For Immediate Release

As you may have seen in the news, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has succumbed to political pressure and changed their funding guidelines to exclude Planned Parenthood.  Although Six Rivers Planned Parenthood in Eureka does not receive funding from Komen, this decision is of great concern to all of us.

Planned Parenthood health centers are a significant provider of breast cancer screenings and education across the country.  Last year at Six Rivers Planned Parenthood we provided over 2,000 clinical breast exams and referred 100 patients out for screening mammograms.  In addition, we are available to assist patients with enrolling in funding programs that help pay for mammograms including the Cancer Detection Program (CDP) and FamilyPACT.  Education and early detection are critical to preventive health care.

Just today, we had a woman visit our health center to donate in honor of her mother, Jane McPherson Banks, who died of breast cancer thirty years ago at the age of sixty one.   She was deeply disappointed that Komen, a charity she has supported for many years in memory of her mother, has made the decision to cease funding Planned Parenthood affiliates and knew her mother would be as well.  She is not alone.

In these tough economic times, more women than ever need access to essential health care services like lifesaving breast cancer screenings.  Many of our patients here at Six Rivers Planned Parenthood, and at Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country, utilize Planned Parenthood for essential breast and cervical cancer screenings.  For many it is the only health care they get all year.  One of our patients shared recently that Six Rivers Planned Parenthood “is there for me for yearly breast cancer checks, for birth control, for pap smears, for infections. Without Planned Parenthood’s sliding scale fee, I would be unable to afford these services…in fact, I am unable to afford ANY other health care, as of late. My yearly visits to Planned Parenthood are the only preventive health care services I usually receive.”

We share a common goal with the Komen Foundation – advancing women’s health – and we’re focused squarely on that goal.  We would like nothing more than for the Komen Foundation to reconsider and recommit to what has been a great partnership for women who need and receive breast health services.  Politics should never get in the way of women’s health care – whether it is access to birth control or breast cancer screenings.  The real victims of this decision are the thousands of women who rely on these lifesaving services.

If you would like to donate to Six Rivers Planned Parenthood, visit plannedparenthood.org/srpp and click “Donate Locally Online” or call 442-2961.

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All ages are invited to attend this Visioning Workshop to provide input on the needs and interests in our community for park facilities and recreational opportunities at Redwood Park. The City and Parks & Rec Committee hope citizens will attend to share their visions as Arcata’s premier park is re-imagined.

For more information, contact the Arcata Recreation Division at (707) 822-7091 or visit our website at cityofarcata.org/node/1217.

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Participants in the Arcata Children’s Center School Age program. Photo courtesy Diana Herrera

Jessica Callahan

Special to the Eye

ARCATA – Arcata Rooney McKinleyville Children’s Center (ARMCC) closed its school-age program on Jan. 31. The school-age program provided after-school, vacation and summer care to children in Arcata.

ARMCC is an Arcata-based non-profit that has been providing preschool and school-age care for low-income and full-pay families for more than 30 years.

The after-school program opened as an extension of the Arcata Children’s Center preschool program in 1978. Between 1978 and 1989, Arcata School-Age program operated programs at all three Arcata Elementary School District schools.

In 1989, after a collaboration with the City of Arcata and the AESD, the Arcata Children’s Center School-Age Program moved to portable classrooms on the Bloomfield property.

Most of the children who attend the school-age program came from Sunset and Bloomfield elementary schools.

The program served 60 to 65 children between two classrooms in a typical year. When Bloomfield Elementary closed in 2006, it took a toll on the program.

Without a school on-site, students now had to be transported by parents or school buses. Enrollment began to suffer, but was surviving due to the need for subsidized care. Since many of the after-school programs at elementary programs were full pay, Arcata School-Age program was still able to provide a sliding fee scale to low income families although full pay families were also enrolled.

As the state economy faltered, ARMCC suffered as state subsidized child care was significantly cut. Cuts meant less money coming in; yet insurance, employee cost and everything else increased. To make things worse, ARMCC was hit hard repeatedly the last few years when the budget was not signed on time.

During that time, programs like ARMCC are not given their money from the state, forcing the programs to deplete reserve funds and take out loans to keep the doors open. ARMCC fund-raised, sold assets and applied for grants in an effort to keep their head above water but none have been enough to cover the cuts.

Facing a $15,000 deficit, the board voted to close the school-age program in an effort to reduce costs and try to keep the Arcata and McKinleyville pre-school centers open.

The closure of the Arcata School-Age program leaves only one low cost afterschool option for Arcata. Arcata Elementary School offers a subsized after school program but during the breaks and summer they are available on a fee basis and families who previously qualified for subsidized care are unlikely to be able to afford the fee.

Theresa Johnson, whose grandchild was enrolled in the ARMCC school-age program, is not sure what she is going to do. The fee for the after-school program at Pacific Union is more than she can afford.

