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Sig Anderman on the quarries

Sig Anderman, a board member of FPA who has researched the quarries, has this to say about the plan to expand them:

The gravel quarries, as they now operate, let alone expanded, don't belong in a residential area. Started decades ago, with use permits of limited duration, covering limited land area, these quarries have 'had their run.'

The quarries now overwhelm our small town - with up to 700 gravel trucks a day (according to the quarries' count) rolling through town or down Mirabel Road. With noise of crushing, loading and back-up whistles starting at 7 in the morning, six days a week disturbing neighbors for miles, with unsightly equipment and rockpiles intruding on our Scenic Highway. And worst of all, with toxic diesel fumes from quarry trucks poisoning our air for everyone adult and child visiting, living, or working in Forestville.

While we need gravel for construction (the Forestville gravel is used mainly for road beds, as I understand it), most other populated areas in these parts(San Francisco, Marin County) have long since given up quarrying in residential neighborhoods, and turned to imports from less populated areas. That way everyone bears the real 'cost' associated with gravel production, not just the unlucky neighbors of the quarries burdened with the relentless traffic, the intrusive noise, the poisonous diesel fumes, and the unsightly operations.

Anectodes about people 'favoring the quarries' (do they also favor the traffic and the toxic fumes?) are very much at odds with the sentiments expressed at town meeting after town meeting when the topic is invariably raised. At the town meeting held specifically to discuss the quarries, after presentations by both the quarries, and full, open discussion, a show of hands showed four (4)people in favor of expansion and seventy-one (71) opposed. A written survey was distributed at the last town meeting. The results: two (2) in favor of expansion and everyone else opposed.

There are many other sources of road bed gravel - other than the Russian River. Most residential communities have turned to them already. Sooner or later, we will have to as well. Let's do it sooner, rather than later, before all the damage is done.

Please come discuss the issue with Sig and others in our The Quarries discussion.

Pocket Canyon Update

By Vesta Copestakes

Review #2 of the Pocket Canyon Timber Harvest Plan was held in the California Department of Forestry offices and was once again well attended by those most impacted by this plan. Water issues continue to dominate their concerns. There is no way you can harvest trees from a forest without some impact on the watershed and therefore the water system that the neighbors of this property depend upon.

ALERT!

UPDATE ON POCKET CANYON TIMBER HARVEST PLAN
Public comment on the Pocket Canyone Timber Harvest Plan (THP 1-02-216-SON) has been RE-OPENED!

It will remain open until 5pm on March 8. A review team is tentatively scheduled for February 19th. Comments must be submitted in writing no later than 5pm on March 8. The plan is available for review at the California Department of Forestry office at 135 Ridgeway Ave., Santa Rosa, Questions? Call 576-2959.

Info on the plan and its impacts at www.pocketcanyon.org

Town Meeting Report

By Joan Riback

More than 100 residents came to the Forestville Planning Associations January Town Meeting to learn the current status of the issues facing Forestville and to learn how they, as concerned community citizens can influence those issues. Half of the meeting was devoted to the Low Flow proposal for the Russian River covered elsewhere in this issue of the Gazette. Here is a summary of Forestville’s current development projects.

Protectors of the Watershed

By Bob Rawson
With the issues surrounding the flow of the Russian River coming to a boil more interest has been generated in an organization by the name of the River Watershed Council. The Russian River Watershed Council is a 501C-3 non- profit organization representing the stakeholders in the Russian River. Linda Curry is the Coordinator of the Russian River Watershed Council and may be reached at http://www.rrwc.net 707-526-7865.

CDF Appeals Superior Court local THP decision.

By Forests Unlimited

Water scarce Joy Road near Bitner west of Occidental.

The California Department of Forestry (CDF) has filed an appeal of Judge Lawrence Antolini's 11/18/03 decision rescinding CDF's approval of Timber Harvest Plan 1-01-219 SON. Attorney Edwin Wilson who represented The Joy Road Area Forest and Watershed Association against CDF and Harmony Forest & Land Company in the original case (SCV-229850) received of the appeal on 1/14/04.

The Economics of Low Flow

By Vesta Copestakes
The majority of my adult life, I have made my living in marketing. I can’t help myself. I just love to market business, etc. So when I see this Low Flow proposal heading our way, I’m like a lot of other Russian River businesses, I freak out! I’m all for the fish, but! Is there a compromise here folks!

