And a good Labor Day to you, Humboldt! This week your President of Positivity is rolling around Old Town in style with her buds Michelle Costantine and Wes Green to celebrate the return of Cruz’n Eureka, which will see untold number of shiny, classic contraptions gather downtown this coming Sept. 9-11 for your viewing enjoyment. Head here for full details and stay safe out there!

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Perhaps You’d Like to Explore Previous Mondays With Michaele For Some Reason!

The Sequoia Park Zoo’s resident domestic cat Chester has died.

The zoo announced the cat’s passing in a heartfelt social media post yesterday.

“Chester was very beloved by the community and lived a long, happy life at the Sequoia Park Zoo,” the zoo wrote.

Chester was adopted by the zoo in 2003 and spent nearly two decades living on the zoo grounds. In his later years, Chester served as the zoo’s unofficial greeter and was a favorite among visitors.

“It takes a special cat to be a visitor favorite in a zoo, especially when you’re competing with animals like red pandas and river otters,” the zoo shared.

The zoo is asking for members of the public to share their photos of Chester for a planned memorial slideshow. Photos can be sent to the zoo’s Facebook page, by email to info@sequoiaparkzoo.net, or dropped off as physical copies at the zoo’s ticket booth.

Read the Sequoia Park Zoo’s full statement below:

The Zoo is deeply saddened to share that we said goodbye to Chester the Domestic cat this week. Chester was very beloved by the community and lived a long, happy life at the Sequoia Park Zoo. Over the years, many local parents have shared that Chester is their child’s favorite reason for visiting the Zoo and often ask staff for his whereabouts as soon as they are through the front gates. It takes a special cat to be a visitor favorite in a Zoo, especially when you’re competing with animals like Red pandas and River otters! Chester was always happy to make a new friend and loved getting attention. No matter what was happening at the Zoo, Chester was always there by our side - reminding us it is always a good time for new friends and cat naps. He will be dearly missed.

Chester was a few years old when he was adopted by the Sequoia Park Zoo on June 26, 2003, making him over 20 years old. As a younger cat, he lived in the Barnyard where he helped tell the story of animal domestication during the day while hunting wild mice in the barn at night. One day, as an older cat, he discovered the couch in the Zoo Keeper Office and moved right in. Ever since, Chester has situated himself as the unofficial Zoo Greeter (pictured above), greeting guests as they came into the Zoo every day. Chester wore a bird bib once he moved from the Barnyard, both to identify him as Zoo staff and to prevent predation of wild birds.

Chester was a healthy cat for most of his life. In recent years he had developed some health issues including kidney disease, a thyroid condition and arthritis, which were able to be managed successfully with medication and a special diet. Over the past year the health issues progressed and compromised his quality of life. He was humanely euthanized on Sunday, August 29, 2021 where he passed away surrounded by his caretakers. Zoo staff provided the highest quality of care for him and loved him very much.

The Zoo would like to invite its supporters to share photos of Chester or Chester with his human fans. As a celebration of his life, we will create a memorial slideshow that we will share on our website and on social media in the upcoming weeks. Photos can be shared as comments on this thread, by private message/direct message, by email at info@sequoiaparkzoo.net, or can be dropped off as physical copies at the Zoo’s Ticket Booth.

Knob Fire

The Knob Fire burning along the westside of highway 299 south of Willow Creek is now 2,414 acres is size and 82 percent contained.

A team of 228 firefighters, including 7 hand crews, 23 engines, 4 dozers and 2 water tenders is mostly performing mop-up work on the fire.

“The fire was moderately active overnight due to low humidity,” the fire’s incident management teas stated this morning. “Last night, crews continued to patrol and mop up along all containment lines.”

KNOB FIRE EVACUATION ORDERS:

Areas east of Brushy Mountain Lookout Road/FS Road 6N08A to State Route 299, south of Victor Creek to China Creek. Areas east of Brushy Mountain Lookout Road/FS Road 6N08A to the eastern perimeter of the Knob Fire south of China Creek to Friday Ridge Road. Areas east of Brushy Mountain Lookout Road/FS Road 6N08A to the South Fork Trinity River, south of Friday Ridge Road to the end of the FS Road 6N08A.

KNOB FIRE EVACUATION WARNINGS:
Areas east of Boise Creek to the Humboldt/Trinity County Line, south of the Trinity River to Victor Creek.  All areas south of China Creek to Friday Ridge Road, east of the Knob Fire perimeter to the Humboldt County line. Residents who live in this area may begin to return home but should remain ready to evacuate again at a moment’s notice should fire conditions change.

For more information on current impact and evacuation areas, go to humboldtsheriff.org, visit @HumCoOES on Facebook and Twitter, or call 707-268-2500.

