#31 Going Against the Flow

Warbler's Tree exposed, trees down around her

Before: Warbler's Ponderosa second big tree from left

After: Warbler's Liberty Ponderosa Gone

           All six tree sitters were forcibly “extracted” from their trees on Tuesday, and Warbler’s beautiful “Liberty Ponderosa” was cut down. These 3 photos show Warbler’s Treesit site, before her tree was cut down, when many trees were cut down around her, and after it was destroyed on Tuesday.
             I have gone to the Treesit site three times and cried each time, not just for a beautiful tree destroyed unnecessarily, but for what seems to be so much nefarious intent accompanying the whole CalTrans+CHP operation.

            Warbler was removed with a cherry picker and no observers were allowed. At another site, many protesters witnessed the intensity of the dozens of police in riot gear making their “attack” on the treesitters.    One of the young men in the tree was shot at with rubber bullets to make him release his grip on the tree. All of the paramilitary presences makes you wonder why this big bureaucracy of CalTrans feels so threatened.          

            Here are some links to a couple of articles about the extraction of the tree sitters; at least the Bypass conflict is getting press attention. Press Democrat article and Sacramento Bee article  and YouTube video of that process:YouTube film of "extraction"

         

Warbler herself is pictured here on Wednesday with one of her big supporters who spent many nights under her tree to be sure she was protected.  (Thanks to Judi Berdis for the photo) She has said that she is processing what has happened over these last three months.

           Friday I went back out to the Treesit Site to continue my protest with a sandwich board and my sign that asks, “Do you understand what is happening?”

            As I think about who is for and against the Bypass, I imagine the irony that many Willits people who support the Bypass are probably the same ones who hate Big Government, yet they are happy that Big Government is going to ram through this cement freeway if it means they will get work. It’s kind o

f like senior citizens receiving Medicare who complain ardently about the government subsidizing healthcare for everyone.

            One police car is permanently stationed at the Treesit Site, with others stopping in frequently. Once I arrived on foot, having walked along the highway for about a quarter of a mile, so did another police car shortly. An officer took a movie of me standing there alone by the road. Soon a third police car pulled up on my side to tell me that I couldn’t just stand there or I would be arrested for loitering.

            So I started walking. Within 20 minutes, yet another police car came up and told me I was in violation of walking by the freeway, where I could create a traffic disturbance with people trying to read my signs.

            Gotta love it! I’m disturbing the peace by walking along the road with a sign where a forest is been cut down, with bulldozers and humongous trucks pulling in and out by the minute. 

            I was asked to leave or I would be arrested. I am not against getting arrested in opposition for breaking laws that promote unethical actions. In his essay “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau said, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law”

            I just needed to be sure that my dog Sata would have someone rescuing her from the car, first. So I left.

            I continue to plug away at educating myself, to learn whether CalTrans and their supporters are right, or those opposed to the Bypass are harbingers of a disaster in the making. After all, George W. Bush called those of us who protested the Iraq War a mere “support group.” It turned out that we were right: No Weapons of Mass Destruction existed in Iraq, and the American people were hoodwinked into going to war there, leading many valiant soldiers to give their lives and their limbs. The same was true in Vietnam. Jefferson himself encouraged critical thinking and dissent, so let’s give it a chance.

            What I’m learning about the Bypass conflict just gets weirder and weirder. Here are a couple more reason to hold the Bypass suspect.  

1. Traffic Flow A California Department of Transportation graph  documents traffic volume along Highway 101 in Northern California from 1992-2011, registered via video monitors at the southern and northernmost traffic lights.

            It notes that traffic in Willits has remained fairly steady at around 20,000 cars entering Willits and about 8000 cars as traffic leaves the north side of town.

            Sorry to get technical on you, but isn’t God in the details? At the southern end of town, Highway 20 goes out to the Mendocino coast. When I told people I moved to Willits, lots said, “I know Willits. I go through there to get to the coast.” Actually, they don’t go through Willits because the HW 20 turn off to the coast is south of town. About 30% of traffic leaves 101 there. Part of the problem of the Bypass is that that traffic will still come into town to get to Highway 20, which is over a mile from what is supposed to be the only southern Bypass exit for Willits.

Turn off left to HW 20 to Coast south end of Willits

            If you’re still with me, we’re still doing the numbers on what happens to all that traffic going through Willits. (And it’s all about the numbers—especially the $300 million and rising that CalTrans will get for this job.) Apparently, another huge chunk of traffic exits at the last stoplight in town, Sherwood Road, which leads to Brooktrails, a large development of suburban homes, and to back country homes beyond, like that of yours truly, with over 5000 residents.

            As relates to traffic flow, the large number of Brooktrails residents heading off of Highway 101 at the northern end of town means that the actual flow of through traffic is fairly minimal. That is, most of the 20,000 cars coming into Willits at the south end winds up being around 8000 cars on average still on 101 at the north. Certainly, the traffic is far heavier in the summer with tourists, including those continuing north, but you can count on that traffic at limited times Friday evening and Saturday mornings, and then again on Sunday evenings.

            SO, the question for those studying the Bypass carefully: why did CalTrans push through a plan for a four-lane highway to handle 40,000 cars when it isn’t necessary? Even the two-lanes they’ve planned as a temporary route are designed for 20,000 cars, still unnecessary.

