#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.

#44 The Trials of Caltrans On Trial

Will Parrish in crane by moonlight July 2013

     While the Caltrans Willits Bypass builders and supporters are surely hoping the protestors will just shut up and go away, bypass protestors hope that the heinous acts of Maltrans will not escape notice or go unpunished.

Native American Site Destruction
     That includes the destruction of an indigenous Pomo heritage site that Caltrans desecrated by dumping 3 feet of fill on top of the site in the mismanagement of the bypass planning. In mid-October, the National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution supporting the Sherwood Valley Rancheria in their grievance against Caltrans and seeking to prevent further construction and funding for the bypass project. (The link connects to more information on this topic in an essay written by Will Parrish at the Save Our Little Lake Valley.)

The Mitigation Budget Debacle
     Also hitting the news stands in our hinterlands is the recent revelation that Caltrans budgeted a mere $12.7 million to mitigate the damage they are doing to the wetlands, creeks, forests, and critters as part of their 4-lane, 6-mile Freeway for the Few. The mitigation work includes tasks such as erosion control, replanting, and control of herbicides. However, the bids that came in started at $39 million from contractors prepared to do the massive mitigation work. (Connect here to an article by Linda Williams in The Willits News, Oct. 25.) Caltrans does not have the money to pay them. Shouldn't they be forced to stop until they do--if they ever will?
      This budgeting discrepancy follows on a September report from the Water Quality Control Board finding 140 problems with the way Caltrans has handled the bypass in relation. Again, shouldn't they be forced to stop? But no one seems to make the leviathan halt.
     How can we trust the supposedly expert engineering outfit of Caltrans, with its environmental report on how it will clean up its mess and restore sensitive wetlands when it has so grossly underestimated what it says it will do? It reminds me of those bolts in the Bay Bridge that Caltrans wrongly engineered.

Will Parrish’s Trial in the Ukiah County Courthouse starting November 12

Will Parrish in the Crane

       Also in the news is the upcoming trial of Will Parrish. He was the young man who spent 12 days 50’ high in a crane that was used to pummel plastic “wicks” 85 feet deep into 40 acres of wetlands. For many millennia, these wetlands have been the water collection site for six creeks that flow into Little Lake Valley, a feeding ground for elk and the spawning waters for three kinds of salmon. Yet in a mere few months, Caltrans is destroying this precious wetland.


Will lived on this tiny platform
for nearly 2 weeks

     When Will was arrested, he decided that he would put Caltrans on trial. He and his lawyer, Omar Figueroa, will be using the opportunity to bring to the public the ways that Caltrans has, with impunity, violated their own contracts relating to mitigation efforts and their desecration of the Pomo archaeological site and more.

Will Parrish

    However, Will is being charge with multiple felony counts, one for each day that he was in the crane. And Caltrans is also slapping him with $500,000 in restitution fees for the work that they were not able to do with their expensive machinery and highly paid contractors during the days he was using the crane himself.

Restitution?!
         The fact that peaceful protestors engaged in civil disobedience could have to pay for the damage they have done to the company that they are objecting to is a new twist on civil disobedience. Imagine if all those involved in the Birmingham Bus Boycott had to pay back the bus company for the money the bus business lost when their customers decided to walk for miles over more than a year rather than take a bus that forced them to sit in the back. Remember the businesses in South Africa that started hurting when American investors stopped investing in South Africa in order to force South Africa to stop its heinous use of apartheid. What if they required American investors to pay them back for profit lost? Really?
        Obviously, the profit gained by Caltrans contractors is for a cause seen as quite reasonable by the bypass promoters and acceptors (as was slavery and segregation in their times). The "m-f-ing" environmentalists (as we are called) are the ones who are the problem in this scenario. The climate change that is increasingly in the news and that we see as deeply connected to the destruction of this little valley’s micro-climate is mere poppycock to Caltrans engineers and their chainsaw wielding, bulldozer driving supporters. How do we convince the deniers otherwise?