One-way traffic control is still in effect along Highway 299 in the areas surrounding Willow Creek. Check the Caltrans QuickMap for the latest traffic information.

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Monument Fire

The Monument Fire burning in Trinity County is now 179,276 acres in size and 35 percent contained.

A team of 2,223 firefighters is currently working on the fire, including 41 hand crews, 125 engines, 5 helicopters, 39 dozers, 42 water tenders, 29 masticators.

“Night-shift crews in the southwest near Pattison Ridge conducted strategic firing operations to reduce fuels between containment lines and the fire,” the fire’s incident management stated this morning. “Crews also successfully extinguished a spot fire north of Hyampom Road. Fire behavior was minimal on all other areas of the perimeter.”

The Trinity County Office of Emergency Services is urging people to sign up with the CodeRed emergency alert system for the latest evacuation information.

MONUMENT FIRE EVACUATION ORDERS:
Hayfork - Brady Road - West from Brady Road to Nine Mile Bridge, including Highland Drive, and all roads off of Highland Drive, Cedar Gulch.

MONUMENT FIRE EVACUATION WARNINGS:
Hayfork – Everything north of State Route 3, from Brady Road to Hayfork Summit. Hayfork – Everything South of State Route 3, from Hayfork Summit to State Route 3 at Hyampom Road and State Route 3 at Tule Creek Road. Everything off of Morgan Hill Road, and Oak Avenue. Areas between Oak Avenue and State Route 3. Junction City – the end of Dutch Creek Rd. Coffee Creek and Trinity Center - all areas west of State Route 3 from Long Canyon to Rams Horn Rd; Coffee Creek proper and Trinity Center proper. Big Flat, Big Bar, and Del Loma. Trinity Village, Hawkins Bar and Denny.

Evacuation Centers: 

The McKinleyville Seventh Day Adventist at 1200 Central Ave. in McKinleyville, the Fireman’s Hall Pavilion at 9 Park St. in Fortuna, and the First Baptist Church at 1261 Main Street in Weaverville.

Animal Evacuation: (Domestic animals)  Trinity County Animal Shelter, 563 Mountain View St. in Weaverville: (530- 623-1370).  (Domestic + Large Animals)  Hoopa Rodeo Grounds on Pine Creek Rd. in Hoopa.

A damage assessment team confirmed that 50 structures have been destroyed by the fire. For information regarding property damages, contract the Trinity County Office of Emergency Services at (530) 623-1116.

U.S. Forest Service press release:

McCash Fire Grows to 54,385 Acres, 7 Percent Contained

An infrared flight over the McCash Fire showed the fire is 54,385 acres. The fire is 7 percent contained. There are 443 people assigned to the incident.

Great Basin Team 3 will begin the process today of transitioning command of the McCash Fire to Great Basin Team 7, which is also a Type 2 team. The official transfer of command will take place Tuesday at 7 a.m. 

Yesterday, firefighters successfully continued a small-scale firing operation to contain the northern edge of the spot fire in the Buckhorn Bear area. They will resume this operation today, weather permitting, working along existing roads and a dozer line west toward Elk Creek Road. Crews will also continue to use a grader and masticators to prepare a contingency line from Frying Pan Ridge to Grider Ridge. Both operations are expected to take about four days to complete. 

Several more sections of the control line from Independence Ridge to Johnson Hunting Ground are closer to being declared contained, thanks weeks of hard work by firefighters. The hand line, dozer line and hoses around areas where the fire crossed the control line have held the fire in check. Crews are using dozers and hand tools to improve the Chicken Ladder Road (15N13). The Titus Ridge Road (15N10) is also being improved with dozers and masticators. The improvements are creating additional contingency lines to stop potential fire movement to the east or west, if the fire were to get across the northern line. 

The Highway 96 Structure Group has the same assignment today that they had yesterday. They will support operations along the dozer line on Independence Ridge and patrol the highway corridor, including areas west of the highway. The purpose of their patrols is to check for possible spot fires. No spot fires have been detected west of the Klamath River or the highway. 

Yesterday, the Elk Creek Structure Group began putting in dozer line and hand line, as well as pumps and hoses, around structures in the Elk Creek area. They will continue this work today. They are also coordinating with local resource advisors to reopen and improve dozer line and hand line from previous fires south of Happy Camp. 

Crews working the Patterson and Ti-Bar areas will begin the backhaul process today, removing excess firefighting equipment from areas where it is no longer needed. A dozer working to improve the Iron Phone Road along the southern edge of the fire has reached Black Mountain. A masticator is following behind to help create a southern contingency line inside the 2017 Haypress Fire scar. 