Her only option right now is to cut back her work hours and hope to get a voucher through Changing Tides that will help her pay for after-school care.

There are few other child care centers that offer subsidized or sliding fee child care in Arcata.

HSU Children’s Center, which gets additional funding from the university and is also only available to HSU students, staff or faculty. North Coast Children’s Services has additional funding from federal Head Start.

Even with the support of these other sources, HSU Children’s Center and North Coast Children’s Services are suffering and have been forced to make drastic cuts to their programs.

Children of the Redwoods, which is the only other state subsized program in Arcata other than ARMCC and HSU (which is only for HSU-associated people) had to cut its program to a half-day during the school year only due to state budget cuts. So it is not a viable child care option for most working families.

ARMCC, which is a small nonprofit without an anchor to a larger funding source is facing desperate times. Yet the need for child care is still there.

The Arcata Children’s Center is almost fully enrolled but the proposed cuts to child care are devastating.

These cuts to child care, as they are proposed, will destroy subsidized child care in Humboldt county. Child care is an essential infrastructure allowing parents to be part of the workforce. A loss of subsidized child care would not break but sever the backbone of our community.

Local nonprofit child care needs support just as much as our local businesses. Of course they need money but more than that, they need their community. Board members, grant writers, and fundraisers are always needed.

Purchasing raffle tickets or supporting their fundraising brings in money these programs need and helps keep the doors open.

Jessica Callahan serves on the board of ARMCC and on the Local Child Care Planning Council, though this piece reflects her personal views.

• Write a letter or email to your representatives expressing your support for child care subsidies

• Allow employees flexible scheduling to accommodate child care schedules

• Offer space to a child care provider at low or no cost

• Streamline requirements for permitting child care centers and homes

• Offer child care benefits to employees such as reimbursements/vouchers or flexible spending accounts

• Adopt a center or Family Child Care Home

• Speak to as many people as you can about the importance of child care as part of the economic infrastructure of our county

• Visit your elected official’s office at the local, state and federal level

• Inform your local Board of Supervisors and state representatives that child care is a priority for you

• Talk about issues facing young children with others who share your concern

• Learn about important legislative bills and other current policies that affect children and families

• Understand how the budget process works

• Participate in local, state or federal activities related to improving access, quality and affordability of child care

• Join Parent Voices or a local advocacy group and make your voice heard.

• VOTE – keep aware of elections of local Boards of Supervisors, state Senate and Assemblymember, as well as federal officials.

Find out if they support family-friendly policies and vote accordingly.

ss.ca.gov/elections/votereg1.html

• Encourage local officials to support local initiatives that support parents and providers

• Volunteer and speak up with and for Parent Voices or other children’s advocacy organizations

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PG&E WELCOMES CPUC DECISION ON ANALOG ALTERNATIVE TO SMARTMETER™

Utility Supports Meter Choice for Residential Customers

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Residential electric and gas customers who have concerns about wireless technology can now choose either a new SmartMeter™ or a traditional analog meter, following the final decision today by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) supports the CPUC’s decision and will respond quickly to customers who opt-out of the utility’s SmartMeter™ program.

            “We know personal choice is important to our customers when it comes to the meters on their homes,” said Helen Burt, PG&E’s Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer. “This final decision in support of analog meters is a positive step forward for those who have concerns over wireless technology. We understand some customers have been waiting for this decision, and we are actively reaching out to those who have expressed their desire for a
SmartMeter™ alternative.”

PG&E is installing digital, wireless SmartMeters™ throughout its service area in Northern and Central California as part of a statewide effort to helpcustomers save on their bills by offering them more control over their energy usage, improve reliability and customer service, and conserve natural resources to help the environment. As part of a global effort to modernize the energy grid and transform it into a digital network that will deliver more reliable power to homes and businesses, similar metering programs are now underway at utilities throughout the country and around the world. To date, PG&E has installed nearly nine million gas and electric SmartMeters™, on its way to about 10 million meters in 2012.

Independent studies repeatedly have affirmed the safety and accuracy of SmartMeters™. However, in response to comments from some customers, PG&E in March 2011 proposed offering them a choice to turn off the radios in their SmartMeters™, and then provided customers with the option to delay the installation of new SmartMeters™ pending the CPUC’s final decision. In December 2011, PG&E asked the CPUC to approve analog meters as another alternative to receiving a SmartMeter™, which was the central element of the CPUC’s
decision today.

Burt added, “The vast majority of our customers are already seeing the many benefits of SmartMeters™. By choosing to stay with our program, our customers will continue having control by seeing where they can save energy throughout the course of the day and making simple but effective changes around the home to save money.”

PG&E customers who want to opt-out of the SmartMeter™ program can submit their request online at www.pge.com/smartmeteroptout or call 1-866-743-0263. PG&E plans to remove the gas and electric SmartMeters™ from the homes of those opt-out customers who already have SmartMeters™; those customers who still have analog meters will be able to keep them.

