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 grew famous for big portions, long fiery barbecue grills, beer and live music, now features an art auction, too. A new style group called Mendocino Eco Artists has grown to play a big role in the Salmon Restoration Association (SRA), which stages the Saturday, July 2 event.
Julie Higgins, a member of Mendocino Eco Artists, created “Fishy Feat,” the art for this year”s T-shirt, with praise from fellow artists. Higgins” art is much more new-style than old-fashioned images of hungry fish. It has gotten mixed reviews from others involved in the SRA. The art gave “the willies” to SRA board member Jim Martin, who doesn”t want to think about being upside down tangled in seaweed.
“My intention was a playful piece about the salmon making their way through the turbulent ocean waters back to the mouth of the river and up the river to their breeding ground or home. The feet are a playful element of a live” diver — no booties because I love showing toes in my work — to create some humor and have a wider appeal, as well as show a celebration of this incredible migration of salmon for the 40th annual barbecue,” Higgins said.
Although the “controversy” over the art has been mostly accompanied by laughs, for more than a decade, the SRA has dealt with tension between the desires of the old guard and newcomers, between shifting science and tried, but sometimes untrue old axioms.
This conflict was documented in the definitive history of the SRA, written more than a decade ago by biologist and fisherman Michael Maahs, who died in 2000 at age 44 while crab fishing with his father William “Sonny” Maahs, one of the founders.
Maahs” history documents the transition in the 1980s from an event run and manned by commercial fishers to one run by community business leaders, who were involved from the beginning by the founders. He shows how this change mirrored the decline of the timber and fishing industries, with the simultaneous rise of the tourism industry. The history shows that old-fashioned fixes like hatcheries haven”t brought the salmon back, while more modern solutions are uncertain.
The SRA now uses money from the annual barbecue primarily to fund river restoration efforts in the Big River and Noyo River watersheds, rather than the now closed hatchery on an Eel River tributary. The SRA also funds a new film festival about salmon this year and an educational program in which Fort Bragg Middle School students do hands-on restoration work in Otis Johnson Wilderness Park in Fort Bragg.
Salmon surveys and other education initiatives have also been featured.
The Eco Artists are just one aspect of the ongoing cultural change from the fishermen to the community boosters, from the fish hatchery to riparian restoration and education programs. Eco Artist Cynthia Crocker Scott is a SRA board member. Eco Artist John Hewitt”s auctioned salmon painting was an important SRA fundraiser in 2010. SRA President Joe Janisch is a gallery artist too, as well as having had a long career in natural resources work.
Higgins actually gets much of her artistic inspiration from those good old glory days of fish and fishing.
“I lived up in Washington State in the Skagit Valley region in the 80s when you could literally walk across a river or stream in the fall on the backs of salmon heading up the rivers and streams, a very surreal event in many ways as they transform in shape and color and an incredible sight,” said Higgins.
“I would go farther up as the bald eagles would make their way back to feed on the many dead salmon along the Skagit River as we went into winter — images you never forget and very inspiring and breathtaking. It has been those images and memories that made working with Mendocino Eco Artists and the SRA all the more rewarding.”
Each year, Higgins does a pastel piece for Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County, for its annual Pure Mendocino event, as well as painting a 9-liter bottle for Winesong! She is also the Mendocino Coast Hospital Foundation Artist of the Year for 2011.
Mendocino Eco Artists has an exhibit at the Ravens Restaurant at Stanford Inn by the Sea, with an opening on Second Saturday, July 9, from 3 to 5 p.m. titled “Salmon-Oceans-Rivers II.” MEA will sell raffle tickets at the World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue for a painting by Juriaan Blok. The drawing will be held on Saturday, Aug. 28, from 3 to 5 p.m., at a closing party for the exhibition. For more information, go to www.mendocinoecoartists.org.
The 2011 World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue is Saturday, July 2, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in South Noyo Harbor. Tickets are $25 at the door or $20 at Harvest Market. Anyone can come for free and listen to the music and enjoy the afternoon in Noyo Harbor.
Fort Bragg”s oldest festival is Paul Bunyan Days, the Labor Day weekend event that celebrates the town and timber industry.
