Madeleine Wisner dreamed of making community midwife services available to all expecting parents regardless of their income when she opened Welcome Home Community Birth Center in south Sacramento.

But 451 births and five years later, Wisner is packing up her family and moving from California to New Zealand, where government policies are far more favorable to midwifery. She closed her birth center in October.

Wisner was the only licensed community midwife who took Medi-Cal patients in the greater Sacramento region, but she’s leaving, she said, because it was impossible to sustain the birth center. Insurance refused to pay two out of every three claims she submitted for services including prenatal visits, labor and delivery, at-home postpartum check ups, and lactation consultations, Wisner said.

“The entire system is not made for us,” Wisner said. “I look at Medi-Cal as the standard of care, and midwives should be part of the standard of care.”

Her experience and decision to leave reflects larger problems for California midwives highlighted in a new study released today from UC San Francisco’s Osher Center for Integrative Health. It focuses on community midwives who work outside of hospitals but have licenses and training to perform much of the same reproductive care doctors provide to women with low-risk pregnancies.

The report warns that access to maternity care will worsen in California if the state does not increase the number of community midwives who are Medi-Cal providers at a time when hospitals are shutting down labor and delivery wards and maternal mortality is trending upwards.

Seventy-five community midwives are registered with Medi-Cal, according to data provided by the state. More than 1,000 nurse midwives are registered with Medi-Cal, but the majority of those providers work in hospitals and not in community settings, researchers said.

Outdated licensing requirements, tortuous state regulations and cumbersome insurance policies make it nearly impossible for community midwives to accept Medi-Cal patients, the UCSF report found.

Medi-Cal is the state’s health insurance program for extremely low-income residents. It pays for 40% of all births statewide, and midwife care is a guaranteed benefit for expecting mothers.

On paper, the benefit includes community midwifery, which focuses on providing care close to where people live either at a birth center or in the home. But the reality is different, researchers and providers say.

“So many people who have taken Medi-Cal in the past have had to stop or close their practices, and so many people who want to have not been able to make it happen,” said Ariana Thompson-Lastad, lead author of the study.

California’s ‘Momnibus’ Act

The UCSF findings come at a time when the state is trying to make inroads against persistent maternal and infant health disparities, particularly among Black families. Statewide surveys show Black mothers are the most interested in alternative birth support through doulas and midwives, which have been shown to improve a variety of birth outcomes.

Doulas are birth workers who provide non-medical social and emotional support during and after pregnancy while licensed midwives are clinically trained professionals who can provide a range of independent reproductive care for low-risk moms and babies.

In an effort to chip away at inequities, state lawmakers passed the “California Momnibus Act” three years ago. It required Medi-Cal to cover postpartum care for a full year after birth — the period when most maternal deaths happen — and added doula benefits. In January, rate increases for California doulas made them the highest-paid in the nation.

But state regulations simply aren’t designed to accommodate the services community midwives provide, UCSF researchers found.

For example, the Medi-Cal application until recently asked midwives to list a supervising physician even though licensed midwives are authorized to practice independently. Providers also said most community midwives conduct home visits during pregnancy and especially after birth, but Medi-Cal billing policies make it difficult to get reimbursed for services that happen outside of a clinical facility.

“The overarching policy issue for licensed midwives in California is that we continue to be regulated under a very dysfunctional arrangement,” said Rosanna Davis, president of the California Association of Licensed Midwives.

Midwife Madeleine Wisner measures Chloé Mick’s belly during a maternity care consultation at Mick’s home in Sacramento on Feb. 6, 2024. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Wisner, who served mostly Medi-Cal patients, said on average insurance reimbursed just 17% of her costs — roughly $1,451 out of $8,500 for a full course of prenatal, birth and postpartum care — and frequently took months to pay her.

“We’ve had people have two or three babies with us before we get paid for the first one,” Wisner said.

The state is trying to make improvements, said Holly Smith, co-lead of the California Midwifery Learning Collaborative, but the system is still “failing a lot of people.” The midwifery learning collaborative is a five-state initiative aimed at improving access to midwife care. The state agency that oversees Medi-Cal recently joined, Smith said.

In an emailed statement, the Department of Health Care Services said it is working closely with the midwifery learning collaborative to help midwives “successfully navigate and work within Medi-Cal.” The department is using a document drafted by the collaborative to “continue making program and policy improvements” on issues related to billing and applications, the statement said.

