THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVSORS met in Fort Bragg last Tuesday to hear an appeal of a State Parks proposal to remove the remnants of the old Haul Road between Ward Avenue and the Ten Mile River. A century ago the haul road was constructed by the Union Pacific Lumber Company as a railroad to facilitate liquidating the virgin old growth redwood stands in the Ten Mile River watershed and hauling the logs to the mill on the Fort Bragg Headlands. Right around the end of World War II the railroad was converted to a truck road to continue mopping up the last of the old growth and to go after the second growth that was reaching market size. The liquidation logging ramped up once Union Lumber was taken over by Georgia Pacific. By 1983, when a half-mile segment of the Haul Road was washed away by wave action during a winter storm, the redwoods in Ten Mile were pretty much gone. A few years later the company sold the right of way to State Parks.
THE PACIFIC OCEAN continues to wash away the Haul Road north of Ward Avenue, to the point where there is a gap of a mile before reaching a relatively intact 2.5 mile section of the Haul Road south of the Ten Mile River. From the north, the remnant of the Haul Road is reached by parking in the small lot south of the Ten Mile bridge and hiking through the dunes across private property. The project would remove the remnants of the Haul Road; remove invasive European beach grass; and replant with native species. State Parks says this will improve habitat for endangered plant species and the snowy plover, which nests on the near shore sand.
THE PROJECT WAS APPEALED by the Westport Municipal Advisory Council (WMAC) which contends the Haul Road should be rebuilt as a segment of the California Coastal Trail. Lots of people are stirred up at the thought that a functional segment of what should be the Coastal Trail is being removed. State Parks says building a trail, any trail, through the sensitive coastal dunes, which are officially designated as a “nature preserve,” is infeasible because of the cost, impacts to archeological sites, and impacts to the endangered species. The Sierra Club, Audubon Society, California Native Plant Society and even Linda Perkins and Bill Heil are lined up in support of State Parks, but most community members willing to publicly voice an opinion are opposed.
FOLLOWING A LONG BREAK (to deal with a joint meeting of the Supes and the Fort Bragg City Council to consider the siting of a future transfer station in the Fort Bragg area) on a 3-2 vote the Haul Road appeal was continued to a special meeting to be held in Ukiah on August 26. But before the break, Supervisor Gjerde made it clear that he didn’t believe State Parks when they said a trail could be built through the dunes and that the Supes should line up with the project opponents to pressure State Parks to rebuild the trail. Supervisor McCowen, after saying he would not support removing an intact park, made the point that the remnants of the Haul Road are not readily accessible at either end (despite the impression created by some that there is a perfectly good, intact, Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible trail that Parks wants to rip out for no good reason) came out in support of the State Parks project. The other Supes kept their own counsel until August 26 when the issue will be replayed at the Supes chambers in Ukiah.
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THE SUPES AND CITY COUNCIL, after considerable hemming and hawing, voted to support doing the environmental review for a new transfer station at a site on Highway 20. Northcoast trash now gets dumped at the Caspar Transfer Station on Road 409 before being reloaded for the trip out-a-here. A new station on Highway 20 will cost a million more according to garbage czar Mike Sweeney, but will pay for itself in the long run with fewer truck miles. Lindy Peters, representing Empire Waste Management, threw a monkey wrench into the works by announcing that they were willing to have a new transfer station built at their yard on Pudding Creek. Most of the decision makers didn’t like the idea of all the garbage going through town twice, consistent with the overall wish to get it out-a-here as quickly as possible. Supervisor Pinches, who was the sole no vote, questioned why any transfer station was needed at all since, he said, we are only talking about two truckloads of garbage a day vs. a cost of almost $5 million to build a transfer station at the Highway 20 site.
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Kramer, incognito at a booksigning for his book “Teach Your Dog To Shoplift”
BAD NEWS from the County seat. Tommy Wayne Kramer won’t be writing his popular Sunday column for the Ukiah Daily Journal, which also means inland charlatans of the Nice People type won’t have anyone busting their pretentious bubbles, and doing it in a way that makes us laugh. The prigs and the pompous hate him, of course, and have regularly threatened the Journal with the withdrawal of subscription money if Kramer is kept on. You can always count on the libs to be the first to reach for the censor’s cudgel. Maybe Dr. Trotter, the Ukiah polymath and one of many inland prigs to demand that the paper dump Kramer, can replace Kramer with weekly paeans to himself and his tedious social circle, or tell us how bad the drunks smell that he treats in the emergency room. How about a column called, Westside Personality of the Week? The Journal would sell out in minutes. Public opinion in this county is already blanded down to an oppressive lock-step sameness, and without Kramer blasting the smugly righteous every Sunday, one more interesting County voice goes silent.
