Mendocino County Today: Monday, June 19, 2017

• Heat Wave
• Buckled Sidewalk
• Highway Accident
• Keep OB
• Poster Project
• Little Dog
• Homeless Talk
• Care-a-Van FB
• BOS Items
• Russian Gulch
• Immediate Extermination
• Chicken Wire
• Yesterday's Catch
• Enough Loving
• Horrid Time
• Halibut Boom
• Gurney's Photograph
• Attending SNWMF
• Proving Existence

SCORCHING WEATHER HITS BAY AREA & WILL CONTINUE

by Hamed Aleaziz

A Father’s Day weekend heat wave is on tap for the Bay Area with scorching conditions expected, including temperatures in the triple digits for some spots, forecasters said Saturday.

Temperatures neared 100 in the inland East Bay cities of Antioch, Livermore and Brentwood, and hit 100 and above in spots like Concord and North Bay’s Santa Rosa, according to the National Weather Service.

But the warmest weather is set for Father’s Day with temperatures turning above 100 degrees in those same areas and reaching as high as 107 in Brentwood, said Matt Mehle, a National Weather Service forecaster.

“This is not uncommon for the Bay Area this time of year,” Mehle said.

Relief from the blazing weather can be found at the coast — San Francisco is set to have temperatures in the mid to upper 70s throughout the weekend.

But the warm weather can burn in other ways — Stinson Beach’s parking lots filled up by 10 a.m. Saturday, causing stop-and-go traffic on the Panoramic Highway over Mt. Tamalpais late into the afternoon, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

A heat advisory issued by the National Weather Service was in place Saturday through Wednesday — officials advised people to stay hydrated and not leave pets or children in cars.

(SF Chronicle)

IT'S SO HOT IN SANTA ROSA THE SIDEWALK APPEARS TO BE BUCKLING

by Ali Martichoux

The hot weather is taking a toll on Bay Area residents and apparently its sidewalks, too.

Freelance photographer Andrew Leonard was driving home along his normal route Saturday when he spotted a buckled sidewalk on Chanate Road, on the northeast side of the city.

A peek under the lifted walkway revealed no tree roots, so the Santa Rosa resident guessed the heat was to blame. The National Weather Service recorded a high of 100 degrees in Santa Rosa Saturday.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Leonard said. "I've only heard of it happening in places where it stays hot for a really long time, like the South."

Leonard used the My Santa Rosa app to report the buckled sidewalk to city officials.

"It really surprised me to see the infrastructure fail like that in the heat," Leonard said.

Sidewalks may buckle when it's hot out because concrete expands when exposed to prolonged heat, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. Sidewalks have gaps in the concrete to accommodate for heat expansion, but that's sometimes not enough in extremely hot temperatures.

Santa Rosa's street maintenance department was closed on Sunday, but Leonard said in his experience, city officials have responded quickly to similar problems in the past.

While Leonard said the sidewalk level appeared to go down overnight, temperatures soared again in Santa Rosa Sunday. It was already 98 degrees before noon, according to the National Weather Service.

(SF Chronicle)

'HEAD-ON' TRAFFIC COLLISION ON HWY 1 - INFANT IN ONE VEHICLE (Sunday, 2:30pm)

A viewer messaged us:"infant with head injury in accident, Hwy 1 completely blocked."

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

* * *

CHP COLLISION REPORT

BE THERE!

This Thursday, June 22, is an important meeting about the Fort Bragg hospital. It will be held at 6pm in Town Hall (note this is a different venue than most hospital meetings). The sole topic they will vote on is whether or not to close the OB department (Obstetrics, Labor and Delivery). I strongly believe we need to keep the OB department in Fort Bragg. Please come to the meeting with a "Keep OB" sign, and please email the Board members, listed below.

I hope you will stand in support of continuing births on the coast; this is an important backup to have in place for people who choose to do homebirths on the coast (no OB = no legal homebirths nearby!) and it is an important hospital function that serves many people who cannot afford to travel inland to Ukiah several times or more during the course of a pregnancy.Furthermore, the Mendocino Coast Clinic has offered to pay the salary of an additional OB doctor and Pediatrician if the hospital commits to keeping the department! This will mean the hospital can cease paying high fees for "on call" doctors who sometimes have to travel to Fort Bragg and charge a high rate.

I haven't heard anyone pushing an argument that OB should be closed but some on the Board feel it should be, the data is not clear that OB even costs a lot, and the clinic is willing to make the department even cheaper to run.

This shouldn't even come to a vote (because OB is clearly needed and not expensive after the clinic's offer) but the activists who have been involved the longest are not optimistic about Thursday's vote, they foresee the Board voting against the community and closing OB!

I am new to joining this struggle, I have such a strong feeling that reducing the size and scope of the hospital will lead to further reductions. Losing the OB department will make it difficult for young families to keep living here, over time they will move inland because this will not be a place to have a baby and raise a family. This will hurt the economy and the school system, and all of us!

