It was year ago that the Board of Supervisors approved the McKay Community Forest (MCF) Trail Plan and its proposed network with 31 miles of multi-use roads, multi-use trails (including 1.5 miles of accessible trails), hiking trails, and mountain bike trails.

Where do things stand a year later? At this time, there are two significant trailheads.

NORTHRIDGE: There is a parking area just east of the intersection of Walnut Drive and Northridge Road in Cutten that offers access to 3.5 miles of trails. These trails have been the focus of trail building efforts initially by the California Conservation Corps and more recently by Volunteer Trail Stewards and Redwood Coast Mountain Bike Association. The parking lot is open, signage is up and many of these trails are passable. They are still a work in progress and vulnerable to wet weather.

The Huckleberry Trail, a 0.2 loop trail, has been built as an accessible trail. This short trail has a hard-packed rock surface and maintains the necessary grade and width. Park at the Northridge lot.

HARRIS STREET: Key to progress on the 3 miles of trail from Harris is the purchase and installation of a 20-foot bridge that will facilitate access from Harris. People using this trailhead will have to park on Harris. While significant sections of the trails in this area are passable, much remains to be completed. The longest trail in this area will wrap around the south side of Redwood Acres before returning adjacent to Ryan Slough.

Some of the multi-use roads scheduled to be eventually constructed throughout the MCF will not be developed until they are needed for harvesting timber. The McKay forest resources will be sustainably managed. Although there have been no harvests yet, when there are the resources generated by the harvests will be used to pay for things like trail development and other amenities. At this time, the trails in other parts of the Forest will receive minimal attention.

Although the County is exploring other ways to accelerate progress, the Volunteer Trail Stewards are looking for additional volunteers to assist with trail construction and maintenance and in removal of invasive plants. Bob Vogt, County point person for the project, observed that “these volunteers have been amazing and should be credited directly with building the trails and recreational opportunities that we see in the MCF today.” No particular skills are necessary to be a volunteer. Consider attending workdays on the first Saturday morning of each month. If you are available on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, that is an option too. As Volunteer Coordinator, Rachael Garcia, notes, “Our volunteer efforts are a labor of love, but with much to receive in return. Caring for these trails not only gives the personal benefits of keeping active and enjoying time outdoors, but it also serves the public’s interest in having clean, safe, and well-structured spaces for recreation. This is a community forest, after all, and there is a definite sense of community being nurtured through our time on the trails.”

Contact Rachael at vtscoordinator@humtrails.org for more information or to get on the notification list.

Longtime Humboldt County poet David Holper — beloved College of the Redwoods English professor, the inaugural poet laureate of the City of Eureka — has a new book out. It’s called Language Lessons: A Linguistic Hejira, and it’s (in part) a meditation on words from other languages that are not easy to translate into English.

To mark the occasion, Holper recently joined KHUM-FM DJ Midge Martin for a conversation about the book, his work as poet laureate and just, generally, the practice of poetry in this day and age. Check it out here:

David Holper on KHUM

There’ll be a book launch party at a private residence this Saturday. See the following note from Holper:

Inaugural Poet Laureate for the City of Eureka David Holper will be reading from his latest book of poem Language Lessons: A Linguistic Hejira. The reading will be on Saturday, September 30th, 1-2 pm at 4007 Cedar Street in Eureka. As the reading will be outside, bring a lawn chair and dress for being outside.

Using 109 untranslatable words from languages (mostly) other than English, David Holper takes the reader on a spiritual journey through life, love, travel, food, and everything else. Each of the poems provides the untranslatable word, its language and definition, a poem that illuminates the word, and an illustration. Paperback copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

In April 2020, Alejandra Guerra, 23, started working at Amazon while finishing her associate degree in criminal justice at Sacramento City College. Working nights and weekends at the warehouse near the Sacramento airport, she earned $18.70 an hour, nearly five dollars more than she had been making prior to the pandemic as a secretary.

The hours were grueling: She finished her last warehouse shift of the week at 5:30 a.m. on Monday and started class, online, at 8 a.m. “I have very bad ADHD, so it’s very hard for me to concentrate when I’m sitting in front of a laptop, especially when I just worked a 10-and-a-half-hour shift,” she said. “I’m just thinking about sleep.”

