Your Tuesday Newspaper, Aug. 25, 2026 — Great White Shark Buzzes Fisherman Mike + AB2494’s New Version Raises Big Questions + We Answer 12 Hard Questions About Redwood Harvesting + New Covid Variant Spreading Locally, Would You Try This New ‑Type Vaccine? + Weird Missing Dog Poster, Missing Cat
DON’T SPEND TIME WORRYING ABOUT SHARKS — BUT DO WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE FORESTS, AND READ OUR EXCLUSIVE ACCOUNT OF THIS CRITICAL ISSUE…
Julia Butterfly Hill’s true tall‑tree tale helped launch and shape the life’s work of Dr. Sarah Bisbing, who led last Tuesday’s Aug. 18, 2026 forest tour of the upcoming timber harvest in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest.
“ I also understand a lot of the skepticism. I was born and raised in the city of Chicago. I had no experience or exposure to the natural world. I read Julia Butterfly’s book about her action the Redwood Forest when I was 18, and I became really inspired about forestry. I thought I wanted to be a tree sitter and a tree hugger.”
For 738 days, Julia Butterfly Hill lived in the crown of a 1,000‑year‑old redwood she called Luna, refusing to let Pacific Lumber Company fell it. She eventually negotiated a deal that saved the tree. Her vigil became a defining moment in modern environmental activism, and the movies and books that followed carried her story — a woman fierce, stubborn, and unwavering in her moral code — to millions across the globe.
Bisbing went on to become a forester and earned a doctorate in the field, later serving as a professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before launching the Bisbing Laboratory on Forest Persistence Potential at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her life’s work focuses on how forests can persist through the dual challenges of climate change and recovery from the damage left by earlier logging eras.
“I am still a tree hugger. I’ve hugged an awful lot of trees. But the reality too is, I learned in the long run that I needed to be able to keep forests in the landscape in the future. I needed to undo some of the wrongs from our direct and indirect management, and so part of that is going in and modifying the structure of the forest.”
Watch Acheya Wachtel’s video of Frank’s conversation with Dr. Sarah Bisbing, joined by Cal Fire’s Jeremiah Steuterman — who directed preparations for the AMEX (Adaptive Management EXperiment) harvest — and Justin Britton, who leads CAL FIRE’s Demonstration State Forest Program.
Bisbing’s visit landed at a pivotal time in the industrial and environmental story of the Mendocino Coast. Her scientific tour complicated what seems like a simple question — should logging resume in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest? MendocinoCoast.news — myself, videographer Acheya Wachtel, and Noyo Harbor resident Sarah Ginskey — joined the tour and pressed for answers. Later, Wachtel and Frank covered the Save the Jackson Forest Coalition rally outside Town Hall on Saturday. Our documentary will explore what people are saying now, the forest itself, the science behind it, the politics around it — and track how the next chapter unfolds in the woods and in the boardrooms.
Bisbing’s AMEX plan covers nine additional sites across eastern California and western Nevada and rests on science that makes one point unmistakable: after early logging wrecked these forests, they now need continual intervention to stay healthy and economically viable. Local environmentalists question how much of this is driven by economics versus genuine ecological stewardship. Bisbing argues the forest can be restored and can persist — but right now, that requires logging companies, who both profit from the work and perform the experiments and mastication needed to clear the hazardous brush left by past logging and by catastrophic fires in other regions.
Forests whose ecology was shattered by the irresponsible logging of the past — and they did know better — now require logging if we hope to work our way back to a time when big trees ruled, Indigenous people burned the underbrush, and forests sustained far more complex ecosystems.
But hard questions remain for all sides of this debate.
Bisbing and Cal Fire representatives of the AMEX timber harvest plan in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest gave us the tour., The AMEX would be the first new commercial timber harvest since 2020, when environmentalists shut it down. The environmentalists, embodied by Save Jackson, hope to delay this harvest at least but said they were willing to go out into the forest again.
“I don’t want to get up at 4 a.m again and go out to (stop the trucks) but I will if I have to,” said Naomi Wagner, one of the leaders in the protest movement for the past five years.