Midwives could help fill maternity gaps

Large studies of birth center and at-home birth outcomes show that when trained midwives care for low-risk patients, cesarean section and preterm birth rates decrease while breastfeeding rates and reports of satisfactory birth experiences increase. Severe outcomes and deaths of mother and baby are exceedingly rare and similar to the rates found in planned hospital births. UCSF researchers also found that community midwives see patients more frequently before and after birth and are able to catch complications early.

The majority of Medi-Cal births — more than 80% — are babies of color. They and their mothers suffer some of the worst infant and maternal health outcomes. Even though the state has made improvements overall, it has struggled to curb severe pregnancy complications and death among Black women and babies. Black women of all income levels are more than four times as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related complications and their babies are nearly three times as likely to die within a year, according to state data.

Physicians deliver the vast majority of babies in California, and while the percentage of babies delivered by certified nurse midwives has increased slightly in the past decade most certified nurse midwives work in hospital maternity wards under doctors. Often when maternity services end, providers leave the area.

At least 46 hospitals have closed maternity wards since 2012, leaving a dozen counties without a single hospital delivering babies, a CalMatters investigation found.

Smith, with the midwifery learning collaborative, said historically state laws and policies have supported physician-only maternity care.

“It’s not safe anymore to do that,” Smith said. “We have a maternity desert situation. Literally hospitals are closing, and birth centers will be a necessary strategy for that.”

One of her last California patients

Midwife Madeleine Wisner speaks with Chloé Mick during a maternal care consultation at Mick’s home in Sacramento on Feb. 6, 2024. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

In a cozy house in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood, Wisner has Chloé Mick lie back on her couch while her kids and husband play outside. Wisner measures the length of Mick’s uterus, feels for the baby’s position and they both listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Mick is 25 weeks pregnant and tired.

“I feel the most depleted probably just from having two other children that I hope I have the inner strength to not get a bad attitude during the process and make it through,” Mick tells Wisner.

Wisner responded, “Has it occurred to you that having a bad attitude is OK?”

Mick is planning a home birth, and Wisner assures her that going to the hospital would not be “giving up.” It would be listening to her body’s needs and responding appropriately. They make plans for what to do if the baby is breech or if Wisner’s New Zealand visa comes before Mick gives birth. When Mick’s second child was born, she was on Medi-Cal and Wisner was the only midwife who would take her.

“(The hospital) really feels like a business. You’re in and out, and you don’t have a rapport or relationship with them…It feels like your bodily autonomy is taken away,” Mick said. “And then you look back, and you wish you had done things different.”

Midwife Madeleine Wisner uses a fetal doppler on Chloé Mick’s belly during a maternal care consultation at Mick’s home in Sacramento on Feb. 6, 2024. Wisner is listening to the fetal heartbeat. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Wisner wishes her birth center’s story had ended differently. Her practice finally had enough patient volume to maybe be sustainable, she said, but the other community midwives who worked with her didn’t want to argue with Medi-Cal insurers day in and day out. Over the past five years, Wisner estimates she poured $250,000 into the birth center to keep it open. It’s a big reason why she’s leaving California for another country where she’ll make $60,000 a year working four days a week with a team of other midwives.

“There was always this promise that the system would be reformed, you know, Medi-Cal is gonna get reformed,” Wisner said. “I was really let down.”

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Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

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

If you’re not happy here and now, you never will be.

— Taisen Deshimaru

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I’ve been saving quotations for years and years. I’ll be reading something (or watching a movie) and a line will just speak to me, a few words summing up a world of ideas and feelings. Or just something that makes me splutter with laughter over my morning coffee. Every so often, I’ll upload these precious gems into a book under the title Open Anywhere. It’s just for my own amusement and edification; the wonderful world of on-demand printing doesn’t care if I get one or a thousand copies, and for ten bucks, I’ve got all these worthy notions in a handy-dandy book.

All this by way of saying, one of the perennial section titles in on-going editions of Open Anywhere is “Happiness.” Since my in-box seems to be the receptacle for endless ways to achieve this (apparently) worthy goal, I thought I’d revisit the subject yet again, calling on those writers far wiser and more experienced than me to add their two cents, starting with author Geneen Roth:

“We spend at least half our lives in either physical or emotional discomfort, yet we persist in believing that happiness is our natural, normal condition and that when we’re not happy, we’re not normal.”

