Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Good evening and welcome to the local news.
Today is Friday, August 1st. I'm Sigurd Bjorn reporting for Kmart.
A new fire erupts within the Orleans complex perimeter.
Blue Lake Rancheria sets up a team of female only cultural burners.
The EPA grants the Yurok tribe authority to develop water quality standards on its reservation.
And potters mess up to leave crabs to face prune packers.
And if that last sentence made no sense to you, all will be revealed during Ray Hamill's sports report.
So stay tuned. Those stories and more coming up.
A feather alert has been issued for Hazel Onespot, an 11 year old girl last seen in Crescent city at around 10pm on Wednesday.
This is a possible case of parental abduction and Heather may be accompanied by her non custodial mother Melissa. One spot traveling in an orange Dodge Challenger or similar type vehicle.
If you see them you are asked to contact the Del North Sheriff's office at 7074-6441-9170-7464-4191.
Members of the public played a key role when a vehicle pursued through Eureka ended without injuries in the early hours this morning as the California Highway Patrol gave chase to a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road. Here is Paul Kraft, information officer with a CHP speaking to KMUT's Lisa Music.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: This morning a little bit before 6am our dispatch center received calls of a wrong way driver in the southbound lanes from Fernbridge.
Received several more calls over the next few minutes.
One of the Humboldt area CHP officers located that vehicle northbound on Broadway near Wabash and initiated a traffic stop at that location.
Suspect fled from the scene at that point driving northbound on Broadway through Eureka, continuing on 5th Street. Pursuit continued through Eureka back on to southbound 101.
Sheriff's Department had set up at Palmer near Ferndale and there was a successful spike on the vehicle at the Palmer over cross. Vehicle came to a stop the south of Palmer. Officers on scene conducted a felony stop on the vehicle and located a single occupant in the vehicle. Driver was taken into custody at that point safely.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: The driver, a 26 year old male from Washington was taken to the Humboldt County Jail and booked on charges of evading law enforcement. Further charges may be forthcoming.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: At this point we don't believe that impairment was a factor, but there could have been other factors involved and we're looking into those and whether it was mental health condition that maybe led to decisions that were made or not. Those are things that are considered and the officer is following up on those types of things. When we do these investigations, according to.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Officer Craft, people driving on the wrong side of the road occurs all too often.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: It is unfortunate that we tend to get these calls more frequently than I would like to hear.
It's not always certain that we catch up to the vehicles. Most often they tend to get off of the freeway or off of the road and are not located. In this instance, the callers continue to give us locations of where the driver was at that did allow for our officer to intercept them there. On Broadway in Eureka near Wabash, while.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: The Butterfire in the Orleans complex in Siskiyou county is 86% contained, crews have discovered a new fire. The Big Cliff Fire, started by lightning, is located approximately three miles southeast of the Idlewild Campground. A mixture of high temperatures, gusty winds and dry fuels meant that the Big Cliff Fire quickly became a priority and several crews shifted over from the Butler Fire to conduct initial attack operations.
Air resources are being used to support ground crews who are working in steep, difficult terrain. The Red Fire, also a part of the Orleans complex, is now fully contained.
Meanwhile, in Mendocino, the Medicine Fire north of Covelo stands at 263 acres and and is 75% contained, up 5% since yesterday. Fire personnel continue to mitigate hotspots and strengthen containment lines. Staying on a fire related theme, Cal Fire announced today that it has awarded $4.7 million in grants to support six tribes and tribal non profits. The grants focus on cultural fire fuel reduction, reforestation and land stewardship.
One of the six recipients of these grants is Blue Lake Rancheria which will use the funds to build a regional team of indigenous women cultural burners. To learn more about the program, we spoke to Carle Rojas, a native plant specialist at Blue Lake Rancheria.
[00:06:00] Speaker C: So this project was developed specifically to support indigenous women, femme and queer folks to gain access to practicing cultural fire again with a goal of rebuilding traditional cultural fire team that at the end of the project period will be housed at Blue Lake Rancheria and be available to implement cultural fire on tribal lands as well as on partnered landscapes specifically within the coastal region here in north in Northern California. These lands are fire dependent, they're pyro dependent ecosystems.
So and these ecosystems evolved with indigenous stewardship over thousands of years.
So these ecosystems, these landscapes are dependent on fire and indigenous management of fire for their well being and for balance in these systems. So returning cultural fire, especially after the fire exclusion regimes of the state of California is really important. And tribal entities, tribal governments see this and Cal Fire is also coming to this realization, cultural burning, is distinct from prescribed burning, which, which folks might be familiar with. As cultural burning, has specific objectives on the landscape tied to traditional knowledge and management practices.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: According to Rojas, cultural burning has traditionally been the domain of women among indigenous people.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: It is indigenous women and queer people that carry generational knowledge and transmit that knowledge to the next generation. So the practice of cultural fire has always really been in the hands of indigenous women. But in Western fire practices, that's often male dominated.
