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At the end of last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new legislation to end special treatment for oil and gas companies seeking to develop facilities along the California coast while simultaneously bolstering offshore wind development efforts.

Senate Bill 704, introduced by state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine), removes a 1970s-era loophole – the “industrial override” provision of the California Coastal Act – that allows oil and gas companies to develop facilities in the coastal zone, including new or expanded refineries and petrochemical plants, without having to comply with state resource protection policies, as long as certain requirements are met. 

What exactly does this mean for Humboldt?

Humboldt Bay has approximately 1,200 acres zoned for Coastal-Dependent Industrial uses — meaning, any industry built in those areas must be somehow dependent on the sea. Planning for CDI uses was done in the 1970s, when demand for land to accommodate sea-dependent businesses was much higher than it is now. The Humboldt Bay Area Plan, a component of the county’s Local Coastal Program, includes marine oil terminals and offshore oil service or supply bases as “principal uses allowed” on CDI lands. 

SB 704 prohibits “new or expanded oil and gas development from being considered a Coastal-Dependent Industrial facility,” and would only permit those developments if they are determined to be “consistent with all applicable provisions of the act,” according to the text of the bill. Under SB 704, new or expanded oil and gas facilities will have to comply with policies outlined in Chapter 3 of the Coastal Act to be permitted, in line with “virtually all other coastal development.”

The new law would make it very, very difficult for oil and gas developers to build such facilities around Humboldt Bay, Jennifer Kalt, executive director of the Humboldt Waterkeeper, formerly the Humboldt Baykeeper, told the Outpost.

“If the federal government wanted to sell oil or gas leases here, we could much more easily block any kind of support facilities [that would be built] around Humboldt Bay or on the Samoa Peninsula now that this law has been signed,” Kalt said. “This is a huge milestone.”

Conversely, SB 704 encourages port development that contributes to offshore wind energy deployment. 

“Existing ports, including the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District, should be encouraged … to pursue development that contributes to the construction and deployment of offshore wind energy generation facilities, consistent with the policies of this division,” the bill states. 

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approved a letter of support for SB 704 back in May. The letter encourages the California Coastal Commission to “look toward a decarbonized energy future including offshore wind generation.”

“I want to thank Senator Min and everybody who helped move this bill forward,” Mike Wilson, Humboldt County’s Third District Supervisor and Coastal Commissioner, told the Outpost. “This new law removes one more way for oil companies to potentially exploit our beautiful and productive coastline.”

More information on SB 704 can be found here.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• California’s Aging Electrical Infrastructure Presents Hurdle for Offshore Wind Development on the North Coast

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Press release from Senator McGuire’s Office:

Sacramento, CA — Senate President Designee Mike McGuire’s groundbreaking legislation to expedite offshore wind development to help meet the Golden State’s long-term electricity demand and nation-leading climate goals has been signed into law by Governor Newsom.

“Today’s action by Governor Newsom ensures California will move with speed and precision to deploy offshore wind. The signing of SB 286 shows the Golden State is serious about bringing on desperately needed new renewable power generation and meeting the state’s nation-leading climate goals and energy needs. This bill will expedite the state-side offshore wind permitting process eliminating a staggering 5 years off of the permitting timeline all while protecting California’s coastal environment and storied fishing fleet. The quicker we get offshore wind infrastructure built off the Golden State’s Coast, the faster we’ll get family sustaining jobs propped up and moving,” McGuire said.

SB 286 – the Offshore Wind Expediting Act – will accelerate the offshore wind permitting process through the State Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission. At the same time, it will ensure environmental safeguards will remain in place, California’s storied fishing fleet interests are protected, and will advance resources that benefit communities and develop family-sustaining jobs through career training programs.

In addition to desperately needed streamlining, for the first time, SB 286 mandates state agencies and key stakeholders come together to collaborate and develop the long-term game plan to deploy offshore wind infrastructure off of the California coast.