2) Bottlenecks by Design? One of the most disturbing aspects of this whole process that I’ve learned relates to the infamous BOTTLENECK at the Safeway on South Main. Two lanes of traffic come into town, and then the two are forced to merge into one, just before coming to the HW 20 light. This merge is the source of much ire in town. Many pro-Bypass people I’ve spoken to have said that the bottleneck creates unhealthy pollution and that’s why we need the Bypass. Really? A $300 million

cement freeway to resolve a merge.
            The hell of it is that there used to be four lanes there, but long-time Willits resident Judi Berdis informed me that the bottleneck was created in 1994, and she is not alone in thinking that the purpose was to manufacture support for the Bypass.
 

           The community has provided many alternatives to increase the flow right there, including a traffic circle. Those suggestions were overrun.

          As someone who has lived through Bay Area and even Sacramento traffic, Willits traffic problem (see photo left) does not seem worthy of a $300 million bypass!

            I really don’t want to join a league of belittled conspiracy theorists who like to come up with larger schemes to understand why community criticism of a plan continues to get shot down (so to speak), but sometimes you have to really wonder what is in the minds and hearts and plans of those who have power and money. For anyone studying the machinations of big corporate and government interests over time (read Howard Zinn’s The People’s History of the United States, for starters), the drive for profit is a hungry beast. And hungry working people are all too ready to put their chainsaws to the trees if the rich will pay.

Pro-Bypass? Show me why

            If you want reasons to support the Bypass, I encourage you to go to the Environmental Impact Report produced by the US Department of Transportation, the California Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration and start picking out the reasons that make you feel like this is gonna be really good for Willits and good for California. Clearly, CalTrans is winning so far, given their ability to mow down forests and garner paramilitary support to extract tree sitters, and we’ve learned that might makes right. CalTrans Website on Willits Bypass Plan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#30 Do You Understand What's Happening?

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HAPPENING?


I

Kim standing across Highway 101 from Warbler's treesit

I decided to make that my sign’s message for the day because, as I’ve said before, I’m just learning, and I’m trying. What about everyone who isn’t even trying?

I finally downloaded two parts of the long Environmental Impact Report from 2006. Volume 1 is 112 pages.  It has this useful map (the left side here is south) showing the current route of 101, and the red line is the Bypass route going east through Little Lake Valley. I also downloaded Appendix G “Final Alternatives Analysis” which is 148 pages long. These documents are located at the CalTrans website: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1projects/willits/reports.feir.htm

 I have yet to dip into the other 3 volumes and multiple appendices (bet you can’t wait to hear about Appendices A-F!). Like the Bypass, I plan to wade through the swamp of information, but since the Bypass will take 6 years, so might I. Knowing that many of my readers want the facts, ma’am, I share two paragraphs from “Section 1.6 Potential Impacts,” enticing harbingers of what is to come. Please read (more photos to come if you promise to read first):

The primary environmental impacts associated with the proposed bypass project consist of temporary and/or permanent impacts to biological resources (see Sections 3.7 and 3.17). Among the biological resources that would be affected are sensitive plant communities and habitats (including wetlands, riparian woodlands, oak woodlands, and Baker’s meadow foam habitat), as well as federal and state wildlife species that are listed as rare, proposed, threatened, or endangered (including three federally listed salmonid species, the Northern spotted owl, and the Pacific fisher).

The potential for permanent and/or temporary impacts have been investigated for the following areas of concern: Geology and Soils (Section 3.2); Community Cohesion (Sections 3.3 and 3.18.1); Farmland (Section 3.4); Water Quality (Sections 3.5 and 3.18.2); Floodplain (Section 3.6); Cultural Resources (Section 3.8); Hazardous Materials (Sections 3.9 and 3.18.5); Visual Resources (Section 3.10); Noise (Section 3.11 and 3.18.3); Air Quality (Sections 3.12 and 3.18.4); and Growth Inducement (Section 3.16).

Are you still with me? Or did you cheat and skim? If you can’t get through just two paragraphs of this stuff, how do you expect all the residents of Willits to read and understand the messages in hundreds of pages of this environmental analysis?

From just these two paragraphs, I take away the following ideas:

1) The environmental impacts are potentially substantial, including impacts on “sensitive plant communities” and on the salmon we hope to keep running in our creeks; and

2) The list of “areas of concern” to think about are so numerous that most people don’t even want to begin thinking about them, such as the nature of our soils in the valley and what that means when CalTrans will drill their 55,000 holes 85 feet deep to pump the water out of our wetlands, or the impact of hazardous materials in the construction of the Bypass, or what the extraction of gravel for the production of cement for the Bypass at Outlet Creek will do to Outlet Creek and the Eel River, for which Outlet Creek is a tributary.

Men with chain saws just doing their job

Mostly, we don’t want to think about it. We just want to get our paychecks, like all the truly hard working police officers, chain saw operators, and CalTrans engineers, the fence builders and truck drivers, who are happy to reap the benefits of the $300 million dollar project. I get that.

When I encountered these three men who had just been cutting down trees, they told me, “This is private property.”