I can so relate to this! I’ve created a “set-point” of happiness (hence Roth’s “half our lives”) from which any deviation — up or down —immediately gets labeled, in my fickle mind, as “good” or “bad.” Why is the “good” so much easier to accept than the “bad”? That’s easy. Feeling bad was what got our ancestors through the rough-and-tumble of the Pleistocene, when contentment was likely a sure route to extinction! (Better to live in anxiety — Where’s the next meal was coming from? Will the waterhole last the dry season? Will she spend the night with me? — than bliss out and get eaten by the next carnivore that comes along.) Discontent and survival were practically synonymous on the savanna a million years ago, and we’ve inherited most of our ancestors’ traits.

I’ve written about Dan Gilbert’s take on happiness before, but it’s worth repeating. Gilbert is a happiologist, if that’s a word, at Harvard. In his book Stumbling on Happiness, he writes that we treat our future selves as though they were our children, “… spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy.” I think, “If I work double shift, I can pay off my Visa card in a year, and then I’ll be happy.” Twelve months later, I’m out of debt…but I’m worn to a frazzle and put on ten pounds and wonder if it was all worth it. Or I’ve just shifted my set-point higher and forgotten to appreciate my improved circumstances.

Then there’s the whole business of thinking of ourselves as “projects that can be tweaked and reworked and adjusted to improve the inner experience,” quoting author Geraldine Bell. As movie critic Anthony Lane puts it (in his rollicking review of Arthur Brooks’ and Oprah Winfrey’s book Build the Life You Want): “Restructuring your inward being, and increasing its turnover, is now akin to running a company. Personhood, like religion and politics, is a business.” At some point in my life, I guess I made the decision to stop aiming for more of everything — happiness, sex, money, fame and all the rest — and settle for what I’ve actually got, warts and all. Otherwise it’s just a non-stop fucking struggle. (Louisa just read that and said, “Really? You’re done?” “Literary license,” I said.)

And anyway, as far as future happiness goes, Tolstoy nailed it, as usual, in Anna Karenina: “[Vronsky] soon felt that the fulfillment of his desires gave him only one grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. This fulfillment showed him the eternal error men make in imagining that their happiness depends on the realization of their desires.”

I’ll end quoting myself, ‘cos why not? “My next life, I’m coming back as a dog. A self-satisfied, tail-wagging, unconditionally loving border collie who won’t give a woof about happiness.”

Humboldt County’s transmission infrastructure is old. Connections to the larger grid are weak and undersized, forcing Humboldt to be reliant on the fracked gas-burning Humboldt Bay Generating Station because we cannot pull enough power from our grid connections to keep the lights on. And, conversely, those same undersized powerlines mean we cannot export the power that would be generated from offshore wind. Until new grid infrastructure is operational, offshore wind can’t be operational.

While offshore wind is driving grid improvements, grid improvements can also benefit Humboldt. With improved grid connections, we can shut down our greenhouse gas-spewing power plant. And improvements to the grid can improve energy resiliency for communities like Hoopa that frequently experience outages.

Arne Jacobson of the Schatz Energy Research Lab joins the EcoNews to discuss recent research produced by Schatz on transmission infrastructure planning.

REQUIRED READING:

• Northern California and Southern Oregon Offshore Wind Transmission Study

Press release from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office:

Today, the Honorable Judge Joyce Hinrichs sentenced 38-year-old Casie Lynn Dean to serve an agreed upon 7 years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter of Mr. Carol Johnson, in violation of Penal Code section 192(a), and for smuggling narcotics into the jail, in violation of Penal Code section 4573. 

On January 27, 2023, during nighttime hours, Johnson (69 years) overdosed due to fentanyl poisoning while he was a passenger in Dean’s pickup truck on Highway 101 north of Orick.  Dean, who provided the fentanyl to Johnson, stopped the truck at the side of the road and pulled Johnson out of the vehicle. She dragged Johnson away from the highway, down an embankment, into a secluded location near the tree line where she abandoned him.  In that same location where Dean left him, Johnson later died of acute fentanyl toxicity.

On January 31, a missing person’s investigation into Johnson’s disappearance was initiated, ultimately leading investigators to Dean as one of the last people known to have been with Johnson.  

On February 7, Dean assisted law enforcement in locating Johson’s body where she had left him.     

