Reassessing the Richardson Grove Highway Project: A Consideration of the Consequences and Alternatives

From http://saverichardsongrove.org/

BOTTOM LINE: WE CAN AND MUST DO BETTER

The current broad public discussion concerning the Richardson Grove Highway Project (RGOPP) provides an unprecedented opportunity for North Coast communities to seek federal funding for the development of alternative transportation modalities, powered by non-fossil fuels, to meet the economic and ecological needs of our community. Short-sea shipping, for example, could serve coastal communities and help develop our Port in an appropriate way. Our academic, technical, labor, non-profit, business and government resources could collaborate on alternative initiatives that would avoid the need for disturbing Richardson Grove, a project that relies on anachronistic transport modalities and will foster uncontrollable and unwanted development.

Humboldt County will suffer significant adverse impacts if the Richardson Grove road project is approved. The project is too big, too consequential, and too transformative to be pushed through by CalTrans and the County Economic Development Department without the fully informed consent of the citizenry.

We believe that this project’s impacts on traffic through the county, its likely economic downsides, its risks to old growth redwood habitat, and its preclusion of better alternatives are matters of grave public concern that are trivialized by supporters of the RGOPP.

The Richardson Grove Project is linked to two other STAA truck access bottlenecks, one over Highway 299 at Buckhorn Summit, and the other along Highways 199/197 in Del Norte County along the Middle Fork Smith River. STAA truck traffic will then facilitate interstate and interregional commerce, as well as the unexamined potential for sprawl development along these routes as large franchise operations benefit from the efficient delivery systems. The risk to local businesses remains unevaluated but is clearly significant. Richardson Grove is critical Marbled Murrelet habitat, yet population demographics are unknown, and Caltrans proposes to survey for the endangered seabird only after the project. Analogously, the consequences of redwood root compaction and other disturbances related to the Project on the vitality of 28-30 ancient redwood trees are unknown.

Caltrans has narrowly construed the purpose of the Project to allow STAA access through the Grove, rather than to facilitate the movement of goods into and out of the County. Consequently, no feasible, reasonable alternatives are, or can be, considered.

However, approval of the project is not inevitable.

Rest of Article

Blue Green Alliance Leads Array of Labor, Environmental Organizations in Opposition to Bigger Trucks

Labor Unions, National Environmental Groups Endorse McGovern, Lautenberg Bills

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 19, 2009) The Blue Green Alliance, along with an array of labor unions and environmental organizations, said today that they oppose allowing heavier and longer trucks, including huge triple-trailer trucks, on the nation's highways. The coalition said they will work to pass a bill that would extend the "freeze" on truck size and weight to the entire National Highway System (NHS).

Joining the Blue Green Alliance in opposition to bigger trucks and in support of the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act (H.R. 1618, S. 779) are the Sierra Club, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Laborers' International Union of North America, Environment America, Communications Workers of America and the Service Employees International Union.

"The facts are clear: heavier trucks would be dirtier and would unnecessarily contribute to air pollution and global warming," said David Foster, Executive Director of the Blue Green Alliance. "The Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act will help prevent truck weights and lengths from increasing while taking action to improve the environment and make America more energy secure."

These national labor and environmental organizations are working to debunk the arguments of major corporate interests claiming bigger trucks would mean fewer trucks on the road and reduced fuel use. The Teamsters and the Sierra Club said bigger trucks will mean greater challenges for truck drivers and motorists, more fuel squandered and more pollution and global warming emissions.

Today, laws limiting triple trailers and other so-called "longer combination vehicles" apply only to the 46,000 mile Interstate Highway system. The Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act would apply this standard to the full 160,000 mile NHS, which would save millions of gallons of fuel and billions of taxpayer dollars because limiting truck weight would reduce wear and tear on infrastructure, mainly bridges.

In addition to wrecking roads and bridges, allowing heavier and longer trucks would mean more fuel consumption and a move away from energy efficiency at a time when reducing fuel use and global warming emissions is a national imperative.