And it can be very difficult to create access for indigenous women, queer people, less able bodied people in those spaces. So a specific goal of this grant is to return access to the practice of cultural fire to those original stewards and communities.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: As an example of the benefits of cultural burning, Rojas mentions hazel sticks, which are used in traditional basket weaving.
[00:08:15] Speaker C: In order to have the strength and the morphology of the hazel sticks for use in basketry, you need to first implement fire. So to burn a hazel stand in a certain way at a certain time of year would be practiced by a cultural practitioner.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Rojas says a lot of plants native to the area require fire to replant and reseed. And mentions the Indian potato as an example.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: This is a class of plants that has an underground bulb and underground storage organ like soap root or brodea or comics, right? And these plants were harvested and consumed through roasting. And they do best in these prairie landscapes.
And their populations are really helped a lot by their own harvest, right? So as you harvest an Indian potato, you dig them up with a digging stick traditionally, and they have bulblets, or tiny babies really attached to them. When you dig up the parents, these bulblets, you can take them off and replant them. So this traditional harvest would put more air into the soil. So these bulbs would have room to grow. And then you would also replant these. These babies, right. So that they would produce even more in future seasons.
So this is an. This is a plant. This is a class of plants, Indian potatoes, that really requires fire for habitat maintenance, but also requires fire, often for reseeding with success. And this would be considered cultural burning, where prescribed fire is the application of fire on the land as decided by a state or federal entity or a nonprofit entity such as Cal Fire, normally with the goal of fuels management or wildfire risk reduction.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: That was Carle Rojas with the Blue Lake Rancherias Project Good Fire Healing Coalition.
The Environmental Protection Agency, recently authorized the Yurok Tribe. To set and enforce water quality standards on their reservation. This marks a major step in tribal sovereignty and environmental protection for the Klamath River. Kmat nat Cardos reports.
[00:10:29] Speaker D: The U.S. environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday, July 30, that it has approved the Yurok Tribe's application for treatment as state under the federal Clean Water Act.
With this authority, the Yurok Tribe can develop water quality standards for waters within their reservation, similar to states exercising this authority under sections 303 and 401 of the CWA. A TAS designation grants federally recognized native tribes the same authority as a state to administer certain environmental programs. In this case, for the Yurok Tribe's approval for this designation, it was for water quality standards and water quality certification for cleaning up the Klamath River. Caymun News spoke with Kate Pinkerton, a project officer for the Clean Water ACT program in EPA's Region 9, about how this process works and what it means for the Yurok Tribe.
[00:11:17] Speaker E: Yes, they did have to apply for it.
And some of the criteria that's evaluated is the first and foremost. The tribe has to be federally recognized. This is a pretty easy criteria to me. They just have to show up on this list from the Department of Interior. As a federally recognized tribe, they have to demonstrate a governing body that carries out substantial governmental duties. This is often demonstrated by providing a constitution or ordinances and that it has appropriate authority mechanisms in place, management experience and authority over the water quality resources within the reservation or informal reservations. So this means this authority means that the tribe will now, although I think they've already started drafting their water quality standards which will be enforceable under the Clean Water act once approved by epa.
And this means the tribe can develop standards or thresholds that help the tribe meet their water quality goals.
And for example, you know, the Yurok Tribe is in the Klamath River Basin. There's a lot of passion about protecting the salmon in that river basin. And they'll be able to develop water quality standards that take tailor their goals and needs to protecting salmon and other priorities for the tribe.
[00:12:45] Speaker D: The EPA actively supports tribal self governance and works in a government to government relationship with federally recognized tribes on environmental matters within tribal territories. The application time process varies depending on many aspects, taking between a year to several for the application process to be completed. In the Yurok Tribes case, it took approximately 10 years due to staff changes as well as other hurdles. When the EPA grants the TAS designation to tribes, they provide technical support for tribes to get projects off the ground with resources.
[00:13:17] Speaker E: Yes, we do provide technical support.
We have templates available online that are a good place for tribes to start with those Templates also include EPA's recommended criteria for some of the key water quality uses like protecting aquatic life, human health and recreational uses.
So there's a really good place to start from available online for the tribes. And then once tribes have more specific questions or if they have criteria they're interested in setting or establishing, they might need additional help and support from we have some staff available, may have a little less staff these days, but they are available and here to support tribes in their development of standards.
It's definitely a big achievement. It can take a lot of time and effort on the tribe's part and on EPA side to get the application into an approvable status. There are sometimes complications with land areas and there is a consultation and public notice period where the public can provide input.
So the time from application to approval can really range from around a year to many years. In this case, I think it took actually about 10 years or a little over.
