Press release from the County of Humboldt:

The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) recently held its eighth annual Rural County Photo Contest and Humboldt County took top honors.

RCRC’s photo contest encourages participants to submit photos that capture the essence of life in rural California, highlighting the stunning landscapes, activities, communities, history and charm of RCRC’s member counties. Both amateur and professional photographers from all over California are invited to submit entries, capturing the splendor of the state’s rural counties.

“The image she captured highlights the natural beauty and charm of our county.”
— Supervisor Rex Bohn.

An impressive 186 entries were submitted this year. The winning entry, submitted by Lisa Wilhelmi-Perkins, features a stunning photo of Clam Beach County Park at sunset, with yellow lupine in full bloom.

Ms. Wilhelmi-Perkins, a McKinleyville, California resident, turned her hobby of photography into a serious pursuit after retiring from 14 years of public service in Humboldt County. Influenced by local photographers and the beauty of the north Humboldt County region, Lisa’s work has been featured in publications like the Times-Standard and often captures the natural landscape, from redwood forests to ocean shores, as well as cherished life moments with friends and family.

“Congratulations to Ms. Wilhelmi-Perkins for helping Humboldt County take the top spot in the RCRC Rural County Photo Contest for a second time in its eight-year history,” said Humboldt County’s Chair of the Board/First District Supervisor and RCRC Board Delegate Rex Bohn. “The image she captured highlights the natural beauty and charm of our county, depicting a spectacular sunset over a classic Humboldt County landscape.”

The RCRC Board of Directors chose the winning photograph at their recent Board meeting with the county of origin revealed after the Board’s decision.

The RCRC Rural County Photo Contest was established to promote tourism and local economic development by showcasing the beauty of RCRC’s member counties. The winning image will be prominently displayed during RCRC’s 2024 Annual Meeting in Sonoma County in September and may be featured in various RCRC marketing materials or work products, along with other photo submissions, throughout the following year.

The winning image can also be found on the County of Humboldt’s Facebook and Instagram pages @HumCoGov.

Stay Connected

Community members are encouraged to stay connected and engaged with the County of Humboldt on social media. Any community member or visitor who wants to showcase the unparalleled beauty of Humboldt County’s parks, trails and landscapes should tag @HumCoGov on Facebook or Instagram for a chance to be featured.

About Rural County Representatives of California

The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) is a forty-member county service organization that champions policies on behalf of California’s rural counties. RCRC is dedicated to representing the collective unique interests of its membership, providing legislative and regulatory representation at the State and Federal levels, and providing responsible services for its members to enhance and protect the quality of life in rural California counties. To learn more about RCRC, visit rcrcnet.org and follow @RuralCounties on X, Facebook and Instagram.

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

Murl. Photo from the Rotary Club of Eureka’s website.

By request of the Mayor and order of the City Manager, all flags at City facilities will be flown at half-staff beginning today through Friday, August 9, 2024 in honor of Murl Harpham, Chief of Police. Chief Harpham passed away earlier today, July 31, 2024 at 91 years of age.

Murl Harpham served the City of Eureka as a Police Officer, Sergeant, Captain and finally as Chief of Police for over 56 Years. At the time of his retirement in 2014, Chief Harpham had served EPD, his original hiring agency, longer than any other officer in the State of California.

EPD Chief Brian Stephens has authorized mourning bands to be worn by department members until sunset on the day of Chief Harpham’s service.

Chief Murl Harpham’s legacy of hard work, dedication to the community, and loyalty within the Eureka Police Department will be missed along with his service above self-attitude.

The Mayor, Council, Eureka Police Department, and City of Eureka staff extends our deepest condolences to Harpham family.

California’s fifth largest wildfire is encroaching on some of the last strongholds for imperiled salmon, with potentially devastating consequences for a species already on the brink.

The explosive Park Fire has spread into the Mill and Deer Creek watersheds in Tehama County, which are two of the three remaining creeks where wild, independent populations of spring-run Chinook, a threatened species, still spawn in the Central Valley.

