Everything Southern Humboldt and more
There was the PL Bankruptcy workshop. There was the EPIC party.
How did they go?
Addendum: Heraldo reports on the Bankruptcy workshop, which was apparently well attended despite whining from certain parties.
And by the way, Heraldo also reports that no charges will be filed on the Burgess killing. Still no word on the other shootings.
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22 comments
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March 4, 2007 at 4:54 am
Heraldo
To be clear – the only whining about the bankruptcy forum occurred on blogs by those who hoped to squash it. The event itself was filled with over 100 non-whining adults, the vast majority being timber workers seeking information on the PALCO bankruptcy.
The forum was very well organized which allowed bankruptcy attorney Peter Clapp to answer many questions from the audience. Clapp was well-received by the attendees and stayed after the forum ended for further discussion.
March 4, 2007 at 4:54 am
Cristina Bauss
The EPIC party was fun. I’m not a big DiMicele fan (she’s a great musician, just not my style), but it was really nice to see people get together to celebrate instead of tear each other apart. The clown was a hoot. My partner, David, donated some Daveau wine (there was plenty of donated wine and beer), so we ran the bar with Rick Silva and Rob (Fishman?).
Tracy Bear made a spectacular cake for Richard, made to look like a rushing stream — complete with real rocks and fake salmon! Sue Moloney put together a scrumptious dinner… I should have gotten seconds.
The best part, though, might have been the auction: Sharon Duggan succeeded in netting $1,200 for a magnum of very fine Whitethorn wine donated by Tasha McKee. THAT was impressive.
Lawyers, huh?
March 4, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Steve Lewis
Let’s see, Sharon Duggan, EPIC lawyer, opposes Tasha McKee’s dad, Bob, who along with Tasha is hawking Whitethorn water storage tanks that are needed because Bob has put far too many homesteaders on the land for it’s carrying capacity. So, they all make money and drink expensive wines together and have a good laugh at the irony of it all. Who cares if a bunch of animals have to die off to make way for homesteaders when there’s so much Culture happening here!
March 4, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Anonymous
Steve L does make a point or two once in a while. I’ve always been curious as to who else, besides the always evil Palco-Maxxam, does EPIC go after?
How about the diesel growers EPIC? Care to deal with the enviro harm those shmucks, and sons of shmucks, are causing?
What was I thinkin’? Do that and who would be left to bid on all that expensive vino?
First rule of environmental activism:
Never, ever bite the hand that feeds you.
I’m sure the dinner was delicious.
March 5, 2007 at 12:00 am
Cristina Bauss
The diesel growers have to be CAUGHT before anyone can “go after them.” We all know how THAT works (or, as the case usually is, doesn’t).
I really don’t think the people who truly care about the environment are using diesel.
“Never, ever bite the hand that feeds you” is probably the first rule of most types of activism, not just environmental.
I have my own questions and concerns with the environmental movement, but sweeping generalizations on anyone’s part (including mine) aren’t going to help anyone, least of all those who need it most.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
March 5, 2007 at 1:38 am
Anonymous
So, OK, which specific offenders, or types of environmental offenders, does EPIC go after – besides Pl/Maxxam?
And I’m not sure I agree with your assessment that diesel growers need to be “caught” by law enforcement first. Was Palco-Maxxam ever busted before EPIC went after them?
Are there no present statutes that can be used to fight this on an ENVIRONMENTAL level, or efforts made to get the necessary legislation to do so?
That is what EPIC is supposed to be about – protection of the environment – correct?
If there is no environmental activism dealing with this problem, other than the educational value of tippy toeing lightly through the minefield that periodically happens on a KMUD Woods show, (not a complaint, except why aren’t there more and deeper?),then just zeroing in on the lumber industry, because it’s the easiest and most lucrative to go after, is a dis-service to the very ideals of protecting the environment. It’s selective protection. Worse than that, it becomes a well paying farce – in which case I believe it’s time to wash a new baby cause the old one isn’t getting any cleaner.