The harvest had been set to start in July, then in August, but there are now unidentified delays to the contracting process. Cal Fire proposed the THP, much public input was taken at multiple public meetings and the Jackson Advisory Group (JAG) approved it. The logging will be done by Two Brothers Logging on behalf of the Mendocino Redwood Company. Bisbing’s laboratory is leading the scientific effort, which studies three different strategies on about 300 1/10 acre study areas scattered across the 480-acre timber harvest areas. Intense study is being done on those statistical sample areas. Conventional selective cut timber harvesting will be used and studied on the remaining 90 percent of the harvest, informed by the best current science on how to improve a forest badly damaged by past logging practices. The experiment recognizes the limits of current practices and uses those three different approaches to see what a forest of the future might look like
This puts Bisbing on the other side of the saw from a whole bunch of other fans of Julia Butterfly Hill, who protested the following Saturday.
Mendocino County roads are constantly full of logging trucks loaded with logs. Not one of these trucks has carried logs from Jackson Forest in recent years. Jackson was set up after World War II to be the public forest where science could take the lead on finding the best ways for everyone to harvest timber and to lead in the development of forest practices and regulations for everyone. New ideas are tested on the demonstration forests, then put into practice by logging companies.
The Demonstration forest system in California has certainly failed at times and pushed logging through with study being more of an excuse than a reality, we have seen, but we know it has also been the source of critically important and ongoing studies for the past 75 years that the companies who own most all of the forests and employ those truck drivers have used to improve their. own logging practices. It is true that the Demonstration State Forest System has helped reduce clear cutting, increase better lumber production and create the very healthier forests that were here till the old time loggers chopped most all of them down.
But how much logging in the public forest? Certainly some or the forest will decline into an unsafe brush patch dominated by invasive species and other species out of balance, all the science indicates, and Dr. Bisbing showed on the tour.
All sides we have observed in this debate have oversimplified the issues and we have been subjected to frustrating spin and omission. Yes, we all live in wood houses and yes this study is very valuable to the future. But how do we make sure that anything done today will persist into the future? Ginskey came to the tour of the forest as a long time opponent of all the logging. She brought a stuffed Smokey the Bear toy and festooned him with an upside down American flag to show her objections. Cal Fire scientist Caitlin Grace fell in love with Smokey and ended up getting him, complete with flag for her office. We all talked for two hours and we all were amazed at Dr. Bisbing’s work.
“I didn’t come to this expecting to like them,” said Ginskey, laughing about the fun we were all having and how dense the topics at hand were and how much it helped to see the science versus reading about it.
Ginskey had the toughest question for Cal Fire and Dr. Bisbing, the one we feel the environmental community could help answer but are NOT. They could be pushing for a better bill, not just any bill and they could be pushing for LOCAL control and power but are NOT. We put that question last on our list of the 11 big questions that environmental protesters and the three people on our tour team raised about the AMEX and the whole idea of logging big redwood trees, it remains the question without an answer, along with the equally big question of why there is no local element in the new bill.
Question #1 Did Cal Fire break promises by starting the AMEX now?
Save Jackson says that Cal Fire went back on its word and broke its promises. We asked both sides what promises were made when logging was halted. Nobody ever told us any who, what, where or when. Nothing! So far nobody has any written records, nor even of an account of who promised what to whom and when. The key claim is that Cal Fire said they would not resume logging until the management plan was completed. We didn’t hear that promise but we missed some of the meetings. And it seems reasonable to assume some promise was made when the logging was halted by protesters. But if so, we never heard what that was nor have we seen any evidence of such a promise. And we have watched the AMEX wind its way through the legal process Cal Fire uses, appearing on two previous JAG tours. Cal Fire says they paused logging and then relaunched it in 2022 with the creation of the New Plan. Was there a promise to wait until the management plan was complete (which just finished)?
“That promise was never made and would be counter to the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection’s policies for the Demonstration State Forest,” said Kevin Conway, a Cal Fire top banana and then head of the Demonstration Forest program for Cal Fire.
“Here is the relevant portion of Board Policy 0351.10: CAL FIRE shall continue management of the state forests under existing plans, with appropriate consideration for changes in law or regulation, until amendments or new plans are approved by the Board. (link),” said Conway. OK, that still doesnt give the process for what CAL FIRE said when it decided to give up on the Caspar 500. It is fact that Cal Fire was stopped from doing legal management and fulfilling legal contracts made to the logging and milling contractors because of the protesters. So the legal process was interrupted and we don’t know exactly how or what was said.