She dropped out of school in May 2020 with about seven classes left to graduate. More than three years later, she still hasn’t returned, making her part of an emerging trend among community college students ages 20 to 30. While other age groups are returning to college following a drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, these twenty-somethings are the last holdouts.

At its lowest point following the start of the pandemic, the California Community Colleges system had lost just over 417,000 students, an 18.5% drop compared to the 2018-19 academic year. That was a 30-year low. The decline means colleges risk losing state funds in the near future, since their funding is pegged in part to enrollment. In the long-term, it means employers may grapple with a less educated or less skilled workforce.

“We’re seeing increased wages in occupations that don’t require a bachelor’s or an associate degree.”
— Don Miller, vice president of academic affairs at Rio Hondo College

Enrollment numbers grew by about 5% in the 2022-23 school year, according to data provided by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. It’s the most recent data available, though numbers are not yet official. Early estimates from various community college districts show enrollment gains continuing into this fall, too.

But that rebound is uneven: it stems largely from high school students who are taking college classes, and to a lesser extent, from adults over 30 who are returning to college after leaving at record rates during the pandemic. Meanwhile, students in their 20s, like Guerra, continued to leave college. The state’s 116 community colleges lost more than 13,000 students between the ages of 20 and 30 last year, about a 2% decline in that population compared to the previous year.

The result is a demographic shift across the community college system. For over a decade, it was students between 20 and 30 years old who made up the plurality of students on campus. Last year, it was students under 20 who represented the largest group. These youth, particularly those in high school, have become central to the strategy of California Community College Chancellor Sonya Christian, who has said she wants to require every ninth-grader in California to enroll in a community college course.

Low unemployment means low enrollment for some colleges

Administrators say there is no single explanation as to why this generation of twenty-somethings is lagging behind the rest. For one, the age group isn’t monolithic, and students with different racial or ethnic backgrounds showed differing trends. The population of Asian and Filipino students in their 20s declined by 6 and 12%, respectively, while the number of African-American and Native students in the same age group increased by a few percentage points compared to the previous year. Another possible explanation comes from a recent survey of the state’s community college students, which found that roughly one-third of students between the ages of 21 and 30 had experienced homelessness in the past year — a higher rate than any other age group.

But most college administrators agree that the economy is often a leading factor. Historically, college enrollment fluctuates with the economy. A good economy and ample job opportunities mean students often choose work over school.

“We’re seeing increased wages in occupations that don’t require a bachelor’s or an associate degree,” said Don Miller, vice president of academic affairs at Rio Hondo College, located near Whittier in eastern Los Angeles County. He cited rising wages in the service industry, such as at Starbucks, as well as for entry-level openings at logistics companies, such as Amazon or UPS.

Logistics in particular has seen a boost in hiring and wages since the start of the pandemic as more people shifted to online shopping. New shipping warehouses opened in the Inland Empire, making Amazon the largest private employer in the region, and some Central Valley cities are close behind.

Amazon SMF1 facility in Sacramento on Sept. 25, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters

At East Los Angeles College, logistics and technology professor Leo Medina said his classes, which prepare students to work at places like Amazon and UPS, used to enroll more than 800 students a year before the pandemic. He lost about a quarter of his students in 2020 but said some are starting to return, often with encouragement or financial incentives from their employers.

“You hit the ceiling if you don’t have a certain amount of education or skill,” he said.

Guerra started out in an entry-level position at Amazon, but after a year working the night shift, she got promoted. First, she became a data analyst and then an operations supervisor, where she made about $22 an hour.

For years, her managers at Amazon encouraged her to go back to school. While the company covers tuition, books, and fees for many of its employees, Guerra said she was unsure whether she wanted to go back to school or instead try to advance internally through more promotions. Her mentality changed this spring, when she lost her job and had to search for a new one.

“I have all these skills that I’ve learned, but there’s all these jobs that don’t want to hire me because I don’t have a degree,” she said. She found a position as a receptionist at a property management company in Sacramento and plans to enroll in college at some point next year.