Caltrans "Insular Culture"

You can see the big difference between the huge swath of
land required for 4 lanes compared to 2.

       Caltrans’ “insular culture” is finally catching attention. State Senator Mark DeSaulnier has authored two bills to create more vigilance over Caltrans accountability. In a recent radio program aired on our local station, the senator and our local Caltrans watch expert, Rich Estabrook, discussed  how Caltrans convinced local authorities in and around Willits that a 4-lane freeway was the answer to our traffic “congestion.”
         As you may recall from my earlier posts, we only have 8000 cars leaving and entering Willits to the north on an average daily basis. It was pure manipulation using technical terms, such as Level of Service C, that allowed Caltrans to make people believe that their way is the only way.
         We are still working to have them reduce the northern interchange from 4 lanes to 2 and thus enormously reduce the impact on the wetlands at that northern end of our valley.
          Stay tuned for what is to come of Will’s trial and the effort to bring the corruption, the shortsighted science, and the harmful mismanagement to light.

#43 OCT. 12TH RALLY! They haven't poured the cement yet....

 

            It’s hard to be in the position of begging a bully to let up even for a minute, but that’s where we are at when it comes to trying to prevent the total destruction of the Little Lake Valley wetlands. Since Caltrans has plowed through the valley and created its “boot print” for the future onslaught of more fill and cement, we are hoping to at least reduce the northern interchange from a 4-lane set of on-and-off ramps (see photo below of the Caltrans plan)  to 2 lanes. That would reduce the impact on the wetlands where that interchange is being built, and it would reduce the impact on the general environment of so many extra truck loads of fill and cement, etc.

4-lane northern interchange, Caltrans Plan

            A good rationale for that scaling back exists in that a 4-lane freeway is built for 40,000 cars, according to the Federal Highway standards that Caltrans relies on, but Caltrans data show that only 8000 cars enter and leave Willits to the north on an average daily basis. So is asking for 2 lanes really too much to ask?

2 lane alternative interchange plan

         Some of our city council thought so. Councilwoman Madge Strong had written a letter to the governor asking for a work change order on the northern exchange, with excellent analysis. She wanted the Willits City Council to endorse the request—the very least that our political representatives could do to reduce the huge impact on the valley by Caltrans. About 20 citizens spoke in favor of Strong’s letter to change the work order. Two spoke against.
            However, one councilman insisted that he actually didn’t really care about the bypass because he is only concerned with water and sewage as they impact the city. This statement created a cry of surprise from the audience, given that the destruction of 40 acres of wetlands and the drilling of wickdrains 85 feet into our valley floor will conceivably have a huge impact on our water supply, flooding, aquifer, and more.

Flyover photo by Steve Eberhard of Caltrans work on
the northern interchange--former wetland

            The other councilman present called Strong’s letter a “frivolous” request, and he noted that if we want political change in our society, we either follow the rule of law (which, one might say, was the purpose of Strong’s letter, appealing to our legal authorities) or “you can go out and shoot people.” Gasp, gasp!
            Needless to say, the divisions of ideology and communication in this town run deep.


Former wetland, now a "wick field"
(Photo by Steve Eberhard)

           



     In order to rally support for scaling back of the northern interchange and to have some ceremonial closure to the end of Caltrans’ season of destruction, Save Our Little Lake Valley is co-hosting a Rally for the Wetlands on Oct. 12. The rally will take place on land right across from the wetlands—or our former wetlands—and will feature music, poetry, speakers, and peaceful civil disobedience. One speaker is going to be Julia Butterfly, who sat in a redwood tree for over 2 years in order to protest the cutting of old growth redwoods. She was an inspiration to our Warbler who occupied a ponderosa pine tree for two months starting in late January and kicked off our movement here to halt the Caltrans bypass.
            Other featured speakers will come from the local Pomo Sherwood Rancheria. A Pomo