As a historian of this entire process, we still dont have exactly how protesters were able to kill the Caspar 500 plan. We have always felt Cal Fire overreached by the Caspar 500 THP as it is so close to everybody who lives in and uses the forest and took out big well known and beloved trees on public trails. Yes, that mama tree was beloved by many hikers. We don’t have a primary source on what happened next, other than our own two eyes and ears. What we would put into a history book as visual witness if not having anybody tell us what we saw with our own eyes, is that the end to the Caspar 500 THP when one contractor refused to put his employees into a dangerous situation This happened when people from Save Jackson went out into the forest and began getting into harms way while trees were falling. The contractor, Anderson Logging, did not want to expose his tree fallers to that and pulled out and after that the plan collapsed, although we don’t know what, if any promises were made at that time.
Cal Fire did then shelve other timber harvest schedules in the pipeline until new ones were launched in 2022 but not to wait for the management plan (although protesters did insist on this on a regular basis)
“All the commitments we made are in writing and available for your review. (he provided a copy of the New Vision, which we put at the end of this long story. ) This is the document we refer to as the “New Vision” and has guided the public and tribal outreach and focus of each of the projects we have brought forward since 2022. We have been keeping our kept our commitments from the very beginning when we volunteered to protect the “Mother Tree” and adjacent trees within the Caspar 500 when the protests first started.”
WE CONSIDER THE “BROKEN PROMISES” QUESTION TO BE UNFOUNDED WITHOUT MORE PROOF. WITH ALL THE FACTS WE HAVE NOW,NOT A REASON TO HOLD UP A SCIENTIFIC HARVEST.
QUESTION #2 SHOULD CAL FIRE HAVE WAITED FOR THE NEW MANAGEMENT PLAN TO FINALIZE THE AMEX ?
Save Jackson wants Cal Fire to wait until the management plan is finalized. This seems reasonable to delay and increasingly likely with whatever is holding up the start, as they only have until Oct 15 to work this year, as the forest becomes unworkable for logging after that Save Jackson says the plan should not have been undertaken until after the plan was complete, but unless someone can correct us, nothing would change if that was done. CAL FIRE prepared the AMEX with maximum public input and using the legal process. And they prepared it to match the new management plan, although it is still not final.
Britton says no other management plan has ever gotten so much public input, adjustment, and scrutiny in the Demonstration Forest System that he knows of. (Other Jackson plans got heavy scrutiny in 2010). And he feels protest continues even when CAL FIRE does what the protesters ask for.
“Like the approach here on the AMEX was the response to the public input that said, “Well, we want climate change research. We want this. We want that. We want the other things. And Cal Fire saying, “We’ll deliver this to you on a silver platter, and we did, and but yet, you know, and maybe there’s money to be made in in pushing back against these things,” Britton said.
What is happening with the new management plan?
“It’s in executive-level review at Cal Fire right now will go to the State Fire Board in the next couple months,” Britton said.
QUESTION #3 Does the state of California have a current mandate for tribal co-management? YES
In fact the mandate for tribal co-management is much broader and stronger in legislation pushed through in 2020 by Gov. Newsom than AB 2494. AB 2494 does something wonderful, it makes it clearer this mandate applies in the Demonstration Forests but it does in weaker language and confusing language that are sure to have unpleasant consequences down the line if the bill isnt edited one more time.
Bill Text: CA AB1284 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered | LegiScan
QUESTION #4 Did Cal Fire always handle communication about tribal co-management in the Jackson well? NO, though most of the time their message was well spoken but simply not believed.
The failure: We believe CAL Fire acted illegally by not identifying STATE PRIORITIES and STATE RESULTS in general terms at least in the negotiations with tribes. They didnt have to say what the tribes said, but they did have to say what they did and were doing and they failed to do this.. They should have told us what the state wanted in this and created documents that would report what the state needed from the tribes. Their agenda (without tribal names if need be) and the outcome taxpayers/Cal Fire got from this.
Conway and other Cal Fire people told us over and over they could not tell how many tribes, what tribes were met with or what was talked about.
