Update: Please visit SaveRichardsonGrove.org for current information about this project.
The brouhaha over the CalTrans proposal to rework the Highway 101 grapevine at Richardson Grove State Park dominates the news from Piercy. It's a tale shaggy with loose ends, bristling with points of controversy, and morphing radically from perspective to perspective. Attendance at public hearings has been too large to permit anyone to talk long enough to clarify fully even one vision of the needs for and impacts of the project. Consequently, no one inside or outside CalTrans seems to competently grasp the whole picture. Everyone is blundering.
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CalTrans proposes to increase the sweep of about seven curves inside the park and three curves north of the park at Singing Trees/Overpack. The maximum proposed curve extension will be seventeen feet. Two extensions will involve cuts into existing banks. The cut inside the park just north of milepost 1.35 will be landscaped according to State Park design. For the cut at Singing Trees, the CalTrans proposal includes a 200-foot retaining wall. The other extensions will need fill.
No large, old-growth redwood trees will be cut completely. Only a few Douglas firs, small redwoods, tan oaks, cascaras, and big-leaf maples will be killed. At least seven of these are inside the Park. CalTrans claims these impacts are too minor to need a full Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/S).
CalTrans claims this work will reduce accidents on the grapevine and permit all STAA-approved vehicles to pass through legally. STAA permits semis with 53-ft trailers. The maximum legal trailer on this grapevine is 48 feet. Livestock trucks and moving vans are or have been specially permitted to pull 53-ft trailers through. Oversized trucks with pilot cars can also go through.
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We cannot find out how often the STAA has been amended. We know NAFTA terms allow Canadian and Mexican trucks access to our highways. Their regulations permit larger trucks. As of 2003, this conflict was not resolved. Transportation engineers at Iowa State University declare that STAA dimensional standards should be replaced by European Community performance standards to permit technological advances that improve efficiency. This Act is 26 years old. How soon will this "fix"--which barely meets current standards--be outdated?
Who Cares And Who Benefits?
So far only local truckers and mid-sized manufacturers are standing up to say this plan will financially benefit their business. Both say that STAA compliance is so universal that trailers less than 53 feet are now specialty items, and cost more for less capacity. They say the "big-box" businesses have fleets big enough to include "shorties" and are not suffering. All common carriers use 53-ft systems, and loads are organized accordingly. This limits back-haul opportunities for local 48-footers. And since Highways 36, 299, and 199 also cannot accommodate 53-ft trailers, local businesses are forced to pay unloading and reloading costs.
CalTrans has not said this project will free up federal money to help finance other projects. Logging, lumber, and liquid transporters have not responded. But cut-flower and pulp businessmen have said that the new, larger trucks will save money, cut noise pollution, and save millions of gallons of fuel each year.
The Eureka Chamber of Commerce and the Humboldt County Office of Economic Development claim the project will reduce costs across the board, save $4 million annually, and bring us $10 million more in "missed opportunities."
So Why Not Proceed? At Least As Many Reasons
This is part of the North Coast Bicycle Route. Bicyclists say this grapevine is already terrifying. Increasing the sweep of the curves will further obscure oncoming traffic, putting them at greater risk. CalTrans promises to help State Parks create off-road bike passage through the Park. State Parks says this will need an EIR/S. Does this mean the road project needs an EIR/S?
Many business people in tourist and other industries that depend on the region's attractiveness--which are the fastest growing sectors of our regional economy--do not support the project. They want to maintain this beautiful gateway to the region and see their money spent on safe, aesthetic access to our most scenic areas.