Losing the ‘drive’ for community college

Community colleges have collectively spent millions of dollars, much of it part of COVID relief funds, to draw back students like Guerra. They run recruitment events at churches, community centers and rodeos. They’ve set up call centers to reach out to students and are plastering billboards with eye-catching puns along highways and on buses. The Sacramento-area community college district flew a drone display in the image of a cap and gown to woo spectators at a professional soccer match. The efficacy of those marketing efforts is up for debate.

But research has found a few clear trends in college recruitment. Only 13% of students who drop out of college re-enroll in school within five years, according to a 2019 analysis by the National Student Clearinghouse. Once students leave high school and put off going to college, it becomes harder to convince them to enroll, too.

Hunter Garcia, 22, enrolled at Butte College near Chico in the fall of 2019 after seeing a flier that advertised the school. He dropped out in the midst of the pandemic after starting his third semester and soon began working the night shift at a nearby Walmart warehouse. He didn’t feel safe at night near his apartment, and since he didn’t have a car, he walked to work each day around sunset, waiting until 10 p.m. to start his nine-hour shift. After six months, he quit. But by then, he said he felt too isolated and exhausted to restart an online education. “I just lost the drive,” he said.

Only 13% of students who drop out of college re-enroll in school within five years, according to a 2019 analysis by the National Student Clearinghouse.

Many colleges are rethinking the structure of college: trying to fit school around the student, instead of the traditional model, which asks students to schedule their lives around school. In one of the most innovative approaches, eight community colleges in California have opted into a pilot program that aims to redesign part of their curricula so students can gain a degree without ever attending class.

Most colleges are making simpler changes, such as offering more flexible hours, more online classes and new courses that are more easily applicable in the workforce. One school is offering higher wages for student tutors in an effort to keep them on campus and keep them from seeking higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

Garcia has no intentions of going back to school in the near future, though he hasn’t ruled it out entirely. He works as a carpenter now, making around $25 an hour, but it’s not much easier than his previous job at WalMart, he said. “My body won’t be able to keep up with this forever,” he said.

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Erica Yee contributed to this reporting.

Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education.

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

Jeffrey J. Krohn was born in Milwaukee on July 22, 1952; He passed over at the age of 70 on July 5, 2023, in Eureka.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Dorothy Krohn, and father, Jim Krohn. He is survived by his brother, Gary Krohn; nephew, Garrison Krohn; niece, Shayna Krohn; and his former wife, Kathleen Krohn.

As a young boy, Jeff was very adventurous; he loved the outdoors, crabbing, fishing, swimming, canoeing and snow-fort building. He attended Camp Sidney Cohen, participating in multiple canoe trips down the Wisconsin River from Boscobel, ending at Prairie Du Chien. He was a fun-loving, free spirit.

He attended high school at Norris Farms Boys Academy. He moved from Milwaukee to Eureka in 1990, where he lived at the Lighthouse Ranch. Then he became a born-again believer of the Judeo-Christian faith. His love for God’s Word, recalling and reciting scripture was an encouraging gift.

Jeff was an accomplished finishing carpenter, house painter, and interior decorator consultant. He loved animals and had a special intuitive language when he would speak to them, especially his cat, Jackson. He cherished fine antiques and many original paintings by local artists and friends such as David Hodes and John Wesa, which furnished his apartment he called his castle.

If you were with Jeff walking in any given city, small or large, when you turned around, he was gone. You would find him at the thrift store, Boys and Girls Club clothing, or Goodwill seeking out treasured vintage clothes.

He amassed a collection of vintage clothes of over 1,000 pieces, Birkenstock shoes, Doc Martin, western shirts, Carhartt, Gunne Sax Dresses, Pendleton, costume hats, and fedoras. You might’ve called him a master technician for discovering vintage clothing with value. He sold his collection in 2022 to a company in San Francisco.

Jeff was all about wit and humor. He always had these great one-liners and comebacks in playful conversation. His love for comedy in the movies was insightful. He would share whole comic sketches and dialogue guiding you to the movies and episode that made him laugh the most.

His knowledge of sports and sports athletes was captivating. He could recite most of the MVP players for most professional sports except golf and hockey. The Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Bucks were his favorites.

He loved to play basketball and would challenge you to a game of 21. If you weren’t up for a game of 21, he’d gladly shoot a round of eight-ball pool.