YUKI elder Edwina Lincoln from the Round Valley Indian Reservation made this point in the most polite way possible. She did not say she represented her tribe per se but spoke her heart, fully educated about what was going on. She implored Cal Fire at several open meeting to represent the taxpayers, if not the tribes and she doubted any reports from secret meetings. For the life of Frank, he could not figure out why Cal Fire did not go along with many of Lincoln’s suggestions. She once stayed and talked with the Cal Fire peopleon a tour of the AMEX until darkness, asking that question there too.
And now the situation has changed, as prominent members of several local tribes are now steering the effort into slowing or even stopping logging.
“Tribal liaisons helped identify where work could and could not occur, including avoiding cultural or sacred sites, and that plant data was shared so tribes could track species such as huckleberry and redwood lily across treatments,” Bisbing said.
It’s no surprise that tribes would not wish to give their secrets to government to be published or shared. HIstory has bred mistrust, including even some recent history, like the 2011 compromise where the state suddently pulled the rug out from under a communnity process that had taken tremendous effort to put together.
Conway and Britton told us that there were tan oak groves that were traditionally burned at the request of the tribes, but not where, which is fine. This managed burning (as their ancestors would have done) makes the acrorns bigger and better and the surviving “big” tanoak trees stronger- similar to what the AMEX seeks to do with the redwood forest, if we can truly trust them to follow through long term.
“I don’t think relationships have ever been stronger,” Britton said
“The tribes are consulted ahead of any project before we go public with it. As I mentioned to you in writing, sort of the those government to government consultations are confidential and. and it would be disrespectful for us to talk about how that goes. I would encourage you to reach out to them and allow them to comment. But we would be-it’s sort of, I guess, receiving the continuous question of, well, what are you doing with the tribes? Is disrespectful to the tribes in and of itself. It’s their business, and and we’re honoring it. And you can you can imagine they would speak out against it if we were doing them wrong.”
Question # 5 DOES AB2494 FORCE CAL FIRE TO MAKE THE CHANGES EDWINA AND OTHERS ASKED FOR TO THE SECRECY?
No. Read the AB2494 section under question 10, but we found the answer is no, because the new co-management statement in the bill lacks a process for the tribal co-management to be implemented, so its really up to CAL FIRE to do whatever they want.
Question #6
Is Cal Fire an agency with ill intent toward the forest. Are they bad people?
Do the Save Jackson protesters simply want to stop all logging without regard to science? Are they bad people?
NO, NO, NO and NO
At Saturday’s rally there were several people driving by who screamed obscenities at the protesters and blasted their truck motors. These people could have stopped and talked, but they showed disrespect to these people who have studied the issue, loved the forest and fought for it. This is the same rubbish as screaming trolls on Social media. Debate today is horrifyingly shallow and involves mostly shouting talking points acquired from influencers.
This jerk was not the only one to scream at the Save Jackson crowd. And also, during the event, a Cal Fire person came up to listen, as they respect intelligent protesters like Larry and Phyllis Aguilera, who have asked polite questions on multiple tours and seen everything and remain against much of the logging. But after one interesting speaker, another speaker came up who vilified Cal Fire personnel personally, saying they were “really bad people” and more. This wasn’t the general tact of the protesters but the Cal Fire person left and tracked me down later. That person’s main point is that future generations are being ignored by all sides here and they have tried to bring young people into the process-without much help.
“This is not the first time I’ve experienced that, and it makes it really difficult to listen to what they have to say.”
Nobody in this process deserves disrespect, to be screamed at, or called evil. I’ve never seemed one of the screamers on a forest tour.
Save Jackson folks have participated in the process, have learned and asked questions, although someitmes pointedly. They love the forest and have raised valid points. But there also seems to be a push from outside to fight all logging regardless of science offered. Many locals in Save Jackson care about and understand the science and largely just don’t trust the State Fire Board, CAL FIRE Sacramento, nor the long history of destructive logging. Save Jackson became frustrted by the JAG because it always said yes to timber harvest plans so it seemed to some of them that it was a waste of time participating. But this misses the point that much was learned and harvests were genuinely made better by local participation. We have heard too much spin and lies from both sides.
QUESTION #7 DOES AB 2494 hurt research efforts in other state forests? Bisbing says it does and we were alarmed by what she says about that. And it appears nobody is grappling with this question publicly but her. Everything today is spin and special interests. This huge, broader issue fell between the cracks.
Bisbing says AB2494 is tailored for Jackson Forest and could be harmful to the ongoing studies and operation of state forests.