And also just noting that tribes don't get additional funding for taking on this authority and to implement and develop their water quality standards, they're often using a limited amount of Clean water Act Section 106 funding for that implementation and development.
[00:15:07] Speaker D: The EPA's approval follows a thorough evaluation of the Yurok Tribe's ability to manage environmental programs at a standard equal to or exceeding that of state agencies. The Yurok Tribe Environmental Department's water quality Program has been consistently monitoring the water quality of the Klamath river and its tributaries since 2002. In addition to routine monitoring, the program conducts extensive research on issues such as nutrient pollution, pathogenic bacteria and macroinvertebrate populations. It also oversees the tribal water quality certifications for federally and state funded projects that fall under the National Environmental Policy act or the California Environmental Quality act and may affect surface water quality within the Yurok Reservation. For more information about the Yurok Tribe's environmental programs, you can Visit their website, yuroktribe.org reporting for Cayman News, I'm Nat Cardos.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Thank you, Nat. We have another story about the epa. This one from our partners at Public News Service about the organization being sued for eliminating the Environmental and Climate Justice Block grant program. Nadia Ramlagan reports and hears from a spokesperson of an Alaskan village that has lost $20 million in grants as a result of the EPA's action.
[00:16:25] Speaker F: Rural communities are suing the EPA over the ending of almost $3 billion in climate resilience grants. Rania Paul is the Environmental director for the Native Village of Kipnook, Alaska, a federally recognized tribe. She says they were using their grant to ease worsening problems with erosion.
[00:16:43] Speaker C: Everyone that I've spoken to was like, what are we going to do now?
[00:16:49] Speaker E: I told him I was very discouraged.
[00:16:52] Speaker F: Appalachian communities in Southwest Virginia were using the grants for flood mitigation as climate change makes storms their worse. Emma Kelly is with Appalachian Voices.
[00:17:02] Speaker G: It was a lot of effort to.
[00:17:04] Speaker E: Get this initial application in. There's not a lot of time and energy left to do that again.
[00:17:09] Speaker F: The EPA is asking for the suit to be dismissed.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: The cities of Sacramento and San Francisco are among 23 plaintiffs who are bringing the case against the EPA, as is the county of San Francisco. We're sticking with stories from our partners and bring you this report from California News Service's Susan Potter on the gender pay gap. The pay gap is, of course, very real. But according to a new study, its existence may have a lot to do with the fact that that women are more likely to be employed in the public sector rather than the private one.
[00:17:45] Speaker H: Women in California and across the country earn an average of 82% of what men make in the first 10 years after graduating from college, according to a new study from the national association of Colleges and Employers. Researchers found that a significant portion of this disparity is attributed to where people work. 3/4 of men are employed in the private sector, compared to only half of women. Mary Gada is director of research and policy at nace.
[00:18:11] Speaker E: So the top industries where men were employed were manufacturing, finance, insurance and real estate, the fire industries and architecture, engineering. Women are in education, healthcare and social assistance, and also professional and technical services. So women dominate more in lower paid industries.
[00:18:28] Speaker H: Advocates say school districts should introduce boys and girls to all types of occupations and in particular encourage girls to take classes in science, technology, engineering and math. California has tried to shrink the pay gap through public policy. Companies in the Golden State are prohibited from inquiring about a candidate's previous salary range during the hiring process. They are also required to disclose salary ranges in job postings or upon request. Gara says colleges should offer robust career counseling to prepare students as they enter the workforce.
[00:19:01] Speaker E: We also need to think about salary negotiation and helping remove any concerns that recent college grads might have about negotiating helping prepare students for salary negotiations.
[00:19:14] Speaker H: She adds that establishing a higher salary from the get go pays dividends for many years. Conversely, the pay gap persists as women progress in their careers, so they contribute less to Social Security and receive lower payments in retirement. Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina foundation for California News Service. I'm Suzanne Potter.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: And now for the last item on tonight's Agenda Ray Humble's sports report, which includes news about a local fighter slugging it out with a rival during fight night in Philly and the details on the Humble Crab's upcoming challenge against the Hillsboro Prune Packers.
[00:19:53] Speaker G: After a weekend that saw them sweep the Medford Rogues and receive some help from a league rival, the Humboldt Crabs qualified for this week's Pacific Empire League Championship Series. Hello and welcome to this week's KMUD News Sports Report. I'm Ray hamill with humboldt sports.com we'll have more on the Crabs in just a moment as we take a look at all of the big local sports stories of the week, including why it was a memorable week for one local American Legion baseball team, which athletes have been named the Humboldt Sports High School Athletes of the Year, how local bare knuckle fighter Ryan Peterson fared at last weekend's big fight night in Philadelphia, and how one local driver continues to dominate at the Redwood Acres Raceway.