I said, “I’m just taking pictures of these beautiful trees while we still have them,” including this one that will be gone soon. In my congenial and sincere way, I asked, “Do you live in Willits?”

 

One replied, “Yes, we do.”

“Good!” I called out, and I meant it, adding, “I’m glad some folks in Willits are receiving the benefit of the work.” Because the reality is that many of the folks driving the trucks and doing the other work don’t come from Willits. (In my fantasy life as a reporter on this job I’ll go get stats on who in Willits is benefiting economically from the $300 million CalTrans payouts.)  I always remember the guy who stopped by the tree sit and told me he was in favor of the Bypass because, he said, “My son needs work.” I do understand the press for a paycheck.

Nevertheless, last Friday I held a sign that said, “THE JOBS WILL DISAPPEAR, THE DESTRUCTION WILL STAY.”

So while I’m trying to make sense of the economic and environmental factors here, I’m asking lots of questions. I learned that the reason the alternative railroad route was not accepted is because it was only going to be a two-lane road, and CalTrans requires a four-lane route for the ultimate bypass. However, CalTrans now plans a two-lane route through the valley, aviaduct route raised on stilts above the wetlands. So why is the proposed Bypass allowed to be two lanes, but the already existing, unused railroad route that would be two lanes was not allowed? Well, the two-lane Bypass that CalTrans plans to build is supposed to be expanded “one day” to four, which makes it permissible to build just two now.

Does that make sense to you? I mean, really, this stuff is dizzying.

Meanwhile, at a truly dizzying speed, one oak forest comes down. I have not even had time to look at the mile beyond Warbler’s tree sit that has also been decimated—perhaps for my next post.  I leave you with as much of a photo essay as my little point-and-shoot camera can provide focused just on the land around Warbler’s tree sit where I’ve been hanging out two or three times a week for two months. I go out as much as my work schedule allows. One guy flipped me off from the highway screaming, “Get a job!” I actually do have a job, as do most of the folks I meet out there, who come at the end of the work day or on the weekend to stand witness for the trees and for Warbler who still sits in her tree.

In fact, Warbler is now on a fast, seeking to pressure CalTrans to rescind their onslaught (see the SOLLV website for an update: http://www.savelittlelakevalley.org/2013/04/01/hunger-strike-demands/



Tree sitter called Falcon in his nest, west side of 101

 



5th Tree sitter in tree to left; CalTrans woman on right

Now four other tree sitters have joined her throughout the remaining forest.  

Protestors at tent site on west side of HW 101 Friday

I’m sure it’s hard to imagine all this activity. No image can capture what it feels like to see tree after tree being eaten up for a purpose that appears negligibly rational. I need a video to show that.

But here (left) is an image taken high up the hill across from Warbler’s tree sit on Friday showing the tent allowed the protestors just off Highway 101. We used to be across the street where police officers now prevent us from getting to Warbler’s tree.

 

Trees down around Warbler on Monday

And here (right) is that same hillside today, Monday, three days later, with the trees down around Warbler’s ponderosa pine. This image of Warbler in her platform shows she is much more exposed. 

I like this photo below of my friend Alex standing by the roadside as it represents the loneliness I sometimes feel standing there by myself, holding a sign, getting flipped off for every 5 waves and honks I get, just meditating on the meaning of it all.

 

Today I was joined for a little while by a family of three. Amelia (right) had visited Warbler before and was distressed to see the trees coming down, the bulldozers hauling them away—it is rather like seeing a body dragged off if you actually love trees and might even be thinking about the 300 species that make their homes in an oak forest. Amelia wasn’t thinking about the 300 species, but when she arrived, she said, “I feel sad!” Her parents and I had found some bitter irony in all the police cars guarding a woman in a tree and the sign that pointed out more irony in having an army of police protecting a building project (below). Amelia told us, “It’s not funny!”And she was right.
It’s midnight, and my job requires that I do sleep. I will return to dredging up the history and future of the Bypass anon, as well as return to the forests that graced the entrance to Willits—already I use the past tense.

But still we rise. I begin to engage utter strangers in Willits to ask, “What do you think?” Theresa at the Laundromat said, “Thank you for asking! I’m anguished over the Bypass, but it’s so hard to talk about.” A woman at the toystore launched into a tirade against the Bypass, but admitted she wasn’t doing anything about it. A Channel 3 TV poll registered 70% against the Bypass.

When will the silent majority be heard? When we have enough facts out there floating in what’s left of the wetlands?

 

#29 When the Invaders Arrive

Bulldozer hauling away destroyed oaks by HW 101

            Surely it sounds overly dramatic to say, as I did at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting this morning, that the chain saws cutting down the oak trees and the bulldozers dragging them away feel like an invasion of the Nazi army.             

 

      And yet it’s true.  I’ve often wondered how Jews and their allies felt watching the goose-stepping invaders, knowing that the clop-clop-clop of their boots, along with the ever tightening restrictions of their laws, and the power of their guns and hatred, could only bode horrendous evil.

            So, too, the onslaught of CalTrans, with the power and money that support the bypass, seem to march over the voices of those people with a more reasoned vision for an alternative.

            The Board of Supervisors meeting was called because two of the Board Members, Dan Hamburg and John Pinches, had prepared a letter of support from the Board to CalTrans for the bypass, insisting that the protesters represent a fringe element of the Willits community.