Thanks for reading, and acting,

Andy Kreamer, Fort Bragg

PS. Board members are elected officials, and we need to let them know how important OB is for the community. Please email them, make it clear you stand for keeping OB!

Steve Lund: Slund@mcdh.net

Kevin Miller: Kmiller@mcdh.net

Peter Glusker: Pglusker@mcdh.net

Kitty Bruning: Kbruning@mcdh.net

Lucas Campos: Lcampos@mcdh.net

If anyone knows Dr. Kevin Miller, please have a heart-to-heart conversation with him. He is pushing hardest for this and I do not understand his perspective. Here is a sample email (be careful copying and pasting directly as the second paragraph starts with "As a man," from my perspective):

Hi I’m ______. I live in ________. I’m emailing to urge you and the rest of the Board to vote NO on closing OB. The OB department is important to our community. Without it, women and babies will suffer and there will not be access to reproductive care for many people. We need the hospital. I want to support the hospital, and I want the hospital to support the OB department. The community wants the OB department so badly that the Mendocino Coast Clinic has offered to pay for an Obstetrician and a Pediatrician, dramatically lowering the Hospital's costs of running the OB department. Please say YES to the MCC's offer and please vote NO on closing OB.

As a man, I know that I won't personally need the services of an Obstetrician, but I care about everyone in my community and I know that if the coast does not have the ability to birth babies it will likely lead to a dangerous situation for individual pregnant mothers and babies, and over time will certainly lead to fewer young families on the coast, which will weaken our economy and our school system. We need a plan to build a robust community, recruiting more families, not a plan that makes the coast a wild, dangerous place to try and live.

Thank you.

COMMUNITY POSTER PROJECT ENTERS FINAL WEEK

Editor-

The Community Poster Event is in its final week of accepting the work of our local artists. The work of many younger artists is already on display at Lauren’s. There is still time for the rest of us to compose a masterpiece of word and image that shows our community solidarity.

The format is to choose or create a phrase which expresses empathy across the diverse cultures of our Valley, written in both English and Spanish. A favorite example is “Construimos Puentes, No Paredes. We Build Bridges, not Walls.” Pre-printed poster blanks are available at the Mosswood and at Lauren’s.

Si, se puede! Yes, you can do it!

Steve Wood for

The Anderson Valley Progressive Action Committee

Boonville

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “They probably won't give me the time off, but I'd like to get some sprinkler time today. I can multi-task with the best of 'em.”

THE OPENING ITEM: 3-4 MONTHS OF VAGUE TALK RESULTING IN NO PRACTICAL STEPS TO HOUSE ANYONE, LET ALONE THE PRESENTLY HOMELESS

THE FOLLOWING is excerpted from the City of Fort Bragg's call for a "homeless action plan." It includes several dubious assumptions. For instance,  "In Mendocino County, the per capita rate of homelessness is 140/10,000 (compared to 30/10,000 in CA; 80/10,000 in SF; 18/10,000 in USA."

FOR WHATEVER REASON, Mendocino County does have a seemingly intractable incidence of transient drug users supplemented by a large number of home grown drunks and mentally disordered persons whose families have turned them out. The entire population in, say, 1955, would have been placed in the now abandoned state hospital system. Mendocino County, especially in Ukiah and Fort Bragg, maintains what are essentially enabling institutions that provide just enough help to the drug addicted, the drop-fall drunks and the unhinged to keep all three groups out on the streets. Given the political givens of the country at this time, homelessness, even among working people, will increase. Less than ten percent of our population holds 90% of the wealth of the country. Until they are compelled to pay their fair share of the social load, nothing will change.

GUALALA, COVELO, ANDERSON VALLEY, LAYTONVILLE do not have homeless populations. Why? Drunks, drug users and crazy people can't get enough aid in these places to make it convenient for them to stay. The homeless concentrate where there's daily food and miscellaneous assistance.

"IN MENDOCINO COUNTY 47% of the homeless have Substance Use Disorders." Yes, they use drugs to such excess they are crippled by them, and they do it out of a nexus of factors beginning with hopelessness on through inadequate education, lack of strong families, work, shelter. The society is disordered, and so long as it is, despairing people will turn to substances that at least temporarily lift their spirits. And they will band with others like themselves in communities of the doomed. It's all a national problem. Nothing can be done locally other than to perhaps sort out those who want to try to get themselves together and provide what help for them can be made available.

"IN MENDOCINO COUNTY 41% of the homeless are experiencing Serious Mental Illness."

SAYS WHO? Drinking and drugging yourself into total dysfunction is nuts but it isn't mental illness. This figure seems way too high. Most of the people you see acting nuts on the street are under the influence, not crazy. The truly insane are housed at the County Jail and eventually either released or packed off to Napa.