Infrared imaging collected during nightly flights is providing firefighters with information about the McCash Fire’s movement in the Marble Mountain Wilderness on the southeast side of the fire. Heavy smoke has grounded all traditional recon flights for days. The fire is still backing slowly down the Wooley Creek drainage. When appropriate resources are available, crews will look for opportunities to fight the fire using minimum impact suppression tactics (MIST) to effectively meet their objectives with the fewest environmental, cultural and social impacts to the wilderness area. 

Weather: Hot, dry weather will continue for a couple more days. High temperatures are predicted to be in the 90s with low humidity and wind speeds of 5-7 mph. There is a 25 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms Tuesday, when southerly ridgetop winds are expected to be 10-15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. 

No Drone Zone: A temporary flight restriction (TFR) remains in place over the McCash Fire. Flying a hobbyist drone over a fire puts everyone at risk and hinders firefighting suppression efforts. If you fly, we must ground all aircraft due to the dangers unauthorized drones pose to firefighting aircraft. To find information about the TFR, visit https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_1_0033.html. Remember, a TFR also applies to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones. 

Smoke: Smoke from the McCash Fire and neighboring fires in northern California is impacting local communities. For air quality information go to https://fire.airnow.gov or https://bit.ly/SiskiyouWildfireSmoke. 

Evacuations: For the most current and accurate evacuation information for Siskiyou County, please  visit the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/SiskiyouCountySheriff or the county evacuation map at https://bit.ly/SiskiyouEvacMap. 

All residents are encouraged to sign up for CodeRED Emergency Alert at: https://bit.ly/CodeRedSiskiyou 

Road Closures: Road information can be found by calling 1-800-427-7623 or on the Caltrans website https://roads.dot.ca.gov/ 

Visit the following sites for specific Forest Closure information: 

U.S. Forest Service Region 5 https://bit.ly/R5ForestClosures 

Six Rivers National Forest https://bit.ly/SRNFNotices 

Klamath National Forest https://bit.ly/KNFNotices 

For further information about the McCash Fire, please visit the following links: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7757/ 

The last time I had a conversation with an anti-vaxxer, she explained, as if it was obvious, that they had deliberately released Covid-19 in America as a weapon to take away our God-given rights. “Who is ‘they’?” I asked. “The bankers,” she replied, with a look that said, “Duh!” Obvious, as I say. I told her she was nuts.

Bad move on my part. No better way to activate someone’s cognitive dissonance* than insulting their intelligence, meaning that my subsequent attempt at countering her wacko beliefs with data didn’t help at all. I probably only convinced her even more solidly that she was right. I doubt anything I could have said would have shifted her point of view.

* Cognitive dissonance = the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other.

But there are folks out there, not so much anti-vaxxers as hesitant-vaxxers, who might be more open to some facts and figures. This is for them, taking a look at some of the objections to vaccination that I’ve heard.

(And if all else fails, #45 recently promoted getting vaccinated — to boos from his audience! Wonder if that will change the minds of the 50 percent of Republicans who hadn’t, as of June, gotten vaccinated – compared to 20 percent of Democrats?) (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation.)

Covid isn’t that dangerous

Do you drive? Then consider than you have a ten-times better chance of dying from Covid than from a car crash:

Number of people who died in automobile accidents in the US in 2020: 38,680

Number of people who died from Covid-19 in the US in 2020: 345,000 (conservatively)

The vaccine can cause an anaphylactic reaction

Anaphylaxis is a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can occur within seconds or minutes of exposure to something you’re allergic to, such as peanuts or bee stings. You go into shock, your blood pressure drops, you can’t breathe, and you may die. That’s why you’re told to wait for 15 minutes after getting vaccinated — the staff has epinephrine/adrenaline on hand as an antidote.

Rate of anaphylactic reaction from the vaccines: 2 per million

(The “Moderna thrombosis” risk is even smaller: 2 cases out of over 300 million shots.)

There might be long-term effects from the vaccine

The vaccine puts the virus into my body

mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) are completely different from previous vaccines which use weakened or inactivated versions of whatever it is they’re guarding against. These new vaccines (which can be designed and manufactured much faster and cheaper than the older ones) teach a cell to make a protein, or a piece of protein, that the cell then displays on its surface. No virus! When your immune system figures out that it doesn’t belong there, it starts making antibodies that are effective against the Covid virus.

The vaccine isn’t 100% effective

No vaccine is — human bodies are complicated! — and a couple of weeks ago a fully vaccinated person died from Covid here in Humboldt. But it’s pretty good: There’s a 99.999% probability that you will not be hospitalized or die from Covid if you’ve had both your shots.

Sixth, it’s a violation of civil rights to force kids to get vaccinated

No one’s forcing. Unless, that is, you want your kids to get an education. Every school district in every state requires children to be vaccinated to attend public schools. (Supreme Court case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 1905.)