At the time of sentencing, Judge Hinrichs admonished Dean for her “atrocious” actions. District Attorney Stacey Eads said after the hearing, “I would like to thank the civilians who came forward during the investigation, as well as Lead Detective Victoria Johnson and the rest of the team at the Arcata Police Department. Fentanyl is a poison that killed 64 residents of Humboldt County in 2022, and in this case, the family was able to get some semblance of justice for the loss of their loved one at the hands of the person distributing this poison.”

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Ian Harris, with the assistance of Senior Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees, and Dean was represented by local defense attorney Rebecca Linkous.

An adequate water supply traditionally has been a source of concern to cities and towns of the West. Eureka has been no different, even if the rainfall here has always been higher than in most places. Eureka also has the advantage of having several rivers and streams in the near vicinity. It has been the distribution of water — bringing it from its source to its consumers — that has been the problem.

Will N. Speegle, long-ago editor of the Humboldt Standard, wrote in April 1944:

Now that the city of Eureka seems definitely upon its way to have a real honest-to-goodness reservoir for its water supply, it might be a good time to review briefly the history of the municipal water system. Until the year 1886, the citizens of this community depended entirely on individual water sources, mostly operated by windmills or hand-pumps. There is still some evidence of these mills. Most of the windmills were replaced by pumps. The towers are still there, usually over the barn in the back yard. However, the tanks themselves have been long gone.

Caspar S. Ricks, one of our early pioneers, sank wells on his residential property between Fourth and Fifth streets and between G and H streets. If one knows where to look, there is still evidence of one of these wells. Originally, they were intended for the store buildings, residences, and livery stables that Ricks had accumulated in downtown Eureka.

The Eureka City Council granted a franchise to Caspar Ricks on July 16, 1882. The franchise stated he was to lay pipe throughout the city to furnish water to all citizens. An additional well was sunk on his property to accommodate the people of Eureka. This well was 22-feet square and 45-feet deep.

Soon after the beginnings of Eureka’s water supply, the Ricks Company was incorporated. The new owners were H. L. Ricks Sr. and Richard Sweasey. It became clear to the two after taking over the business that more water was needed to meet the increasing demand. It was decided to bring an “unlimited” supply from Elk River, a distance of six miles. A 13-inch in diameter pipe was constructed from the intake on Elk River located on the Showers Ranch. This pipe was designed by Sam Shuffleton, described by local folks as a “genius.”

The terminus of the pipe was at the corner of Fifth and G streets in downtown Eureka. To store this new water supply, the first of Eureka’s water tanks was built at Harris and E streets. A second tank was built a little later. The tanks were made of redwood and girded by metal rings. I can remember they leaked pretty badly. My uncle, Al Schemoon, was hired by the city of Eureka to tend to the lawn, shrubs, and flowers planted at the base of the tanks. He complained that the leaking water “drowned” his flowers.

All through these years, there was a great deal of agitation about the impurity of the Elk River water. Consequently, several rectangular wells were dug in back of what was to become the Humboldt Brewery on Broadway. These wells were designed to be used for emergency purposes—fire or drought, for example—only.

On June 22. 1902, the Ricks Water Company was incorporated as the Eureka Water Company. On December 30 oft hat year, the business was sold to Thomas Bair of Arcata. Bair continued to operate the business until the people of Eureka voted bonds for its purchase.

The continued agitation against the Elk River water supply lasted all through the first twenty years of the 20th century. The main complaint was the existence of farms in the area. Eurekans felt certain that the “offal” from the dairy herds in the area seeped into their water supply.

During those years, there remained a pumping station on the Elk River, which included several buildings and a big pump. Then on March 7, 1926, the Humboldt Standard reported that the abandoned station had “mysteriously” burned to the ground. By that time, it had been pumping water to Eureka for thirty-seven years.

Building Sweasey Dam

In 1927, plans were made to build dams and reservoirs on both Jacoby Creek and Ryan’s Slough. Both were dropped in favor of looking to the Mad River for the newest source of water.

Discussion about obtaining water from that stream started as early as 1933. From the start. Mayor Frank Sweasey assumed leadership. He was the son of the man who bought into the first water company here and became a partner of H. L. Ricks Sr.

Work was begun, finally, on the project to be known as the Sweasey Dam, located six miles upstream from Blue Lake. This was in early 1937. In June of that year, the Humboldt Times reported that local firms had successfully bid to construct a pipeline from the dam site to Eureka, a distance of twenty-two miles.