The CPUC’s final decision requires customers who opt-out of the program to pay a $75 initial setup charge and a $10 monthly charge. This will cover the costs of manual meter-reading and associated operational and billing issues. Income-qualified customers will pay a $10 initial setup charge and $5 a month.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in theUnited States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 15 million people in Northern andCentral California. For more information, visit http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/.

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Humboldt Mediation Services facilitator Chip Sharpe. KLH | Eye

Note: Humboldt Mediation Services has released its compilation of ideas aired at last week’s Plaza scoping session on how to abate excessive behavior on Halloween and New Year’s Eve. These include initial thoughts of attendees – responses to “What would you like to see accomplished by this meeting?”, reports from the five subcommittees and a synopsis of ideas expressed at the Jan. 24 meeting. – Ed.

ARCATA COMMUNITY PLAZA SOLUTIONS

The Arcata Plaza as the Center of the Arcata Community

January 24, 2012

General Themes of the Participants

*We need to assure SAFETY on the Arcata Plaza

*The Arcata Plaza is a valuable RESOURCE for the entire community

*We must establish a BALANCE of control between ‘law enforcement’ and the ‘people’ using the Arcata Plaza

*The Arcata Plaza belongs to the ENTIRE community and needs to embrace ALL people

*In order to sustain the unique and positive culture of Arcata the whole community needs to be an active participant in growing an attitude of RESPECT and APPROPRIATE behavior for all citizens who use the Arcata Plaza

*Solutions regarding Arcata Plaza use need to include a ‘BIG PICTURE’ perspective—multiple avenues of use need to be addressed and problem-solved.

Small Group Brainstorms and Suggestions

*Citizen Volunteers for Plaza Clean-up and Crowd Control

*Community Education Campaign to develop respect, pride and care (vested interest) of Plaza

*Review of Plaza Conduct ‘Ordinance’

*Look at Multiple Solutions for a healthy Arcata Plaza that serves the entire Community

*Spread activity out beyond the Plaza—multiple venues   (coordinate food/music)

*Create a Plaza Event to celebrate our Community Pride (like I St.)

*Make it ‘Fashionable to be Respectful and have Fun’

*Work in collaboration with police and other community groups to create a Happy and Safe Plaza

*Look at Plaza ‘Nightlife’ interests and issues

*Continue to have meetings that bring diverse ideas together with a focus on ACTION

Personal Solution Offerings

*Create and work in small action groups designed to address specific plans that resolve Plaza issues with meetings away from the Arcata City Hall  (Private homes—D St. Neighborhood Center—etc.)

>Volunteers >HSU >SAMBA >DRUMMERS (Pat, Robyn, Oliver, Eric)

*Arcata Police will work with ALL groups (Tom)

*Positive ‘Vibe Squad’—Spread the Joy

*Main Street collaboration (Jennifer)

*Nightlife committee (Susan)

*Within 2 weeks—City of Arcata needs to facilitate another inclusive community meeting to follow-up

on what we started at this meeting

Next Steps

*Develop Action groups/committees to discuss ‘today’s outcome’

>Survey/Assessment Committee >Nightlife Committee >General Idea/Action Committee

*Information about today’s meeting, all other small committee meetings and next larger community

meeting will be posted on City of Arcata website—a Facebook page will be developed for ‘The Plaza

Study Group’—Robyn Paschall from the Samba People will take responsibility for getting the info from our large meeting to participants—The Arcata Eye will be publishing information from the large group.

Future meetings to be announced!!

REPORT FROM FIVE GROUPS

January 24, 2012

No. 1

Balance—Review of ordinance of Plaza Behavior

Clean-up group of citizens, volunteers

Campaign of education-communicate in community with respect and pride and care of Arcata

No. 2

McKinley Statue (Donate/sell to museum)

Group regarding resources

Communicate ahead of time

Off-Plaza events

Use Samba/drummers for crowd control

Review/amend town sound ordinance

No. 3

Multiple solutions number one thing

Alternative event (like I Street event)

Other venues—overflow from Plaza (coordinated event, food/music)

Process/Task Force developed to get this going

Another future meeting later

Fashionable to have fun with respect

No. 4

Community Plan now

$

Space for performers

Community Center

Close off McKinley

Volunteers collect glass bottles, other projectiles, etc.

Contact HSU student body

Local media

Report from Five Groups

Page Two

January 24, 2012

No. 5

Samba—as leaders, for crowd control, for clean-up

Ownership of community (volunteers?)