If the Park Fire climbs to higher altitudes, federal and state officials said it could strike the final deathblow to the region’s spring-run salmon, which are already at risk of extinction.

“It’s really concerning. It’s really sad. Spring-run Chinook populations have taken such a hit over the past few years, and they’re just at a critically low point,” said Howard Brown, senior policy advisor with the Central Valley office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Coast fisheries region. “The emotional toll of seeing a fire like this hit such an important place, with (critically at-risk) populations that are suffering so bad, it just feels like the cards are stacked up deeply.”

Experts are anxiously awaiting the wildfire’s next move, hoping that it doesn’t spread farther into higher elevations. That’s where adult salmon are waiting in cool pools for water temperatures to drop and flows to rise so they can spawn, and where year-old juveniles are gaining strength before migrating to the ocean.

“We’re kind of at the mercy of the weather and wind to see if these fires creep along doing beneficial to less-severe things, or if we see a big run that really cooks the watershed,” said Matt Johnson, a senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Northern Region Anadromous Fisheries Program.

“The species is at real risk of extirpation or blinking out. We hope that doesn’t happen,” he said.

Flames are not the primary, immediate threat. The spring-fed streams are moving so fast that ash in the water will quickly wash away, according to wildlife officials. Instead, firefighting efforts could pose a direct threat to the waterways, including the use of fire retardant, which is toxic to fish, though experts say it’s a necessary tradeoff.

“The important thing right now is to just try to stop it on the head, so it doesn’t burn up these really precious watersheds,” Brown said. “The next few days will be pretty telling.”

The most severe damage could come later this year — if heavy rains wash ash, chemicals and sediment from the burn scar into the creeks. Too much sediment can smother the eggs and baby fish, or spark a microbial bloom that sucks oxygen from the water. Larger debris flows also could scour the waterways and fill in holding pools.

“It’s like liquid cement coming down the river channel,” said Steve Lindley, director of fisheries ecology at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center lab. “It just scours the river down to the bedrock, and everything in it is crushed and ground up.”

Two years ago, flash floods sent debris from Siskiyou County’s McKinney Fire into the Klamath River, where the Karuk Tribe reported a devastating fish kill.

Protected by the nation’s Endangered Species Act since 1999, Central Valley spring-run Chinook have already experienced catastrophic declines, reaching record lows last year with only 16 adults returning to spawn in Deer Creek and 34 to Mill Creek. These populations, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife warned earlier this year, “are now at high risk of extinction.”

“To see really big, hot fires like this move into what used to be their strongholds — it’s really a tough thing to witness,” Brown said. “Right now, it feels like the frontlines of climate change.”

Salmon ‘are really struggling’

Spring-run Chinook salmon were once the cornerstone of California’s commercial fishery, with more than half a million fish caught in 1883 alone.

But California’s big dam era in the 20th century also sparked a massive decline of spring-run Chinook, one of the four runs of salmon named for the season when they return to freshwater to spawn. The dams cut off critical upstream spawning habitat, shifted the timing of flows and degraded downstream waterways.

Now nearly all of the Central Valley’s spring-run populations are gone. The remaining ones are largely confined to the northern Sacramento Valley, where Mill and Deer Creeks provide some of the last, high quality, high-elevation habitat for the species, as well as for threatened Central Valley steelhead.

Both are tributaries to the Sacramento River. Born in Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mill Creek flows through forests and meadows before dropping through a steep rock canyon into the Sacramento Valley, where it meets the Sacramento River. Deer Creek emerges near the summit of Butt Mountain, flowing 60 miles before it reaches the valley floor and stretches another 11 miles to join the Sacramento River near Vina.

“Deer and Mill Creeks have always represented this exceptional habitat piece for salmon,” said Johnson. “Unfortunately, despite that great habitat, the fish populations are really struggling.”

Last year, counts of returning adults were so low, scientists described it as a cohort collapse — meaning there were too few to successfully produce a new generation. The catastrophic declines prompted state and federal wildlife agencies to begin a conservation hatchery program at UC Davis.

