The MILL CREEK TRIP with the Save the Redwoods League.
It was sunny and cool on California's North coast yesterday (12/7/02). We drove my mom's 1975 plymouth valiant north from Eureka and had a pleasant journey on highway 101. Stopped to take pictures of the ocean and the Redwood Sculpture shops on the way. Saw a herd of ELK relaxing near a freeway onramp. There were 10 ELK sitting on the grass right next to the freeway. We found the meeting place with ease. My dad is a member of the Save the Redwoods League and he gave us the invitation to the event.
LINK TO MORE PHOTOGRAPHS OF MILL CREEK
I find that the MAIN contributor was Paul G Allen of Microsoft corporation. The league purchased a large piece of land at MILL CREEK (3 miles south of Crescent City). There were 50 people there. Park rangers, a photographer from the local paper, league members and VIPs from ecology organizations. The rangers opened the GATE and we all drove to an abandoned SAWMILL. The Stimpson lumber company had a HUGE SAWMILL AND OFFICE BUILDING COMPLEX there. It is a ghost town now. There were 4 GIANT buildings,10 small office buildings and 2 HUGE parking lots. We listened to speeches by the rangers and ECO-leaders. They talked a lot about the Salmon in the creek. This entire area is off-limits to the public. The rangers say that they have NO MONEY for paying rangers salaries so they JUST KEEP THE GATE LOCKED. It seems that there is no possibility that the public will be allowed to visit this area anytime soon. We then drove on a dirt road to the top of a mountain and listened to more speeches. I drove and we took 2 people in the back seat. He was a "SOIL" teacher at Humboldt State and she was a student. In the forestry department at school they study DIRT and he is an expert. NOT KIDDING!!! At the top of the mountain there were large areas that had been logged. You could see exactly where the private land ended and the park land started. We could see the ocean. One ironic fact of life... Loggin roads allow people to drive to beautiful places with fantastic views. Clearcutting the forest removes the trees that block the view. We both took lots of photographs. The rangers are concerned about the roads washing away and the dirt ending up in the creeks. Salmon hate dirt in the water. There is little money to maintain the logging roads and they will just wash away... The piles of burnt stumps will wash into the water also. There is no plan for the Stimpson Lumber company to clean up their mess. I could see mudslides across the valley. After an area has been clearcut, the rain is no longer absorbed by the tree's branches. This causes parts of the mountain to just slide downhill into the creek. I'm really comfortable with leaving the gate closed at the beginning of the road. High school classes can take field trips there. Researchers can still enter and count fish. However, the area will be a "HUMAN-FREE" zone for most of the time. Eventually the buildings and the roads will rust and become dirt again.
After we finished with the visit to the MILL CREEK property. We drove North to Crescent City. We stopped at the beach and watched 10 surfers riding small beautiful waves. Long rides on gentle waves. Victoria says it would be a good place to learn surfing. The sun was setting behind a giant rock in the water. I walked across the street to photograph sculptures of American Indians done in Redwood. 4 foot tall portraits of an Indian face wearing a wolf's head hat. There was a double decker hippy bus that had a tye-dye shirt business. Then we drove thru town looking for the WAL-MART. Eureka does not have a WAL-MART store so it's a required stop of any trip to Crescent City. We bought some jeans for Vic and some VCR movies and left quickly. Both of us felt claustrophobic and anxious in the store. Then we stopped in a gas station. GAS IS 30 CENTS A GALLON CHEAPER THERE. It is another example of a corrupt RACKET. What makes gas cost $1.85 in Eureka and $1.55 in CC ? One of the things that we learned from the Park Rangers was that they are experiencing budget problems and the State of California wants them to give money back. In my opinion, the theft of $10,000,000,000 (10 billion dollars) by PG&E is causing damage to the people of California. There ought to be a law against stealing money from the government. OH, there IS a law... It just does not apply to PG&E. I think that it is a good use of taxpayer dollars to hire Park Rangers and a waste of money to give it to PG&E. My next door neighbor says that the funding for children's mental health in Eureka has been cut 50%. She is a nurse that works for the public health system. When we went to vote last month, our local elementary school had posters on the wall that said it had won an award for excellence. They got a certificate from the State of California saying that they did good work. HOWEVER, the State has no money to award the school. There ought to be a way that we could get PG&E to give the money back. KIDNAPPING THE CEO might work... AN ARMED INVASION of the corporate office WITH MACHINE GUNS might work... Then we drove home. It was night and we stopped at the side of the road at "big lagoon" state park. The moon was reflected on the water of the lagoon and the ocean. We could see the milky way and all the stars. It is so pretty here that often it is hard to believe that the outside world even exists...
wolfgangsterlin@whale-mail.com
links to ALL my websites:
Save Sunnybrae Forest and Visual Basic Kaleidoscope programs...photos of Eureka and arcata California...
Photos of Eureka's Kinetic sculpture Race...Short Psychedelic Fiction...
Mom's AA Chico... printable Alcoholics Anon Documents in REALLY BIG TYPE for those of us that do not see too good. And photos,stories,"sharing", jokes...
Vanderlaan Family photos in Los Gatos, San Francisco and California's North Coast...
Original artwork by greg vanderlaan...
