In the anodyne language of military slaughter, it’s called a “triple tap”–three successive strikes to make sure you’ve eliminated your target–the target in this case being the occupants of three vehicles of the World Central Kitchen, who’d just unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food to a warehouse in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

The cars were white and clearly marked with the humanitarian group’s logo. The route was in a deconfliction zone that had been cleared by the IDF for travel. The vehicles’ trip and purpose to Deir al-Balah had been coordinated with and pre-approved by the IDF. None of this mattered to the IDF officials operating a Hermes 450 drone that stalked the cars from above as they left the food warehouse.

Or perhaps it did matter. Perhaps the intent of the strike was not just to kill the humanitarian aid workers, but to kill humanitarian aid to Gaza altogether. 

How else to explain the logic of the IDF officers who ordered a drone strike on the first car after the convoy left the warehouse, then when survivors of the missile strike scrambled into the second car and called the IDF to describe being attacked, ordered a strike on the second car and then as the occupants of the last car rushed to rescue their injured colleagues, ordered a third missile strike, killing all seven aid workers.

If this was the goal of these murderous missile strikes, it seems to have succeeded. Within hours of the killings, World Central Kitchen executives announced it was suspending operations in Gaza and that the ship that sailing toward Gaza with aid shipments would return to Cyprus. WCF’s announcement was swiftly followed by ANERA, which runs the second largest humanitarian operation in Gaza after UNRWA, suspending its work in Gaza.

Rebecca Abou-Chedid, board member of the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), told CNN that her group had tried to coordinate with the IDF, yet had one of its aid workers, Mousa Shawwa, killed in an Israeli airstrike. “There’s something called ‘deconfliction’ in these war zones, where you let the military know where you’re going to be providing aid, where you’re staff is living, where they’re sheltering. And we did that. We confirmed the coordinates just a few days before the house that Mousa was living in was struck and that is why, with a heavy heart, we had to suspend operations…As you see, Mousa had been working for the day. He still had his Anera vest on and he came home and he was struck by a missile and many of his family were also injured. So we can’t keep people safe at home. We can’t keep people safe in the field delivering aid, like our colleagues were at World Central Kitchens, who also let the Israelis know exactly when their convoy would be traveling. We spent a lot of time talking about getting aid into Gaza, by air, by land, by sea. But less time, I think, talking about the fact that it’s human beings that reliably distribute that aid. And it’s a network that was built up by organizations like Anera over decades. We have over 20 staff in Gaza, but we have over 450 volunteers who make sure that that aid is distributed in a calm, safe, reliable manner. If that network falls apart, you can’t deliver aid by remote control. You can’t recreate that network. And that’s the red flag that we have been waving for weeks.”

The WCF convoy was attacked along a 1.2-mile stretch of the Al-Rashid Coastal Road, near the temporary pier, built from the rubble of bombed buildings, that has been used by WCF and other aid groups to unload humanitarian goods that reach Gaza by sea.

“Knowing how Israel operates, my assessment is that Israeli forces intentionally killed the WCK workers so that donors would pull out & civilians in Gaza could continue to be starved quietly,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the Occupied Territories. “Israel knows Western countries and most Arab countries won’t move a finger for the Palestinians.”

The IDF actually has a protocol for military strikes against humanitarian organizations. Let that sink in. The IDF has a protocol for strikes against humanitarian organizations. And the protocol is this, according to Haaretz, “the Army’s procedures state that those who must give the final approval for activities against sensitive targets, such as aid organizations, are senior officers at the ranks of division commander, commanding general, and even chief of staff.”

And this wasn’t the first time, WCF aid workers had been attacked by the IDF. Only two days earlier, an IDF sniper fired on a WCF car on its way to a food warehouse in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, shattering the car’s windshield. WCF filed a protest with the IDF. 

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” said José Andrés. “It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.” Andrés, who serves as co-chair of Biden’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition, described the WCK convoy as being deliberately targeted by the Israelis and attacked, “systematically, car by car.” He told CBS that Gaza “is not a war on terrorism anymore…it’s a war on humanity itself.”

The Biden White House made a point of leaking that Biden had phoned chef José Andrés to express, in the president’s uniquely garbled syntax, his condolences. At least 176 UN aid workers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, how many of their families has Biden called? How many of those deaths, the deaths of people who work in an organization the US is a member of, has he even acknowledged?

Biden reportedly told Andres that he was “heartbroken” by what he called the “incident.” “Heart goes out” is the liberal version of “thoughts and prayers”–a kind of ritual self-absolution for the mass slaughter that is committed with the weapons they put on Israeli tanks, planes and drones. A day later, however, Biden, with a new $18 billion weapons deal for Israel in the works, let it be known he had no plans to change US policy toward Gaza.