“The emotional toll of seeing a fire like this hit such an important place, with… populations that are suffering so bad, it just feels like the cards are stacked up deeply.”
— Howard Brown, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries

The program was in response to the “threat that this species could blink out because nothing would return in subsequent years. So the captive brood population is like a little insurance plan or bank account of genetic material,” Johnson said.

With so few returning adults, a hit to the next generation from the Park Fire could be catastrophic. Johnson said after the Dixie Fire in 2021, he saw the first rains of the season turn Mill Creek black with runoff.

“The adults returning this year are from that Dixie Fire cohort and we’re looking at preliminary very low returns,” Johnson said. Though he doesn’t have the evidence yet to back it up, the fire “could be a contributing factor.”

State wildlife officials in February warned water regulators that the fish have been in steep decline since 2015 — in part because agricultural water diversions from the lower rivers frequently drain the creeks. They urged the State Water Resources Control Board to set minimum levels of water that must flow through the creeks to protect fish.

“Historical water diversion and water use practices have long been out of balance with ecological needs on these critical watersheds,” Tina Bartlett, regional manager of the northern region, wrote to the water board. In recent years, the problem has been amplified by climate change and frequent droughts.

Water board staff are reviewing the recommendations, according to spokesperson Ailene Voisin.

Eggs and young fish could be smothered

Because of the fire, state wildlife officials cannot survey the number of adult salmon that returned this year, Johnson said. But preliminary estimates for this year remain very low — prompting alarm from scientists.

“We had a really bad year last year. We had a really bad year this year,” said Andrew Rypel, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. “Say we wipe out this cohort. Salmon are on a three-year lifecycle. That’s starting to look like the anatomy of an extinction.”

The wildfire is not an imminent threat to adults that are in the creeks right now, Johnson said. The creeks have abundant cool water, and as of Monday the fire was not affecting flow or temperatures.

“What this fire represents, if it were to consume the habitat in the upper watersheds, is a degradation of that habitat. It’s just another hit to the species that’s already struggling,” Johnson said.

“We had a really bad year last year. We had a really bad year this year. Say we wipe out this cohort. Salmon are on a three-year lifecycle. That’s starting to look like the anatomy of an extinction.”
— Andrew Rypel, the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis

In these fire prone landscapes, low-intensity fires can be beneficial. Some sediment in the water can help hide juveniles from predators. Downed trees in the stream can create fish habitat.

But Johnson and others are concerned about the heat and intensity of the fire. If the first rain events send mud and ash flooding into the creeks, the eggs or juveniles could be smothered by the sediment, or suffocate if oxygen levels plummet. Chemicals could degrade the water quality.

Brown said that these hot fires could reshape this wild, remote landscape. Recent studies show that the one-two punch of climate change and severe fires can change which plants return to a fire-scoured region. Denuded slopes are primed for erosion, and the loss of tree cover could allow these vital, cool stretches of river to warm in the summer.

“At this point, my greatest concern is the fire moving any further up Mill and Deer Creek. A hot fire blowup could have devastating ecological consequences for the watershed health of these streams,” he said. “The watersheds and the salmon are irreplaceable resources in the state of California and they are almost gone. This hurts.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Of all the insidious threats faced by wildland firefighters — extreme heat, desiccated forests, unpredictable fire behavior and a nearly year-round fire season — what might be the most fearsome?

Humans.

People do dangerous things, things that start wildfires. Pushing a burning car into a gully. Mowing the lawn on a hot summer day. Miswiring a hot tub. Driving cars with flat tires. Burning toilet paper rather than packing it out of a campsite. Setting off smoke bombs at gender reveal parties.

In hot, dry conditions already primed for fire, people’s actions can quickly escalate from a harmless mistake — such as hammering a metal stake into the parched ground — to igniting a blaze that kills a firefighter.

People — whether purposeful, reckless or simply careless — are responsible for about 95% of California’s wildfires. Last year alone, people caused more than 7,000 wildfires in California; nationally, it was more than 50,000.