SB 286 requires the Coastal Commission to bring the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Lands Commission, the Ocean Protection Council, representatives from the commercial fishing industry, representatives from the offshore wind industry, federal agencies, labor, Native American tribes and other community leaders together over the next two years. This working group will create a statewide standard to ensure offshore wind development is expedited and will develop data-driven strategies to avoid and minimize impacts to ocean fisheries and to the maximum extent possible, mitigate for unavoidable impacts.

SB 286 was signed by Governor Newsom today and will become law January 1, 2024.

On this week’s episode of the EcoNews Report we reflect on the tragic dam failure in Libya last month and discuss why Scott Dam on the Eel River poses similar risks. The PG&E-owned dam sits right on a significant fault line, the Bartlett Spring Fault. Between its unusual engineering and a century’s worth of accumulated sediment, many factors are converging to make even PG&E wary of the risk. That’s why the company made drastic changes to how they manage the dam last spring. And that’s why they are pursuing expedited dam removal right now.

Tune in to hear Alicia Hamann and Scott Greacen from Friends of the Eel River share their concerns about dam safety and lethal water temperatures for juvenile steelhead, and their hope for dam removal.

During the late 1890s and early 1900s, when agriculture thrived as a business in the valleys and prairies of Humboldt County, a good share of the rooted stock came from the nursery of George E. Stewart. He had a Rohnerville address and post office box. Today there is little evidence of the nursery that once advertised itself as the largest supplier of root stock “on the Pacific coast.” His ad in the Humboldt County Business Directory read: “All varieties true to label. I hold myself responsible for all mistakes that occur [and will] replace with other trees. My superior experience enables me to select varieties and species for different localities. Orders by mail, accompanied by M. O. [money order] receive same care as a personal selection.”

During his business trips to San Francisco, Stewart gave people he met glowing accounts of the soil’s fertility and the mildness of Humboldt’s climate. It was another matter to convince his neighbors that the fruit industry was profitable. They remained unconvinced until they learned in 1902 that Stewart’s farm averaged three hundred dollars an acre; a comfortable living at the time. The land, which Stewart had bought in 1885 for one hundred dollars an acre, was located on the northwest corner of Kenmar Road and Fortuna Boulevard, which was all pasture land then. It lay to the north and west across property now occupied by Pacific Lumber Company’s Fortuna log deck, and it extended south towards Alton and across part of Sandy Prairie.

Professor J. M. Guinn visited Stewart’s nursery and wrote about it in 1904:

The county is fruit producing … apples and cherries predominate without irrigation. The output from … Rohnerville farmers is now 70,000 to 100,000 boxes … and a very high grade product… it is safe to say that no individual has more credit due for the present status of the industry than George E. Stewart. The headwaters of Strong’s Creek is five miles above Newburg Mill I which was located at the eastern end of present Newburg Road] promising a goodly supply of water, and the Campton and Jameson Creeks are nearby and tlow into the Eel River [these creeks cut across Stewart’s property]. Trees of willow, alder and cottonwood line the creek banks …

Stewart used small datebooks to record everything from financial transactions to work in his vegetable garden. This 1908 calendar is one of eighteen books archived at the Humboldt County Historical Society.

It took time and work to build such a profitable nursery. Stewart’s notebooks give us examples of the work involved:

Dug potatoes all day and sacked same [by hand, remember]. Boys helping [a later note mentioned the youngest boy started to school[. Cleared fence of blackberries. Dug trees for sale to Frank Shaw. Jacob Ackerson. and Rev. P. Henneberry | the priest of Mount St. Joseph Academy, which was located on the bluff above Alton, where pupils studied seven languages beside the usual academic studies]. Set Cypress trees for windbreak |Eel River Drive, Fortuna]. Attended first meeting of the Humboldt County Horticultural Society. Came home, put up shelves in the house, made nursery stakes.

Besides the work at his home and nursery, Stewart took on jobs for neighbors to earn extra money. He noted constructing a bridge, and also dug wells. One was for the Newburg Mill: “finished well for George Cousins [superintendent of the Newburg Mill], went down 68 feet. Trimming and hoeing in the nursery, south of the creek, budding prunes. Invented my Gravity Gate.”