When I asked him about his leaving the Journal, Kramer replied,
“Well yeah, I reckon so.
“I was hoping to prod the Journal into giving me some token amount of payment (a free lunch twice a year at the bowling alley, something like that) after donating columns since the summer of ’07, but I guess not.
“So I’m on strike. Join me. Picket outside the paper. Soak Bruce McEwen in gasoline and set him on fire in front of the courthouse. Have the MEC and KZYX stage a big benefit.”
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DOUGLAS FIR AWAITS SHIPMENT TO CHINA
Logging equipment parked in front of decked logs after a day’s work at the export log yard on the north end of Willits.
An exporter of US timber to China has accumulated high piles of Douglas fir logs this summer at a log yard just north of Willits High School. Bay Area-based MDI Forest Products operates the yard. There are no signs on the property declaring the operation’s name, but there are signs of bustling industry on the previously vacant site. “Land owners are happy,” said MDI’s Gary Liu. Liu said earlier this year he was anticipating increased volume when he opened up his Willits operation. Liu’s forecast was right: MDI’s yard appears to be at full capacity, with decks of logs waiting for the haul to the Port of Oakland. — Zack Cinek (Courtesy, Willits Weekly)
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FROM LOSTCOASTOUTPOST.COM’S COMMENT LINE: “Yes, compared to what the gyppo loggers did in the post WWII lumber boom, environmental damages by pot growing are often visually more subtle except in the cases of large landings bulldozed to install commercial sized greenhouses. That doesn’t make de-watering salmon bearing streams, using rodenticides or a host of other damaging practices less egregious. Runaway logging resulted in new regulations to control the industry that worked to a large degree, but marijuana cultivation brings different problems because most of it serves the black market and the government is hamstrung from the outset to control it. Hell, even the specter of Federal intervention has made state and local medical marijuana regulation tepid. Seventy-six years of outright prohibition couldn’t put a dent in demand for recreational marijuana, so expecting any sort of environmental or purity laws to have an affect on a culture deeply rooted in disobeying existing laws is futile until legalization happens. But for right now the environmental consequences of unregulated marijuana cultivation is the most pressing environmental crisis in Northwestern California.
In the next six to eight weeks before any significant rainfall comes there will be reports of fish kills on small streams due to the impact of drought plus water diversions caused by everyone who draws their water from a tributary watershed, whether they are pot growers, ranchers, farmers or homesteaders.” (Posted by ‘Uti’)
TO WHICH A PERSON CALLING HIM OR HERSELF ERNIE BRANSCOMB REPLIED:
”You are one of my favorite commenters, but just like many younger people you have missed a lot. I am firmly convinced that you have to have seen things with your own eyes to truly believe them. The 50s and 60s were rife with wildfires. The timber was salvage logged following them. There was a disastrous flood in 1955, the timber was salvage logged after that. In October 1962 we had the worse windstorm in recorded history. A large percentage of our timber was blown down. The blow down was salvage logged. In 1964 we had another disastrous flood. Much of the clean up that happened, and the makeshift roads that were re-opened and re-built were pretty crude. All of that was blamed, in hindsight, on logging. Much of the blame is true, but it is also true that the northcoast would have been in pretty damn poor shape if it wasn’t for the loggers that pitched in and opened roads and saved lives.
It is also true that many factors, much beyond our control, have contributed to the decline of the wildlife in some areas. When I was young, there were NO predators. No bears, no wolves, no coyote, no mountain lion, no bobcat, yes there were not even any stray dogs. If a dog was not on his own ranch, or not near his owner he was shot on sight. It was understood by all, if you wanted to keep your dog, it had better be at your heels. The ranchers had the best trained dogs in the world. We were able to raise sheep on our hillsides in relative safety. Many things were wrong with that philosophy, as many are chomping at the bit to point out. But, things change, many would say that we’ve changed for the better. However, if you want to change things for the better, you have to work on today and tomorrow, the past is past and unchangeable. Why so many people like to hold up red herrings and say hey look what the loggers did wrong instead of looking at something that we CAN change is beyond me. There are many factors for what is going on today; what about global warming? Some people believe that the real problem is ‘chemtrails.’ At some point this thread will probably deteriorate into what’s worse, marijuana or alcohol, but who the hell really cares? What’s at OUR door is today’s deterioration of our very precious local environment. Somebody has to point out that the Emperor has no clothes. (To those who are slow on the wit, that means that we have to point out that some marijuana growers are polluting our north coast and using up most of the fresh water supply.) It does no good to talk about the past or things that we cannot change. I should close with saying that logging is the most environmental sound solution to some of the world’s problems. The trees are grown on fresh air, sunshine, clean soil and water. When cut and made into lumber it sequesters C02. Timber production really doesn’t need any chemicals. Where the hell did logging get such a bad rap? It can be done right. And… It’s time to stop making excuses for the rogue growers.