Willits Pomo site on older map of Native lands

archaeological site was supposed to be protected from Caltrans plans to dump fill in the area, but someone changed the plan without consulting the tribe—or apparently even reading the plan!—and so the Native folks must endure having three feet of fill on top of their sacred site, yet another outrage by the white man.
            Using numbers found on a petition signed by over 1481 people earlier in the year protesting the Caltrans bypass, I called and emailed about 50 people to inform them about the upcoming rally. Given that Willits has about 5000 people within the city limits, 1481 is a good chunk of the adult population against the bypass. I got to talk to a few people and asked them what they thought about the bypass.
            One woman had clearly changed her feelings since she signed the petition. “Those protestors are costing us millions of dollars. When Caltrans came in, they gave us jobs, like for my son who’s a contractor. They discussed the plan enough for twenty years, so let them build it.” I did not try to argue with her.
            Others had this to say: “I’m dismayed by the bypass, but what can you do when it comes to taking action against a big corporation?” Another said, “There’s not much we can do about it now.” Said one woman, “I have five kids I’m trying to take care of, so even though I don’t like what they’re doing to the environment, I just haven’t been able to be involved.” Another man was wistful. “I wish they’d stop because they’re having an awful impact on the wetlands and we need those wetlands.”
            There it is: Many who have read the news and care about what’s happening have not done much to make it stop, either because of their own pressing and real obligations to work and family or because they feel powerless, a David facing a Goliath without even a slingshot to defend himself with.
            I told them all, Here’s one more chance to raise your voice. We are not alone and weak when we are together and inspired.
            So let’s hope lots of people show up, write letters, and realize that we can still have an impact.

Swath of the boot print thus far for the Caltrans' 6-mile long bypass (Photo by Steve Eberhard)

           Radio programs continue to feature the problem and provide opportunities for some of our most knowledgeable citizens to speak on the issue. One featured on Time of Useful Consciousness radio had an excellent interview with the Willits Environmental Center’s Ellen Drell and another local traffic analyst Christopher Martin, called A $300 Million Freeway Bypass Built on Wetlands - and on a Lie."
            Meanwhile, our larger society faces a huge government shut down. A local Congressman continues to get paid his $175,000 while other federal workers earning far, far less are out of their paychecks and children in Headstart programs are denied their food. Of course, a lack of caring for community and the environment is not limited to Willits by any means.

#42 In the Dumps, In the News

What WAS Little Lake Valley Wetlands, North of Willits
(All Photos by Steve Eberhard)

The wetland turned into a wickfield, soon to be covered by dirt

In the Dumps: Irreversible Destruction to the Wetlands

Southern "Interchange" where Warbler's Ponderosa Pine once was.
The hill to the right is where the bulldozer I was locked to was.
This hill is now being used to create "fill," dumped on the wetlands to the north.

            For the last three weeks, caravans of dump trucks have been travelling up and down the Main Street of Willits at night.


  Back in May we were protesting the drilling of 55,000 wickdrains into the wetlands 85 feet deep. Those plastic wickdrains serve to pump the water out of the deep ground after 20’-30’ of dirt is piled on top. Wetlands are like a sponge. The fill on top will compress the sponge and press out the water. The wetlands of Little Lake Valley are being irreversibly destroyed every day now.

A one-container truck being filled by day

Their lights and heft and numbers resemble an invading army. With one or two enormous containers filled with dirt from the very hill where I was once locked to a bulldozer at the south end of town, the trucks caravan to the north end of town to dump their loads on what were our beautiful wetlands.

What was the wetlands, now a "wickfield"

 

 

 

 

 

(Left, plastic wicks)

 

 

 

Arrests continue: Not to be stuck in the dumps about this desecration, resistance continues, from mere crosswalk delays to prevent the trucks from making faster progress to recent lockdowns on a truck by two young people (right), preventing the caravan from delivering their death blows for 8 hours.

       Such desperate acts of civil disobedience have been spurred by citizens' failure to be taken seriously by city councils, the board of supervisors, the governor’s office, and courts of law. Undeterred, opponents to the bypass continue insisting on the insanity of kowtowing to the Caltrans vision of progress.