ACCORDING TO THE COUNTY’S LATEST POINT IN TIME Homeless Count conducted in May of 2017 the “sub-population” breakdown (based on 287 homeless people’s “self-reported” categories) is: 8% Veterans, 37% Domestic violence victims, 9% Chronic substance abuse, 29% Mental illness, 17% Physical disability.

NOTE: IT’S HIGHLY DOUBTFUL that 37% of homeless on the street are really domestic violence victims.

"52.5% of Mendocino County households spend 35% or more of their income on housing." At least, many are paying more for shelter, much of it sub-standard. Mexican seasonal workers, for instance, are barely housed at all while the vineyards that employ them provide no housing for them.

"RENTAL vacancy rates in Mendocino County are at 3.4%. The Supervisors could, for openers, crack down on weekend and Air B&B houses, not that these places would become available to working people at affordable rents. The County might also invest in housing rather than in the crap shoot of the stock market. And publicly-owned parcels in places like Ukiah, Willits and Fort Bragg could be developed in inexpensive fashion and rented by their municipalities.

"ONLY 28% of the Community Development Commission’s rental voucher recipients are able to find housing." Of course, because the vouchers are too meager to pay prevailing rates.

"WITH ALL THIS IN MIND, the City of Fort Bragg is considering preparation of a Homeless Action Plan. The concept is to engage stakeholder groups in deep conversation about the effectiveness of our efforts to address homelessness and to strategize about how we can sharply focus our resources and actions to be more effective. From this, we will draft a plan for addressing homeless issues in Fort Bragg. The hope is that our process and plan would also serve as a model for interagency coordination and prioritization throughout the County."

TRANSLATION: Publicly employed persons will drive around the county during work hours to eat donuts with other publicly employed windbags. This process will go on for six weeks at the end of which an unreadable statement will be issued promising more of the same. A number of helping professionals refused to back Sheriff Allman's humane and practical proposal to house and treat the most defenseless persons in a facility designed for that purpose. Supervisor Hamburg also refused to support the Allman Plan. Many of the people called by the City of Fort Bragg to devise solutions to local homelessness have a vested interest in things as they are.

“We have invited representatives from the following agencies and organizations to attend this initial meeting:

SOCIAL SERVICES & MENTAL HEALTH

• Mendocino County Department of Health & Human Services
• Redwood Quality Management Company/ Redwood Community Services
• Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center
• Redwood Coast Senior Center
• Healthy Mendocino Group
• Mendocino Food & Nutrition (Fort Bragg Food Bank)

FAITH-BASED COMMUNITY

• Mendocino Coast Jewish Community
• Coast Christian Center

MEDICAL SERVICES

• Coast Clinics
• Mendocino Coast District Hospital
• Ukiah Valley Medical Center

HOUSING

• Community Development Commission of Mendocino County
• Fort Bragg Community Development Department
• Mendocino County Department of Planning & Building Services

LAW ENFORCEMENT:

• Fort Bragg Police Department
• Mendocino County Sheriff's Office
• Mendocino County District Attorney's Office
• Mendocino County Public Defender's Office
• Mendocino County Probation Department

SELECTED SUPERVISORS AGENDA ITEMS

(for Tuesday, June 20, 2017)

COUNTY TO OFFER 3% PAY RAISE PER YEAR FOR TWO YEARS TO SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION MEMBERS PLUS TWO $2,000 BONUSES. Law Enforcement Management “Union” to get similar offer. (No word yet on any agreement with Deputy Sheriff’s Association.)

Salary Year 1: Effective the first full pay period of July 2017, the bargaining unit members will receive a 3% salary increase. Effective the first full pay period of July 2017, a one-time supplemental payment of $2,000 to all permanent full- time and permanent part-time bargaining unit employees who are employed on the date of payment. Year 2:Effective the first full pay period of July 2018, a 3% salary increase. Effective the first full pay period of July 2018, a one-time supplemental payment of $2,000 to all permanent full-time and permanent part-time bargaining unit employees who are employed on the date of payment.

* * *

SUPES TO GET INFORMAL POT PERMIT STATUS REPORT ON TUESDAY

Item 5d) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Informational Update on Status of the Recently Implemented Mendocino County Cannabis Cultivation Program in the Department of Agriculture (Sponsor: Agriculture) 
Recommended Action:
Accept the status update regarding the recently implemented Mendocino County Cannabis Cultivation Program in the Department of Agriculture.

But there’s no WRITTEN report in the Agenda packet.

* * *

POINT IN TIME HOMELESS COUNT for May 2017 Report to be presented.

Astonishingly, only 110 Mendo people are considered “chronically homeless.” Also: about 1240 people counted as “homeless,” including almost 1100 “unsheltered,” plus a few in emergency shelter and transitional housing.