“The other problem with AB 2494 is that it’s a Jackson specific legislation that is then being applied to all of the other demo forests on the landscape, and I have concerns about the impacts to old growth giant sequoia. If we are shutting down action on old growth giant sequoia, we will not have old growth giant sequoia into the future because we get catastrophic wildfires. And so, we need to be thinking. If we’re going to write bills that are statewide, we need to be thinking collectively about all of the participants across the state. If there’s a Jackson-specific bill, that would be a very different thing, but one that takes the conditions at Jackson and applies them across all the Demonstration Forests may cause real harm.”
The forests of the Sierra Nevada are also much more quickly imperiled by climate change, scientists agree. Some in Reno were in the midst of a huge fire as we write. Hundres of thousands of acres, along with thousands of homes have been burned over recent years, which never occurred in the previous centuries. There have been numerous news articles on the massive tree deaths in the Sierra. But the AMEX and other studies there are on private lands mostly. For the giant sequoia, the studay comes from the Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest, studies imperiled by what Bisbing calls a “Jackson centered bill”.
She also questions why there was not more scientific consultation at all but seemed to have arisen entirely from the office of the sponsor, Sen. Mike McGuire. And the bill is opaque.
“There is one researcher that I’ve been told participated, but that he he or she remains nameless every time, so that is not transparent to me. Whereas I people may disagree with me. I showed up, I expressed my concerns, and I publicly stated my name. And so you can watch it, and you can see what I had to say. And that’s part of a transparent process. Is Jeremiah and I show up, and Justin shows up, and we talk about what we did, and we listen, and we get feedback, and we move through that process, and that’s the reality of it. And I would be hopeful and expect that of other parties as well.” Bisbing said in the interview with Frank, where Jeremiah Stueterman and Justin Britton, both of Cal Fire, also participated.
QUESTION #8 SHOULD CAL FIRE WAIT UNTIL AB 2494 PASSES TO RESTART LOGGING?
Save Jackson wants Calfire to wait until AB2494 passes before beginning logging. We should have waited before writing this part of the story. AB2494 was a horrible mess of a bill when we first started to write this. The commercial logging mandate had actually been given a new prominence in the third version of the bill, the one being mysteriously promoted by environmentalists when we started on this story!!!!! They clearly had not ready revison 3. When talking to several of the protesters, they told me to wait to judge. I couldn’t figure that, but they were right.
Twice since we started this article we have had to rewrite it. The bill had major revisions on Aug 20, Friday so we had to rewrite this whole section. The first version of the bill seeemed to ban scientific logging, the third seemed to OK all logging and make it easier to do bad harvests. Now the version before the Legislature hits in between, logging for the sake of science is OK but there is no process or logic in the bill that explains how this will work. And the bill solidifies the Fire Board’s control of everything, while supposedly broadening the purpose of the bill in a way that would demand the Department of Fish and Wildlife and Air Resources Control Board should have a say. They don’t and the local input from the JAG is rendered meaningless by the fact the JAG— and any local input is purposefully excluded from the bill.
This is supposed to be good for the future Save Jackson??????? Im the enviornmentalist here, I think. The bill is some sort of lukewarm Holy Water that actually doesn’t remove the underlying “sin” and actually may be a gigantic missed opportunity.
It also illustrates why Cal Fire says it can’t really wait for the bill .
Just Britton of Cal Fire pointed out that there are hundreds of proposed bills that would change state laws in process and no agency enforces any law until it passes. They can only operate on existing laws and that is what Cal Fire does. And the bill is confusing, constantly changing and may or may not pass at this point
But a bigger question is—- Does AB 2494 really change anything in the Jackson Demonstration Forest?
AB2494 is the biggest deal in years. As advertised, it would provide a mandate for indigenous co-management and put logging as a purpose subservient to newer priorities like climate change, recreation and environmental restoration.
Here is the new stronger, but still weak “tribal mandate”. Read the below, its only a tribal mandate if the new governor and his administration are symphathetic and define “good faith” in a way tribal backers would like.
The bill would authorize the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency would require the Secretary to make good faith efforts to collaboratively develop co-management agreements with California Native American tribes, as defined, to incorporate local traditional ecological knowledge and local indigenous knowledge into the management direction of a forest in the Demonstration State Forests.