       But we have been heard by several news outlets that also wonder if this bypass is not a “boondoggle,” given that it’s a major freeway design to carry 40,000 cars when only 8000 cars on average head in and out of Willits to the north. 70% of the traffic congestion is from Willits area residents who have been asking for alternate routes through town for years.

     This brief ABC video outlines some of the key issues with great visuals regarding the amount of actual traffic that leaves Willits to the north. ABC asks why this rural town deserves so much money for an unnecessary freeway, while the Bay Area continues to suffer from transportation nightmares.

      The Willits News posted a wonderful aerial overview done by their intrepid photojournalist Steve Eberhard, showing the Caltrans plan in comparison to what has actually occurred thus far.

      KGO out of San Francisco has done several stories about the Willits Bypass debacle, always . For a hot minute, county authorities questioned whether Caltrans was taking fill dirt from a toxic area: Here are two stories on that, one from Aug. 26th and their story from Aug. 28.

       On Aug. 23 the Army Corps of Engineers questions whether Caltrans was complying with its environmental mitigation plans. The actual letter from the ACE is here.

        Willits was also in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 24th in an article that detailed what both proponents and opponents are saying about the bypass.

 

       While I'm heartened that we gave gotten this attention, we cannot ignore the daily ravages that we cannot seem to stop. Given the $300 million at Caltrans’ disposal, they could buy an army of contractors with huge machines and buy the use of the police force to protect them, so Caltrans has now completed 25% of their planned bypass. Protestors have used every means possible to alert the public to the expensive, unnecessary, and damaging impacts of their plan, compared to a plan devised by the community to reduce traffic congestion (yes, we want that, too) but in a way consistent with protecting the vital resources we have in this valley.

           This valley was called Little Lake Valley because the winter and spring flow down the hills from six creeks surrounding the valley transformed that north end into a virtual lake. In turn, that water feeds into Outlet Creek to the north of Willits, which in turn feeds into the Eel River. We are a vital part of a watershed for elk, salmon, and other creatures that traversed those wetlands for eons. Now an underground dam and a thirty foot tall earthen and cement barrier will destroy that habitat—and it didn’t have to happen that way.

Do We See Ourselves as Protectors of the Earth or As Dominators?

    Since I last posted to my blog after my jail time, I’ve been working hard on another job. I am not, in fact, a “worthless welfare environmentalist” as I’ve been called by bypass proponents. In fact, I’ve been writing a book about an inspirational man, Malcolm Margolin, who started a publishing company called Heyday, now a "cultural institution." Among many virtues of Heyday, thier books contribute to protecting the natural environment and the heritage of the First Peoples here in California. Malcolm initiated Heyday in 1974 with a book about the natural and cultural history of the East Bay Regional Parks. He went on to write The Ohlone Way, a book that captured the way of life of the Ohlone people in the larger San Francisco-Monterey area.

        What Malcolm said about those Native Californians’ early way of life reflects the values of those seeking to protect Little Lake Valley from the Caltrans Willits Bypass: “The Ohlones lived in a world where people were few and animals were many, …they lived in a world where the animal kingdom had not yet fallen under the domination of the human race and where (how difficult it is for us to fully grasp the implication of this!)  people did not yet see themselves as the undisputed lords of all creation” (p. 12).

One of many roadside demos

       How we relate to nature is at the essence of this battle over the future of Little Lake Valley. The California Highway Patrol officer who arrested me and my companion explained on our ride to the Mendocino County Jail that he did not believe that global climate change is a true phenomenon, and that “God gave man the power to be stewards of the earth.” Therein lies the difference between those who dominate and pillage this valley, and those who seek to protect creation.

   

"Condor" in the last stand of trees to be felled

 

 

    Meanwhile, the last treesitter in a tree that has been continuously befriended is soon to be evicted as Caltrans has begun to cut down the last little forest in the path of the bypass. The ravages continue.