"We need to make transportation choices that cut back on fuel waste and reduce emissions, or we will all pay a steep price," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "Bigger trucks would mean more fuel wasted and more global warming emissions at a time when all Americans are realizing we need to go in the exact opposite direction. "

"This is about highway safety and protecting our environment," said James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "Teamsters are the safest drivers on the road and know the risks of bigger trucks. Heavier or longer trucks are harder to handle, putting lives at risk, damaging the highway infrastructure and consuming more fuel."

Read the letter signed by labor and environmental groups supporting SHIPA or visit http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/.

The Blue Green Alliance is a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy. Launched in 2006, the Blue Green Alliance now unites more than six million people in pursuit of good jobs, a clean environment and a green economy.

Groups organize against bigger trucks

By Jill Dunn, July 6, 2009

An alliance of labor and environmental groups is campaigning for a bill that would freeze truck size and weight on the National Highway System.

The Blue Green Alliance is comprised of the Sierra Club, Teamsters union, Natural Resources Defense Council, Laborers’ International Union of North America, Environment America, Communications Workers of America and the Service Employees International Union.

They support the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act, or H.R. 1618 and S. 779. The House bill was referred to committee March 20 and has 91 co-sponsors and the Senate bill was referred to committee April 1 and has 3 co-sponsors.

The alliance and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association support the current limit of 80,000 pounds and 53-foot limits for tractor-trailer rigs on interstate highways of the National Highway System.

The NHS covers about 160,000 miles of highway, while interstates represent 44,000 miles.

The American Trucking Associations, the National Private Truck Council and some shipping organizations favor expanding these limits. They support the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act of 2009, or H.R. 1799, which was referred to committee March 30 and has 26 co-sponsors.

That legislation would allow trucks a maximum gross weight of 97,000 pounds, provided the vehicle has at least six axles, including a tridem axle group with a weight limit of 51,000 pounds. Axle weight increases of up to 2,000 pounds would be authorized at the state's option.

The Truck Safety Coalition also formed StopBiggerTrucks.org to battle against relaxing current limits. That coalition is comprised of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways and Parents Against Tired Truckers.

More information on the alliance is available at www.bluegreenalliance.org.

Who supports this project anyways?

The only "people" who are promoting this project is big development.

The Times-Standard printed SIX letters supporting the project, opposed to the massive public outcry of opinion denouncing the project in both the Times-Standard and North coast Journal.

These six op-ed letters turned out to be paid endorsements, funded by the Headwaters Fund.

Let's look at the special interests attached to the small enclave of project supporters. Then maybe we can evaluate whether their interests in the project are to help the community...or exploit it.

-J. Warren Hockaday-
-Eureka Chamber of Commerce Executive Director
-Member, Timber Heritage Association
-J. Warren on our port-"Eureka Chamber of Commerce Executive Director J. Warren Hockaday endorsed Option B, citing a predicted "dramatic increase in Pacific Rim Trade" that "other ports can't take due to air quality issues."(Mr. Hackaday would prefer to spoil OUR air)

-Ray Flynn-
-Former Humboldt County Assessor(Hmmmm...)
-Chairman of the Buckeye Conservancy influencing 300,000 acres of forests and ranchland in the county.(The "conservancy" is actually a band of foresters and ranchers dedicated to streamlining timber harvest permits and challenge regulatory restrictions in order to make it easier for landowners to clearcut paradise).
-Ray flynn on Prop. 13-"Though personal income was rising almost as fast as property values, that was little consolation to retired people, or people otherwise on a limited income. Ray Flynn, Humboldt County's assessor at the time, says that though the boom in Humboldt County wasn't as dramatic as it was in the state's urban areas, he witnessed its effect."I had a lot of people sitting across from me crying their eyes out," Flynn says. "They said, "You're forcing me out of my home.'"(Thanks a lot, Ray)