This language is weaker than what is used in the 2020 tribal mandate bill pushed through by Gov Gavin Newsom. It does directly apply it to the Demonstration State Forest System. Natives do get a more direct role in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest system, even if loosely defined and having no process for implementation.
With no process from AB2494 and with the State Fire Board even more firmly in control now, it would stand to reason that the passage of this bill might change nothing about co-management in the Jackson, and it would be entirely up to the new governor to decide if they wanted to actually make progress on tribal co-management. It provides general direction without any timelines or any seat at the table for tribal entities or local entities like the JAG. Everything is in the hands of the State Fire Board, which is ridiculous because the expanded purposes would need more involvement from the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Air Resources Board, which oversees carbon programs. But perhaps the bill can still be improved one more time?
The tribal mandate in the bill is crystal clear compared to the entirely opaque marching orders on commercial forestery. There is some language put in during the latest revision that DOES make commercial logging in an apparently secondary position, but after reading it 5 times and having others do so, it looks to all of us like this bill on logging is something like the Bible- everyone will have their own interpretation.
But one thing is for sure- the bill now allows scientific logging of the type in the AMEX, as of the Aug 20 revision. The AMEX fits all the criteria of the scientific study of logging called for in the bill. Millions have been spent on the science but only $300,000 income will be generated.
“The bill would authorize timber harvesting within the demonstration state forest system if in furtherance of specified objectives,” the bill states.
“The original intent was not that. It was not going to allow treatments like Amex or experiments like Amex. it’s changed over time. The reality is that if you oppose a timber harvest plan that supports an experiment, there’s no way to actually do that experiment because I have to cut down a tree to implement the experiment, and I kept cut down the tree until CAL FIRE gives me permission through the rigid process that is the timber harvest plan. In order for the science to happen, I need the timber harvest plan to go forward,” Bisbing said.
Forest lovers who don’t want to save all the trees and the forest at the same time must make a hard choice there.
“I stood in opposition because we’re working in very, very, very small parcels, right? We are talking hundreds of acres when we have 33 million acres of forest land in California, and trying to develop practices that can be implemented all across the state in order to keep forest in the landscape, and so I come at it from a very different stance. I’m not making any money. I make very little money compared to what I could make if I did some other things, but I’m passionate about this, and so I did stand in opposition to that. And I would like to see modifications where there are actually collaborative conversations with researchers that help define what research looks like, because no one bothered to talk to me about it, and it was quite upsetting to learn that my research is fine, but the mechanism to get at the research is blocked.”
One more odd thing about AB2494, it is tied to AB 706, a bill to promote biomass power using forest leftovers. If that bill passes first and AB 2494 last, monies from the biomass will be used to fund demonstration forest activities. If the bills dont pass in that order, the funding will not apply. This is generally done to get votes on a less popular idea (biomass) because it supports a more popular idea (AB2494) We favor biomass power, especially if it had a local motivation, which it does not.
https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab706
AB2494 also allows CAL FIRE to hike camping and related fees in the Demonstration Forests.
QUESTION #9 DOES THE BILL ABOLISH THE JACKSON ADVISORY GROUP?
NO AND YES
By deliberately not referring to this local advisory group and with much language insisting on complete control of everything by the State Fire Board, the JAG is rendered even more meaningless than it was the first time the State Fire Board screwed eveyrthing up for us here by taking back the compromises local CAL FIRE, local Loggers and local enviornmentalists had made for an active JAG. Whose to say now that AB2494 gives more power to the State Fire Board than ever that they are ever going to grant any public input or listen to any public input?
The worst mark against Save Jackson and Big Green backing them is they apparently never made any effort for local control. This bill is a tragically lost opportunity to have local input into every Demonstration Forest, so people who live near the forests and whose communities are benefited by its beauty and timber harvesting would have a say so. It seems that another good goal of Save Jackson- lessening the power of the State Fire Board has backfired and the State Fire Board has more authority than ever under the bill.
Half the bill is about creation of a new local study effort in the Soquel Demonstration State Forest in Santa Cruz. Beyond weirdly, the bill acts like this is something new, ignoring the JAG entirely, even though the author Sen. McGuire comes from here. And this time the State Fire Board Control is absolute. In other words, people can talk and experiment all they want in Santa Cruz, but there is no guarantee anybody will be listening.