Kim speaking at the Mendocino Board of Supervisors Meeting

            In fact, the Board meeting was packed with community members, 55 of whom spoke in their allotted 3 minute segments to explain why the bypass is a bad idea. ONLY ONE PERSON spoke in favor of the bypass; he was from the Mendocino County Organization of Governments, which had voted to spend $54 million of their money to support the bypass.

            For over three hours, the rest of us who stood up and spoke represented an amazing array of perspectives. We heard about the environmental problems that will result from the construction of the bypass, including the analysis of one author who researches oak trees and reported that over 300 species intersect with oak environments like this one which was being cut down as we spoke.

            We heard about the psychological impacts of this division on the community. Local business people warned of the negative impact on commerce. A 13-year-old girl spoke to the legal violations of a board of supervisors that is not adequately protecting the interests of the people who have elected them.

            Residents of Willits for over two decades revealed the many ways that the community has offered alternatives to the now-initiated bypass, all of which were consistently disregarded in favor of the current plan. They shed light on the history of this conflict, indicating how many of the arguments—even of our supervisor Pinches—can be reduced to a “he said, she said” battle of misrepresentation and lies.

            Many Willits residents complained that the town has been hoodwinked in various ways throughout this process. For example, I learned that the original plan called for a four-lane bypass, allowing for some safety measures should traffic stall along the four-mile viaduct. That plan, however, was deemed to have too much of a negative environmental impact on the wetlands that would be drained to provide its “footprint.” The community thought that theisviaduct plan was dashed. However, a two-lane alternative replaced the four-lane scheme, and because “someone” deemed it was more viable, then the two-lanes were accepted.

Police blocking access to Warbler in her tree

            Notice my use of the passive voice. As I’ve said before, I’m still trying to figure this all out myself. In fact, the gist of my own 3-minute talk was to speak to why so many Willits people are, ONLY NOW, responding in protest to this bypass, for I’ve talked to those both in favor of the bypass and those who have had no opinion who say, “Why are they complaining now? We knew this was going to happen.” But what did we really know? I certainly had no idea.

            To the assembled supervisors and public, I said, “I’ve had property here for 25 years, and over the years, whenever I asked people about what they thought about the bypass, they said, ‘Oh, it’s so controversial, it’ll never happen.’ So people like me remained ignorant and complacent. But when Warbler went up a tree to protest the bypass, she brought attention to the horrors of this plan that we had not known. And we’ve woken up.”

            I believe, however, that the pro-bypass contingent is counting on the rest of us being ignorant. Once those of us start talking to everyone we know about some of the impacts of the bypass, they, too, express surprise. For example, one of the biggest communities within Willits is the Brooktrails neighborhood, which I go through to get to my own little dirt road community at the north end of town. But there will be only two planned off/on ramps for Willits, one at the very south end where Warbler sits in her tree, and another at the complete opposite end of town, far beyond the turn off for Brooktrails. So that means most Brooktrails residents are likely to go all the way through town to get to their turn off, rather than use the bypass anyhow. So what good is the bypass in that situation?

            Similarly, a good 30% of traffic coming into town is heading for Highway 20 to get to the Mendocino coast. They will still come most of the way into town and contribute to the infamous “bottleneck” at the Safeway just before the Highway 20 turn off.

            It’s complicated. And you see, the bypass as instigated does not resolve many of the problems that the Willits community experiences.

            Many speakers at the meeting mentioned the Old Railroad Route, the alternative that would have little impact on the community because it’s already a four-lane “road” for the no-longer used railroad, and it can be used as an alternative route for cars and trucks that do not want to get caught up in Main Street traffic. The estimates for building this route came in at $30 million, compared to the $300 million for the CalTrans route—and realistically speaking, that plan will cost $400 million before the six years of construction are over.

            Why was this community-proposed and supported “railroad route” alternative ignored? I keep asking and find no good responses. I must find out.

            When I left the Board of Supervisors meeting, I came back through the Highway 101 site where Warbler bravely continues to sit in her tree after CalTrans put in a fence and the police started blocking any access to her tree sit. They are waiting for her to get too thirsty and hungry to stay in her tree any longer.

On right, officer leading away arrestee on right

            While I watched, the police arrested four more protestors who got in the way of the chainsaws and bulldozers.

HW 101 south of Willits with police and tree cutting to right

            The website for Save Our Little Lake Valley also has more photos and information:

http://www.savelittlelakevalley.org/

            These are a few photos of the oak grove that will be cut down to pave the bypass.

Oak grove slated for destruction

        

  

 

One person commenting on my blog suggested that we all enjoy the opportunities that modern transportation have provided us by driving on freeways all the time, and so Willits is going to join modern society and enjoy progress with its own bypass. How interesting that San Francisco decided to destroy its 101 bypass, the Embarcadero Freeway, when the city realized that the freeway was destroying its way of life. Surely we pay a price for progress, but this is not the price that so many Willits residents want—and the more they learn, the less they want it, with now 1800 petitions signed to prevent the bypass in a town of 5000.