”
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JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY
Pittman
On Friday, August 16, 2013 at 6pm, Mendocino County Sheriff Deputies were dispatched to the 44000 block of Fish Rock Road in Gualala for a report of a domestic dispute. When Deputies arrived they learned the (unidentified) 32-year-old male victim returned home from work earlier in the evening to find his ex-girlfriend, Iuta Pittman, 29, of Gualala, at his residence. An argument ensued after the victim asked Pittman to leave the residence as a result of her being intoxicated. This prompted Pittman to begin throwing various household items at the victim. Pittman then placed her hands around the victim’s neck and then also struck him several times in the face with her hands. The victim sustained minor injuries due to the physical assault. Deputies subsequently located Pittman in Point Arena, where she was arrested on charges of domestic violence battery and for committing a crime while being out on bail on an unrelated incident. Pittman was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where she was held in lieu of $50,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Office Press Release)
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JOHN HOLLANDER, Poet at Equally Ease with Dazzling Virtuosity and Private, Hermetic Meditations (Both), Dies at 83
* * *
Hollander
At this time of year, late-summer, my thoughts turn to being a kid growing up in apple country.
Apple country in upstate New York.
I remember the apple orchards in the Counties of Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, and Orange. All are located in the northern suburbs of New York City.
I could rhapsodize at length about those orchards. Go on and on. I have an almost crystalline memory of each of these orchards. Each was different. Each had a unique beauty. Each was important to me.
In Westchester County, there was Stuart’s Farm (Granite Springs). Also, Wilkens Farm (Yorktown Heights).
In Putnam County, farther up the Hudson River, there was Salinger’s Orchard (Brewster).
Crossing the Hudson River, in Rockland County, you find of the country’s oldest orchards, Conklin Farms (Pomona). I remember reading Conklin was first planted in the very early 1700s. I think they provided cider to the Revolutionary Army.
Davies Farm is also in Rockland County (Congers). I have a friend who is a broadcaster, Pete Dominick, who lives in Congers. He is lucky that he can take his kids apple picking at Davies Farm at this time year.
In Orange County, north of Rockland County, you have several good orchards. Ochs Orchard in Warwick comes to mind.
Then, there is also the matter of apple varieties. Many of these family orchards go back hundreds of years, and so they are planted with heirloom apples.
There are the more common varieties of heirloom apples. Cortland. Empire. Macoun.
But what I really love are the oldest varieties.
I love the old English russet apples…medium size, golden-brown skin with a crisp nutty snap; fruit explodes with champagne-sherbet juice infused with a lingering scent of orange blossom.
I love the Buncombe…a high quality dessert apple, medium to large and very oblong or conical; smooth yellow flesh, skin covered with deep purplish-maroon; tender, juicy and sweet.
I love the Ribston Pippins…a highly esteemed Victorian dessert apple; juicy, firm deep cream-colored flesh that has an intense, rich, aromatic apple flavor, along with an intense sharpness; skin striped red over greenish-yellow, with russet patches (very pretty).
Even the names of the oldest varieties intrigue me. Esopus Spitzenburg. Ashmead’s Kernel. Calville Blanc d’Hiver. Maiden Blush. Cox’s Orange Pippin. Grimes Golden. Pitmaston Pineapple.
Again, I could go on and on.
Generally speaking, I love eating apples that have a high acidity that complements an intense sweetness. I also love crisp eating apples.
But I also love the varieties for pies. And the other varieties for cider.
Most of all, I love how apple trees look.
The most beautiful thing in the world is that apple tree at the edge of the orchard full and resplendent with bright yellow fruit. That tree is most beautiful at sunset in late-September. It reminds me of a tree hung with luminous yellow lanterns.
That tree!
As the Harvest Moon rises big and low on the horizon, and the last light of day fades on the clouds like something imagined by Rembrandt, as the crickets saw and skewer their legs in the furiously noisy way they do before they die in autumn’s first frost, and as Little Brown Bats begin to chase tiny, unseen flying insects in the vault of night, there is nothing more beautiful — nothing more beautiful in the world! — than that tree hung with lanterns.