In December 1937, J. C. Barkdull, city clerk, announced that Uncle Sam had already paid $222,235 of the government’s grant of $318,000 to help build the structure. In 1938, Sweasey Dam was completed to the satisfaction of almost everyone. This was not, however, to be the case in the proposals for the two subsequent dams — Ruth and the Butler Valley and Blue Lake Project.

By November 1938, a very wet year, rains filled the reservoir, according to George Winzler, city inspector. On December 17, 1937, Mayor Frank Sweasey died. His dedication to the water supply of Eureka earned him his name on the dam. Sweasey was the last of the strong-willed individuals dedicated to working for a good water supply. After the mayor died, organizations like the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, local chambers of commerce, city councils, and water boards furnished leadership in this area.

Still, there were concerns. On May 15,1949, the Humboldt Times ran a story titled “Eureka Outgrows Water and Sewerage Systems.” The newspaper stated:

“Dying for a drink?”

We mean the stuff that comes out of the faucet. That might be no mere rhetorical question if a break should occur in the redwood stave pipeline which brings water to Eureka from the Sweasey dam on Mad River. Eureka has much less than a 24-hour supply of water stored in the three wood tanks at Harris and E streets, the wood tank at Cutten, and the high steel tank at Harris and K streets.

Total storage is 2,055,000 gallons. Average daily use in 1950 will be 3,200,000 gallons, it is estimated, with a maximum daily use of 4,500,000.

Recent growth of the city to the point where the water supply system has become prematurely overtaxed and the enactment of state laws regarding disposal of sewage have developed into a situation requiring Eureka to undertake a construction program of considerable magnitude.

The Eureka City Council, therefore, engaged the engineering firm of Koebig & Koebig to make an engineering study of the waterworks and sewerage systems of Eureka.

On June 20, 1949, voters decided a bond issue was necessary to make vital improvements to Eureka’s water system. The redwood pipeline, after more than thirty years of use, was partially replaced. The new 33-inch tube of cement-lined steel line went from Essex to the tumoff point near the Big Four Inn — nearly four miles. Also proposed was the raising of the dam from the original height of 200 feet up to 260 feet. Engineers were dubious about these changes.

As the years went by, dam personnel warned that the Sweasey Dam was silting up with gravel, sand, and debris. Compounding this picture was the fact that the fish ladder seemed to demand more and more repair work and, hence, was costlier than originally predicted.

In 1965, a local newspaper reported that the State Fish and Game Department wanted to have the dam removed. The paper went on to say, “It is true that mud, gravel, and debris have all but completely filled the reservoir in back of the dam.” In 1967, a contract was signed with A. C. Johnson and Sons to remove part of the dam.

Finally, Sweasey Dam was dynamited in 1970. In a letter dated August 17, 1970, from R. J. O’Brien, regional manager of the Department of Fish and Game, to M. T. McGovem, with the Department of Public Works, it was stated the removal of the dam had been done to their satisfaction.

A Caltrans engineer, in a report in later years, wrote that it was his opinion the dynamiting caused the mouth of the Mad River to move two miles north from its original starting point. He explained that all the sediment coming downstream in one fell swoop had laid the debris across the original mouth, blocking it for good.

The Sweasey Dam, the reservoir, and the pipeline served the citizens of Eureka’s vast water needs for many years.

A Water District is Born

Throughout the late 1940s and early ‘50s, Eurekans had become increasingly aware of the silting up of their dam and water supply.

The Bechtel Corporation was hired to do the preliminary work and to recommend a new dam site. Results of the Bechtel Corporation were conclusive —  the studies indicated the Ruth location in Trinity County was the best. Other sites had been investigated by the corporation, but found to be wanting for a variety of reasons. This included the number two site at Butler Valley in Humboldt County. Problems of construction, land acquisitions, and silting had ruled that site out.

During the fall and winter of 1955, the drive to build a new dam gained momentum. With spring approaching, the Eureka Chamber of Commerce became the promotional agency for an intensive election campaign. It had been determined the best legal tool would be to form a water district under California’s Municipal Water District Act of 1911.