Combination of techniques (not just Police)

Create a planned/coordinated event

Survey of town for nightlife interests

Volunteer commission

Regulated entry points (wrist bands, fee)

City of Arcata

Bar/business owners

Samba/music/entertainment

Participants of celebration

Hotel Samba leads volunteer group to plan a  specific event or larger and smaller events

January 24, 2012

THE BIN

Facebook page:  Plaza Study Group, created by Hannah Joy

Robin Paschall→Main Contact Task Force (aka: Positive Vibes Squad)

HYPERLINK “mailto:aquafoxx210@gmail.com” aquafoxx210@gmail.com

SOLUTIONS/PERSONAL

Task Force—Coalition/Volunteer Effort

Peg—HSU

Robyn—Samba

Oliver—Samba

Eric—Drummer

City needs to facilitate process for another meeting (better time than 8:00 a.m.)

Meetings outside City Hall

My home

D Street Neighborhood Center

Positive Vibe Squad

Get word out to HSU

Tom/Police—work with all groups

Jennifer Main Street

Susan—sub-committee/night life

Spread the joy

EVALUATION

Task Force—Discuss today’s outcome

Survey Committee—Small group

→Assessments/Big Picture

Night life—Small group

Another general meeting/soon

>Flush out today’s ideas

Two weeks/afternoon

Who/Where/What to do from here

Communication among all

Arcata will post information

Robyn/Danger Drum Beat

Google Documents

Accessible to anyone—can be edited and changed

INITIAL ALL-GROUP GO-ROUND

January 24, 2012

Keep people safe

Spread concentration/policy shift

Sound ordinance revision

Build on positives of community

Find solution

Exploring other activities

Not happy with Halloween

Agreement for entertainment

Want balance—no free-for-all/no police state

High School perspective

Work on Plaza/workplace peace

Bar perspective/business

Property/people, safe/respect

Nighttime solution

Coalition/alcohol/drugs

Drummer/post happy atmosphere

Drummer/Police relationship

Peaceful resolutions

Keep positive atmosphere on Plaza

Agreement with using common Plaza

Access to Plaza

More coordinated activity—Police/businesses/Samba

Disappointed in overreaction—Access to commons

Peace

Protect plants and flowers

Recognize differences between attitude drummers

Creative solutions that include drummers

Balance—drumming/enforcement

Reasonable solution

Samba—creative solution

Maintain culture in safe way

Samba and protection on Plaza

Respect people who live on Plaza

Clear understanding of issues→Plan of action

Initial All-group Go-Round

Respectful party on Plaza

Teamwork

Back to balance of artists/drummers and City officials on Plaza

Drum “is not a weapon,” want safety, needs to be a common theme

Sound ordinance—Balance/safety & fun

Manage and enjoy Plaza resource

Celebrations and everyday community (nighttime economy)

HSU Police help with control

“Appropriate behavior in public places”

All people Plaza share

Keeping Plaza safe/accessible for celebration

Happy medium

Find ways to make night fun/safe

Communicate solutions with community

Keep privilege of access to Plaza year-round

Keep people off statue

Channel ideas to permanent solution

Fashionable to behave well

Move forward—festival/all-ages celebration

Look at other community solutions

INITIAL ALL-GROUP GO-ROUND

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The NCRC’s Food Pantry is our food box program available once/month per USDA criteria for low-income local households. We averaged 248 boxes per month in 2011. Food for People, (707) 445-3166, has been covering for the NCRC by providing food box distribution on Tuesdays at the Arcata Presbyterian Church.

Every afternoon along with our food box distribution we also offer gleaning of bread, fruits and vegetables donated by area merchants. We saw over 30 people per day come in for supplemental food in 2011. This service is available to our homeless and housed community, but currently is unavailable until we are able to reopen.

All of our program participants have access to daily meals and the community meal is offered two days/week. Some 8,500 hot, nutritious meals were served in the last half of 2011.

The service center has had showers and laundry service since its inception. We do a lot to keep people clean and healthy. Over 2200 showers were taken in 2011.

Not overlooking the importance of being clean, access to showers helps stem the tide of skin ailments that would otherwise occur. Over 900 loads of laundry were washed by and for our program participants.

We also distribute toothpaste and toothbrushes to the needy. Over 500 pairs of new socks were given out last year as foot care is one of the greatest needs to those who are without shelter. Murphy’s Sunny Brae just donated over 60 pairs of socks, several knitted caps and 15 packages of new underwear. We are planning on distributing these in the very near future.

Utilizing existing programs as a tool, we give clients the opportunity to learn new skills and gain dignity by providing services to others. This voluntary, hands-on participation imparts a sense of personal empowerment and helps individuals attain the personal tools necessary to improve their own life circumstances.

When given an opportunity to be useful, mental health often improves and the desire to abuse substances decreases. This is Back to Basics, our integrated program which was averaging around 50 people per year moving into employment.

NCRC provides a host facility for Homeless Court, a Superior Court service that provides a way for homeless individuals to “pay” for their minor infractions through community service. This program helps promote our value of healthy self-reliance. The Arcata Presbyterian Church served as the location this month. It is our hope that the next Homeless Court in March will return to the NCRC.