Still not convinced? I give up. All I’m left with is this: the life you save may not be your own; it could be that of a loved one. Just get the frigging vaccine.

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What would Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir talk about if they were alive today? A bushy bearded naturalist meets a pragmatic politician, both with an unabiding love of nature confronting climate change, colonization, fire, and how to conserve the planet in the 21st Century.

Well, we have the next best thing: Best-selling author, naturalist and painter Obi Kauffman joins Gang Green to talk about his friendship with California Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot and the premiere of a short film where they following in the footsteps of Muir and Roosevelt on a camping trip in the Sierra Buttes.

“The EcoNews Report,” Sept. 4, 2021.

When a naturalist with a breathtaking artistic vision and a political pragmatist with 19,000 employees and a four billion dollar budget come together to solve pressing issues of California’s lands, where do they begin? As Muir said, “The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.”

Join Obi and Wade on September 9, 2021, to explore California’s nature and engage in deep conversation on urgent topics, including wildfires, water shortage, climate change, and an action plan to be better stewards of the Golden State’s biodiversity. Live Q&A with attendees following the event.

Tickets at this link.

George William Burtchett, born July 25, 1929, passed away August 17, 2021 at home in Arcata, surrounded by family. George was a Christian whose faith and love for God was strong to the end as he anticipated seeing Jesus.

George was born in Oakland and grew up in San Francisco. For college, George attended UC Berkeley getting a bachelor’s degree in forestry and later a master’s degree in biology from Humboldt State University.

George met his wife, Wilda Kellogg, at church, and they were married on July 8th, 1951. They moved to Klamath that same year, where George worked for Simpson Timber Company until 1955. They then moved to Arcata and George started a teaching career at Arcata High School that lasted 31 years. He taught forestry, aviation science and biology. He enjoyed teaching and seeing his students succeed and developed a great rapport with many over the years. George retired in 1986.

George was a committed husband and father, and he and Wilda enjoyed their lives together raising their family and enjoying the beautiful redwoods and beaches. He spent countless hours helping his children with their 4-H and FFA animal projects and sports activities. There were many memorable summer family camping and sightseeing trips. He also did commercial and sport fishing for many years out of Trinidad Harbor. George was very involved in leadership, small group fellowships and teaching in the churches he attended and in later years was involved with mission’s trips. He loved nature and passed his love and knowledge of nature on to his children and grandchildren.

George’s wife Wilda passed away in 2003 after 52 years of marriage. He was blessed by God to meet Kathy Walters at Faith Center Church in Eureka, and they married in January 2006. George and Kathy had 15 wonderful years of marriage enjoying spending time gardening, attending music performances, mission trips and investing time in the lives of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

George’s legacy is his example of faithfulness, love and commitment to God and his commitment to love and encourage each of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know God and follow Him throughout their lives. He was loved and will be greatly missed by them all.

George was preceded in death by his first wife, Wilda; parents Murrel and Lorna Burtchett; sisters Charlotte Monroe and Lorna Gray; step-daughter Shelli Fulbright; step-grandson Riley McClurg; step-great-grandaughter Elisabeth Shreeve.

George is survived by his wife Kathy; daughter Robin (Robert) Brooks of Lawrence, Kansas and their children Melissa (Michael) Ingalls, Eli (Elisa) Brooks, Jessica (Cooper) Wilson, Ezra (Daniele) Brooks, Seth (Ann) Brooks, and Joy Brooks; son Mark (Cammy) Burtchett of Arcata and their children Danielle Hinrichs, Brady (Jennifer) Burtchett, and Brice(Katelyn) Burtchett; daughter Beth (Kevin) Yokoyama of Eureka and their children Brianne (Levi) Gill, Bethany (Kyle) Bankston, Jonathan Yokoyama and Hannah Yokoyama; son Brian (Kaycie) Burtchett of Vancouver, B.C. and their children Kyle (Stephanie) Burtchett, Jordan Burtchett, Alisha Burtchett, Chelsey Burtchett and Mikayla Burtchett; step-daughter Cori (Keith) Borges of Fortuna, and their children Clarissa Borges and Gillian Borges; step-daughter Ariel Gaultier of Vashon Island, Washington and son Garrett Hudson; step-daughter Hillary (Scott) McClurg of Redding and their children Paige McClurg and Nolan McClurg; step-grandson Dustan (Mercedes) Fulbright and step-granddaughter Brandi Nicol-Fulbright; and 32 great-grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life service will be held on September 30, at 1 p.m. at Faith Center Foursquare Church, 1032 Bay Street, Eureka. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of George can be made to Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Eureka Rescue Mission or Faith Center Church (memo: Missions Fund).

Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Ayres Family Cremation in Eureka.