That year, members of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce and the Humboldt County Board of Trade met to consider the formation of the water district. Representatives of unions, churches, city councils, service clubs, businesses, and the Board of Supervisors joined in. Committees were formed and action taken. Under the leadership of James A. Nealis, president of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce, and Bob Matthews, head of the Industrial Committee of the Eureka Chamber, plans were drawn up.

Voters went to the polls on March 13, 1956, and cast an overwhelming vote for the proposed Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. A total of 88.9 percent of the voters favored its formation.

Water Wars

The fight had just begun. Many wanted the new dam to be built in Humboldt County. This was especially true of the citizens in and around Ruth. They felt their beautiful valley would be inundated forever.

Also, as reported by the Eureka Independent, Trinity County’s Board of Supervisors took official action to block construction of the dam and reservoir at Ruth. “Keep It In Humboldt County” was their rallying cry. Locally, the Humboldt County Grange Committee was against the Ruth project and published flyers to have people vote against it.

Those against the Ruth Dam believed that though the dam would offer enough water, there simply wouldn’t be enough usage to warrant building it. Ruth Dam proponents soon secured assurance from local pulp mills that the mills would indeed use large quantities of water. With this promise, the Ruth Dam project was ago.

In April 1956, the city of Eureka voted to assign its application for 100,000 acre feet of water to the Municipal Water District of Humboldt County and the soon-to-be-built Ruth Dam.

A campaign to acquire a $12,000,000 general obligation bond issue to fund building of the dam was next in the general plan. The results of the vote showed that 69.17 percent of the voters favored the bond issue. A two-thirds vote had been required.

The water district directors signed contracts to deliver water to the Simpson Timber Company and Georgia-Pacific Corporation. Their mills were to be built on the Samoa Peninsula.

The groundbreaking ceremony for Ruth Dam took place on September 29, 1960. In September of 1961, contracts were arranged with a Seattle Company for a $3.4 million job on a thirteen-mile pipe line from Essex Station on the Mad River to Fairhaven on the Samoa Peninsula, to the pulp mills.

The House Appropriations Committee approved $1.2 million to fund the dam. On July 10, 1960, Congressman Don Clausen announced the bill had passed the full House Public Works Committee.

Other proposals brought forth at this time were the Anderson Ford Dam and Reservoir and the Larabee Dam and Reservoir.

At precisely 9:25 p.m., February 16, 1962, the Ruth Lake crested and water flowed over the spillway for the first time.

At noon on May 30, 1962, a dedication ceremony took place on the Ruth Dam site. Don Cave, president of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce, was million master of ceremonies. The sluice gates were opened by Don Cave and Bob Matthews. A western-style pit barbecue at Dinsmore followed.

Next year will mark the fortieth anniversary of our water supply from Ruth. It was a hard-fought battle, but it was won.

Butler Valley Dam

The last proposed major water supply project did not win the vote of the people. This was the Butler Valley Dam and Blue Lake Project.

During the year 1955, as the drive toward building a structure somewhere on the Mad River became more active, the site at Butler Valley was proposed. In September 1961, it was dropped in favor of the site at Ruth. The cost — $3 more than Ruth — as well as silting possibilities and soil composition were the usual reasons given for selecting one site over the other. This site at Butler Valley was not to be forgotten completely.

In the early 1970s, once again the cry for a Butler Valley Dam and Blue Lake Project (the official name) was heard. Sides were drawn up and the contest was on.

According to preliminary engineering reports, this dam was to be a multipurpose water storage project located in Humboldt County, 33 miles upstream from the town of Blue Lake. The principal structure would be a 326-foot embankment dam. There would be a shoreline of thirty miles. It would drain 352 square miles. The cost would be divided as follows: federal government, $32,500,000; local interests, $33,500,000; State of California, $800,000. To do all this would not require a property tax.

Representative Don Clausen announced in July 1968 that the Butler Valley Project had passed the full House Public Works Committee.

In the meantime, the opponents of the project were busy marshalling their troops. The Times-Standard reported that “a resolution to drop financial responsibility for the Butler Dam was unanimously passed (by opponents) and forwarded to the Board of Supervisors by the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board of Directors.” According to George Dinsmore, district manager, this action meant that the signing of a contract with dam contractors would not need authorization by a popular vote. This was a bombshell to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors.

Then, in 1972, the Grand Jury issued its yearly report. It said the project should not be completed for the following reasons: no demonstrable need; environmental disaster for Butler Valley; potential for further water claims on the Mad River; adverse developments encouraged, and decline of sport and commercial fishing.