-Mark Loughmiller-
-Executive Director Arcata Recycling Center(Ok...but...)
-Official Arcata "Hippiecrit"
-Mark Loughmiller on population growth-"Loughmiller added, however, that a curbside program can be effective if it collects enough tonnage, since commercial haulers can increase recyclable pick up without a corresponding cost hike. "We need a bigger population base, so perhaps we can look at the possibility of combining Arcata, Eureka and McKinleyville. It's all about volume - if you don't have it, it won't work.""(For Mark, it's all about volume...not community)

-Kit Mann-
-Vice President Kokatat(Korpatat)
-Kit Mann on unions and federal employer regulations- "Invoking the "C" word - "corporation," that is - Kit Mann, vice president and production manager of Kokotat, noted that it is necessary for a business to be profitable to be good, in the basic sense of covering insurance, worker's compensation, benefits and so on. He said, "I have a very deep and abiding commitment to my employees," but argued that the intervention of a third party - whether the government, a union or shareholders - interrupts the relationship between a corporation and its employees."(It's a very deep and abusive relationship when employees are buggered by Kit)
-Kit Mann on Kokatat-"Most people there don't stick it out. Kit Mann, the vice-president of Kokatat, says they hire new people all the time. That's partly because those jobs have high turnover because they are difficult and monotonous."It takes a certain type of person to do that every day," Mann says. "I have a lot of respect for [the workers]. I couldn't do what they do.""(But you can exploit [the workers] just like a big box or corporate chain, right Kit? Where is your conscience?)

-Charles Fiedler-
-CalTrans District 1 Director
-State employee caught with hand in Headwaters Fund cookie jar. (Is this a conflict of interests? A State employee dipping into local funds to promote an unpopular project that would benefit Caltrans district 1 employees? Enough said...)

-Bryan Plumley-
-President of the Arcata Downtown Business Association($)
-Arcata Economic Development Corp. Loan Committee($$)
-Arcata's Economic Development Committee($$$)
-Financial advisor for Edward Jones' Arcata office($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$)
-Former Third District Supervisor Candidate(Nice try Brian)
-Former President Arcata Mainstreet Board of directors(See ya!)
Brian Plumley on development-"Economic development is a key to a lot of other problems," he said. "With success in that area, a community is able to deal with poverty, housing shortages and drug abuse."(You have it backwards, Brian. Overdevelopment IS the source of a lot of problems, such as poverty, housing shortages and drugs. Get your facts straight)

In summation:
-Project supporters were paid for their endorsements.
-ALL of the above project supporters have financial interests in the mass development of Humboldt County.
-Project supporters clearly have little or no regard for air quality, environmental regulations, retirees and low income residents, workers rights and union organizations, smartgrowth advocacy, and overall community cohesion. This may appear to be a generalization, but after analyzing the facts, it is more than apparent that the handful of paid project supporters have interests opposed to a sustainable and community based lifestyle for Humboldt County residents.

In short, they want to profit from the collapse of the Humboldt Nation.

This is a call for action, as Paul Revere rode to warn the rebel colonialists that the British were invading. "The corporations are coming...the corporations are coming! One if by land(101), two if by sea(Bay), and three if by air(Arcata airport)."

There is a single light in the churchtower. Now is the time for action! Let's kick those greencoat$ out of Humboldt!

Richardson Grove: A look at the bigger picture

By: Jeff Musgrave/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 05/16/2009 01:30:20 AM PDT

The impact of widening Richardson Grove will affect both the “left” and the “right,” this is not limited to an environmental or political issue. This is a social and economic issue that will adversely affect everyone, unless you are the developer, builder or landowner.

Richardson Grove is not the only front in this battle for our way of life. The gateways to exploiting our paradise have been opened throughout Humboldt's history, such as with the timber, gold, whaling, and ganja booms. These booms all had their windfalls for the few, steady and honest work for the many, and of course their various detriments to the land, and native populations. These booms also bring more people. Then the retraction, or “bust” as resources plummet, demand dwindles and profiteers jump ship (sayonara Charlie Hurwitz).