QUESTION NUMBER 10- Should big trees like the mama tree of the Caspar protests EVER be cut?
The established, published science by Humboldt State professor Stephen Sillett clearly shows the answer to be yes. Sillett has demonstrated that naturally, an optimal number of large trees would arise and create the healthiest, most diverse and ecologically balanced forest possible. Without dragging another scientist full of dense theories into this article, that science shows its best to take out one 50 inch diamter redwood tree to enhance another 46-56 inch diameter redwood tree nearby.
There should not be a ban on cutting trees of a certain size, but there should be strong limitations on cutitng snag (dead) trees and a total prohibition on cutting any old growth trees. The Demonstration Forest has that prohibition on cutting any old growth, but at one time in the 1970s, CDF (CAL Fire now) did trade with California State Parks, giving up an old growth grove in Jackson that promptly got razed by the timber company. The public got the Mendocino Headlands, the Jughhandle Headlands and a big part of MacKerricher State Park, so this was a great trade perhaps for the public. The saddest part of Jackson is that the old Caspare Lumber Company, who sold the Jackson Forest to the state was the one lumber company that tried save their forest for the future somewhat, while the others just cut with zero thought to the future. So then one of them got a really nice parcel that Caspar Timber Company and the state had stewarded.
Overall, very few of the remaining groves of old growth redwood in the Jackson were ever cut under state management and remain. They were left by loggers because they are very deep in the forest and hard to access.
QUESTION NUMBER 11- Sarah Ginskey’s question to Sarah Bisbing was to us the biggest moment of the tour. Ginskey said she was pleased to learn about the AMEX and the science, but what guarantee was there that new state and federal administrations and future incarnations of Dr. Bisbing would continue the work. And if they didn’t wouldnt the cutting of the trees be a terrible shame?
This question was harder to answer than any others. Jeremiah Steuterman said California’s Forest Practice rules, the toughest in the nation, makes it very hard to go back to irresponsible forestry. That is true, but the leadership of the state and the money from federal and state sources (our tax dollars) are being moved away from science right now at a breakneck pace and the fact people are not engaged enough in these issues.
QUESTION #12 CAN WE EVER TRUST THE GOVERNMENT TO TREAT THE ENVIRONMENT RIGHT
Bisbing didn’t ask for that, but instead for people to see and participate in a process and stay involved.
“Past management practices heavily influence our current stance on things. I would also say, as an educator, and I teach my students about this. I feel like my role as a professor is less about the data and the facts, and more about training them to be critical thinkers and collect data. The reality of human nature is we very much think like things to be black or white or zero or one. So in the case of forestry, the way we view things is very polarizing. When the reality is, the majority of us, the majority of what we’re doing, is in the 90% in the inner space. And so, for people like me to come in, what we’re doing is we are attempting to meet ecological, social, and economic objectives, and we are using things like a timber harvest plan to get there. So that’s where the crossover is, right? Is we’re trying to modify forest structure, and in order for me to do that, to get at these questions, I have to cut a tree, and in order to cut a tree, I have to rely on an expert like Jeremiah to develop prescriptions, to work on a timber harvest plan, to sign off and follow all of the environmental rules that I am not an expert in because I am not an RPF like Jeremiah is, and so that’s how we merge the two. ‘
GREAT WHITE SHARK NUMBERS ARE WAY UP, BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SWIMMERS?
There ARE more great white sharks off California but nobody really knows how many. Frank did a deep dive (while staying out of the water) into the issue by reading all the science he could find and talking to several important shark scientists.
Our investigation started when the local teacher was bitten by a great white shark at Big River Beach. I already knew that great white shark numbers were up after researching the sea otter issue. Great white shark numbers off California have risen to match the sea lion population explosion. When efforts were made to get sea otters to move north back into their old range (the entire Pacific Coast) scientific studies found there were two factors that prevented otters from moving north. One had to do with too few islands. The second was that otters that set out in open water were being bitten in much higher numbers by more prevalent great white sharks. LIke humans, when a great white gets a sea otter in its mouth it spits the animal out, as great whites dont like the taste of humans or otters much. This kills the otter every time, being smaller than us.