The Grand Jury further recommended the entire plan be put before the people for a vote. Even the proposed widening and paving of the road up Fickle Hill to easily access the dam came under criticism. One proponent of the project had said the dam would be a “psychological symbol.” The opponents jumped on this and used it as a logo for their campaign.

On November 6, 1973, the voters went to the polls. Proposition B on the ballot stated: “Authorization for construction of Butler Valley Dam and Blue Lake Project.” The ballot listed a tavern owner, a real estate businessman, the secretary-treasurer of the Sawmill Workers Union, and a retired county assessor as proponents of Proposition B. It listed as opponents a high school principal, a doctor, an attorney, and a commercial fisherman.

On November 7, the Times-Standard’s headline was “Butler Valley ‘No’ 2-1.” The whole plan was sent down to defeat. It had been a controversial plan from the start. The paper went on to write: “The people of Humboldt County have ‘spoken with a powerful voice’ that they do not want the Butler Valley Dam and it’s now up to the supervisors to tell the Army Corps of Engineers that the dam can never be built.”

That proved not to be necessary as Colonel James L. Lammie, district engineer, in viewing the results of the vote, sent the Board of Supervisors a letter saying, in effect, that they were terminating all further work on the Butler Valley Dam project at this time.

This was the last effort by local citizens to be concerned about the local water supply. Ruth Dam is still serving the area up to the present time.

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The story above was originally printed in the Summer 2001 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.

Dennis Wayne Krystosek passed away at home in Fortuna, surrounded by his loved ones, on January 30, 2024, after a brief battle with cancer.

Dennis was born on June 4, 1954 to Anthony and Dorothy Krystosek in Scotia. He was a happy-go-lucky kid with an adventurous spirit who loved the outdoors.

Growing up, Denny would ride in his father’s logging truck alongside his brother Mike and stepbrother Paul. Since there was only room for two people to sit, the three of them would rotate standing in the space behind the seats.

On his first day of school, after his Mom dropped him off, he quickly realized it wasn’t for him. He managed to make it back home before she did, but she promptly returned him to school.

Dennis was an easy-going man who loved a good joke. His smile and laugh were contagious.

He wasn’t in a huge hurry to grow up. He spent some years doing odd jobs to afford to go to concerts with his buddies. He loved to go fishing and having a good time was his top priority.

Everything changed when he met the love of his life, Beverly. He knew that she was way out of his league. He figured he had better settle down and get a real job. He went to work for Steve Wills as a truck driver.

He was always the first one to work, and never missed a day. His strong work ethic, coupled with his good-natured attitude and his driving ability, made him a favorite to most who worked with him.

He worked there for 20 years until he bought his first logging truck, which meant most weekends were spent maintaining and washing it. He bought another used truck, then in 2022, he bought a brand new truck. He spent less time working on it and more time enjoying it. He hauled his last load on Jan. 2, 2024.

Dennis and Bev had a special love. Even after 35 years together, they would both get so excited if they happened to pass each other on the freeway when he was working. They would giggle like teenagers.

Dennis not only found true, lasting love when he met Bev, but he also got what he referred to as his “Ready-Made Family” in Bev’s daughters and grandchildren.

Dennis came to be the rock in the family. Always there with a smile, a hug, and some encouraging words, offering unwavering support without judgement whenever anyone needed help.

Dennis & Bev valued family above all else. They made it a point to have monthly family dinners, where Dennis would cook the main course, alternating between BBQ, meatball stew, and spaghetti. These dinners were lively, boisterous and filled with laughter - a major factor in keeping the family close. As the family grew, with 25-30 people in attendance, these dinners remained a cherished tradition.

Dennis was survived by his loving wife, Beverly Krystosek; daughters, Krissy Morgan & Renee Morgan (Dave Griffith); grandchildren Tyler Barisdale (Ivi), Kolbi Brandt (Travis), Darien Griffith (Nik Erickson), Zoe Stouffer & David Griffith; great-grandchildren Chandler, Kayson, Taytum, Harper, Greyson, Kaiden and Poet; sister-in-law Lynda Hendrick; brother, Mike Krystosek (Bev) and nieces Brooke and Jolynn; step-brothers Paul August & Kenny Rowe; nephew Lee Pelasini and many other family and friends.