The commercial boom is not quite different, except for the fact that the future of small business owners will be bleak. Whether the plan is to create a bigger harbor, reinstate the rail system, build a larger airport, free up timber lands for tract homes or as in this case ... widen the highway thoroughfare to the nearest major city (San Francisco) and seaport (Oakland); the overall plan is for a few to profit from the hard work of the many. The bigger picture is the plan to develop Humboldt.

The shock wave from small business collapse will be felt by all native (or current) Humboldt residents. As corporate chains and “big boxes” create vacant storefronts, wages will begin to fall. Profits will leave Humboldt County (remember the corruption of PL after the Maxxam takeover?), and homes will become vacant. Meth and gangs will become rampant. Opportunities for entrepreneurial pursuits will cease to exist in a corporatised wasteland of McDonald's, Home Depots, and cookie cutter tract homes and mini-malls.

I lived through this type of change myself. In fact, by the time my hometown was overrun by mass commercialism, I was old enough to move out. I've worked so many different jobs, sometimes as much as two full-time jobs while sleeping in my car between them. Jobs were easy to get because no one wanted them, like graveyard shifts at Taco Bell or a security guard at the apartment complex. All to pay for a place that was beyond my means, impress a girl that was beyond my means, and live up to mass media's imposed living standards, which were beyond my means.

My point is not to scare you with fear tactics. I am simply sharing my experience of my hometown community that became a zombified version of some Orweilian nightmare. The world won't end for Humboldtians if the project goes through. Some trees that have been around for thousands of years will probably die eventually from root disturbances, but at least that Caltrans worker will have a meager paycheck and a slim retirement plan for their 80 or so years on the planet. Some people will definitely benefit. But most of us will see Humboldt permanently distorted, and you can't go back once this occurs. There are some people in our community that welcome this, but they do not have the foresight or experience of Southern Californication.

Is it more than widening the highway through virgin redwood stands? It should be for all of Humboldt's labor force that has had its shares of ups and downs. There's always that “greeter” position for minimum wage at Wal-Mart, a company that leaves Medi-Cal and food stamp information in their break rooms.

Jeff Musgrave lives in Arcata.

The Hole in the Headwaters Fund...To Make a Hole in Richardson Grove

After the sale of Headwaters Preserve by Maxxam operated Pacific Lumber to the State of California, $22 million dollars was allocated to Humboldt County to offset economic loss of the timberlands to the local economy.

$12 million came from the State earmarked for "Economic Assistance".

The $10 million that came from the feds was deemed "Direct Payment" to Humboldt County.

However, the citizens of Humboldt County had been bamboozled . The fund that was intended to improve "economic prosperity and quality of life for all Humboldt County residents" was pirated by a County bureaucracy elected for the special interests of developers. While displaced workers

were forced to work minimum wage jobs, timber community infrastructures collapsed(such as Rio Dell's wastewater cease and desist), and vacant homes turned into meth houses; the fund was squandered during a recession for grants and loans for promoting the corporatisation of Humboldt County.

Aside from using the fund to promote and study "Super Sizing" the Bay and Airport Terminal, county officials misappropriated these funds to serve the interests of Big Box development and to rip Humboldt County wide open for commercialization. "Among those(interests) were the Caltrans project to widen U.S. Highway 101 through Richardson Grove".

Even the local media was influenced with the public fund. "My Word" editorials submitted to the Times-Standard were discovered to have been funded by the Headwaters Fund by Dr. Ken Miller(Thank you Dr. Ken!):

A recent Quarterly Report to the Headwaters Grant Fund reveals money was approved to pay for assistance in “submission of approximately six ‘My Word’ editorials in support of the Richardson Grove Project.” Coincidentally (or not) The T-S archives show in fact six “My Words” supporting the widening through the ancient redwood grove.