There are at least four of José Andres’ restaurants which are within walking distance of the Biden White House: The Bazaar, Jaleo, China Chilcano and Minibar. I hope they refuse to serve anyone associated with this murderous administration.

The darkly ironic thing, of course, is that WCK was supposed to serve as Biden’s replacement for UNRWA, a private relief effort under the control of the US, instead of the UN. Some Palestinians had even come to view Andrés as a US agent, his group a kind of Blackwater in humanitarian garb. And the Israelis just blew it up: one, two, three. Because any sustained aid to the Palestinians subverts their goal of using starvation to force them to either die or leave Gaza. The arrogance would stun anyone but the benumbed Biden.

The excuses and rationalizing came faster than normal. The White House’s John Kirby claimed that there is no evidence that Israel deliberately struck WCK aid workers in Gaza and said the Biden administration hadn’t seen any evidence that Israel has violated international humanitarian law in Gaza. Kirby “You want us to hang some sort of condition over their neck. … We continue to work with the Israelis to make sure that they are as precise as they can be.” “Precise as they can be?”…These missile strikes were so precise they hit the WCF logo on the roof of the car they were aiming at.

Former British Major General Charlie Herbert dismissed the idea that the WCK strike was done by some rogue officer: “I don’t accept that the strikes were the result of a ‘lack of discipline’. They were the result of systemic flaws in IDF rules of engagement whereby everyone in Gaza is viewed as a legitimate target to be killed. It’s as plain and simple as that.” Kirby would have defended the Massacre at Wounded Knee…

Yet, Israel has attacked food as it was being delivered, while sitting in warehouses and as it was being grown in fields. They have attacked starving Palestinians trying to reach food dropped on a beach or while waiting in line at food stations. They called food delivery agencies, such as UNRWA, terrorist organizations. And now they’ve attacked the aid workers who delivered the food on their return trips. If you try to feed, house or stem the bleeding of a Palestinian, you are, almost by Israeli definition, a terrorist…

The IDF claims it saw an armed man enter a truck traveling with the World Central Kitchen convoy during the trip to Deir al-Balah. The truck remained at the warehouse and the IDF admits that it did not see the man leave the warehouse. Still, it decided to strike the entire convoy and kill everyone based on the assumption this suspected terrorist had snuck into one of the cars. Netanyahu was typically churlish, writing it off as the kind of thing that happens during a war.

Israel used a similar defense to justify its November 3 attack on Red Crescent ambulances, where 21 Palestinians were killed in an IDF, including 3 children: “Our forces saw terrorists using ambulances as a vehicle to move around. They perceived a threat and accordingly, we struck that ambulance.”

It’s worth noting that the Biden administration has been providing Israel with the coordinates of humanitarian aid operations since at least early November, and Israel has used that information to repeatedly bomb those sites.

There have been nearly 200 aid workers (and 100s of medical workers) killed by Israel since October 7. To put this death toll of humanitarians in perspective: In the last six months alone, Israel has killed more aid workers than have died in all of the countries in the rest of the world combined in any of the last 30 years. Where is the ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan? If Khan had taken action on any of the previous deaths, he might have prevented the 7 deaths Western elites seem to finally care about.

If you are killed by Israel you automatically become in death a legitimate target–unless you’re in the employ of a famous chef to US elites, in which case your targeted killing becomes after its exposure in the international. media an “unintentional” accident caused by the fog of war.

“I’m not sure an investigation is needed,” the great Israeli journalist Gideon Levy told the BBC. What do you think you will find out, the name of the commander who gave the order? Who cares. It’s the policy…”

BBC Presenter: “I suppose the investigation would establish whether it was a mistake…”

Levy: ”How can it be a mistake?”

On the same day the Israelis launched their attack on the WCK humanitarian convoy, the US State Department authorized the transfer of more than 1,000 MK82 500-pound bombs, fuses for MK80 bombs and more than 1,000 small-diameter bombs.

With each fresh Israeli atrocity, we are tempted to think: this is the one, this is the one which will wake the world up, this is the one that will stop the flow of arms, this is the one that will finally end the slaughter. And the next day there’s a new massacre and a new sale of arms and the days’ old war crimes–as did the assassination of the poet Rafteet Alareer, the killing of Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah, the killing of Al Jazeera’s Saber Abu Daqqam, the murder of Hind Rajab and her family, the Flour Massacre, and the destruction of Al-Shifa hospital–fade from view…

(counterpunch.org)

JEFF BLANKFORT:

“US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called for Israel to conduct an “impartial” investigation into the IDF drone attack. Blinken called the aid workers “heroes” who “Run into the fire, not away from it” and represent “the best of what humanity has to offer.” The US politician noted that a “record number” of aid workers have been killed in Israel’s six-month-old war against Hamas.”

And Blinken? With his boss, Genocide Joe, they supplied the matches and both represent “the worst of what humanity has to offer.”