Preceded in death by father Tony Krystosek; mother and stepfather Dorothy and Jim Rowe; and granddaughter, Savannah Barisdale.

Dennis will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who had the pleasure of knowing him. He requested that no services be held and the family will respect his wishes.

In lieu of flowers, please love your family well, tell a good joke, laugh easily and often, or help someone in need.

To his many trucker friends: To pay tribute to Denny, next time you’re on the road, give a little tug on the airhorn in honor of your dear trucker friend.

Rest in peace, Dennis. You will always be remembered.

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

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It’s no secret that Humboldt County has long faced a drug epidemic, and that finding treatment for addiction is not always easy, with local recovery centers often packed to capacity. Now a local substance abuse counselor is doing her part to make treatment more accessible for those struggling with Substance Use Disorder (SUD). 

Marilynne Walpole, who has been working as a certified substance abuse counselor for 10 years, recently launched an online counseling service called Red Phoenix Recovery, which aims to provide an affordable and approachable way for folks in our community to receive counseling for drug and alcohol addiction. 

“I’m using different therapies like motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy, methods that actually teach people how to do things differently, instead of just saying, ‘Go to a meeting, and that’s gonna fix it,’” Walpole told the Outpost in an interview Thursday. 

Marilynn “Maril” Walpole | Submitted by Walpole

Walpole has worked for several different recovery centers and programs in Humboldt, including Humboldt Alcohol Recovery Treatment (HART), which provides programs for people arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and Aegis Treatment Center, which provides medication-assisted treatment (such as methadone) and counseling services. Most recently, Walpole worked at Singing Trees Recovery Center in Southern Humboldt, which is closed for now, following a slew of legal issues related to the new owner.

Though Walpole didn’t wish to comment much on the current situation at Singing Trees, she did say that the facility appears to still be closed and that she’s “holding out hope that something’s going to change,” and that the facility will be able to reopen soon. Of course, with Singing Trees not operating at the moment, Walpole is concerned about there being fewer recovery options available in our area, especially in Southern Humboldt. 

The limited availability of treatment centers in our area is one of the reasons Walpole decided to branch off on her own and start Red Phoenix Recovery. Most of the local centers, like Waterfront Recovery in Eureka, are nearly always booked, with a long list of people waiting to get a bed. Of course there are many options for free group-based programs throughout the county, like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA), but that approach doesn’t always work for everyone, especially someone who might not feel completely comfortable in a group setting. 

“I think AA and NA are great programs. They’re very helpful,” Walpole said. “But for people that are new in recovery, it can be really intimidating, and there’s a lot of anxiety.” 

One-on-one counseling can be easier for a lot of people because of the privacy, and having the service available online also has the benefit of the person being able to do sessions in their own home, or someplace they feel comfortable. Another obstacle for many people seeking recovery in our area is that they don’t have a reliable mode of transportation, Walpole said, and this can lead to many people not showing up for in-person meetings or counseling appointments. Using a virtual platform eliminates the patient’s need for a vehicle.

There are some challenges that come with virtual counseling too, Walpole said, and it can be more difficult to accurately gauge someone’s condition without seeing them in person. In the future, Walpole plans to expand her business to an office space so that she can see people in person also and be able to offer a hybrid platform tailored to people’s specific needs. But renting an office space can be expensive, so she’s not rushing anything. Not having to pay rent also allows Walpole to keep her rates low because she has relatively no overhead costs. 

For now, Walpole is able to take appointments over the phone or over Zoom, whichever the client prefers, and she operates on a sliding scale, letting patients pay what they can. Treatment centers and counseling services can be very expensive, which is also often a barrier for those suffering with addiction. Walpole also accepts insurance, and is working on being able to accept Partnership (the insurance provider for people on Medi-Cal), a process that can take about six months. 

“I think that to me, it’s more about giving to the community and providing the service,” Walpole said. “Not that the money’s not helpful. But I don’t want to make it such a barrier that people can’t afford it. That kind of doesn’t help anybody.” 

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction and might want to talk to Walpole, you can find her phone number and email on the Red Phoenix Recovery website. After you reach out, she will work with you to find out what treatment and payment plan will work for you. Walpole can also provide referrals, if you are looking for help finding a treatment center. Walpole’s hours are flexible and she said she keeps her phone on all the time, so that she can be reached any time of the day or night. 

“I’m here to help the community,” she said.