            Supervisor John Pinches claimed at the meeting that the bypass is now “a done deal.” The protestors continue to believe that Goliath can be stopped, especially as more and more people begin to understand the implications of what the cement viaduct will impose on the valley. Ignorance is no excuse for injustice and stupidity.

 

 

#28 Making Voices Heard

A month and a half after CalTrans decided to start cutting down trees in preparation for construction of the Willits Bypass, several actions have prevented them from going forward. Of course, as I’ve noted in earlier blogs, the initial interference with the CalTrans offensive on Little Lake Valley was the presence of a woman calling herself Warbler living on a platform in a tree at the southern end of the Bypass and her supporters’ continuous presence under the tree and providing Warbler with sustenance.

But protesters also called in the Fish and Game Department to call CalTrans on their lack of adequate provision for the migratory birds now nesting in the area, including inadequate biological surveys for the protection of flora and fauna living in the path of the proposed Bypass.

I’m attaching below a fact sheet  distributed by the community group Save Our Little Lake Valley or SOLLV. They are the main organizers of the protest. As I’ve said before, this struggle over to bypass or not to bypass has gone on for twenty years and involves a court case with at least three litigants, including the Willits Environmental Center and the local Farm Bureau that are protesting the impact of the proposed by pass on the wetlands and farmlands of the valley.

I recognize that I don’t have a similar fact sheet for those in favor of the Bypass, such as the amount of pollution created by the slowly moving cars and trucks that are the source of grief, or the amount of jobs purported to be created by the Bypass that local people want (including one guy who told me so when he stopped by the tree sit site while I was there holding a sign—I thanked him for letting me know).

One inarguable fact is that the bypass will essentially be a “great wall” 200 feet wide and 20 feet high, almost six miles with a mile-­long bridge passing through the middle of 2,000 acres of valley farmland,  with 400 acres taken out of agricultural production. This is the largest wetland fill of any project in northern California in over 50 years.

Just driving through the north end of the valley on Sunday afternoon, I stopped to snap this picture of tule elk lounging exactly where the bypass will come through. Hence, this sign at the side of 101 at the southern entrance to Willits begs drivers to think about tolerating the slower pace of moving through Willits so that we can save such wildlife and farmland.

Those protesting the bypass hoped to put an injunction on construction, but the court denied the injunction. An appeal is meant to be heard in June, but as a CalTrans engineer told us, since the injunction was denied, CalTrans took that as a sign to forge ahead, regardless of whether there will be an ultimate decision against the bypass upon appeal.
The next tactic of the protesters was to prevent damage to the fragile ecosystem of migrating birds where fencing was being installed last week along part of the Bypass route. The fence company was stopped from proceeding by protestors last week, some of whom sat in front of the huge ground moving equipment. Also, SOLLV asked a Fish and Game department agent to come insure that CalTrans was obeying the law with regards to inspecting for bird and frogs eggs where the excavators were digging in. Apparently, CalTrans was out of compliance, and so work was stopped on that account as well.
I was present last Wednesday at yet another show down with the police. Officer Epperson provided a positive example of an officer of the law trying to work with the protesters. He said that his job entailed defending the law, and that included defending the laws that we as protestors were defending. He indicated that we were all trespassing on state property, so he could arrest us right then and there, but he wanted to hear us out and prevent a lot of misery for everyone. What were we willing to accept? A dedicated protest site, with a porta-potty provided, where we could continue to voice our dissent while watching the construction go up before us?

That offer was, naturally, not accepted—it was actually received with laughter. One of the most vocal and omnipresent leaders of SOLLV, Sara Grusky, whipped out her analysis of how CalTrans is currently violating the law by not following the regulations of the environmental policies set by the state, and suggested that they be arrested for trespassing with their heavy equipment.

Another negotiating chip in favor of the protestors was that our state representative, Noreen Evans, had written a letter of protest on behalf of the many Willits and other constituents who had signed petitions and called her with concerns about the negative impacts of the proposed Bypass. The SOLLV protestors at the fence site said that it would be valuable to hear what our state representative suggests for resolving the impasse.

After two hours of negotiations, the officers convinced the fence company to pack up, and the protestors had a moment of cheer for our efforts. However, we were also sobered by knowing that the fence company is a local organization that has a huge contract with CalTrans, so by preventing them from working, we were costing them their livelihood. These ethical questions are deeply implicated in every aspect of this protest in ways too numerous to describe in this post alone.

In fact, such decisions are always difficult when trying to balance our daily lives against the demands of any protest against a behemoth, as anyone knows who has committed to such an action—whether walking miles to work for over a year to protest a society bent on making you a second-class citizen at the back of the bus; or going to jail in opposition to a war started on implausible criteria; or railing against a corporation whose production creates environmental hazards to which the rest of society is blind—even at the cost of alienating valued neighbors and friends; or living in a tree for weeks, if not months on end, when the wind and rain blows, and hot meals and close contact with loved ones are rare.

 

So when does one decide to throw off job and social connections in favor of a battle in which the few are confronting the mighty? How do we know if we did enough? And how do we know absolutely what is the right thing to do?

 

As I struggle with these questions, I am happy to receive your own comments on dealing with this particular battle of the Bypass or similar battles that pit so many people against one another in harsh ways.

