Environmental groups cheered a temporary gain in the Sinkyone Wilderness when lumber giant Georgia-Pacific was required to postpone clearcutting in the Sally Bell Grove until April, giving the groups more time to find a buyer for the property.
G-P’s timber harvest plan had been approved by the California Department of Forestry earlier in December, although CDF required that the company hold off logging until spring.
Arlo Hagler and Robert Sutherland of the Environmental Protection Information Center, Ricardo Tapia of the International Indian Treaty Council, and Richard and Nonie Gienger of the Sinkyone Wilderness Council all expressed their dismay over CDF’s approval of the plan, which they believed was contrary to a recent court judgment.
Over 500 items of public input opposing the timber harvest plan, including postcards, letters, and expert testimony, were submitted to CDF, Richard Gienger said. He added that Save-the-Redwoods League had already committed $500,000 towards purchase of the land.
Tapia, speaking for Native Americans’ concerns about the archaeological site, declared, “This part of Mother Earth is something special to all of us, not just indigenous people.”
*****
Calling Highway 101 “the forgotten highway,” the Tri-State Highway 101 Council was seeking $15 billion from the federal gas-tax trust fund to make improvements on 101.
Second District Supervisor Harry Pritchard, Humboldt County’s representative on the council, stated, “You can’t have economic development without an adequate highway.”
Plenty of money from the gas-tax trust fund was available to improve highways, but in California 60-65 percent of the federal money goes to 15 percent of the highways, Pritchard said, particularly to high-volume interstates like I-5.
Pritchard cited particular problem areas in Cloverdale, Hopland, and Leggett in Mendocino County, and locally at Richardson Grove.
*****
In a precursor to today’s familiar 401(k) retirement plans, the Southern Humboldt Unified School District Board of Trustees approved a program to place 8 percent of teachers’ salaries in tax-deferred accounts.
Kathy Gunther, president of the Southern Humboldt Teachers Association (SHTA), told the board that district teachers favored the plan, which would reduce the bite income taxes take from their paychecks.
SHTA had also elected its contract negotiating team, Gunther said, as well as a grievance committee to deal with teacher complaints.
*****
Sales of satellite dishes boomed in Southern Humboldt in the year following a new federal law allowing individuals to receive TV signals with a dish, called TVRO (television reception only).
Even the prospect of increased fees from installers and networks didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of hill dwellers, described by Redwood Record staff writer Paul DeMark as the “80’s answer to cabin fever syndrome.”
Bill Roddy, then an employee of Carlson’s Electronics in Garberville, said that an estimated 219 TV stations are available to TVRO owners, ranging from traditional networks, CNN, ESPN, to the Playboy Channel.
Cable companies and TV networks were becoming alert to the revenue-enhancing possibilities of dish ownership. Some companies began scrambling their signals so that only satellite dishes outfitted with a special decoder could receive their transmissions.
Font Resize