March 5, 2007 at 2:50 am
Steve Lewis
EPIC was privatized after being started as a community service organization. Sound familiar? That’s what’s been happening with counterculture cooperative community enterprises like the MCC, RotR, and the old Mateel Community Credit Union. They succeed and a small group latches on to them to become the virtual owners all the while using the community for funding their private businesses.
March 5, 2007 at 7:13 am
Heraldo
Was Palco-Maxxam ever busted before EPIC went after them?
Hell yes! See the California Dept. of Forestry, who made the landmark decision to suspend PALCO’s logging license after they violated hundreds of laws.
which specific offenders, or types of environmental offenders, does EPIC go after – besides Pl/Maxxam?
Aside from PALCO and other timber companies, EPIC focuses on public lands issues. You can learn more by visiting their website. EPIC has been in Humboldt longer than Maxxam.
It’s selective protection.
Sorry, bad argument. Pick an environmental issue, any environmental issue. There are tons of them. There are no rules that require environmental groups to address every single environmental problem (as accepted by screaming right wingers).
However, KMUD has hosted several shows on the diesel dope issue. It is clearly a concern of SoHum residents.
March 5, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Steve Lewis
EPIC and E.F! single-handedly sent all environmental activism in Humboldt County off on the anti-corporate get Hurwitz fanaticism that not only never did address the worst logging practices which everyone in the industry and CDF knew was being done by Simpson, not Palco.
So Simpson got away with huge eco-destruction for years while enviros had everyone looking at Palco. Simpson’s dioxin poisoning of the Bay may have been curtailed a lot sooner if enviros were paying attention then.
And then there’s the homestead eco-damage that must also be laid at EPIC’s doorstep. They were originally formed by the homestead community for the homestead community to provide environmental protection information. But EPIC egos prevailed and off they went on the anti-corporate lawsuit attack. Meanwhile, homestead subdivisions bled continue to bleed mud and silt into the creeks and rivers, continue to overuse water, continue to be an eco-disaster for indigenous species because EPIC is lawsuiting Palco, or the next big corporate target that will guarantee them media exposure which in turn generates grants and donations.
But the original purpose has been trashed along the way by activists more concerned with their anti-corporate Leftist political agendas and personal careers than with environmental protection.
March 5, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Anonymous
Thanx,Steve, for bring us up to date on what has happened to that illustrious organization. It has been years since I’ve been able to understand what been going on there.
Many years ago, I was thinking about joining EPIC,(when they were still having meetings at whatever place of shelter they could borrow), but I was appalled by the living conditions of those very people who considered themselves to be “environmentally aware”. I learned how NOT to create a homestead from them.
No wonder EPIC has become a social milieu more renowned now for its EPICurean parties for lawyers and the local jot set.
Why not just open up a freakin’ restaurant?
March 5, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Mark Lovelace
The Rio Dell Times has posted a video of the event on their website: Bankruptcy 101 video
HWC and ASJE will have a higher-quality version of the video available on DVD very soon through ASJE’s website.
March 5, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Anonymous
Heraldo 3/4 11:13
Your answers to my questions are just a tad misleading.
Yes, CDF finally suspended Palco’s license -in 1998 . As the EPIC website proclaims, they’ve been around since 1978! So what were they doing for 20 years, pulling a Rip Van Winkle? Hardly. They were trying to nail Palco well before CDF did anything, which was exactly MY point.
As to what else EPIC does, in looking over their website, again, it looks like an org that has chosen, for it’s unique boutique environmental niche, to just go after – the lumber industry. Again, exactly what I was saying.
With the bankruptcy of Palco, which can only mean pennies on the dollar in any final settlement of monies already won, WHEN it occurs, and given the financial health of other lumber operators, it might dawn on the powers that reign in EPIC that they better start looking for a new cash cow to milk.
