KZYX News

August 17, 2021 — Paul Putter’s homestead used to be nestled in a grove of hardwoods and conifers. It was shady and cool, and he used to jog on a trail beneath the canopy. But now, with PG&E’s enhanced vegetation management program, crews of contractors are taking down any tree the company thinks could fall on a power line and start another massive fire. On August 7, kzyx was on site to see cr...

August 13, 2021 — With fire season and drought well underway, PG&E is hard at work on the 1800 miles of enhanced vegetation management it plans to finish by the end of the year. The company is responding to wildfire threat by limbing and cutting down trees and any other vegetation its arborists deem present a possible danger to its infrastructure. Cathy Monroe of Redwood Valley is a long-time...

Aug 12, 2021 — The plight of the town of Mendocino has captured national attention. Wells are going dry just as the local tourist trade i s struggling to emerge from the pandemic. Fort Bragg can no longer sell water to other towns. A plan that called for the skunk train to bring water to the coast from Willits fell through. Now it looks like the most feasible option is for truckers to bring water...

August 11, 2021 — The Jackson Demonstration State Forest is the largest of eight so-called working forests managed by CalFire for a number of purposes, including timber production. This involves experiments to figure out how to replace hardwoods with conifers, especially the high-value redwoods that were logged so extensively for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. But the current Timber Harvest...

From Mendocino county Public Broadcasting this the KZYX News for Monday, Aug. 9. I’m Sonia Waraich, a Report for America corps member. The Jackson Advisory Group meeting last Tuesday started like just about any other local government meeting. That’s George Hollister. He’s a small forest land owner and chair of the group known as the JAG. The advisory group was formed just over a decade ago in 2008...

August 6, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors agreed to hire outside counsel for Sheriff Matt Kendall, though who exactly will advocate for the sheriff has yet to be decided. And the sheriff and the CEO’s office had two distinctly different memories of a key meeting about the sheriff’s budget.

August 5, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors allocated PG&E settlement funds this week, agreeing to fund the fire safe council for five years, widen East Side Potter Valley Road, and set aside three million for drought relief or other emergency needs. And the water shortage is growing ever more dire for the town of Mendocino, with no state or federal help in sight. With no water forthcoming from...

August 4, 2021 — With the Latino population in Mendocino County growing, local Latino leaders are strategizing how to bring business owners in to fund scholarships and initiatives. And with the delta variant surging, Ukiah mayor Juan Orozco says he thinks he’s cracked the code when it comes to the best way to get public health messages out to the Spanish-speaking community: short, informative vide...

August 3, 2021 — Indoor masking and limited testing and vaccination mandates are headed for Mendocino County. Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren asked the Board of Supervisors for their support as he prepares a health order mandating universal indoor masking in public places, both for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Coren said the order will come out this week, and go into effect on August t...

August 3, 2021 — California salmon fisheries are in trouble across the state’s watersheds, as panelists testified last week at a hearing moderated by Senator Mike McGuire. Chuck Bonham, the head of the California Dept of Fish and Wildlife, testified that his agency had trucked 17 million fish from the Central Valley into the Bay Area, and 3500 to the Russian River watershed, a measure that will be...

August 2, 2021 — From Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, this is the kzyx news for Monday, August second. I’m Sarah Reith. Tomorrow, the Board of Supervisors is considering a proposal to invest at least two million dollars of American Rescue Act funds to bringing down the county’s carbon footprint. Supervisor Dan Gjerde and Geof Syphers, the CEO of Sonoma Clean Power, joined two members of the...

August 2, 2021 — Last week, multiple law enforcement agencies came together for two operations against large illegal cannabis grows in Covelo. Sheriff Matt Kendall shared some details on Friday afternoon.

July 30, 2021 — Drought, climate change, and mismanagement are a recipe for extinction, according to panelists at a recent hearing on the crisis of the state’s salmon fisheries, moderated by Senator Mike McGuire. The Healdsburg Democrat chairs a Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, which heard testimony from agency heads, tribal chairs, and environmental groups from across the state this week....

July 29, 2021--As Mendocino County Public Health announces another local death from coronavirus, Dr. Drew Colfax gives an update about working in the ER during the most recent surge.

July 28, 2021 — We’ve learned that the kelp forests off the north coast are in trouble; that they’re being devoured by purple urchin, who in turn are not being devoured by anything. Both main urchin predators, the pynopodia sea star and the otter, are missing from the food chain. The sea stars are succumbing to a wasting disease, but why not just bring back a sea otter? Sarah Grimes, the stranding...

July 28, 2021 — The collapse of the kelp forest off the north coast is part of a long-running sequence of destabilizing disasters. The kelp is being devoured by purple urchin, a native species whose predators have disappeared from the food chain. The otters, which ate the larger urchin, were hunted to near regional extinction for their fur, and the pycnopodia sunflower sea star, which formerly fea...

July 27, 2021 — The sheriff is preparing for a fight with the Board of Supervisors over what he terms overreach and extortion, while board members want more data to support his contentions. Last week, Sheriff Matt Kendall asked the supervisors to hire Duncan James to represent his office as independent counsel on two points. Kendall and County Counsel Christian Curtis both believe there’s a confli...

July 26, 2021 — Last week saw significant developments in local cannabis policy. The Board of Supervisors raised the income threshold for the cannabis equity program, which has not attracted as many applicants as originally expected. And the challenge to the new cannabis cultivation ordinance, Chapter 22.18, has narrowed to one referendum. Assessor Clerk Recorder Katrina Bartolomie confirmed Frida...

Click here to watch the full briefing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFK7gQI-6f0 Spanish version here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUm5EvU1RIM

By Stacey Sheldon July 23, 2021--Flynn Creek Circus is a rural circus based in Mendocino County founded by Blaze Birge and David Jones. Bringing world renowned circus performers from all over the globe, they pitch their big top tent in parks and fields around the western US. This week, Flynn Creek Circus performs their newest show in Ukiah, Fairytale: a multi-media high energy piece featuring musi...

July 22, 2021 — The Skunk Train has been a fixture of Mendocino County since the late 1890’s, when it was built to service the logging industry. Over the decades, it transitioned to a transportation and tourist attraction. In 2013 a major cave-in of the tunnel shut down the transportation service and the system focused on delivering adventures to tourists and families. Today the system is explorin...

July 21, 2021 — The two cannabis cultivation ordinances came into conflict at this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, with the result that permits for 214 hoop houses on 36 sites are now under review. And the board received a report from scientists at the Berkeley Cannabis Research Center, asserting that cannabis requires about as much water as vegetable crops, far less than almonds or wine.

July 20. 2021 — Redwood Valley is still sorting through the aftermath of the Broiler fire, from the lack of notifications to the power and water it took to fight the fire to rethinking fuel management strategies. Flow Cannabis Company president Jerom Fawson issued a statement saying the July 7 fire quote “originated on our property, after the blades of a mower, operated by our employee, struck roc...

July 19, 2021 — The cannabis cultivation ordinance has been at the center of controversy since the Board of Supervisors passed it less than a month ago. But the cannabis facilities ordinance was amended in May, with little fanfare. There were just a few objections, some from small growers requesting more consideration for microbusinesses, and others from neighbors, most notably a church in Hopland...

July 16, 2021 — The deadline to file petitions for the referenda opposing Chapter 22.18, the county’s new cannabis cultivation ordinance, is fast approaching. Employees of a pro-ordinance group shadow signature gatherers and counter their arguments as they urge voters to sign, to get the item on the ballot, to repeal the ordinance in part or in full. Documents showing financial support for the pro...