“Chronically Homeless: A person who is ''chronically homeless'' is an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition and who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more OR has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years. Self reporting survey count for 2017 is 110 Individuals.”

* * *

STATE TO FINE GUALALA MARKETS $100 PER DAY for County’s decision to close recycling buy-back centers. Tens of thousands of dollars to be spent to re-open the buy-back centers.

“Item 6(a) — Discussion and Possible Direction Regarding Re-Opening Gualala Recycling Buy-Back Redemption Center on Weekend Days.

“Recommended Action:
On July 1, 2017, CalRecycle will begin fining both Gualala supermarkets (Gualala Supermarket, Surf Market) $100/day for not having a Recycling Buy-Back Center within three miles of downtown Gualala. County staff has met with affected parties, and it is recommended that, as a temporary interim solution, estimated Buy-Back weekend operating costs of $48,000 per year be shared equally ($12,000 each) between the following four parties: Mendocino County, Solid Wastes of Willits, Surf Market, and Gualala Supermarket. The South Coast Transfer Station is 4.4 miles from downtown Gualala; if the State will accept this alternate location, annual operational costs for the Buy-Back Center would decrease to about $34,000, or $8,500 if split four ways.”

* * *

REDWOOD QUALITY MANAGEMENT to get $15.4 million for mental health services from July 2017 to June 2018.

“Item 4(r) Approval of Agreements with Redwood Quality Management Company for Specialty Mental Health Services in the Amount of $9,481,381 for Children and Youth 24 Years and Under; and $5,869,000 for Adults 25 years and Older for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-18.”

* * *

MENDO TO PAY GIANT LA LAW FIRM $250K FOR LABOR NEGOTIATIONS at exorbitant rates of $350 per hour for “partners,” $305 per hour for “of counsel” attorneys, and $200-$285 per hour for “associates.” (In the “old days” we thought it was outrageous to pay $70k-$85k for this when it didn’t involve attorneys.)

“Item 4(v): Approval of Agreement with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore for an Amount up to $250,000 for the Period of July 1, 2017, Through June 30, 2018, to Provide Contract Negotiations and Employer-Employee Relations Services with the County’s Eight Bargaining Units and Other Legal Representation as Needed.”

ONLY 45 minutes away - easy as pie. Russian Gulch Park your car and open the windows.

WILD TALK about Trump as fascist ignores the history of the real thing. Trump doesn't have the hard support of the police forces he would need, let alone the military. And his hardcore is maybe — max — 25%. He's not smart enough to bring it off, not ideological and disciplined enough, and our more intelligent fascisti are themselves a gang of dimwits. We're more likely headed for chaos followed by a more or less benign general, some guy who comes off like Clinton, a cornpone kinda nazi. But we're a very long way from this 1905 directive from the Czar's chief of police:

“Rioters to be exterminated immediately by force of arms, their dwellings to be burned down in the event of resistance. Arbitrary self-rule must be eradicated once and for all — now. Arrests would not serve any purpose at present and anyway it is impossible to try hundreds and thousands of persons. It is essential that the troops should fully understand the above instructions.”

— P. Durnovo  (The contemporary version of this standing order can be seen in Israel vis a vis the Palestinians.)

CHICKEN WIRE

Chickens/chicken wire & wildlife A list serve reader sent me a note asking about chicken wire--and this is a good opportunity to get this information out there: I'm a licensed wildlife rehabber, and I and other rehabbers know that chicken wire is actually a trap for raptors (hawks, owls, eagles=meat-eating birds of prey). They are far-sighted and can't see the chicken wire and will grab it with their talons as the swoop to grab an easy meal and instantly be unable to release it. Their feet and talons get entangled and cut as they try to get loose. I've received a number of hawks and owls who have tried to grab easy pray (mouse, chicken) and had to have their feet and legs cut out of chicken wire. It's one of those little things that has a big impact on raptors. Netting does the same thing, only to all birds big and small, raptors and songbirds. Used chicken wire that's been rolled or crumpled and tossed in the dump pile is a particular problem because mice and rats often run under the pile. Thus, my warning against using chicken wire. I also realize that people want their chickens and ducks protected against these predators from the sky, and those people are usually also concerned about local wildlife when they understand the problem. 2x4" wire fencing works great as a replacement because the wire used is so much larger than that used in chicken wire and it is spot-welded not twisted at the attachment points.

Ronnie James, Woodlands Wildlife

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 18, 2017

TIMOTHY BASALDUA, Ukiah. DUI.

TREVOR COOPER, Redwood Valley. Renting to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy, offenses while on bail.

THOMAS GALINDO, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

CHAD HAKE, Willits. Appropriating lost property for oneself without attempting to return it.

DAVID HAYDEN II, Covelo. Probation revocation.

JONICK LARSEN, Chico/Boonville. Drunk in public.