Submissions came from:
J Warren Hockaday Ray Flynn Mark Loughmiller Kitt Mann Charles Fiedler Bryan Plumley

Dr Ken continues to expose the misuse and corruption of the Headwaters Fund, as public information shows that the County used local public money to promote a State project:

The campaign is a line item in their 2/25/09 Grant update report on their accomplishments to date:
“Hired a PR Contractor to manage the EIR summarization, a letter-writing campaign, media outreach, business and public outreach.”

and

“Assisted in submission of approximately six “My Word” editorials in support of RG Project, written by business owners affected by the restrictions.”

We taxpayers who funded the Headwaters Fund, and constitute “the public,” should have been told that a media campaign, including letters to the editor and six “My Word” OpEd’s, was being funded by public funds.

Essentially, The Headwaters Fund was a "gift" from the State to Humboldt County(at the time, predominantly timber industry workers)from economic impact of Headwaters Deal, with the intentions of "Economically Assisting" the timber community while providing a "Direct Payment" to the county to offset infrastructure loss. But the sale of PL's timberlands to the State came at a cost to everyone, from the tireless efforts from environmentalists, the loss of livelihood for timber workers, and the State taxes paid for the land acquisition by everyone.

In effect, the fund was a "Stimulus Package" for the people of Humboldt, not for the development interests of big business or big development(Does this treacherous tale sound familiar, as with the bank bail-outs?). How did they get their hands on our money, anyway? Who let the fox into the chicken coop?

Don't be a chicken. Say No to the Corporatisation of Humboldt!

Save Richardson Grove. Save Humboldt County!

Fox and Chicken link

We must all protect the Redwood Curtain from the Imperial Cruisers

I had to post this one as a Star Wars fan :)

Why are you promoting this travesty?
Redwood Times
Posted: 04/29/2009 09:36:11 AM PDT

Editor’s Note: This letter is addressed to the editor of the North Coast Journal and was submitted to the Redwood Times for publication as well.

In Star Wars, Chapter IV, R2-D2 and C3PO are spiraling down in the escape pod and you can’t see Leia’s crippled ship, only the distant triangle of the Imperial Cruiser that holds it in its bay. Then everyone chuckles when C3PO comments, “The damage doesn’t look as bad from out here.” Since so many people have written to the NCJ explaining the obvious to Hank Sims et al, concerning the Richardson’s Grove realignment, that is not the purpose of this letter. Obviously you have the same perspective concerning it that C3PO had of Leia’s ship and you discount it.

The bottom line is that the project is expensive, unnecessary and more than just “slightly” damaging to the grove. It’s only one mile of highway where big trucks will lose little time by slowing down and driving safely. Besides, there are better alternatives. The damage that will ensue looks slight only to you town dandies way up in the north county. So, what is your vested interest in this project going through, and why are you, the pot, calling the kettle “ham-headed?” Somehow you’ve even managed to make your cartoonist turn his perspective around to a far less accurate one than he had in the previous issue. Our stand in Southern Humboldt is not a “knee-jerk reaction.” From down here the serious damage this will bring home for us is obvious.

My question is, why are you promoting this travesty and discounting the damage? Can you answer that question in your paper, rather than just rhetorically pointing at someone else that was paid off? That’s what this letter is about. Like many other readers down here I’d just like a straight answer to that. No games down here in So Hum, just honest perspectives and concern for our environment.

Saxon Roe
Redway

"The Town Dandy" eats "Humboldt Pie"...

Proponents of the Cal-Trans project to widen Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt County, California have another fire to extinguish. One that may as well “burn-out” of control.

After Richardson Grove supporters were likened to MAXXAM’s failed recall effort by Hank Sims(The Town Dandy), commander and editor of the once community minded North Coast Journal; Hank has apparently but unapologetically changed his tone about the corrupted special interest enclave receiving Headwaters funding to promote the largely contested project.

Included in Hank’s vicious attack was The Northcoast Environmental Center(NEC), a long-term non-profit information center devoted to providing education to the public regarding industry’s role in the destruction of our planet Earth. The NEC was apparently attacked by Mr. Sims due to the center’s providing of a donation drop for the Friends of Richardson Grove, those who are opposing the destructive and unwarranted Cal-Trans project to widen Highway 101 through the State Park.