“Humans are incredibly predictable,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Acuna. “They drag chains and they leave campfires to burn or they have a flat tire but think they can juuust make it to the next exit.

“It’s people not using appropriate judgment,” he added, “They are not looking at what they are doing and whether or not it’s going to start a fire. I believe in the ability of humans to recognize what is not in their best interest, but people constantly prove me wrong.”

Add to the list the Park Fire, a fierce fire raging across 600 square miles in four Sacramento Valley counties that is already the fifth largest in California history. Butte County authorities arrested a 42-year-old Chico man suspected of pushing a burning vehicle into a ravine.

Human action, tragically, also may have caused the 57,300-acre Borel Fire in Kern County, which began last week on the side of Highway 178, possibly sparked when a vehicle crashed, killing the driver.

In a summer of severe fires, with dangerous lightning storms possible in coming weeks, authorities wish people would stop doing stupid stuff. Nature doesn’t need any help starting fires.

That would include the man accused of driving his truck for more than four miles, minus a front tire, in Sonoma County last week. The metal scraping on the road sparked the Flora Fire, a small blaze east of Healdsburg. The fire was contained last Sunday and a suspect is in custody. Cal Fire lists the cause as “vehicle.”

“I believe in the ability of humans to recognize what is not in their best interest, but people constantly prove me wrong.”
— David Acuna, Cal Fire Battalion Chief

A similar maneuver started the 2018 Carr Fire near Redding. The fire, which killed three people fighting the fire and five civilians and burned nearly 230,000 acres, was ignited by a spark caused by someone driving a trailer with a flat tire.

Another major human cause is related to institutions — the power utilities — rather than reckless individuals. “Since 2015, power lines have caused six of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires,” according to a 2022 report from the State Auditor’s office. California’s most-deadly fire, the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people, was started by arcing transmission lines whipped by high winds.

Natural causes still play a significant role, especially lightning, which could become even a bigger threat with climate change.

Intentional arson is rare in wildfires

Arsonists purposefully setting fires is not common, accounting for about 10% of California fires, depending on the year. Last year 111 people were arrested for arson-caused fires in the state.

Thousands of human-caused fires fall into the unofficial category of people being knuckleheads: Folks doing something they think is safe or, absent any thinking, something they come to regret.

A few examples:

• A smoke bomb at a gender-reveal party sparked the deadly 2020 El Dorado Fire in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, which killed a firefighter and cost $42 million to suppress.
• A person using a lawnmower in Mariposa County caused the French Fire on July 4.
• Starting a fire to signal for help, a hunter inadvertently started the 2003 Cedar Fire near San Diego, which burned 280,278 acres, destroyed 2,820 buildings and killed 15 people.
• Faulty wiring on a hot tub in 2015 ignited a fire that burned for longer than a month in Lake County.
• Weapons fired in backcountry started the 2017 Detwiler Fire, destroying 134 structures and threatening Yosemite National Park. The same cause in the same area sparked the Telegraph Fire nine years earlier.
• A homeowner attempting to install a shade cloth on his property used a hammer to drive a metal stake in the ground. The sparks set off the Ranch Fire, which killed a firefighter and burned more than 410,000 acres in Colusa, Glenn, Lake and Mendocino counties in 2018.

Throw into the mix: escaped Mylar balloons sparking utility lines, unattended campfires, weedwackers, cigarette butts tossed out of car windows, trains, backyard fireworks. It’s a wonder that the state doesn’t burn down every year.

Dispatching crews to human-caused fires takes resources away from the fires that nature creates, said Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson with the U.S. Forest Service.

“The answer is to use common sense,” she said. “It’s important not to place blame, but if you have a flat tire and you are 500 feet from the gas station, you may want to push (the car instead.) Think about it in the bigger picture.”

Freeman said a particular numbskull decision she’s seen is, evidently, common: backcountry campers setting fire to used toilet paper so they don’t have to pack it out.