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This project will not benefit the trees and the old-growth forest. To CalTrans' credit, they have made a sincere effort to limit negative impacts. Where they need to fill, they propose hand-raking away the duff ("O" horizon), then placing crushed rock over the "A" (bio-active) horizon. No roots get cut, but the "A" horizon collapses and the bio-soil community dies. Redwood trees do bud and send shoots up to find a new "A" horizon when they get buried, but the timing for this process is unknown. Where the earth must be cut, roots will be exposed by hand and cut with a sharp tool. This is better than using `dozers, but trees are still being maimed. CalTrans has also designed the plan to kill only trees under 18" diameter breast height (DBH). These trees may all be less than 200 years old, but they are an important part of the old-growth forest and the public value of the park. Many of these trees are hardwoods. They are the major food source for squirrels, most bird species, deer, etc. Though millions of seeds were produced over the last few hundred years, these trees grew from the seeds which fell on fitting soil and were capable of enduring in this old-growth matrix. Thus, these trees alone can refill this canopy when an ancient tree dies or falls.
This project will not enhance the beauty of the park and our region. This is one of the most enjoyable roadways anywhere. Its value to the quality of our life and to our business community seems to be omitted in the financial analyses for
this project.
The project will not improve our emergency services. As we have been trying to upgrade other aspects of our infrastructure, the stress on our emergency services is threatening its collapse. Except for a tiny Cal Fire presence, all emergency first-response between Willits and Fortuna is by volunteers. This system evolved after WWII when Highway 101 was a two lane road connecting the Main Streets of a series of mill and ranch supply towns about twenty miles apart. As 101 became a freeway, the economic base of many of these towns disappeared.
This project is in the response zone of the Piercy Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD). In 2006, PVFD responded to 42 highway calls; in 2007, to 39. In 1960 there were over 100 jobs in Piercy. Today, ten would be a generous count. Of eight trained volunteers, only one has a job in Piercy. Funding to maintain response to accidents must be considered as Rte. 101 is improved (which would necessitate paid staffing costing minimally $300,000 a year).
There Are Other Dots That Need To Be Connected:
Adrenaline rush drivers can now go through this grapevine at 65+mph. How fast will they go afterwards? Safer?
The shoulders, as designed for this project, will still need STAA exempting.
This road has been in place for 93 years, and flyovers by CalTrans and Friends of the Eel River found no sign of canopy loss. Environmentally, it may be the best road we've built. What is its value for studying and modeling?
Redwood forests contain more biomass than any other (1,800 tons/acre vs. 180 tons/acre for tropical rainforests). What opportunities for carbon sequestering contracts might we lose without this park to demonstrate?
Cutting the speed limit to 30mph in the project area would add one minute to a ride-through. At 20mph, add three minutes.
All military transport can pass through now.
Semi-dormant slides at each end of the project need yearly repairs.
We have evolved as, and will always have, a mixed economy.
This is Marbled Murrelet habitat that can be colonized by growing populations or populations displaced catastrophically.
The environment includes all there is. Our languages, imaginations, and behavior are part. How does this drive affect our behavior?
We each have to try to connect the dots. When I do, I realize I tend not to think of Richardson Grove as a wilderness preserve. I feel it is a memorial, a holocaust memorial, a reminder of what we cut and sold (sacrificed, killed) to create what we have. It emphasizes our effect and responsibilities as the primary keystone species of our planet. As we realize that humans must fit into the entire bio-community to thrive, I want places like Richardson Grove to be deliberate impediments we place into our rush until when we say "we," we refer to our entire planet.
I do not want to stop trucks which people need; I want to slow them down to a safe pace for all. I want to either make them carry GPS tracking linked to a CHP computer that automatically severely penalizes owners of speeding trucks with tickets or use pilot cars or toll booths.
I don't want a bypass. That just lets us avoid confronting the truths of the effects of our behavior.
Think about it. Chew it over like the pit of the last calamata olives when you're stretching out a bottle of wine at sunset. Slowing down is much cheaper than unloading. We would avoid the cost of bikeways, road construction, and cockamamie mitigation efforts. We really need money to revitalize the beauty of our region and to maintain our emergency services. Let's dedicate the costs we avoid, and any proceeds from speeding fines or toll collection, to these efforts.
See the EPIC (www.wildcalifornia.org) website for more details or to add to our awareness.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2008