NEWS ARTICLE ARCHIVE — in chronological order, with pagination below
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Radiation monitoring nixed
Fort Bragg City Hall never got the radiation monitoring equipment on its roof that was suggested following the Japanese nuclear disaster. And now City Hall”s roof is also losing its long-standing particulate matter air detector. City Hall turned out to be the wrong spot to measure air quality for Fort Bragg, said Chris Brown, Air…
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NOAA effort pushes more ocean fish farming
The Obama administration has launched an effort to increase fish farming in the nation”s oceans, as a way of creating jobs and reducing a $9 billion seafood trade deficit. The new Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aquaculture policy would make it easier to create open ocean fish farming off Mendocino.…
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Fort Bragg Pomo tribe seeks BIA recognition
With some Native American leaders praising and others criticizing a new marine life protection area compromise, Eric Hontou is part of a Pomo band who are feeling left out, as usual. Hontou is part of the Fort Bragg-based Shebelna band of Pomo Indians, who are currently seeking official tribal status from the Bureau of Indian…
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Lost Coast, other ocean protected areas celebrated
Despite ongoing questions about Native American uses, the final map of new marine protected areas is being saluted as a crowning achievement of cooperation and protection by those who were part of the process, from fishermen to environmentalists to government officials to Native Americans. “The North Coast region has put its unique stamp on the…
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PG&E to install SmartMeters despite opposition
Despite an ordinance imposing a temporary moratorium, PG&E has begun to install SmartMeters in Mendocino County. SmartMeters tie the electric grid into the world wide web, giving both PG&E and electrical customers a closer eye on electrical usage through WiFi technology. The Board of Supervisors, on Jan. 25, imposed a temporary moratorium on the installation…
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World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue
When a vibrant Fort Bragg commercial fishing industry came together to create the World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue 40 years ago, tourism and art were insignificant local forces compared to extraction industries. Now the roles of Coast commercial enterprise have reversed. That change can be seen at Fort Bragg”s second oldest major festival. A barbecue, which…
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Salmon barbecue funds help create new stream restoration industry
As a board member of the Salmon Restoration Association, this reporter voted several years ago to spend $30,000 from the 2008 World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue for stream restoration on Kass Creek. Our money would go primarily to inserting woody debris in the creek, with the supposed result being recreation of habitat for threatened coho salmon.…
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Obama ocean policy meeting set for Bay Area
A location and time has been set for the Obama Administration”s meeting in San Francisco to take input on ocean planning. The only California meeting will take place Thursday, June 30 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Hilton Union Square, San Francisco. President Obama recently issued a proclamation naming June National Oceans Month and tasking…
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MLPAI: Native gathering rights still in question
After two years of controversy, camaraderie, meetings and maps, the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) process ends with the California Fish & Game Commission (CFGC) meeting in Stockton on June 29-30. Ocean protection and marine protected areas will always be important future subjects, but this is the end of the road for the unique…
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Some tie cancer to cell phones, Wi-Fi and SmartMeters
Despite a recent World Health Organization reclassification of cell phone radiation as possibly carcinogenic, a Thursday meeting at the Lodge at The Woods in Little River on how to avoid “dirty electricity” drew only six people last Thursday night. The small turnout wasn”t for lack of information from the presenters, iridologist and master herbalist Pamela…
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Albatross returns from extinction”
A very rare “good luck” bird from Japan, which has endured more than a century of misfortune, delighted a Mendocino Audubon Society bird watching voyage off the Mendocino Coast last month, just the second time the short-tailed albatross has been seen here in modern times. For centuries, the gangly, gigantic and gentle short-tailed albatross was…
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Abernathy cleanup costs $180k
On a trip up the Noyo River on this chilly Memorial Day weekend, perhaps the busiest site was Ralph Abernathy”s dock. The 78-year-old entrepreneur runs a business where his boats take sea urchin shells from processing plants out to sea. The boats are moored next to a bald, open stretch of flat land that nobody…
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Salmon Film Festival scheduled for 4th of July weekend
The first-ever Salmon Film Festival, co-sponsored by the Salmon Restoration Association, the City of Fort Bragg and North Coast Brewing Company, will take place Friday and Saturday, July 1 and 2, in Fort Bragg Town Hall. The Salmon Film Festival is held in conjunction with the 40th Annual World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue in Noyo Harbor,…
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Dredging not likely in 2011
With some boats sitting on the mud during minus tides, Noyo Harbor District would really like to dredge the mooring basin this year. But that looks unlikely, after a special district meeting last week found more questions than answers and not enough time left before fall to get everything done. Commissioners debated many questions remaining…
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Bids rejected, school renovations on hold
At a special meeting last week, Fort Bragg Unified School District trustees rejected all bids for the modernization of Fort Bragg High School. The renovations are primarily paid for by a voter-approved bond that passed two years ago. The engineer”s estimates were in the $13.1 million range with bids coming in about $13.4 million. Superintendent…
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New proposal given for Baxman property
A last remnant of Fort Bragg”s industrial glory days may get new life and decades more of use — but not just yet. Last week, a plan to upgrade Baxman Gravel Company”s oceanfront operation was withdrawn, City Community Development Director Marie Jones told the Fort Bragg Planning Commission. Dennis Kirwan, who wants to buy the…
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Are jumbo squid gone or just shrinking?
Heralded as both a ruthless sea monster and a potential economic salvation to Fort Bragg”s fishing industry, the Humboldt, or jumbo, squid has now become a memory and a mystery. The scientist who has spent his career studying the Humboldt squid thinks the creatures may have shrunk — no longer growing into the 4-foot-long giants…
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PG&E abandons last study site
Five years ago, Pacific Gas and Electric Company came to Fort Bragg to sell wave energy as the key to the future of alternative energy as well as a potential local economic boost. PG&E has now withdrawn its last application and canceled its last preliminary permit after acquiring millions in grant money from the California…
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Hopes remain for 2011”s open salmon season
Yes, salmon fishing season has opened. But will anglers and commercial fishermen be able to “hook up” with the guests of honor? The biggest Chinook salmon return from the ocean depths to the waters of inland Northern California waters since the early days of the millennium has been predicted by experts, but fishermen won”t believe…
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Noyo Bowl to become Calvary Chapel, nursery
Noyo Bowl will become the first permanent home of 13-year-old Calvary Chapel, after the Fort Bragg Planning Commission unanimously granted a variance to the church. More than 50 church members gathered at the Wednesday Town Hall meeting last week, with hugs, chat and smiles exchanged as the meeting got started. Finally getting a building to…
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