 

Here is some of the information from the SOLLV group below, as well as in an attached PDF:

 

Willits Bypass Fact Sheet compiled by David Partch

Congestion Relief?
*The Bypass will divert only 20-30% of traffic, including trucks. It will not eliminate stop and go traffic for at least 70% of the remaining traffic and will eliminate only a small part of congestion.

*An alternative solution could divert almost all truck traffic off of Main St. and virtually eliminate stop and go traffic entirely.

*The projected future increase in traffic along the 101 corridor (used by Caltrans to justify the Bypass) has not been realized since predicted. Instead there has even been a slight decline. There are also reasons to believe this trend will continue.

* The congestion at the Hwy 20 turn off was introduced ~20 years ago, when Caltrans re-striped the northbound approach to a single lane, eliminating a critical right-turn capability. The backup started the very next day. This has greatly contributed to the perception that we need a Bypass to solve the problem – a problem that was artificially created with poor traffic engineering.

*A proposal at the Willits City Council to resolve our traffic problems with an alternative route through town by connecting Railroad Ave. to Baechtel Ave. was discouraged by MCOG Executive Direct, Phil Dow, with the argument that alleviating the backup would reduce local support for a Bypass.

*All Hwy 20 traffic (including trucks) will continue to use Main St. since there is no central connectivity with the Bypass (and there are no future plans for it either).

*The southern interchange is designed to require Willits traffic coming from the South to exit the freeway on the right, stop at the end of the off-ramp and then turn left to proceed into town. This will inevitably create a new bottleneck and inconvenience for drivers coming into Willits.

*The northern interchange will create similar unnecessary inconveniences for vehicles coming in and out of Willits only to go from one 2-lane road right back to another.

Local Economic Impacts

 

*14-26 (out of 118) Willits businesses will fail due to the Bypass. In addition, any remaining businesses will suffer at least a 10% loss of revenue. This will mean a significant loss of sales tax revenues.

* The southern interchange of the Bypass has been designed to accommodate a freeway-style business section (gas stations, restaurants, motels) outside of the city limits which could further erode business in Willits and the city’s sales tax revenues.

*90% of local business owners/managers on Main St. have signed a petition voicing their opposition to the Bypass in its current design.

*Caltrans has already started to retreat from their assurances to ranchers (some forced to sell their lands into the Mitigation Trust) that they would be able to lease back their lands for grazing. This could have a considerable negative impact on the local production of meat products.

*No funding is allocated (thru relinquishment or otherwise) to make necessary and desirable enhancements to Main St. in conjunction with the Bypass project. The relinquishment offered to the city is only enough to cover the cost of bringing sidewalks into ADA compliance (something that should have happened years ago at Caltrans expense anyway, since they own the road).

*The relinquishment funds include nothing for future maintenance costs that will be incurred by the City of Willits after the relinquishment.

*The Bypass together with its Mitigation Plan requires the purchase of ~2000 acres of farmland. Much of this will be taken out of production. All of it will be removed from the county tax base.

*Through MCOG the entire county has committed >31 million of its own STIP funds (State Transportation Improvement Program) to the Bypass, virtually eliminating years of funding that would have been better spent on other local transportation improvement projects (including, among other things, money for public transportation and bike/pedestrian trails.

Construction Impacts

* Piles must be driven as deep as 100 feet into the ground to build the viaduct section of the bypass (>1 mile in length). 1,600 piles are needed. Each pile will require up to 2,210 strikes at decibel levels of 187 – 220. (For comparison a jet taking off is 140 decibels.) Because the noise from pile driving will kill the fish in near-by streams, Caltrans has been required to hunt down and find the fish and temporarily relocate them. This noisy pile driving will go on for three years from 7am – 7pm. And this is just for half of the proposed 4-lane bypass.

*A conservative estimate of 95,000 tons of CO2 per year of construction will be dumped into the atmosphere. That is a total of at least 380,000 tons over the construction period (probably a lot more). Caltrans claims that the Bypass will reduce CO2 emissions because it will reduce stop and go traffic. However, it will take 70-80 years for their calculated emissions savings to compensate for the construction impact. And that does not take emissions due to future Bypass maintenance into account. It also ignores the fact that alternative solutions could greatly reduce stop and go traffic for

all of the vehicles passing through Willits – not just the 20-30% that would utilize the Bypass.

*The construction of the bypass (Phase 1 only) will require 1,400,000 cubic yds of fill. This will require 140,000 dump truck loads or an average of 22 loads/per hour over the construction period (200 days/yr X 4 yrs X 8 hrs/day). Many of these trucks will inevitably need to pass through town (and Caltrans has repeatedly refused to make any promises to the contrary, claiming they cannot impose rules on the contractors).

*Construction will require the use of haul roads through wetlands that that supposedly will be restored. Caltrans has offered no explanation or plans for how these wetlands will be de-compacted and "restored" after completion of the Bypass (the possible success of which is highly controversial).

*Placing huge amounts of fill dirt on top of wetlands will require that the ground below will need to be drained and collapsed (intentionally compacted) by the insertion of 55,000 wick drains. This will form an underground dam across the flood plane with unpredictable underground hydrological effects.