Then, as now, there was a constant worry about rising flood waters. Stewart’s 1890 diary reflects his concern:

Jan. 22 … Rain and hail, cold, disagreeable. Jan. 23… creeks overflowing at the road tonight. River is reported rising fast. Jan. 24 Rain continues, water well up. River continues to rise… . Went to see |it[ this morning. Jan. 25 … River out of bounds, backed in a little on the NW corner of my place. Feb. 3 Creek[s] overflowing their bank]s[. Higher now than before. This being the fourth time this winter water is over most of my orchard, south of the creeks. Feb. 4 … a number of landslides are reported by the Rail Road, one at Collidge ]sic| hill, one at Rowley, one below Singley’s. and a large one the other side of the Van Duzen.

Finally, on February 6, relief came. Stewart recorded that there had been no rain that morning, and then in what must have been a later entry, adds emphatically “No Rain Today.”

The railroad mentioned, the Eel River and Eureka Railroad, had been built by lumbermen John Vance, William Carson and others. It ran from Eureka to Alton and beyond to the Van Duzen River. Farmers in Stewart’s region shipped produce to Eureka on the railroad; produce then went by steamer to San Francisco markets.

Pests in the nursery were another worry that Stewart shared with today’s farmers — there was a steady battle to ward off the ravages of insects and bugs. Stewart records his attempts at controlling them:

Carbolic soap is no good for pear slugs. Today dusted slugs with lime. This is effective. Sprayed some trees with brine that would float an egg, see the results later.

Another problem was fungus. His recipe for that was:

6 ounces of glue dissolved in one or two gallons of water, by boiling. Dissolve two pounds of carbonate of copper, mix this and add fifteen gallons of hot water. Dilute with cold water to make fifty gallons.

He called it very effective.

A price list from 1893-4, when Stewart’s business was called Rohnerville Nurseries, offered apple trees for the bargain price of ten cents. Merry Jane Dinsmore Collection, via the Humboldt Historian.

In Stewart’s day, county roads were kept in shape by the landowners who used that particular road. They took tums doing maintenance work, and each man paid a poll tax. Stewart worked out his poll tax on the county roads he used by hauling gravel and was exempt for further work “on account of my age.”

His finished potato yield was 380 sacks. The greater proportion of crops went from the county by steamer, but after 1914 farmers used the cars ofthe Northwestern Pacific Railroad.

It was not all work and no play for Stewart. He was also active in social events. One of his entries reads: “Attended the inauguration of Grover Cleveland.” Cleveland was the working man’s choice, which dates the event at 1885. A more sensational political event was also reported: “[We] bumed powder at Rohnerville which is the first Democratic demonstration in the history of the town.”

Burning powder meant they fired an anvil, a popular way to celebrate. Stewart may have done the firing since he knew blacksmithing. It was done by pouring a circle of black powder on a large anvil, and placing a small anvil on top of the larger one. A trail of powder was dribbled down a board to the ground, and a man skilled in the work lit the trail to fire off the anvil. The goal was to make the smaller one rise high in the air and then settle straight down on the larger anvil. If it was a particularly good rise people would talk about it for years afterwards. Men who used the explosive were called powder monkeys. The skill was used to blow out stumps during the early days of logging in the county. A good powder man, like Alex Beattie, of Alton, could blow out a huge stump and not jar anything near it. Beattie, however, lost the ability to smell.

For Stewart, life went on: grafting, budding, digging trees for sale, harrowing fields, sowing seed, building on the house and sheds, making trips to Blue Lake (his daughter Lizzie had married Dr. G. B. Marvin), on to Korbel, and while he was out that way, to visit lumberman John Vance, who had put in an orchard at Essex of one hundred acres of apple trees bought from Stewart. They estimated Vance’s profit would be in the ten thousand dollar range. Stewart would drive his buggy to Bald Mountain to visit Jim Blake, and then on across the Hoopa Valley to Weitchpec before heading for home. Later that same year he went to Phillipsville to Frank Sallady’s ranch to put in an irrigation system (his daughter Clara had married Sallady).