DEBORAH LAWRENCE, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

JEFFREY PAUL, Hopland. Controlled substance, criminal threats.

JOSEPH PEINADO, Laytonville. Ex-felon with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, concealed weapon.

CHERRI ROBERTS, Ukiah. Camping in Ukiah, possession of shopping cart.

ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ, Ukiah. Pot cultivation, criminal threats, probation revocation.

WESLEY SILVA, Willits. Domestic abuse, false imprisonment, controlled substance.

MARVIN SPICER, Willits. Drunk in public.

BRANDON WELLS, Desert Hot Springs/Ukiah. Unspecified offense.

MRS. REILLY

A light was still burning in the kitchen where a plump old Irishwoman was mopping the drainboards. "I guess you're having trouble with your sweetheart," she said kindly. "Well, I was married myself to poor Mr. Reilly for fourteen years and there's nothing I don't know about the ups and downs about love. He was a little man, Mr. Reilly was, and when we was living out in Toledo everybody used to say he was runty. He never weighed over a hundred and twenty-five pounds and look at me. Of course I wasn't so heavy in those days but towards the end I would have made three of him. He was one of those men who always look like a little boy. I mean the way he carried his head and all. Even now, just looking out of the train window sometimes in a strange city I see one of these little men and it reminds me of Mr. Reilly. He was a menopause baby. His mother was past fifty when he was born. Why, after we was married sometimes we'd go into a bar for a beer and the barkeep wouldn't serve him, thinking he was a boy. Of course as he got old his face got lined and towards the end he looked like a dried-up little boy, but he was very loving.

He never seemed to be able to get enough of it. When I remember him that's the way I remember him — that sad look on his face that meant he was loving. He always wanted his piece and he was lovely — lovely things he'd say to me while he caressed and unbuttoned me. He liked a piece in the morning. Then he'd comb his hair on the left side, button up his britches and go off to a good day's work in the foundry, so cheerful and cocky. In Toledo he was coming home for his dinner in the middle of the day and he liked a piece then and he couldn't go to sleep without his piece. He couldn't sleep. If I woke him up in the middle of the night to tell him I heard burglars downstairs there was no use my talking. The night Mabel Ransome's house burned down and I stayed up watching the fire until two in the morning he never listened to what I said. When thunderstorms woke him at night or the north wind in winter he'd always wake up in a very loving mood.

But I didn't always feel like loving. Heartburn or gas would get me down and then I had to be very careful with him. I had to choose me words. Once I refused him without thinking. Once he commenced to gentle me I spoke roughly to him. Forget about it for a little while Charlie, I says. Helen Sturmer tells me her husband don't do it but once a month. Why don't you try to be like him? Well, it was like the end of the world. You should have seed the way his face got dark. It was terrible to behold. The very blood in his veins got dark. I never seed him so crossed in my whole life. Well, he went out of the house then. Come suppertime he isn't home. I went to bed expecting him to come in but when I wake up the bed is empty. Four nights I wait for him to come home but he don't show up. Finally I put this advertisement in the paper. This was when we was living in Albany. Please come home Charlie. That's all I say. It cost me two-fifty. Well, I put the advertisement in on Friday night and on Saturday morning I hear his key in the lock. Up the stairs he comes all smiles with this big bunch of roses and one idea in his mind. Well it's only ten o'clock in the morning and my housework isn't half done. The breakfast dishes are in the sink and the bed isn't made. It's very hard for a woman to be loving before her work is done but even with the dust all over the tables I knew my lot.

Sometimes it was a hardship for me. It kept me from ever broadening my mind. There's lots of important things he kept me from seeing, like after the war when the parade went right by our windows with Marshal Foch and all. I looked forward to that parade but I never got to see it. He was on top of me when Lindbergh flewed the Atlantic and when that English king, whatever his name was, put down his crown for love and made a speech about it over the radio I never heard a word of it. But when I remember him now that's the way I remember him — that sad look on his face that meant he was loving. He never seemed to be able to get enough of it and now, God bless the poor man, he's lying in a cold, cold grave.

(John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Reminds me of the ‘Long Hot Summer’ long ago – only this one will be hotter and longer thanks to the billions of tons of crap we spewed into the atmosphere these past magical years. Almost no mention whatsoever about how this mutt got a hold of a deadly assault rifle. In massacres gone by, there would at least be a hue and cry along this line. No more – the NRA has us firmly in line. A truly horrid time, about to get horrider (I’m starting to sound like the Orange Beast).

HALIBUT BOOM IN RECENT DECADES IS RESULT OF EFFORTS BY ANGLERS

by Dan Bacher

Anglers have experienced excellent fishing this season for the prized California halibut in San Francisco Bay, but few know the hard work by fishing groups that it took over 25 years ago to produce the quality fishery we’re now enjoying.