*The process of placing the fill dirt itself will require the use of huge (and unspecified) amounts of water. Where this water will come from is unclear. Probably it will come from wells on the surrounding Mitigation lands – either existing or new. This excessive extraction of water would have a dramatic impact on the groundwater level and, therefore, all the other wells in the valley.

*No monitoring plan has been set forth for the impact on the water quality of the creeks that the haul roads will have to cross.

Physical Impacts

*Since the Bypass route cuts through the valley bottom, it will all have to be a raised structure (from 10-30 feet above the valley floor). Much of this distance cuts right through a flood plane. The section closest to the city will rise to 30 feet (over the railroad tracks). Part of this will be a viaduct (a bridge-like structure) ~1 mile in length. It will pass over Commercial and East Valley – and our sewer plant. The rest of this section will be a huge dirt wall (2-3 stories in height) that will represent a dam to the flood waters (not to mention a visual abomination).

*This elevated section with greatly increased vehicle speeds will project an intolerable level of noise throughout the valley and up into the surrounding hills (especially from the trucks).

 

Social Considerations

 

*The Bypass has been a deeply divisive issue in our community. There are strong feelings on both sides of the fence. These divisions will continue and possibly even intensify in the coming years, especially as the real consequences of the Bypass become more and more apparent.

* Caltrans has repeatedly and consistently refused to work together with members of our community to resolve disputes – even with people strongly in favor of the Bypass but concerned about certain aspects of the design (like the lack of a Hwy 20 interchange) and much to the exasperation of even those City Council members who favored the bypass. It seems as though very few people in the community are entirely happy with the Bypass as it is being crammed down our throats.

 

 

 

#27 The Warbler in a Tree

             Last week I interviewed Warbler, the woman sitting 60 feet up in a Ponderosa pine tree just off Highway 101 south of Willits. Why did she decide to go live on a platform 4’ by 8’ in the winter? And how is the town of Willits reacting?
            The latter question is driving me to distraction as I begin to investigate the suitability of a gigantic cement Bypass as a response to the problem of traffic and pollution in Willits. With a sign of protest, I stand by the freeway where construction is slated to start. Over the ninety minutes, I counted the responses by passing motorists: 3 out of 4 honked and waved, seemingly showing support of the protest; 1 in 4 gave me a thumbs down, flipped me off, or screamed an obscenity. So while this unscientific survey indicates more support for the protest than support for the Bypass, those enraged by the protest have their perspective, too.
            The issues are long and complex to confront. For over twenty years the Bypass has been under discussion and argument, including in a court case now. I have lots of homework to do to understand all the history, sub- issues and perspectives.
           Essentially, the problem is that Highway 101 just south of Willits becomes a two-lane road and heads through Willits on its Main Street. As a result, all kinds of tourists, huge freight trucks, and local traffic are vying for space for three miles going through Willits. Many of us learn which side streets will get us around the worst of the traffic, but during the commute hours and the season of tourists heading up and down 101, we can spend long minutes of crawling along. Not 45 or 60 minutes, as in Bay Area or Sacramento area traffic that I’m familiar with, but ten or fifteen minutes to get through town on 101.
        The other crucial problem is the by-product of pollution created by the idling cars and trucks which can last longer for hours in the peak tourist season as the slow snake of traffic winds through town. Willits residents are rightfully concerned about having to breathe the fumes day after day, hour after hour.
        So CalTrans and the city Powers-That-Be devised the Bypass. I’ll save for another time the history of the various forms that the proposed Bypass has taken, including alternative routes that seemingly have far less impact on the local environment. Those impacts I’ll also discuss in coming posts.
        But for now, let’s look up this tree and learn about the woman who has captured the hearts and raised the ire of many Willits residents.

“Warbler,” her adopted name for this tree sit, comes from Colorado. Aged 24, she has been in Willits for four years, living on a small farm where she has been milking goats and cultivating organic produce. Last year she became involved in the dispute over the Bypass when she learned how the proposed freeway would destroy the farmland very near where she herself was living and working.

         The Bypass will require the drilling of 55,000 holes 85 feet deep by a couple of feet wide to compact the dirt and pump out, by this force, water in the aquifer of Little Lake Valley. Willits lies in this valley, which is a watershed for the Eel River, collecting water from the surrounding hills and mountains, and sending the water further south. The fear is the extraction of so much water and the impact of the cement viaduct over a few miles through the valley will greatly reduce the natural resource so valuable to local farmers—which is one reason why the Farm Bureau is a party to a court case that sought an injunction against the Bypass.
        Concerned for the agricultural and environmental impacts of the massive structure, Warbler and other activists from the group Save Our Little Lake Valley (SOLLV) sought a way to prevent the imposition of the Bypass. Warbler took the advice of the Cascadia Forest Defenders and decided to take the dire step into a tree top as a way to bring attention to the dire consequences of the Bypass.  “We were running out of options to prevent the Bypass, and CalTrans was ready to start chopping down trees.”
         When I asked her what kind of sacrifice this is for her, Warbler said that she hardly thought it about because she’s used to living simply and she is easily adaptable. “People come every day to help take care of me—bringing food and taking care of my needs.”
        She emphasized that this tree sit is not nearly as romantic as that of Julia Butterfly who sat in a huge redwood tree for over 700 days in order to prevent the chainsaw from taking down that old growth tree and those nearby. Warbler’s tree is much smaller in diameter, and she has fewer options for creating a variety of “living” spaces among its branches than the gigantic redwood tree offered Julia. Worst of all, being only 50 feet from the four-lane highway, she endures constant noise from the traffic. But she is determined to make the best of it.
        I will return with more of the issues that frame the Bypass battle. It involves a common array of players in many social struggles: economic scarcity; the roles of big money, status, and power; the conflict between environmentalists and those seeking to capitalize on natural resources; health concern; battle fatigue; and generous doses of self-righteousness from every side—from those holding up signs to those flipping off the sign holders.
        The huge machine of CalTrans, slated to get $300 million to create the Bypass, is the favored winner of this battle. So why bother sitting in a tree or standing by the road?
        I’m gnawing on that question daily.

