#45 The Lull Before the Next Storm

Southern Interchange today



     



Warbler's Tree Sit for 2 months in early 2013

      I haven’t written in a while. In my next blog, I’ll explain why. First, I want to report on recent developments in our struggle to prevent the biggest destruction of wetlands in California since World War II.


Oaks on the hillside where the southern interchange is
Warbler's tree sit is high to the right

    














     






The Transportation Industrial Complex—in Willits known as Caltrans plowing through Little Lake Valley—is in a brief lull for the winter while engineers and contractors plot their next moves. In January, I had a chance to walk the “boot print” of the road they’ve built so far. I saw what used to be an oak forest now this ripped up system of gravel-lined creek beds where salmon used to swim under the cover of shade trees. All that destruction so you can speed by Willits in ten minutes. Time is our new Gold Rush.
A BLESSING ON THE WORK TO SAVE THE VALLEY
        It’s a been a full year since “the Warbler” went up a huge Ponderosa pine tree PIC to stop the Willits Bypass

Round Valley Feather Dancers
at the Little Lake Grange

To commemorate Warbler’s brave act and to encourage those of us still hoping to reduce the impacts of the bypass, we had a celebration on Saturday, Feb. 8th at the Little Lake Grange in Willits. There the Round Valley Feather Dancers (Pomo and other Native peoples) danced a ceremonial blessing for the land and for those striving to stop its further desecration. They and Redwood Valley Native Corine Pearce spoke of knowing deeply about the exploitation of land, since hundreds of Indian peoples from different tribes were rounded up and placed on the reservation in Round Valley, northeast of Willits. The local sedges, elk, salmon, and bird life were all part of their livelihood and homeland.

DROUGHT AND DESTRUCTION
 Most people in the West are, by now, well aware of the dangers from drought we all face. Willits is high on the list of California cities severely impacted by drought. Until the recent downpour, we had only 5 inches of rain since October, about 20% of normal.




Eel River 2013
(Photo June Ruckman, The Willits News)

Eel River, same location, 2014
(Photo June Ruckman, The Willits News)

 

    My water district asked us to reduce usage to 110 gallons a day per household. With my waterless- composting toilet, I automatically use less water than most homes, since a regular toilet requires 1.6 gallons per flush. (Note to water savers: Even a low flush toilet that uses 1.2 gallons a flush can save 13,000 gallons a year.)
        The drought may be the crisis that brings opportunity for us to change our mindsets about sustaining our resources (the Chinese symbol for crisis also means opportunity).
       Caltrans will crank up its machine again around April 1, so we are pressed to seek a Cease and Desist order from Governor Brown given his recent attention to the dire water situation that the state faces. He noted in his State of the State speech specifically that we have to protect our watersheds and wetlands if we seek to conserve water.
       The Caltrans bypass construction has already sunk 55,000 plastic wickdrains into 40 acres of wetlands north of Willits where a 4 lane interchange is planned. In the next phase of construction, a return of the caravan of dump trucks will pile dirt onto those wetlands in order to compress the land and squeeze the water out via the wicks that go 85 feet deep into the earth, sucking dry the wetlands that feed into Outlet Creek, which flows into the Eel River.
        Though Caltrans plans for a 4 lane interchange—built for the flow of 40,000 cars—only 2 lanes are needed since only 8000 cars pass in and out of Willits on average to the north. If the 4-lane interchange were reduced to 2 lanes, 30 acres of wetlands could still be saved since they have not yet dumped the 30 foot high pile of dirt on top of those acres.



         A 2-lane interchange would also save millions of gallons of water which Caltrans admits to using (4 million last season) to compact the dirt and reduce dust—ever more precious water wasted.
          A further reason that Caltrans should “cease and desist” is that it has ignored the steps it was legally bound to take to mitigate for the damage it is doing to creeks, wetlands, forests, fauna, water reserves, and more, some agencies are actually looking more closely at what Caltrans promises and how it follows through. An article on Friday, February 7 in The Willits News noted that pressure on the Water Board by local citizens to make the agency examine what Caltrans is really doing may lead to blocking construction. (See that article here.)

          But it’s only the voices of those paying attention that leads the leaders to do right unto the Seventh Generation.
          If you are interested in helping us in this struggle, please please write to Governor Brown and to the Northern California Regional Water Board and beg them to look at the senseless destruction of watershed now occurring in Willits.
UPDATE ON WILL PARRISH
        Delbert Pinola from Pt. Arena, the drummer for the Round Valley Feather Dancers, said he wanted to drum for us because he understood our struggle to protect the land, a struggle California Indians have engaged in, with great loss of land and life, since the Gold Rush. Delbert was invited to come to Willits through Will Parrish, one of the more recent warriors, as Delbert called him, in Little Lake Valley. Will occupied a wickdrain “stitcher” crane for 12 days in July to prevent the Caltrans contract workers from further pummeling. He was charged with 17 misdemeanor counts of trespass and $500,000 in restitution.
      On January 23, at a pretrial hearing, Will pleaded no-contest to two of those counts, and 15 others were dropped. But he still has a hearing on April 24th regarding the retribution costs. The fact that the plea  bargain kept him out of jail was a real victory.



FULLY EMPLOYED AND JUGGLING RESPONSIBILITIES
        A favorite aspersion cast against the protesters is that we are unemployed and thus able to do all this rabble rousing without worrying about providing for our families, the way those wielding the chainsaws and driving the bulldozers must.
      I will address this fallacy and share some of my own recent employments ahead.