Halibut anglers continue to land around a fish per rod on live bait drifting adventures in San Francisco Bay. Some days produce even better scores on legal-sized halibut. In addition to the keeper fish, anglers are also releasing big numbers of fish under the 22-inch legal size limit.

“We’re fishing all over the bay – the fish are scattered,” said James Smith, Captain of the California Dawn in Berkeley. “We’re catching fish at the Berkeley Flats, Angel Island, Paradise Cay and in the south bay. In addition to the fish we’re keeping, we’re also releasing a lot of fish under the legal size of 22 inches, anywhere from 40 to 150 on the typical trip.”

The most recent trip by the California Dawn yielded 16 halibut to 35 pounds and 13 striped bass to 12 pounds for 23 anglers. The latest half-day trip by the Bass Tub, berthed at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, produced 10 halibut for 10 anglers, according to Captain Erik Anfinson.

Captain Steve Mitchell of Hook’d Up Sport Fishing out of Berkeley reported a great birthday celebration for 11 year-old Maddie Ocheltree of Yuba City aboard his boat on June 10, when Maddie landed a limit of halibut weighing 30, 16, and 10 pounds. The total count for the day was 9 halibut and two striped bass for 6 anglers.

But the fishing wasn’t always as good as it is now. Back in the late 198’s and early 1990s, halibut fishing inside the bay was in rapid decline, the result of heavy commercial fishing pressure and the dumping of dredge spoils by the Army Corps of Engineers into San Francisco Bay.

Commercial fishermen using otter trawls were taking most of the halibut outside of the Golden Gate before they could even make it into the bay to spawn. Attempts by a coalition of recreational anglers and small boat hook-and-line commercial halibut trollers to pressure the Fish and Game Commission stop the destruction of the halibut fishery by a few greedy folks reached deaf ears.

Finally, Senator Henry Mello, known as “Hank the Tank” among his colleagues for his no-nonsense attitude towards getting things done in the Legislature, stepped up and sponsored legislation to stop the trawlers from devastating the halibut population in near shore waters outside of the Golden Gate.

The legislation went into effect in 1993 and San Francisco Bay saw an immediate rebound in the fishery. However, as the fishery became increasingly popular among recreational anglers, the board of United Anglers of California in 1995 discussed reducing the halibut bag limit to three fish.

I wrote an article about the proposal and Mello jumped on board, calling me on the phone to tell me he supported it. As it worked out, United Anglers decided to push the proposal through the Fish and Game Commission. After a large turn out at a Commission meeting by recreational anglers supporting the new limits, the limit in the bay was reduced to three.

Another big factor in the revival of the halibut fishery in San Francisco Bay was the successful unified effort between recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and grassroots environmentalists to limit the dumping of dredge spoils in San Francisco Bay by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This dredge spoil dumping was resulting in muddy conditions in the central bay and greatly hurting fishing for halibut, striped bass and other species. The sediment stirred up by Army Corps operations polluted the water, driving halibut, striped bass, sharks and other species from the bay and harming forage species including anchovies, sardines and herring.

United Anglers of California and local charter boat skippers led the charge in this campaign. The legendary Cliff Anfinson, Erik Anfinson’s dad, was one of the most vocal opponents of the dredge spoils dumping.

In 1988, we held a historic “boat in” with dozens of boats on San Francisco Bay forming a flotilla to protest the dumping. Anglers went to meeting after meeting and hearing after hearing, eventually forcing the Army Corps to change their destructive practices.

Since these successful efforts led by anglers, the halibut fishery has bounced up and down, a result of the cyclical nature of halibut populations, combined with commercial and recreational fishing pressure.

Many believe that the closure of the ocean salmon fishery from 2008 to 2010 put too much fishing pressure on halibut, resulting in a few relatively lean years. Many salmon charter and commercial fishermen ended up fishing for halibut in the bay as a result of the closure.

But never did the fishery decline to the level it was in the mid-1980s through 1992 when halibut became few and far between in the bay catches.

To keep the halibut population healthy, two things are necessary:

First, be very careful when releasing shaker (undersized) halibut. Make sure you handle them as little as possible and release them quickly back into the bay.

Second, be vocal against Governor Jerry Brown’s campaign to build the Delta Tunnels. The tunnels will not only devastate salmon and anadromous fish species, but halibut and other species that need a clean and healthy San Francisco Bay to survive.

Cal Kellogg, Fish Sniffer Editor, also suggests reducing the halibut limit to two fish, including one fish over 22 inches and one fish over 26 inches, to help preserve the halibut fishery.

“Next to salmon, halibut is the most exciting saltwater fishery in the San Francisco Bay area,” Kellogg noted.

About California Halibut: These sharp-toothed nearshore-dwelling flatfish range from Magdalena Bay, Baja California north to the Quillayute River in Washington, but are most abundant from central California to Baja California. Adults migrate from the continental shelf into shallow coastal waters and bays before spawning, usually from February through September.