#26 Thinking Urbanly, Acting Locally

A woman sits in a Ponderosa pine tree on a hilltop overlooking the loud freeway of 101. Warbler, she calls herself. She is perched on a slight wooden frame, perhaps 50 feet up, there to protest the looming devastation that will be the Willits Bypass if CalTrans gets its way (and the way of those Willits residents who have been convinced that the Bypass is useful or who simply don’t know or don’t care).

I’ve been one of the residents who didn’t know what the implications of the Bypass are for the Little Lake Valley and its watershed. For twenty years, various local organizations have contested the Bypas. The case against CalTrans is now in court, to be heard in June of this year.
 






However, construction suddenly threatened to start at the end of January, including the topping of these humongous oak trees down to 40 feet, before bird nesting might start in February. That was when Warbler climbed the tree.

And that was when this forest woman, yours truly, decided to get back in gear, not only with this blog but with connection to local life in the community down the mountain. The Urban Mountain Woman is back!

Since last July, I’ve been busy working as an editor on book projects, traveling to the Bay Area often and even to Southern California and Arizona both for work-related interviews and to connect with elders, family, and friends.

 I’ve also been settling into my many routines on the mountain: ashes in, wood out for the woodstove; water in for the solar batteries (see Blog #22 “Solar Powered”), pee bucket rinsed out from the composting toilet (see Blog #21 “Not for the Squeamish”); light the candle to type out this missive since the sun was blocked by fog today. I’ve found wonderfully epiphanal moments in which I’ve been able to disconnect from the larger world and focus on the immediate world around me, something I haven’t done much of in years, if ever. Hiking these here hills and creating new trails out of old lumber roads have provided much needed respite (see Blog #25 “Taking Care of the Forest, The Forest Taking of Care Me”).

 As I told a friend the other day, after tending to the gardens of students before me day after day for so many years, I’ve needed to tend to the forest before me, and here find some rejuvenation. As Voltaire wrote in Candide, after the hero’s journeys and misadventures far and wide, in the end, “we must cultivate our garden.”

Then what? Rabbi Hillel asked the questions that make us seek a balanced approach to giving and taking:
          If I am not for myself, who will be for me.
          If I am only for myself, what am I?
          If not now, when?
Some of us make the betterment of society a way of life—whether it be choosing to work in schools, clinics, or social support agencies, or volunteering to clean up beaches, or becoming a civil servant. That way of life can be fulfilling, yet it may also become draining. Knowing when to take a break from the pressures that consume us (if we can, and if we can convince ourselves that we can) is vital. I shared in my blog post (#24) called “Ch-ch-ch-changing” my own struggle with giving and doing too much over nearly three decades. Hence, I followed the call to build trails in the forest rather than assign yet more homework in classrooms.

Once rejuvenated, finding a way to re-enter the fray when ready is also vital. As an urban teacher all these years with a conscience for social justice, my contributions to the “betterment of society” have focused on what I could do in classrooms that would help students coming from often disenfranchised backgrounds to feel that they had the support they needed to achieve a college education and a better life, as a result. Here I am in the woods. Now what?

Now I heed the voices that have accompanied me since the movements of the 1960s took root in the 1970s and truly blossomed in the 1980s, reduced to one apt bumper sticker slogan: Think globally, act locally.

A Voice From the Tree
Warbler’s life in the tree has moved me greatly, her spare life on a mere piece of plywood. And so many other local voices that are rising in unison against this Bypass. The voices of the local Pomo Band of Native Californians who protest the uprooting of grasses that supply their baskets, not to mention the further desecration of their homeland. The voices of ranchers and farmers whose land was taken by eminent domain with no heed for the needs they have to keep their businesses viable. The voices of local activists who pointed out the stupidity of the state plan in relation to actual traffic implications examined in expensive studies. The voices of environmentalists raising the alarm about the impact of 55,000 drill holes 3 feet wide and 85 feet deep on what has been a vital part of the Pacific migratory bird flyway. After all, it isn’t called Little Lake Valley for nothing!

These are the voices I will now start listening to more ardently, all the while examining how this state agency has been able to have its way, who decides what is best for a community, and how this struggle between cement and cars, on the one hand, versus just one hundred voices lifting up might become a force of life and light in this valley.






If it just takes one tree sitter to rile us to action, who knows? Stay tuned. I interviewed Warbler and will share what the Pomo say, as well as the many other voices now speaking out.