What are the real costs of fireworks? Fort Bragg show to go on Saturday, but fatal warehouse explosion in Esparto shuts others down+ these other short news items

•Put a fork in it-Fort Bragg salmon fishing is done for 2025 after bad fishing weekend here but huge SF-Monterey haul, will Coho fishing return someday?

SURJ, (Showing up for Racial Justice), a  key player in local Black Lives Matter protests, has decided to close the local chapter

•Caltrans announces $1 million in grants for three Mendocino county climate change studies

A huge explosion at an Esparto fireworks storage warehouse has left seven still listed as missing three days after the tragedy.  The explosion was so intense that little is left of the building or the workers who were inside. The mammoth blast left behind a dangerous debris field. Evacuations of a square mile remained in effect on Thursday. The fireworks were stored by a firm called Devastating Pyrotechnics.

Here is a story about what happened in Esparto. 

This explosion caused several communities to cancel their fireworks show, but the Fort Bragg event will go on as planned, the city has announced. San Jose, Lodi and Cloverdale were among the dozen communities that canceled shows.

Fireworks has been impacted by Trump tarriff’s as 99 percent of the fireworks sold in the USA, both for 4th of July shows and for personal use, where allowed. So far, nobody has probed whether the higher price of fireworks caused by the tariffs had any relationship to the explosion. My personal take would be this is an excellent product to put tariffs on. Fireworks are a terribly outdated thing to be doing. Numerous studies show air quality declines nationwide after July 4 because of all the fireworks shows. People lose fingers or like here, their lives. Wild animals are traumatized and rare birds abandon their nests. Pets are lost and terrified. Fires are started.  And for what?  Today, a light show with drones would be much better.

Of course Fort Bragg sometimes holds fireworks shows that nobody can see, thanks to the fog. Ive been and seen the clouds turn a bit orange, accompanied by a bang. Friday’s forecast is clear, with a high of 57 and most encouraging of all, 15 mph winds. You might see fireworks.  Maybe we could just pretend every year instead of every third year?

An investigative report by KCRA News found that the Esparto facility did not have a permit to store fireworks, but that the fire department knew about the fireworks and had conducted site visits. Esparto is 140 miles southwest of Fort Bragg.  The KCRA story

Salmon Season is over for the year in Fort Bragg.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife had proposed 3-4 single-day recreational salmon fishing seasons for this summer, but that depended on anglers not catching many., with a statewide quota of 7000 fish.  A Department of Fish and Wildlife employee estimated less than 250  fish were caught out of Noyo Harbor in that two days season. But people to  the south, from Bodega Bay to Monterey were getting limits and coming back early. As a result, there will be no more fishing off Mendocino County

Few fish ere caught to the south of Monterey, with fishing petering out totally after San Luis Opisbo. The whole  state was open

Here is  the DFW press information:

“During the two-day California recreational ocean salmon season opener on June 7-8, 2025, anglers caught an estimated 9,165 Chinook salmon by 10,505. This catch was well within the statewide summer harvest guideline of 7,000 Chinook, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The majority of the catch came from anglers fishing out of San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Bay ports.” DFW said the quality of the SF catch was unparalleled historically.

A second season is scheduled for fall, but the waters off Mendocino County will be closed during that season.  The northern closure is done to protect returning Klamath River salmon. 

The recreational ocean salmon fishery is set to reopen September 4-7 under a separate fall harvest guideline of 7,500 Chinook in waters between Point Reyes and Point Sur. If the harvest guideline isn’t reached, the season will continue September 29-30. If any fish remain after this date, the fishery will continue in waters between Pt. Reyes to Pigeon Point on October 1-5 and October 27-31.  Bodega Bay fishermen would be able to go out and head south to join in, but the trip would be far for any charter or small fishing boat out of Noyo Harbor.

SURJ, (Showing up for Racial Justice), a  key player in local Black LIves Matter protests, has decided to close the local chapter

The following is an email from local school teacher and activist Andy Wellspring, well known as a leader of progressive causes:

SURJ Mendo Coast has decided to close our chapter.  We still very much support SURJ as an organization & its values. We appreciate the support & leadership from SURJ and the support from everyone who has participated in SURJ Mendo Coast’s work here in Mendocino County. 

Our reasons to close our chapter are:

Our core members have become involved in larger coalitions, and recruitment has focused on those coalitions (a Sacred Sites Protection/anti-logging coalition (https://savejackson.org/), a Divestment/Free Palestine coalition (https://mendodivest.org/), and a mutual aid project/mask bloc (https://mendocleanair.club). We have stopped doing anti-racist education for white folks like when we began our chapter with reading groups, etc. Since all our work is going into the local coalition building, it doesn’t feel anymore like we are really holding true to what SURJ chapters do. (Or, we are only doing one part of what SURJ does- support BIPOC-led organizing). Finally, SURJ National is now asking chapters to be more on the same page and contribute to national organizing campaigns, but with our limited energy we are going to prioritize our local organizing. Please join the SURJ National email list at surj.org if you want to get involved in their awesome nationwide work!

Next steps:

Our core members will be continuing to do their coalition work. Our email list & social media will continue to promote social justice events in Mendocino County under a new name, Mendo Social Justice Bulletin Board. 

You can now get in touch with us at: MendoSJBulletinBoard@gmail.com, on Instagram at  @mendosjbulletinboard & Facebook at Mendo Social Justice Bulletin Board. 

Caltrans announces $1 million in grants to be used in Mendocino County for studies related to climate change. 

• $279,000 to the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) for the Mendocino County Regional Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Mitigation Program. That program seeks to tie land use approval and costs to miles traveled, or put more simply, to tax sprawl more than in-town development. The money is just for a study at this point, as the county and cities seek to comply with  SB 743, which requires CEQA lead agencies to evaluate VMT impacts associated with land use development or transportation projects and implement mitigation measures when required. The progam is expected to involve all the cities and the county itself, Mendocino County Air Quality Management District, Caltrans, and Native American Tribes.

 $286,000  to the City of Ukiah for the East Perkins Street Multimodal Transportation Plan. The project aims to improve pedestrian, bicycle, and transit facilities on East Perkins Street and its connections with U.S. 101. The plan seeks to create a safer, more efficient corridor that promotes active transportation, economic development, and accessible mobility options, while considering community input, and data collection.

$442,000  to the Mendocino County Department of Transportation for the Climate Adaptation Storm Drainage Vulnerability Analysis. The county experiences frequent flooding due to inadequate culvert capacities, with increased flooding being part of rapid climate change. The study will find out which roads are most vulnerable to too small culverts and priortize replacement of those.