The NCRC has contracted with the County to provide transportation assistance for individuals and families that have verifiable shelter and/or employment in a location outside of Humboldt County. We also try to provide transportation for our clients to get to and from their local appointments.

One of our most successful programs is our Extreme Weather Shelter. We are eager to get this program going again. It requires a financially healthy organization. This is second on our priority list to restore. Food service is our first priority.

The NCRC has worked very hard at developing services and programs that are a hand up and not just a hand out.

Ways to help: Financial contributions are always welcome and can be mailed to NCRC, 501 Ninth St., Arcata, CA 95521. If interested in serving in any capacity, please e-mail ncrcsupport@gmail.com

Derk and Wendy Schulze are board members of the NCRC. In their spare time Derk pastors Sunny Brae Church and Wendy helps children learn to read.

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Libidinous hussies clamor for attention in the breeding pen at Cypress Grove Chevre's Dow's Prairie goat dairy. Photos by KLH | Eye

Kevin L. Hoover

Eye Editor

McKINLEYVILLE – The goats are good to go, even hot to trot, at Cypress Grove Chevre’s (CGC) new dairy on Dow’s Prairie Road in McKinleyville.

But only figuratively. For now, they seem content to flirt and gambol inside the repurposed horse pens that their human overseers are calling the “red light district.”

There, the randy ruminants which compose the beginning of CGC’s permanent herd are making whoopee, with the first batch of kids anticipated in June.

Bob McCall and Ryan Andrus commune with one of their fuzzy charges.

“We’re going to have one of the genetically best herds in America,” says Bob McCall, CGC sales and marketing director. Each of the 195 “starter” goats was hand-picked for their high pedigrees.

CGC undertook creation of its own dairy for several  reasons. Among them, to meet booming demand for its premium cheese, and in the longer term, to help grow Humboldt’s goat scene by implementing its vision of a modern dairy that is both artisinal in quality and industrial in scale.

CGC walked away from its original plan for a multimillion-dollar goat dairy in Arcata after neighbors of the Arcata Bottom site, known as the Gilardoni Property, reacted with a combination of scare rhetoric about goat waste killing children and physically menacing company employees.

This boy made himself irresistible to the girl-goats with liberal use of urine-cologne, gaining a tousled hairdo that looks as though it was styled that way. The bling helps too.

The harsh rebuke of a proposal that the company had offered to shape in consultation with the neighbors – despite no public process being required due to its siting on land already zoned for agriculture – triggered a blowback of anguish at the missed opportunity by many who supported the dairy. It also gave fresh momentum to establishment of an open-space greenbelt around Arcata, one in which this sort of ag activity would be banned.

All that seems like a distant bad dream now, as 15 miles north of the ever-hyperpoliticized Arcata rhetoric, new hoop barns rise on the company’s tranquil, 37-acre Dow’s Prairie dairy while goats frolic in their pens.

McCall acknowledges that the bitter Arcata experience –which he called “water under the bridge” –  resulted in a better situation for CGC and its herd after all. “We’re very happy with this piece of property,” McCall said. “It has a lot more to offer than the Gilardoni Property.”

Parent company EMMI, he said, is bankrolling the new dairy and expansion of the Arcata manufacturing plant at an estimated $8.5 to $9 million, while leaving decisionmaking to local CGC management.

The rising foundation for one of the three expansive, open-ended barns.

Overseeing the new herd and dairy is Ryan Andrus, who managed a dairy in San Mateo County for five years before moving to Humboldt to take on the CGC project. Having studied environmental science and chemistry, Andrus is eager to help mature the enterprise, especially given the high-quality tools he’s been given to work with.

“There’s definitely great genetics here,” Andrus says, looking over the piebald herd. “That’s something that excites my scientific side.”

Even to the untrained eye, the handsome animals suggest quality breeding, with sleek coats, bright eyes and perky demeanor. They jostle and bah for attention, perching eagerly on fence rails to get a good view of visitors.

The excited bleating ceases as they eagerly accept nuzzles, eyes closing in bliss while receiving a hearty neck scritch, not hesitating to sneak a curious nibble on a coat cuff.

Three breeds mingle in the pens, each chosen for the distinctive qualities of the milk: Saanen, which offer high volume and long lactation; Toggenburgs, whose milk has higher milk fat; and Alpines, said to offer the most consistent quality.

“It’s all for the cheese,” McCall says.

The nascent herd’s genetic rigor will be further bolstered with use of frozen semen left over from CGC founder Mary Keehn’s early goat-breeding days. “Mary was an all-star breeder,” McCall boasts with pride. “She came out of nowhere and started winning championships. Her genetic lines are still winning championships a couple of decades after she got rid of the herd.”