But first up, the Humble Crabs took care of business in their final league series of the regular season last weekend, sweeping all three of their games against the Medford Rogues. And that, coupled with some help from a league rival was enough to qualify the team for this year's Pacific Empire League Championship Series. The Crabs came into last weekend in third place in the league standings and one spot out of qualifying for the big championship series. But they took care of business against the Rogues to give themselves a fighting, taking the opener 6:3 on Friday night and following that with a 9:2 win on Saturday and a hard fought 10 to 7 win on Sunday afternoon. And with the Lincoln Potters dropping one of their weekend games against the West Coast Kings, that meant the Crabs leapfrogged the Potters into second to qualify for the league's second annual Championship series.
The red hot Crabs continued to roll in the championship series opener against top seed the Healdsburg Prune packers, pulling out a 10 to eight win at the Arcata Ballpark on Tuesday night to take control of the best of three series.
Tyler Howard played a key role in the victory. The inform Howard finished with multiple hits for the third straight game, going 3 for 4 with a home run, a double, a walk and three RBIs. The game itself was back and forth. The Crabs struck first and opened up a four run lead after two innings. The visitors however, would battle back to tie things up with four runs in the top of the fifth before the Crabs added four more runs in the bottom half of the inning. Once again, the packers battled back scoring four more runs in the sixth to leave the two league rivals tied 8 8. But the Crabs retook the lead with another run in the bottom half of that inning and held the packers scoreless down the stretch to seal the important win. The series then moved to Healdsburg for Game 2 on Thursday night, which the Prune packers won 102 to leave the two clubs deadlocked again going into Friday night's Winner Takes all showdown in Healdsburg in local American Legion baseball action. Meanwhile, the Humboldt Eagles 17 news closed out their summer season with a big showing at last weekend's Class A State Tournament in Fairfield. The Eagles won all six of their tournament games on the way to clinching the state title, including a 9 to 4 win over Napa Valley in Monday's championship game, which was Napa's first loss in tournament play. According to Eagles head coach John Downey, the tournament win was a culmination of all of the hard work the players put in over the entire summer and a testament to how dedicated they've been. The impressive Eagles offense scored a total of 47 runs on 53 hits over the six wins and had six players receive all Tournament recognition. Kyle Giaconi, Alex Jimenez, Garrett Levitt, Ryder Mitchell and Braden Burmers were all named to the All Tournament team for the local club, while Scotty Brogan received an honourable mention. Ceccone capped an impressive summer with another strong showing on the mound in the championship game, holding the Napa Valley bats in check for much of the game and striking out six in four and two third innings. Mitchell led the way at the plate in the final and was 2 for 2.
Switching gears, the best local high school athletes and teams were honored last weekend with the announcement of this year's Humble Sports Athletes of the Year. Ferndale junior Tinley Pigeon was named Co Little 4 Girls Athlete of the Year along with St Bernard senior Leila Florvillis, while Hoopa senior Brandon Romero took home the award for the Little 4 Boys Athlete of the Year. Del north seniors Colton Shad and Tacynte Steinrock were both also honored, taking home the Big five Boys and Girls Athlete of the Year awards respectively, and rounding out the end of year awards, the Del Norte boys wrestling team was named Team of the Year after winning a seventh straight HDNL title and placing third overall in the entire north coast section, while Del Norte Wrestling head coach Clinton Shad was named the High School Coach of the Year.
In local fighting news, meanwhile, Hydesville's Ryan Peterson traveled to Philadelphia over the weekend to headline a Bare Knuckle fighting championship fight night, but he lost on a second round TKO to Dustin Paige. It was Peterson's first BKFC loss as he dropped to 2 1.
And rounding out another big week in local sports, Fortuna's Brandon Barnwell continued his big summer season at the Redwood Acres Raceway. On Saturday night. The impressive Barnwell won a fifth straight main event in Late Models action, edging rival Joe Bonamini on his way to taking the checkered flag. The victory cements Barnwell's lead at the top of the season standings with three nights of racing action remaining this season.
Saturday night also saw the debut of the Dirt 4 Bangers division at the local raceway. And that's this week's KMUDDA News Sports Report until next time. I'm Ray hamel with humboldt sports.com that's.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: All for tonight's broadcast. Thanks to our engineer, Michael McCaskill, and thanks to our reporters Nat Cardos, Lisa Music, Nadia Ramagan, Susan Potter and Ray Hamel.
Reporting for Kmart, I'm Sigurd Bjorn.
Thank you for listening.
[00:26:07] Speaker F: Kmart News is online. You can find us on kemart.org and now streaming on most podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where you can download our stories and newscasts for offline listening during your rural commute. You can also follow us on social media.
If you have questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsamet.org Redwood.
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