One of the ironies of the attack was the fact that the role of the NEC was crucial in stopping the accelerated destruction from MAXXAM’s plundering of Pacific Lumber. Pacific Lumber became the main focus of action in the fight to save the redwoods in a two decade+ long resistance to corporate greed and from which Earth First!, Judy Bari, Darryl Cherney, Julie Butterfly Hill and other pioneers of enviro/eco-action were conceived.

Richardson Grove State Park is considered by many as "The Gateway to the Redwoods", an archway of amazingly tall Virgin Old Growth Stands which tower above Highway 101 as you enter Humboldt County Redwoods State Park. Despite the fact that William Richardson(25th governor of California) vetoed every state park funding bill during his reign(simliar to our current governor's slash and burn fiscal tactics), the park stands to this day. The park includes the ninth largest Coastal Redwood(sequoia sempervirens), camping and fishing along the Eel River, and is the closest State Park containing Old Growth Redwoods north of San Francisco. This Cal-Trans project is only one of many ecologically sensitive projects promoted by our current "greenwashed" governor.

The controversy regarding the project began after Cal-trans submitted a controversial project to allow longer trucks into and out of Humboldt County through Richardson Grove. The issues include the fact that the project will disturb the roots of these ancient trees resulting in the probable demise of millennial redwoods, absolute and unavoidable disturbances to endangered species such as the Marbled Murrelet(brachyramphus marmoratus) and the Northern Spotted Owl(Strix occidentalis), along with the root of the issue…the gutting of Humboldt County by big business.

The bottleneck at Richardson Grove has helped prevent the commercial corporate takeover of small businesses throughout Humboldt County by limiting the length of trucks entering the grove. This is where the special interest portion of the Cal-Trans project enters into the tale. Discovered by concerned local residents Dr. Ken Miller and David Spreen, apparently over $25,000 of public grant money was spent by the Community Development Services department to sway public opinion regarding the controversial project by using print and online media. Tactics as sinister as paying citizens to submit editorials supporting the project to the local Times-Standard paper were even utilized, along with the publicly financed North Coast Prosperity website. But why and by whom?

The funding to promote the unnecessary project came from The Headwaters Fund, a triumph for environmentalists in the battle for the Redwoods against MAXXAM. The Headwaters Fund was a twelve million dollar public fund crafted after the sale of The Headwaters Forest by Pacific Lumber to the State of California. The fund was developed by the State to offset losses to timber industry jobs and the local economy after the Headwaters sale, which also included stricter environmental controls on timber practices. Imagine how those who participated in the Headwaters Campaign feel after hearing that the fund they helped fight to create was being used to destroy the Richardson Grove Redwoods, and Humboldt County!

Essentially, the fund was to be used to promote education for timber workers(never happened), local business development(low wage jobs for ex-timber employees), and rebuild and maintain community infrastructure(City of Rio Del on cease and desist for storm water pollution into Eel River). Despite the fact that small amounts of the fund have been used in the form of loans for existing and startup businesses, the bulk of what the fund has supported has been redevelopment and to fund and promote special interest projects, such as the expansion of Arcata airport and highway projects, such as this one.

Considering the fact that Cal-Trans filed an incomplete and ineffectual environmental impact report(EIR) intended to address concerns about the impacts to Richardson Grove and concerned resident species; the massive community outcry against the necessity of the project; impacts to local business from out of area corporations offering lower wages and product standards; increased traffic and pollution along Highway 101 including amplified congestion and air pollution issues in Eureka; and now…the corruption attached to the misuse of Headwaters Funding to promote an unpopular state project aimed at bringing in Wal-Mart and Home Depot trucks coinciding the corporatization of our small town county that is big on local sustainability and fair trade.

I cannot see this project going through, and if it does, we will put a stop to it through non-violent resistance.

Whew…That was lot to say! Like a big piece of blackberry pie.

In fact, I think it’s a big piece of “Humboldt pie“… just for you , Hank Sims!