The herd’s eventual size is not set, as CGC is determined to develop it in holistic fashion, using best practices and maturing the facility as needs require. The initial idea is to roughly double the herd every year.

“We’ll play that by ear,” McCall says. “That’s one of the benefits of growing the herd on your own – you can find the sweet spot in terms of your dairy, acreage and so on.”

For now, the 190 does, four bucks and lone hermaphrodite dwell in the sturdy but ramshackle former horse pens, but evidence of a modernized future is all around.

Structural parts for the three hoop barns are stacked along the muddy fields. Their stubby foundations suggest their grand scale and modernity. Each will be 365 feet long and 65 feet wide, with vinyl roofing offering natural light. Open ends will offer the goats constant access to a pasture.

A milking parlor and other support facilities are also planned. A dilapidated farmhouse which had been infested with powder post beetles is being rebuilt with $100,000 in improvements.

Andrus will need a comfortable residence to return to at night, as the life of a goat farmer is a demanding one. “It’s a very difficult business,” McCall says. “The goats have to be milked twice a day, 365 days a year.”

Still, given proper attention, the hardy goats are more or less trouble-free. “Me, myself and them, that’s all they need,” Andrus says of his raucous ruminants. “They take care of themselves.”

In Dow’s Prairie, neighbors take care of neighbors. Some have come over to offer Andrus and his wife warm greetings and housewarming gifts like fruit and baked goods.

And then there are the less-cordial Arcata neighbors, some still with an axe to grind.

The dairy’s product will be processed at CGC’s Arcata manufacturing plant, which will have to be expanded to accommodate the volume. The company will need Planning Commission approval, preceded by discussions with several of the City’s citizen advisory committees.

That could mean a reprise of some of last June’s controversy, as one of the louder Arcata dairy opponents from last June has already turned up with a critique of what turned out to be an old, discarded expansion plan dating back to 2002.

That’s why CGC is glad to have an orderly public process based on hard data and fact-finding rather than the kinds of assumptions and misinformation that ruled the discussion last year.

For McCall, the proof is in the doing, and his most pressing concern now is to create a model facility in McKinleyville – one consistent with CGC’s international reputation for a top-tier product. When construction is complete and settled into an operational groove, the company plans to open it up for scheduled tours and open houses.

“We’ve offered a lot of advice,” McCall says. “Now, hopefully, we can walk the walk and show the way.”

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10:10 p.m. $100 cash left in an oxymoronically unlocked locker at a health club was sticky-fingered.

• Tuesday, January 3 10:34 a.m. Someone walked on and left recyclables atop a car in the 1500 block of F Street.

11:03 a.m. A 17-year-old boy was reportedly spirited away to Fort Bragg by his 19-year-old girlfriend. The father called en route to retrieve him, demanding that the girlfriend be charged with kidnapping.

1:45 p.m. A charming gent in a downtown business “got in the face” of a female worker, asking her, “Hey baby, want to suck on this?” This highly appealing proposition being unrequited, he then wandered off, looking agitated.

4:57 p.m. A Community Forest hiker went off-trail and stumbled upon a campsite which had “teen” clothes, makeup, underwear and blankets. The hiker theorized that is was being used by a runaway.

5:53 p.m. Hobos in the night, exchanging bottles often use a business’s balcony with its panoramic view of Arcata and Humboldt Bay beyond. Since they predictably pollute this paradisical promontory place with trash and spent beverage husks, the business has to shoo away up to a half dozen of the grog-sodden slumpabouts every morning.

• Wednesday, January 4 7:21 a.m. A wrong-way driver was killed on U.S. Highway 101, injuring another motorist.

10:55 a.m. While a duck hunter was off blasting them out of the sky, someone kicked his truck, which was parked back at the wildlife sanctuary.

1:05 p.m. Another woman at work downtown got an “odd” phone call, then a while later a man came in and said he had been watching her through the window. She wondered if the two incidents were related.

3:01 p.m. A he-she argument included her whapping him with a frying pan.

4:41 p.m. So many people are bitter and grudgy these days, or just lashy-outy and hissy-snitty. For whatever reason, car tires were found slashed in the Community Park lot.

6:53 p.m. A woman who smoked marihuana had a “bad trip” and “freaked out” to some degree. She said her heart was racing, she was scared and paranoid and that she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to care for her four-year-old. Then she said she meant to call her mother but had called police instead. An officer checked in on the woman and she said she was feeling much better.

• Thursday, January 5 7:41 a.m. A caller from the Skate park said that he was drinking with a friend at a nearby residence when the friend used a racial slur. This enraged a woman there, who attacked the friend, scratched his face and threw a cell phone against the wall, breaking it. The caller said he was staying at a Northtown motel until he could buy a new phone and go home to Miranda.

1:18 p.m. A Sunny Brae shop reported the theft of a hoodie. An employee saw a woman wearing it on Christmas Eve, but was just now reporting it.