So when the attack came, I wanted to know- does the greater number of sharks mean more shark attacks are coming? I got pretty angry at some of you readers who tried shouting me down with “duh- there are sharks in the ocean” About 20 people made than inane post. My dogs go in the ocean every day and I was determined to find out for them. Sadly, the shark researchers told me a few dogs have been killed by great whites, but its very unlikely as those four spinning legs dont look much like a sea lion.
What we found was both happy making and surprising- more sharks has not created more shark attacks overall.
“I don’t think white sharks are lacking for seal/sea lion prey along the CA coastline, so it is highly unlikely this explains the bites on humans, ” said DFW shark scientist Chris Lowe. He imagined that sharks, seeing so many more seals and sea lions they are less likely to bite other prety-like humans- by mistake. And their hunting areas have changed to match the movements of the seals, so its always smart to dive and swim away from those animals.
Many years ago, I told Mike Brimley that I had never seen a great white shark here in more than 20 years of diving and 40+ years of regular bluff and beach walking. I thought this was significant. But then Mike told me something truly astonishing- he also had never seen one with at least 100x the time I have doing these things. He is in the ocean pretty much every day for many years and has encountered countless forms of sea life and showed me some I had no idea were here. Many boat fishermen have told me they have also not seen one in years at sea, but many have. But yesterday, Mike told me he saw one for the first time, and it was in “sensaround”— full Jaws. He was kayaking when he saw its mouth open below and above the water, moving fast, chasing abundant anchovies or perhaps the bigger fish the anchovies were also running from. Mike said he knew the shark saw him and wasn’t interested in him, but it was darn scary nonetheless, even as the shark whizzed by and continued to chase the prey before disappearing. We wouldn’t normally print a shark story unconfirmed but we are making an exception with Mike, who has shown me an amazing range of beach life and fish that I would never have seen like that if not directed by a guy who knows. With a bounty of anchovies this year bringing in more salmon and other shark tasties, they have less reason to eat the undesirable kayaker than ever. But that doesn’t mean it won’t scare the daylights out of you if you see one like it did Mike! But the dogs are back to swimming.
Sensaround by the way was 1974 hi tech, in which they made the movie theater appear to shake during the Charlton Heston/Ava Gardner movie Earthquake. I went to the theater and my chair did not shake but it was very cool stereo sound, even if the movie was extra stupid.
NEW COVID STRAIN SPREADS ACROSS WORLD AND IS TOWN- SHOULD PEOPLE VACCINATE
A new variant of the Omicron Covid family has spread across the world and made its way to Mendocino County. It’s a very contagious but like all the Omicron family, milder than those deadly Alpha and Delta strains. Still, wash your hands and if it suits you wear a mask and get the vaccine. I had Covid 4x in my years working at the hospital, but not had it in many years now. I could be wrong but I think the vaccines I took carrier over, or that I have been innoculated by being exposed small quantities of Covid. Inoculation, the practice of exposing someone to a tiny amount of a disease. It predated vaccination by centuries, sometimes worked well during disease outbreaks and sometimes it made you sick or dead. Vaccination is the step beyond, where dead virus or bacteria or other safety measures are used. Of course vaccination has become wildly controversial in the Internet age. Now there is a new kind of vaccinaton at work, which is testing this strain on non human primates. The vaccine is a non-adjuvanted type, which means it does not use controversial ingredients like aluminum salts and it does not trigger the immune system to fight Covid. Instead, it relies on the prime active ingredient to attack the virus without a big immune response. The initial studies show this type of vaccination works for up to a decade against all forms of Covid. Would you take an non-adjuvanted vaccine?
SEPTIC WHISPERER SAVES RADIO SHOW WITH WINDOWS, NO TP NEEDED!
From Bob Young, GM at KNYO via the Listserve.
“When long-time radio Programmer Long John from Laytonville had a computer failure we thought we had lost a great show, Tubby Tunes from 4-6 PM on Sat., also on other stations. Long John’s preferred audio editing software runs only on a Windows XP computer. When we reached out to the great Announce list we got a rapid response and a donated computer from Rick Ricca, the Septic Whisperer! Thank you Rick, you saved the day and saved the show!! We depend on community-minded folks
for our support and this was a great example of our great Community.”
Thanks MCN Announce list and thanks Rick!” Bob Young
Bob KNYO
By the way, if you want to give to a local media source, KNYO is a Great Choice. Skip donating to the rest. Really. Just stop giving them money.