There are good populations of California halibut in Monterey Bay and Humboldt Bay that provide great fishing for boaters at times. But nowhere in its range is the fishing for this species more popular than in San Francisco Bay.

Halibut eggs are pelagic (free floating). Larvae develop with one eye on each side of the head. As California halibut mature and reach the post-larval stage (20-29 days), one eye migrates to the other side so that both eyes are on the same side. California halibut may be right- or left-eyed.

STATE OF THE NATION

(photo by David Gurney)

David Gurney Writes: Corner of Van Ness and McAllister (across the street from City Hall) San Francisco, California, Friday June 16, 2017, 9:15 am.

$25 to publish.

Please send check to:

David Gurney
P.O. Box 2150
Fort Bragg, CA  95437

RE GURNEY'S PHOTOGRAPH: We don't buy photographs, and we're still debating the authenticity of the picture even if we do pay for it. The hazard is if we fork over, every half-blind shutterbug in NorCal will be flooding us with Fort Bragg seagulls, grandma's chipmunk paintings, dancing dogs, and baskets of kittens. And how do we even know Gurney took this thing? As we were kicking around what appears to be an episode of photo-extortion, a passing Rastafarian (they're all over Boonville this weekend) popped in. He asked us if the pic "is, like, Gurney's twin brother?" Dude, please, I said. Keep it kind here, keep it rasta. We finally decided we'd leave it to our readers. If you think we should pay Gurney for his photo, indicate by two thumbs up. If no, two thumbs down. Until the votes are in we'll hold off publishing it.

THE SIERRA NEVADA MUSIC FESTIVAL

by Spec MacQuayde

Sunday morning I awoke under a blanket to the first rays filtering through the redwood branches of the grove that shades the secondary stage, you might call it, of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival at the Boonville Fairgrounds. My girlfriend, Jetta, is due to pop a daughter any day, and we had wanted to enjoy one final shindig before the baby comes.

"If you go into labor during the festival we can have the CHP drive us to Ukiah," I said.

"We're NOT riding with the cops! Are you serious?"

"That's what they're here for. Emergencies. We pay taxes. I view police as my employees. I'm rich. They work for the Man."

"You're not the Man. You live in a fantasy world."

"What people consider 'reality' is glorified fiction."

"You have words to say whatever you want. You're not at all what you claim to be. AT ALL. It's quite sickening. You can quote me on that."

"Is that my beer?" I asked. Several paces away from where we woke up, a plastic cup lurked, full to the brim with brew that still bubbled. About five fruit flies floated on the surface. I picked the fruit flies out.

"Don't you remember last call for alcohol? You were a total douche last night! Telling everybody, 'Oh, I'm taking my girlfriend out for a special time since she's about to have a baby, and then ruining the whole night by being negative! What a great person!"

"I liked the 'Talking Dreads.'"

The Talking Dreads, a Talking Heads cover band, had played Saturday afternoon in the shady grove while Lady Rainbow and her beau sat on the grass beside us, passing hooters. Due to the current supply/demand situation, a nearby booth was handing out half ounces of premium, fresh, light dep, triple miyagi OG kush for free. Medicinal. For free!

"They used to say we couldn't have concerts here because all the people dancing would kill the grass," said Lady Rainbow. She went on to describe the benefit the hippies put on with the help of Kate Wolfe, one of the first music festivals at the fairgrounds, and a bunch of other escapades that she and Captain Rainbow had initiated. In a way, they had planted the original seeds that led to what has now become a commercial music venue.

This was only my second time attending the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, though for several years it occurred across the creek from the farm where I somewhat worked and dwelt, 24/7. I'd heard the music from both stages while milking cows in the evenings, and sometimes the two beats had blended into a complex symphony. I'd heard the words, "Sierra Nevada!" and "Boonville!" and "Jah!" and "Rastafari!" echoed hundreds of times. The Sierra Nevada part had always bothered me because these are actually the coastal hills.

In the year 2010 I didn't pay to get in unless you count the two cans of PBR that remained outside the fence when I climbed it, got my nuts caught on the top strand of wire, and dismounted as if from a bull in a rodeo. No way I was going back to retrieve those two fallen cans. For about fifteen minutes I sang falsetto.

"You're backstage," a young woman told me as I attempted to stow away. "With no bracelet."

"I'm part of the staff," I said. "I help out with the event."

"You're totally full of shit," she said, but let me slide through, between RV's, to the big show.

My son was 13 at the time, and of course all the Anderson Valley high school kids knew the various routes to sneak in from the banks of the creek along the fairgrounds' border. In a moment of pure laziness I had simply scaled the fence behind Rossi's Hardware instead of taking the more arduous route.