Another time he drove to Blocksburg with William B. Dobbyns and spent the night with George W. Norman (Dobbyns, Norman, Benjamin Blocksburger, and Isaac Price had all fought in the war with Mexico and all four had ended up in Humboldt County.) Stewart records: “Norman, at Larriby [Larabee], wants 16 peach trees, 8 early, and 8 late, of my own selection.”

On July 24, 1892, he wrote about seeing a balloon ascension in Rohnerville.

Stewart was descended from the line that claimed Queen Mary of Scots. George’s branch of the clan, being non-Catholic, had moved from Scotland centuries before to avoid religious persecution. George’s father, William, came to America and settled in Cutler, Maine. In 1838 William moved his family to Illinois (considered the far west at that time), and bought 200 acres for a nursery. William died in 1857, leaving a family of ten sons and four daughters. He was a staunch Whig.

George started out as a Republican, but switched to the Democrats in time to vote for the second term of Ulysses S. Grant. [Ed. note: Unclear what the author meant, here. Grant was a Republican.] When he was old enough to be on his own, George went to Saginaw, Michigan, where he worked as a blacksmith, went into partnership in a mill, and bought acreage for an orchard. At the age of 22, he married Jeannette W. Duncan on Nov. 5, 1857. While in Michigan, George had joined the Masonic Lodge, and continued his membership when he and Jeannette moved to Humboldt County. He was a member of the Eel River Lodge #147, F. & A. M. of Rohnerville. He was also a founding member of the Humboldt County Horticultural Society, and one of that group’s first presidents. He was later elected to the Humboldt County Board of Horticultural Commissioners, where he served a term as chairman.

The Stewarts were hospitable people who often had friends stay overnight, or come to dinner and stay overnight. Roads were rough and winding, and it took almost a day to travel by horse and buggy from Blue Lake to Fortuna. Stewart’s notebooks are full of these impromptu dinners and church affairs: “July 21, 1889 … wife and Wellington [a son] went to the dedications of the Presbyterian church at Grizzly Bluff … Professor N. S. Phelps called and stayed overnight… J. H. Oliver and wife here for dinner … Mr. Dobbyns [William B.] and wife here to dinner.” At another time, Stewart and Dobbyns took their wives to Port Kenyon on a fishing trip: “Had a good time and had good luck, too.” Other guests were listed: “William Taylor and mother visiting here, stayed the night. Jim H. Blake of Blue Lake came on the 12th and stayed until the 14th.”

Stewart was a tall man and wore a black hat when outdoors. He often did neighborly tasks for Father Henneberry of Mount St. Joseph’s Academy. Stewart sold the priest his patented gravity gate and gave permission for the priest to make as many as he needed. On one occasion he wrote he “went to the school and fixed the priest’s gate.”

One hundred years, produce was preserved in a variety of ways. It was stored in cellars, bins, and coolers that were in the kitchen. To create a cooler, a burlap-covered wire cage was fitted into an empty lower window frame. Water dripped over it, cooling the contents. Another way to preserve was by pickling. Stewart includes a recipe he evidently used for eggs:

4 gallons of boiling water, 1/2 peck of new lime. Stir well for awhile and strain. Add 10 ounces of salt, 3 ounces of cream of tartar. Mix. should stand two weeks before using. Pack with large end of the egg down, cover with the mixture. This will protect them for two years.

Life was not all success; the Stewarts knew tragedy. Jeannette died March 27, 1903, and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery at Rohnerville. She left a family of four children: Lizzie Marvin, Frederick W. Stewart, Wellington W. Stewart, and Clara Stewart. One son, Fred, was an epileptic and drowned in a creek by their house. Their first son, Lucius, died in 1892 in Michigan. Stewart married a second time to a longtime Michigan friend, but after living in Fortuna two years she returned to Michigan. Stewart family members were blamed for the breakup.

George E. Stewart, friend of the famous Luther Burbank of Santa Rosa, and of Albert Etter of Ettersburg, died September 21, 1919, at his home and was buried in the International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery at Rohnerville. All three of these men were in the nursery business and patented many new species of plants.