Jeff was a connoisseur of musical songwriters and entertainers. One of his true loves and God-gifted talents was writing lyrics and music. He composed over 20 songs. His collection of guitars was tremendous. Jeff recorded his first two songs in a small studio in Eureka in February 2016.

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Written and composed by Jeffrey James Krohn:

He Finds Me

“Maker of the land Keeper of the sea, You are the answer to questions that some don’t believe.

As pure of the heart that ever will beat, You are the sweet, enduring fragrance I was born to breathe.

For all that I have done, the things I have done, He still loves me, the King of the world, Creator of all. He loves me.

He’s taking me on as a son and holding me in my lap in His palm, no matter how far I run, He finds me”.

In this world, Jeffrey will truly be missed with deep sadness by all his family and friends. We now celebrate his past life and his new life with his Heavenly Father who is welcoming Jeff to write music for the heavenly choir.

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Jeffrey Krohn’s Memorial Celebration & Musical Concert

Honoring Jeffrey and his love of music

Eureka Theater

612 F Street, Eureka, California

Saturday November 18, 2023, show 6:30 /doors open 5:30 pm

Come and experience this exceptional dedication of these great musicians and bands as they honor Jeffrey’s memory with a tremendous musical gathering.

Featuring

Huckleberry Flint

The Lighthouse Band Reunion

Garrison & musical guests

In lieu of flowers

All donations and ticket admissions

are being accepted in advance to defer the Memorial Celebration cost. All remaining proceeds will be donated to Redwood Adult & Teen Challenge.

This Memorial Celebration and Musical concert is a tribute to Jeffrey. His God-given talent to write and compose music was a significant part of his life and our purpose for this musical celebration.

His home at Redwood Adult & Teen Challenge for the last 12 months of his life inspired so many. Jeffrey’s family & friends are happy to celebrate Jeffrey’s life by donating to their cause.

Please help us with your donations go to: GoFundMe https://gofund.me/44b57e18

For concert ticketing go to: Eventbrite http://bit.ly/46fh4HG

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for donating to this Memorial Celebration and Musical Concert. Jeff’s spirit transcended this realm with his musical talents. We will rejoice with him, like a choir of Angels.

The Krohn Family & Friends

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Jeff Krohn’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Emergency personnel have closed Broadway near its intersection with Vigo Street while they deal with the aftermath of a serious collision involving a vehicle and a pedestrian. 

Avoid the area if you are traveling through Eureka. 

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During today’s regular meeting, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted to revoke a Coastal Development Permit for a residential property in Fields Landing following nearly two decades of neighborhood complaints and numerous building violations.

One of the structures on the Fields Landing property. Image: Humboldt County Code Enforcement

The county’s Code Enforcement Unit issued its first “substandard housing notice and order” at Gerald McGuire’s Fields Landing property in 2004, following numerous complaints from neighbors regarding the construction of an unpermitted structure and “junk being left on the property,” the staff report states. Since 2013, code enforcement has issued numerous notices against the property for construction violations, including working without a valid/current permit and violation of the county’s building, plumbing and electrical codes.

In November 2021, McGuire obtained a Coastal Development Permit to clean up the property and resolve ongoing issues with the county’s Code Enforcement Unit. The permit allowed for the demolition of an existing unpermitted 1,700-square-foot house and the construction of a 788-square-foot, two-story garage with a one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit on its second floor.

A few months after demolition was completed in April of 2022, the county received several complaints about the condition of the property, including the “accumulation of junk, solid waste, scrap, miscellaneous items and debris,” according to the timeline of events compiled by code enforcement. 

Over one year later, the property is still a mess. Planning and Building Director John Ford shared a few dozen pictures of the property – taken between February and July of this year – during today’s meeting. The pictures show piles of lumber, tarps and other building materials strewn throughout the property, much of which can be seen from the street.

Ford | Screenshot

“The reason we’re requesting the revocation of the Coastal Development Permit is because, at this point, the applicant has been unable to bring the site into a condition that is clean and tidy,” Ford said. “When it comes to requesting a revocation, that’s not something that we take lightly in the Planning Department. It really is something that comes about as a last-ditch effort. … In this particular case, the reason that we’re requesting the revocation of [the Coastal Development Permit] is because [it] is not being used for the intended purpose.”