2:23 p.m. A “giant lifted monster truck” was reported parked against traffic and on the sidewalk on Janes Road between 11th Street and Haeger Avenue. You can’t miss it, assured the caller, due to its “huge” size and “giant” tires.

7:40 p.m. A caller from a cannabis center asked police to document that his wife had stated several years ago that she stole medication from her former employer seven years ago. He said he was calling now to get back at his ex in their ongoing child custody battle. The dispatcher dutifully recorded his assertions.

10:27 p.m. 

There’s a car in a trailer park

And it swerves, driving in the dark

The lonely driver passes night away

Cruising past mobile homes

The caller said Brandy,

You’re no fine girl

Drawing neighbors to the street

With your tires, you’re making them squeal, also screech

Brandy drives an SUV

Made of finest steel, painted green

Like a rocket, but with Oregon plates

Blazing past mobile homes

The caller said Brandy’s a DUI girl

In her big-time SUV

But my night, my home and my craving is for sleep

• Friday, January 6 2:31 a.m. A woman reported that a man in a dirty white shirt had tried to set fire to a pile of clothes in the Carport of Destiny, Adventure and Romance, Not Necessarily In That Order. But police couldn’t find anything burned there, and a cruise along the arsonist’s supposed route turned up no sign of him. The woman who had reported the fire wasn’t able to show any officer where this had taken place and changed her story. Someone else had told her of the laundry inferno, she now said. The heroic dud-dousing seems to have been similarly imaginary.

2:59 a.m. Youths reportedly tagging an abandoned A Street house of worship and mildew also turned out to be chimeras.

3:21 a.m. The church vandalism witness doubled down on the report, stating the elusive kids were still there and on top of that, a neighbor’s dog had chosen this moment to enter his yard and commence pooping. Argumentative and agitated, he said he would be making a citizen’s arrest of the neighbor. Police found no poopy pooches or punks.

3:51 p.m. An anonymous male said people were vandalizing the Church of Mold, and climbing its lichen-encrusted steeple.

4 p.m. Not far away, at Seventh and Union, a drunk was arrested and taken to jail.

9:16 p.m. A woman said she awoke with a man’s clothing next to her, which wasn’t her husband’s, and brusing possibly indicating a sexual assault. This angered the husband, who took the children and left. Extremely emotional and frightened, she sais she knew who the male was, and needed to talk to an officer.

9:44 p.m. A woman returned from out of town to find that someone unknown had stacked her wheelbarrows on top of each other and wrapped her garden hose around the fenc ein the backyard in such a way as to make tenant egress difficult. Hate it when that happens.

2:37 p.m. With an iPod locked in a car on 13th Street, a mere window wasn’t going to deprive a slithy tove  of the techno-nugget.

4:31 p.m. A mentally distressed woman went missing for a bit, and was described as carrying a large bag containing a photo of a spiritual leader, which she views constantly.

11:01 p.m. A citizen noticed “young-looking” females buying what  he believed to be CO2 cartridges at a Fourth Street market. He followed the carbonized chicks to a big party on south D Street, and was concerned about their safety.

• Saturday, January 7 3:05 p.m. A man suffered a liquor-exacerbated hypothermia and a heart attack, and died on a bench overlooking the wetland-pasture on Samoa Boulevard.

• Sunday, January 8 12:53 a.m. 

A drummer decided to practice

On 12th Street, where some

were exasperous

At the midnighty thunder

Cops called out his blunder

Which ended up somewhat disastrous

9:53 a.m. A man at the front door of the police station reported that he had taken a radioactive bomb away from a terrorist at the transit center, and that he had it in his pocket. Somehow the man was deemed un-crazy, though his report was unfounded. and he was sent on his way.

3:22 p.m. It doesn’t matter if you have a 215, you can’t smoke anything on the Plaza, not even the high holy herb.

7:56 p.m. An unwell woman reported her daughter stealing her jewelry from her. She alleged that the daughter kept her stolen jewelry buried in the backyard, but an oficer found her confused and forgetful. After interviewing both daughters, it seemed clear that the mother had gifted several of the baubles, bangles and beads to the daughter over the years but forgotten she had done so, and her claim was considered unfounded.

• Monday, January 9 10:37 a.m. A pharmacy employee was reported having stolen 150 pills since September, with the thefts recorded on video.

1:48 p.m. A man with a backpack and a knife on his hip wasn’t the ideal laundromat patron, threatening to pepper spray one customer and displaying the big knife to another. Police found him nearby, detained him at gunpoint and then took him to the crazy house.

• Tuesday, January 10 9:36 a.m. A man was seen digging in the dirt on the side of Giuntoli Lane, wearing only underwear. He too went to a mental health facility.

10:17 a.m. A Samoa Boulevard reported someone having taken his $2,5000 saxophone and refusing to give it back.