The property owned by Stewart was sold off by his heirs, who had no wish to keep up the nursery and orchard. Clara Stewart Sallady Dinsmore built a home close to the home she grew up in. At the present time, Clara’s house and the one her father built are still standing, separated by Fortuna Boulevard’s four lanes of traffic. Clara’s house is the chrome yellow house opposite the white two-story home built by her father.

Progress has not eradicated all signs of the nursery. The row of Monterey pines and cypress trees still stands, shading Eel River Drive along the railroad tracks that parallel Highway 101. The fragrant apple orchard is gone, and so is the nursery of growing plants. But Stewart’s notebooks survive, and climbing plants still shade his house, a sad reminder of what used to be.

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The story above was originally printed in the Winter 1998 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.

Kathryn Elizabeth “Kathy” (Borgelin) Willoughby passed away on August 26, 2023 in Eureka. She was 77 years old.

She was born June 17, 1946 in Eureka to Colleen and Frank Borgelin. Kathy graduated from Eureka Senior High School in 1964. Kathy married James Ivan “Tex” Willoughby shortly after graduation in 1964.

Kathy was a family-oriented person who cherished her loved ones dearly. She will be deeply missed by her surviving family members and friends. Kathy is survived by her children, daughter Karen Hall (Willoughby )and spouse Bryan Hall Sr., son Robert Willoughby Sr., daughter Tamara (Tammy) Willoughby, son Kevin and spouse Shellie Willoughby, son Carl Willoughby and Jacob Willoughby. Her siblings Michael Borgelin, Raymond and spouse Fe Borgelin, and Sharon Olson. Sister-in-law Darlene Borgelin and brother-in-law Duke Bolen. Kathy also leaves behind her grandchildren Bryan Hall Jr. and spouse Sundara, Joshua Hall, Kathryn “Katy Hall” and spouse Andrew Wilson, Rabecca and her spouse Justin Curry , Rachaell Willoughby, Elizabeth Willoughby, Robert Willoughby Jr., Serenity Willoughby, and Codie Burke.

Additionally, she was a great-grandmother to Claudia Hall, Caden, Avery, Isla, and Warren Wilson, Jude Hall as well as Crystal and Emmett Willoughby, Clint Curry and Ryker Willoughby. She is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews as well as her life long best friends Mary (Swanson) Wagner and Darlene (Beltz) and Jay Marquardt.

Kathy was preceded in death by her husband, James Ivan ” Tex ” Willoughby, her grandparents Edward and Lilian Morrison, an aunt Ilene Wiseman, parents Colleen and Francis Borgelin, siblings Francis “Frank” Borgelin Jr., Roxanna “Roxie” Smith, and Maureen Bolen, her nieces Jennifer Borgelin and Tahnia Brownfield, and her daughter-in-law Ronda Willoughby.

A celebration of Kathy’s life will be held on October 21, 2023, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Eureka Labor Temple, located at 840 E Street in Eureka, CA. additional parking in the back lot, entrance on D Street.

The event will include a barbecue (we will provide hamburgers) if you are planning on attending please bring a side dish, stories and photos to share. Please call Tammy at 707-616-5371 or Karen at 707-834-1858 to let us know if you are able to attend, need directions, if you are able to assist in set up or food preparation or if you just need to talk.

Kathy’s memory will forever live on in the hearts of her family and friends. She will be remembered for her love, kindness, and dedication to her family. In memory of Kathy, the family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with the unexpected financial burdens they are facing with Kathy’s passing.

Contributions made through the GoFundMe page are deeply appreciated and will go toward the memorial and expenses the family is facing during this difficult time.

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From the Food and Drug Administration:

Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate of Eureka, California is recalling “Ginger Snap Milk Chocolate” batch 23194 because they were mispackaged and are Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate bars in Ginger Snap wrappers and contain undeclared peanuts. People who have allergies to peanuts are at risk of serious life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.