Vehicles, lawn equipment are leading causes of wildfires

“The unsung reason is parking on dry grass. It’s common,” she said. “People pull up to a river access and see all these cars parked on the same strip you are parked on. What do you do? You park there.”

California firefighters respond to countless brush fires every summer that were started from a hot tailpipe making contact with high and dry grasses next to a road. The flammability of grasses is so well known that even those in the fire service are on guard not to spark fires when they use or move equipment.

“You can actually start fires while fighting fires,” Freeman said, noting that heavy-duty fire engines and other fire vehicles can kick up rocks and cause sparks. “You are moving your dozers to respond to a fire, you have to be very careful.”

“The unsung reason is parking on dry grass. It’s common.”
— Adrienne Freeman, the U.S. Forest Service

Dave Winnacker, fire chief of the Moraga-Orinda Fire District east of Berkeley, said human-caused fires commonly involve using equipment outdoors unsafely and vehicle accidents. His department operates a rigorous fire awareness program but sometimes education and warnings are not enough. In June, the fire district instituted a near-total outdoor fire ban.

Many California counties suggest mowing grass early in the day or late afternoon, but it’s not mandatory.

“We rely on our education and spreading the word. At the end of the day, some people are going to get it and some are not,” said Andy VanSciver, public information officer for the Ventura County Fire Department.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Mary Beth Amen (simply “Beth” to most all) passed away peacefully at the age of seventy at her Freshwater home on May 3. She was a sixty-two-year resident of Humboldt County, with a lifetime of family and friends to show for it.

Beth was born in Newport News, Virginia while her father, William Thomas Amen, was deployed with the United States Navy. She often insisted that her full name was Mary Beth Virginia Randolph Amen, as Randolph was the name of her dad’s aircraft carrier at the time of her birth. Both Beth’s father, Tom Amen, and her mother, Gladys Rose Grove, attended Humboldt State University-perhaps portending Beth’s own career in higher education.

Following graduation from Eureka High School in 1971, Beth attended and graduated from HSU in 1978, subsequently working at the McKinleyville branch of College of the Redwoods. She then returned to HSU, where she served as Political Science Department secretary for fifteen years. Managing the Office of the Vice-President of Student Affairs was her final role at Humboldt State.

Having lost her dad at a young age to an airplane crash (on approach to the McKinleyville airport), Beth’s stepdad, Chuck Bower (“Western Auto-on the plaza in Arcata”), was a rock for both Beth and her mother for decades. And Beth in turn was a rock for both Chuck and “Lala” before they passed away.

Beyond the humans in her life, Beth’s deepest loves were canines and horses.

There was always at least one boxer in Beth’s home, starting with “Tex” when the family lived in Tom’s last duty station in Beeville, Texas. The dogs were joined by horses as soon as she had sufficient pastureland in Freshwater, and Beth competed in several endurance-riding contests over the years. Anyone wishing to memorialize Beth’s passing is encouraged to donate to Redwood Pals Rescue (https://redwoodpalsrescue.org).

Beth was predeceased by her first husband, Elsworth Pence, and then by a second, John Travis. She is survived by her brother, Tim Amen (Seattle), her niece Meegan Amen (Seattle), cousin Serena (Seattle); her sister, Lori Amen (Asti, Italy), niece Erika (Milan, Italy); her cousin, Chris Freeman (Bayside); stepbrothers Wayne Bower (Eureka), niece Stacy Juchtzer (Eureka) with husband Rick and their children Logan & Halie, and Charles Bower (Redding); and her stepson, Chris Pence (Arcata).

Velma Dorothy Tirsbeck (Nunes) passed on peacefully at the Ida Emerson House on June 15, 2024, after a long illness.

Velma was able to remain in her home until the last 10 days of her life thanks to her longtime caregiver and friend, J.T. Compton. Velma enjoyed daily drives throughout Humboldt County and weekly visits with her children. She had a witty sense of humor and can be described as tenacious and stubborn.