10:57 a.m. Motel officials brought a left-behind iPad to the police station. They weren’t comfortable with the owner returning to the motel to pick it up.

5:49 p.m. Four men in “army clothing” mustered in front of H Street businesses, their duties consisting mainly of  smoking and drinking. They were asked to come back later when the bizzes were closed, but refused. Police came and arrested one on a warrant.

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Nightmare mosaic photo from a raid on private land in the King Range National Conservation Area. Photo courtesy Brad Job

I’ve been fascinated by water and the organisms that live in it since I was a child. When three years of sea duty made me fall in love with the ocean, I decided to pursue a degree from HSU in Environmental Resources Engineering, which I completed in 1993.

Since then, my career has focused on water quality and water resources. For the past 10 years I have had the honor and privilege of being part of a team of professionals that steward some of our nations’ most spectacular public land. In this occupation I have also been witness to many environmental sins that have occurred as a result of marijuana cultivation.

As a pragmatic environmentalist, it is not my job to deride marijuana or its use. But, similar to the environmental effects of logging, the problem is not necessarily that one grows pot, it’s about how one grows pot.

Regardless of how one feels about marijuana and its legal status, anybody that understands just a little about aquatic ecosystems has to admit that widespread cultivation has bad consequences for fish. It degrades the quality of our rivers and streams, which to me, are the core of what makes northwest California special.

In reference to one of last week’s cover stories about illegal excavation and un-engineered fill (‘Shocking’ environmental damage from outdoor grows, Eye, Jan. 18) I can attest that the additional input of sediment eroded from grow-related excavations permanently damages habitat for imperiled salmon and trout populations and undoes the benefits of millions of dollars’ worth of watershed restoration work.

However, increased sedimentation is not the only or necessarily the worst environmental consequence of rapacious pot growing out in the hills.

The giant hunk of failing fill is located on private land right above Bear Creek where it exits the King Range NCA could not be in a worse spot as far as fish habitat goes (notice the clear creek in the upper right corner).

Recent research has shown that 80 to 90 percent of the nitrogen in coastal watersheds historically came from the ocean, much of it in the form of return runs of salmon and steelhead. However, dwindling fish populations and environmentally oblivious pot growers have turned that dynamic on its head.

Now, growers dump hundreds of tons of excess fertilizer into these watersheds annually. The most obvious consequence of fertilizer overuse is increased algal growth, which is most likely why toxic concentrations of blue-green algae have been observed in the Eel River in recent summers. Excessive algal growth kills fish and the organisms that they feed upon.

In addition, outdoor grows frequently discharge rodenticides, insecticides and fungicides into the environment; divert springs and creeks for long distances; and leave vast quantities of trash and black poly-pipe behind.

And then there are the diesel dope grows. These operations often improperly and illegally store large quantities of diesel in plastic tanks that are prone to failure. And those that do use metal tanks almost never have secondary containment and often have leaks and spills.

A pile of dumped cannabis root balls, surely laden with fertilizers and other soil amendments, cascades down the banks of Liscom Slough into sensitive marine habitat last week. Photo courtesy Ted Halstead

It is worth noting that fuel distributors that dispense fuel into such tanks are also committing a felony. If anyone wants to observe the environmental consequences of petroleum spills in aquatic ecosystems, they need only to travel to an urban stream to witness the reduced abundance and diversity of invertebrate species, which are the base of most aquatic food webs.

Then consider the water diversions, air and noise pollution from inefficient generators, and the random dumping of fertilizer-laden potting soil. And I can hardly bear to ponder the sad irony of burning fossil fuel to make light to grow plants in a manner that is literally 99 percent inefficient, all while it is warm and sunny outside.

As long as the marijuana status quo and large profit margins remain, it appears inevitable that some of the worst crimes at marijuana gardens will be environmental ones.

The citizen’s suit provision in the Clean Water Act might be a big enough hammer to change some landowners’ behavior if a motivated team of attorneys and environmental scientists were to respond to a specific incident.

However, the sad fact remains that the underground economy is creating really bad consequences for the increasingly fragile ecology of our rivers and streams. But, if this letter makes only one grower reduce their fertilizer and agricultural chemical use or cause less erosion, the time it took to write it will have been well spent.

Sincerely,

Brad Job, P.E.

Environmental Engineer

Arcata

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Episode 1 focuses on the question that has been asked so many times before – just how big is the impact of marijuana on our local economy?  Using the resources of an economist, a banker, a business person, and yes, a grower, the show seeks to establish some working parameters to measure the impact.

Encore airdates

•         Saturday February 4th at 1pm

•         Monday, February 6th at 12pm

•         Sunday February 12th at 8pm

•         Tuesday, February 7th at 6pm

•         Saturday, February 11th at 5pm

•         Friday February 3rd 1:30pm

•         Sunday February 5th 5:30pm

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