This time, SNWMF 2017, I was determined to pay admission like a respectable citizen. For years back in Indiana I had bragged to my girlfriend, Jetta, about this giant reggae festival that was right across the creek from where I once had farmed. Now she finally had a chance to enjoy it, and with the baby due at any time, sneaking in was out of the question. On Friday afternoon we sat in the cab of the truck and watched people go in and out of Pic N Pay while various friends--locals you might call them--chatted with us. We spoke with Dave Severn who had managed to finagle a press pass from the editor of the AVA.

"I'll give ya fifty bucks for it," I said.

He just laughed and shook his head.

A crew assembled behind Rossi's to hear "Boontfire" play. The stage was only a hundred feet away, across the fence. That local band's performance might have been the highlight of the festival for most people who actually live here.

At the ticket counter we discovered they offered a ten dollar discount for locals. The 3 day pass was somewhere in the neighborhood of 360 for the two of us, even with the discount.

"I can't spend that much for three days of stuff that's just gonna wear me out," I said.

Naturally Jetta was not in a great mood on Friday afternoon as we strode back down the sidewalks after not buying tickets. We ended up spending the night with a handfull of quiet locals in solidarity listening to Mexican music at the Buckhorn. I don't know how many people put their hands on Jetta's belly to feel the baby kick or punch, but the fetus seemed to be enjoying the attention.

I frowned on that, somewhat. This girl has yet to emerge from the womb, and already she's being encouraged to go ninja. She's already getting attention. I realized we had better take her to a reggae festival, chill out her vibe.

On Saturday we had lunch at the Buckhorn. The Giants were playing the Rockies, and losing.

"People complain about baseball being boring. It's because they went after the home runs and forgot how to play the game," said a valley resident of several decades who grew up in Arkansas listening to broadcasts of St. Louis Cardinals games on the AM radio. He's been a Giants fan since emigrating to California in the Back-to-Land movement of the '70's.

After lunch, we sat in the truck and smoked a few joints with passing locals. Jetta told them what a tightwad I'd been the night before, not going in for the 3 day pass.

Armed with a blanket, we were committed to do one day of the festival. As the coastal breezes blasted down 128, we hiked from the Buckhorn to the Fairgrounds, stopped at the ticket window like we had the day before.

"That'll be 190 for two," said the lady.

"What about the locals discount?"

"Do you have I.D.?"

"Yeah, but it's from Indiana. Long story."

"Sorry."

"I could go back to my truck and retrieve a piece of mail."

"Okay."

"Or you could just give me the discount now, save the trouble."

"Sorry. Can't."

As we hiked back to the truck, Jetta started crying. "I don't even want to go. It's gonna suck, anyway, you having an attitude like that. You say you don't care about money, and now we're walking all this way for what? Ten bucks? I've got an Indiana I.D. There's no proof I live here."

"Yes there is. There's that last article I wrote. You're in it. All we got to do is find the newspaper. There's probably one in the back seat."

"That's stupid. I can't believe you're making me walk all the way back to the truck. What a great guy you are."

"Hey, for twenty bucks? That's at least minimum wage around here."

"Ten. They'll never believe that I'm local."

"They better believe it. If they have any respect for Anderson Valley, they have to read the paper."

This time, at the ticket counter they let us in as locals. I was hoping they would question Jetta's authenticity and force me to whip out the copy of the AVA that I had folded and stuck in my pocket along with the CASH ONLY that these people needed in exchange for wristbands and the opportunity to comingle with multitudes of groovy souls who are not down on their luck financially. I just gave them the newspaper.

"They won't read it," Jetta said.

The shows in the redwood grove were the best, in my opinion. I couldn't stand the acts on the main stage. The last time I'd sat in those bleachers had been 2010, watching Anderson Valley Football/Soccer take Mendocino to school. I kept talking about that event as if it was more interesting than the show on stage, and I also started counting how many times the big time rasta guys said "Sierra Nevada!" or "Boonville!" or "Jah!" or "Rastafari!" It got to the point where the icon would inevitably shout one of those four words again, and I would look at Jetta, and she would glare back like SHUT UP! They would say it again. For hours the only discernable words I heard were those four, with the possible addition of "Babylon."

"They're from Jamaica! They have accents!" Jetta said. "So what if you can't understand the lyrics. Look them up!"

"Bob Marley is from Jamaica, and I understand all his lyrics. They come across plain and true. These guys are masking their lack of talent with an exaggerated Jamaican accent."

"You're just jealous. You wish it was you on stage."

"Nope. I'd rather be sitting in the bleachers with you."

"You're so full of shit."

SUNDAY WITH CRAIG

Just left the Sunday Vedanta Society Lecture in which senior Swami Vedananda (lives at Olema Retreat Center) proved conclusively that the problem is not proving the existence of God, but the real problem is proving the existence of this world!  I leave you with that for your further reflection.  Recommended reading: Kathopanishad.

Craig Stehr

San Francisco