The recalled “Ginger Snap Milk Chocolate” bars were distributed locally to retail accounts in Humboldt County, via online/mail orders and through our factory store in Eureka, California.

The product comes in a 2 oz wrapped chocolate bar marked with lot number 23194 on the back with an expiration date of 13/JAN/2025 stamped on the back. UPC 858788004495

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this problem.

The recall was initiated after it was discovered that the peanut-containing product was sold to two customers in our factory store who returned it saying it tasted like peanut butter. Any consumers who have concerns relating to an allergic reaction should contact a physician immediately.

Distribution of product from this batch has been suspended and is being recalled.

Consumers who have purchased 2 oz Ginger Snap Milk Chocolate bars are urged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact the company at 707-798-6010. Open weekdays 9-5 pm.

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It has been a rough few weeks for Capital Public Radio (CapRadio), the Sacramento-based public radio station, which manages both North State Public Radio and Humboldt County’s own KHSU — or what remains of it after a near-complete dismantling of local involvement in 2019.

At the end of August the station laid off 12 percent of its workforce and canceled four music programs, citing financial challenges. Last week, on the heels of what CapRadio itself described as a “devastating audit,” Sacramento State President Luke Wood announced that the university, which holds the station’s FCC license, was taking over operational control of the NPR member station. On Wednesday, 14 CapRadio board members resigned, citing “a failure of Sac State to inform and engage with the board in a good faith effort to resolve CapRadio’s financial issues.”

The audit [click here for a pdf], which was conducted by California State University, uncovered widespread fiscal mismanagement. Some examples:

• More than $1.1 million in studio equipment and furniture loans were taken out without approval by CapRadio’s board;
• CapRadio accepted gifts “without written delegation of authority from the campus president” and processed an $85,000 “gift-in-kind” that actually was a discounted purchase of a piano that is now in storage; 
• Credit card charges were not properly reviewed and, in some cases, late fees and charges over the card limit were incurred; 
• The station failed to make payments the past two years on an $8 million loan that Sac State assumed for tenant improvements to the station’s planned downtown Sacramento building; and
• The station “lacked complete and current policies and procedures in almost every financial and operational area reviewed.”

Asked how this mess might impact KHSU, North State Public Radio General Manager Phil Wilke said he’s committed to ensuring that the on-air programming and signal strength are not compromised.

“Whatever the outcome of the restructuring on the financial side and the board governance side is, the independence of the newsroom and programming arms of CapRadio, North State Public Radio and KHSU are not going to be compromised,” Wilke said.

Asked how he can be confident of such stability given the upheaval at CapRadio, Wilke acknowledged that he was giving a “best-case scenario,” though he added that he doesn’t envision a scenario in which Sac State lets CapRadio go belly-up.

”I suppose in worst-case scenario that could happen,” he allowed. “But CapRadio in the Sacramento metro area is a well-established, well-thought-of journalistic outfit. That dedication to journalism and cultural programming … doesn’t waver. Now, the resources they have to perform those functions might change at some point if financial restructuring takes a short-term hit, sure, but I can’t envision a scenario where Sac State allows really one of the significant media organization in the state to go under.”

CapRadio partnered with Humboldt State University (as it was then called) in 2021, with the university retaining the FCC-issued broadcast licenses while CapRadio and Chico-based North State Public Radio assumed control of daily operations and programming. 

Since then, local involvement has been minimal, though Wilke has been making efforts to expand it. In recent weeks he has reached out to local newsrooms, including the Outpost’s, to request collaborations with local producer Alejandro Zepeda on news content. (The Outpost declined the entreaty.)

Wilke said other efforts are underway.

”We’re working with the journalism department and student radio station on campus [KRFH], and we will be getting interns working on the production side to get ‘em trained up,” he said. “We’re talking with other media outlets on the Lost Coast to see if there are partnership opportunities available, so we’re trying everything we can to increase local voices on the air.”

For more on CapRadio’s troubles, see this coverage by CapRadio’s own newsroom or this story from the Sacramento Bee. We’ve also embedded video below showing the Bee’s interview with Sac State President Luke Wood.