Velma was born to Joaquin and Maria Nunes in Rohnerville and raised on a dairy ranch in Ferndale. Velma was preceded in death by loving husband, Bruce Tirsbeck, and her parents and siblings: Daniel Nunes, Manuel Nunes, Gerald Ewing and younger sister La Vina Collenberg.

Velma is survived by her son, Alan Tirsbeck; her daughter, Cynthia Tirsbeck; her granddaughter, Tia Tirsbeck-Hauan (Bryan); and grandchildren Hunter Haberman and Mya Hauan and numerous nieces and nephews.

The family would like to thank everyone who contributed to Velma’s care, especially Humboldt Hospice for their dependable care the last few months.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Velma Tirsbeck’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

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The office of Humboldt County District Attorney Stacey Eads has decided not to prosecute a majority of the protesters who were arrested during or after a multi-agency law enforcement raid at Cal Poly Humboldt on May April 30. 

In emailed responses to questions from the Outpost, Eads said her office received a group of referrals from Cal Poly Humboldt’s University Police Department (UPD) requesting charges against 39 people, but after evaluating the cases her office rejected 27 of the 39 referrals “based upon insufficient evidence to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt and/or interests of justice grounds.”

The other 12 cases remain pending, but they’ve been referred back to the UPD for “further investigation, information and/or documentation,” Eads said. These charging decisions were first reported by the North Coast Journal earlier today.

At least 35 activists were arrested on campus after more than a week of demonstrating in support of Palestine. Protest activities included the occupation and barricading of Siemens Hall and the application of graffiti across campus, including inside the office of then-University President Tom Jackson.

While the demonstrators defended their actions on free speech grounds, university administrators accused the activists of “lawless behavior,” including theft, vandalism and trespassing, and they issued a hard closure of campus after a failed initial attempt to break up the demonstration.

Last week, an independent review of law enforcement’s April 30 response to the campus demonstrations found that the UPD, in particular, showed a lack of effective planning and command. 

The protest at Cal Poly Humboldt was among a nationwide wave of campus demonstrations in support of Palestine.

In the wake of the local police raid, Cal Poly Humboldt’s faculty union condemned the arrests as a “dangerous escalation” in response to “a peaceful campus demonstration.”

But others, including California Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Jim Wood, said the arrests were justified in light of the vandalism, destruction of school property and antisemitic hate speech.

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PREVIOUSLY: 

• Law Enforcement Showed a ‘Lack of Effective Planning and Command’ Responding to Cal Poly Humboldt Protests, Independent Review Finds
• Multiple Law Enforcement Agencies on CPH Campus This Morning; Solidarity March Planned; Commencement Ceremony Status Uncertain
• In New Statement, Cal Poly Humboldt Says It Supports Free Speech But Decries ‘Lawless Behavior,’ Disruption of Education and Damages Estimated in the Millions
• Cal Poly Humboldt Issues Hard Closure of Campus; Law Enforcement Converges
• DAY FIVE: Protesters Open Cal Poly Humboldt’s Siemens Hall After Day of Tension Waiting For a Raid That Has Yet to Come
• DAY FOUR: Occupy Cal Poly Humboldt Protester Details Group’s Demands, Motivations and Views on President Tom Jackson, Law Enforcement and Their Campus Impact
• Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty Pass Vote of No Confidence in President Tom Jackson Amid Ongoing Student Protest
• DAY THREE: (PHOTOS) Student Protesters List Demands, Expand Graffiti Messaging and Voice Camaraderie on Third Day of Cal Poly Humboldt Campus Occupation
• Cal Poly Humboldt Says Campus Will be Closed Through at Least the Weekend Due to Ongoing Pro-Palestine Protests
• DAY TWO: The Morning After Cops Clash With Student Protesters, CPH Campus is Closed, Occupied Building Barricaded
• Legendary Rebellious Rapper Chuck D’s Cal Poly Humboldt Event Canceled By In-Progress, On-Campus Rebellion
• DAY ONE: Major Pro-Palestine Protests at Cal Poly Humboldt Provoke Massive Police Response; Protesters Occupy Siemens Hall; Reports of Violent Force Between Activists and Law Enforcement