Let’s see, they can go after the feds, like they do once in awhile, but that won’t bring in the bucks, and PG&E, I believe, is already the turf of Friends of the Eel River, or one of those rafting/enviro orgs – (who says being an environmentalist can’t be fun?), well, there’s just not a lot around the local scene with deep pockets to sue anymore so I don’t know what they’re going to do. Do they?
However, I did notice on the website that EPIC does have pretenses of being defenders of our watersheds and if that is the case then any industrial activity that endangers those local watersheds should be a major concern to them, should it not?
Cristina B doubted that diesel growers were in EPIC. Great! All the more reason to go after the bastards – no conflicts of interest. Just the interest of the environment at stake. What does it mean, after all, to say “think globally, act locally?”
I am also reminded here of the 38 year old Walt Kelly Pogo comic strip line that became the banner of the 1st Earth Day in 1971:
“We have met the enemy, and he is us!”
BTW, how is that old Mattole watershed,(and river), doing these days?
If all of this sounds like I’m needling EPIC into some sort of real action on probably the most harmful polluting menace confronting all of us who live in and depend upon our watersheds in the SoHum area -WHERE EPIC STARTED -that’s exactly what I am doing. Who better than one of the oldest environmental organizations to spearhead that effort?
I applaud Wood’s and a few others efforts to bring this to the attention of our consciousness, but he can’t do it alone.
How is the state of our local environment, EPIC? A comprehensive assessment might be just the ticket to pin point those areas that call, or scream, for improvement.
March 6, 2007 at 12:15 am
Stephen
Good grief! The above is music to my ears. EPIC, are you listening at all?
March 6, 2007 at 12:27 am
Stephen
And Mark Lovelace, why on earth isn’t Humboldt Watershed Council all over the homestead subdivision eco-damage problem?
When we see our local environmental orgs bypass real environmental protection efforts in order to play baby revolutionary anti-capitalist war games, why should anyone who is serious about watershed environmental protection ever listen to you guys? You’re off on your anti-corporate political bent which means to attack the one high profile timber company that has brought so much fame and donations by people hoodwinked into thinking Palco really is the primary eco-problem on the Northcoast which it never was.
When Humboldt Watershed Council acts to misdirect environmental protection information towards the far lesser eco-problem in order to gain political clout (e.g. Ken Miller and Paul Gallegos) why should anyone consider you environmental activists at all? You’re political activists if you were honest with the public. And, btw, where does Humboldt Watershed Council get its money to put on these events?
March 6, 2007 at 12:30 am
Stephen
Transparency. It would be nice to see it in enviro activists circles, e.g. why can’t Heraldo tell us that he’s Ken Miller? What’s he got to hide?
March 6, 2007 at 2:31 am
Heraldo
Ah, Stephen. You always miss the mark.
March 6, 2007 at 4:03 am
Stephen
Ah, heraldo, you always hide. What are you afraid of?
March 6, 2007 at 4:07 am
Stephen
Why can’t you be an honest blogger like eric, fred, rose, me? What do you have to hide? Or don’t you agree transparency in public people is a good thing? Is secrecy better, heraldo? If you something to hide perhaps it is for you.
March 6, 2007 at 4:14 am
Stephen
Am I off the mark still, heraldo? Is the mark being a political manipulator? Is the mark manipulating the public through use of false identities? You’re the expert here, tell us how to go about it.
March 6, 2007 at 6:16 am
mresquan
Why can’t Heraldo’s first name be Heraldo?
March 6, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Anonymous
Apparently, EPIC people don’t blog.
Strange that none of them are stepping up to the plate and answering some of these questions.
Maybe they feel that it’s all beneath them – important enviros that they are and all that.
Or was there an e-coli infestation at their fete the other night?
Hope you guys all recover.
March 6, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Anonymous
Has anybody asked the question why Mark Lovelace the banjo maker has ANY special knowledge and skills in the area of the environment or does he just wanna try to be a big fish in a small pond?………