I saw that part of the Entrix story that only studied the paddling businesses and never even considered the lodging, dining, service, and retail aspects of our local economy. Yikes! If they are so daft as to look at only one aspect of the human element of river survival, how thoroughly did they study the fish aspect?

It’s About the Fish…

Download file

By Vesta Copestakes

The Sonoma County Water Agency has been mandated by the federal government to study how to save the dwindling populations of endangered fish in the Russian River. That sounds good. Four years ago they hired an environmental consulting firm to study how best to accomplish this. Over the four-year period of time, Entrix billed the water agency 4 million dollars. For that amount of money and time, you’d expect a very thorough report covering all bases and considering all options.

Howard Dean in Vermont, pt. 3

The last of three parts.

By David Chase

Frankly, the only disagreement I've had with Howard Dean is his refusal to allow some test crops of industrial hemp to be grown in Vermont. I have no direct interest in this issue, but I think I understand the differences between the fiber crop and the marijuana crop.

A struggling Vermont farm which relies on milk checks from some conglomerate or the fickleness of the apple harvest might find life a little easier if there were a market for industrial hemp as well.

So there you have it. I can't say I know Howard Dean but he comes well recommended from people I know and respect.

Incidentally, when you register to vote in Vermont, you are required to sign the Freeman's Oath (although in 1994 they amended the language to make it gender neutral - it's now the Voter's Oath).

I solemnly swear (or affirm) that whenever I am called upon to give my vote or suffrage, touching any matter that concerns the State of Vermont, I will do it so as in my conscience I shall judge will most conduce to the best good of the same, as established by the Constitution, without fear or favor of any person.

I had to sign that when I registered to vote in Vermont and did so proudly.

Howard Dean in Vermont, pt. 2

[Editor's note: David Chase and his wife moved to Forestville four years ago after spending 20+ years in Vermont, a large portion of that time when Howard Dean was governor. I asked David, a Dean supporter, to tell us about life in Vermont under Dean.] -- Roger Karraker

The second of three parts.

By David Chase

At one point in Howard Dean's reign, there were some fairly open and disturbing incidents of (for lack of a better term) gay bashing in some of the high schools. Howard Dean went around the state to the high schools and told them it was to stop. One student challenged him and began to reference the Bible.

Dean let him speak and then explained that he certainly had a right to his beliefs. No one would deny him that. What no one had was the right to act on those beliefs in a way that will harm someone else. One of the great freedoms in Vermont is the right to live life as you choose without threat or censure. Eventually, of course, Howard Dean supported and signed the Civil Union law which gives same sex couples the same rights, privileges, and obligations as traditional marriage gives to straight couples. In his literature he says this was not one of his issues It was simply the right thing to do and I think he was right.

Personally, I've always been rather proud that Vermont took that step. It wasn't taken without some considerable political risk, however. I have a good friend who was a state senator who supported that law and she said she began to receive some of the nastiest mail she'd ever seen in her life - vile, hateful stuff. She was not alone. Others who voted for the bill got the same treatment.

A great wave of opposition rose up against Howard Dean but he was re-elected anyway. Whatever else you say about the Civil Union law it acknowledges and recognizes a relationship between two people, whatever that is. I've thought sometimes that when Susan and I go back for a visit we might have a Civil Union ceremony ourselves. Why not? A lot of our gay friends have - why should they be the only ones?

A friend of mine is head of the Vermont Housing Agency, a woman who has worked for years in the field of housing for the aging and then for the State of Vermont. She told us recently that Howard Dean had always been open and available and helpful in any of her work. She considers him an ally and a friend.

One weekend some years ago, a few panels from the AIDS quilt were going to be displayed in a hall in Randolph, Vermont, about an hour or so from Brattleboro. Susan and I drove up to see it - I never had - and while we were there Gov. Dean showed up, alone, save for his State Police driver. No ceremony, no brass bands, no story in the paper the next day. He simply came to see the quilt panels for himself and take away whatever he found there.

Gov. Dean often came to Brattleboro for parades. Brattleboro loves parades and politicians love them, too. Mrs. Dean stayed home, however. You have to respect a man's wife who believes she has a higher purpose in this world than to function as arm candy in political events. The fact that he hasn't insisted that she disrupt her medical practice and get made over for the cameras and get coaching for her public appearances says a great deal about their relationship and the respect they have for each other.

Tomorrow: Part 3 of David Chase's story of Vermont under Howard Dean.