McGuire argued that the pictures were not current and said, “Everything’s cleaned up.” He added that the site would have been cleaned up years ago if it weren’t for code enforcement preventing him from doing so.

“Code enforcement came down and specifically told the [Planning and] Building Department, after my pre-site inspection, to stop working on that property. A year went by … [and] I couldn’t even pick up anything on that property,” he said. “Yeah, it looks like a mess, but it’s not like that anymore. … There’s no trucks, there’s no equipment, there’s no vehicles down there; it’s all been taken away.”

McGuire added that he had obtained three building permits through the county. Ford pushed back on his claim, noting, “That building was never permitted.”

McGuire | Screenshot

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn asked whether McGuire had copies of the building permits. McGuire said he did, but he wasn’t sure if he had them with him. He noted that he had stamped copies at home.

“There’s a stamp when they receive it, that’s not an approval,” Bohn said. “The problem I’m having right now is I’ve got a Planning and Building Director that says you don’t have permits, and you’re saying you have a permit somewhere.”

“You can call the building department and they’ll tell you I have permits,” McGuire said.

“I got him right here,” Bohn said, referring to Ford.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” McGuire said.

Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson interjected to note that “even if [the building] permit exists somewhere out there” it is not related to the matter at hand.

“This is the revocation of a Coastal Development Permit, and it’s separate from whatever those entitlements may or may not be,” he said. “I really don’t think that that’s germane to this discussion, whether or not those permits exist or don’t exist.”

Speaking during public comment, one of McGuire’s neighbors, a woman who identified herself only as Cristy, said the property has been a mess for the last 14 years and asked the board to revoke the permit.

“I feel a responsibility for the community of people down here that are hardworking individuals that are just fed up and tired,” she said. “We’ve had years and years of sympathy and understanding for him and, you know, I realize that everybody falls on hard times. It’s not in any way a personal vendetta, but at some point, we ask that the supervisors put themselves in [the] shoes of the individuals that have to live next to him and deal with this every day.”

McGuire’s attorney Michael Acosta argued that revoking the permit would cause “further stagnation of this problem.”

“At this point, [he’s] cleaned that portion up that is clearly a public nuisance,” Acosta said. “Beyond that, what’s happening on the property is that Mr. McGuire has been frustrated in his endeavor by the building department’s lack of accommodation of his plans.”

Following public comment, Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell asked Ford to explain the next steps of the process and whether McGuire would have the opportunity to apply for another building permit once the property is cleaned up.

“Just to be clear, the Notice of Abatement has been served. The Notice of Violation has been served so [the next step]  would actually be abating the property,” Ford said. “Either he would clean up the property or the county’s in a position where it will.”

After a bit of additional discussion, Wilson made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation to revoke the Coastal Development Permit. Bohn seconded the action.

The motion passed in a 4-0 vote, with Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Steve Madrone absent due to jury duty obligations.

Before adjourning to closed session, Bohn suggested Ford and McGuire meet outside board chambers to discuss the next steps “since everybody’s on premises.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Officer-Involved Shooting in Hoopa Leaves Suspect Dead; HCSO and DA’s Office Investigating
• Sheriff’s Office Releases More Info on Sunday’s Officer-Involved Shooting in Hoopa

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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, an officer involved shooting occurred in Hoopa involving the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The California Department of Justice (DOJ) is leading this investigation pursuant to California Assembly Bill 1506.

This incident update (#3) is to provide additional information regarding this investigation. In alignment with the Humboldt County Critical Incident Response Team’s (CIRT) transparency protocol, this update provides the name of the California Highway Patrol officer involved, the name of the decedent and autopsy result.  

California Highway Patrol Officer: Neil Johnson, Willow Creek Resident Post Officer

Decedent: William Burrell Nelson, age 43, of Hoopa, CA. Cause of death: Gunshot wound to the chest.

Upon completion of the investigation, the CA DOJ will submit its findings to Attorney General Rob Bonta for a determination. To protect the integrity of this investigation, no additional information will be released until this has been completed. For questions related to this investigation, please contact the California Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs at 202-514-2007.