Although this is the place of my childhood from long ago and far away, here, sitting against this tree, I have remained for the last 50 years or more.
Part of me remains.
The part that waits for silence again, sleep again, darkness again, the void again.
The part that wants to be not a boy under a tree, but a Little Brown Bat.
I want to hunt with my ears, not my eyes. I want to listen for for sounds and silences, both.
I want to listen for the sounds of the full end-rhymes, assonance, midline rhyming, schematic echoes, and so on; and the silences resonating in the vacant space left by one fewer foot in the subsequent lines of a long poem until the effect becomes especially noticeable in the end-stopped lines.
John Hollander taught me how to listen this way. He taught me how to listen better.
The lesson?
The lesson was that poems are not figures, images, and words on paper. Instead, poems are sounds and silences. And ultimately, in the end, there is only the hiss of the universe and silence.
These are my thoughts today as I remember my teacher, John Hollander, who died on Saturday.
Thank you, maestro.
— John Sakowicz, Ukiah
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/books/john-hollander-poet-known-for-his-range-dies-at-83.html?pagewanted=all
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USBR, USFWS GIVES AWAY 451,000+ ACRE FEET OF FISH WATER TO SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY FARMERS
Same farmers now suing Interior to stop releases of water to save fish
by Dan Bacher
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance has recently learned that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (collectively, the Department of Interior) inexplicably gave away 451,000 acre-feet of water in 2011 to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley that could have been stored in Shasta Reservoir to provide critical relief for fisheries in 2012 (below normal year) and 2013 (dry year).
Over half of the available spawning habitat on the Sacramento River for endangered winter-run Chinook salmon has been eliminated this year because of a lack of available cold water in Shasta Reservoir. Lack of flow this year has also caused serious violations of water quality standards in the Delta and impacted endangered Delta smelt.
“It is outrageous that the Department of Interior gave away many thousands of acre-feet of fishery water to San Joaquin Valley farmers that could have mitigated serious impacts to salmon and Delta smelt this year,” said CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings. “But it is abominable and scandalous that the recipients of that gift have now turned around and sued Interior for proposing to release a small amount of water on the Trinity to prevent a repeat of the massive Klamath fish kill of 2002.”
Jennings further pointed out that, “these same South of Delta farmers also received considerable additional exported water this year because water quality standards in the Delta were ignored and violated. They have no shame.”
Pursuant to Section 3406(b)(2) of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA), the Department of the Interior is allocated 800,000 acre-feet of water annually to protect fisheries. During wetter years, like 2006/07, the Department of Interior has “banked” unused portions of that water in Shasta Reservoir for use in future drier years. However, in the wet year of 2011, only 348,800 acre-feet were used to protect fisheries.
Instead of banking the water for future needs, the Department of Interior allowed the remaining 451,200 acre-feet to be used as “replacement pumping” to make up for restrictions imposed by the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) in its Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan (D-1641). D-1641 eliminated the Department of Interior’s right to use fish water to make up for water necessary to meet the Water Quality Control Plan’s water quality requirements.
In April, May and June 2013, the Bureau and Department of Water Resources (Department) violated water quality standards for salinity at Emmaton and in June violated salinity standards at Jersey Point. These compliance points are located in the western Delta. Southern Delta salinity standards were also violated June, July through 15 August.
Fearing that they would also violate Delta Outflow standards, as well as temperature standards on the Sacramento River, the Bureau and Department requested that State Board Executive Director Thomas Howard and Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson allow them to operate under a “critical year” classification instead of a “dry year” classification and move the temperature compliance point on the Sacramento River upstream. The National Marine Fisheries Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Fish and Wildlife endorsed the request.
Despite a dry spring, 2013 is legally defined as a “dry year.” The State Board has no legal authority to arbitrary change the water year classification. However, on 29 May 2013, the State Board informed USBR and DWR that they “will not object or take any action if the Bureau and Department operate to meet critically dry year objectives for Western and interior Delta.”
The result of the State Board’s refusal to enforce water quality standards was that the Bureau and Department increased reservoir releases, ramped up exports and throttled back Delta outflow. The temperature compliance point on the Sacramento River was moved from Red Bluff upstream to Anderson, eliminating crucial spawning habitat for winter-run Chinook salmon. Reduced Delta outflow caused the low salinity zone to move upstream and Delta smelt were drawn into the Western Delta to perish. But the farmers of Westlands and San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority, who are now suing the Department of Interior over Trinity releases, got more water.
“This year’s failure of resource and regulatory agencies to protect fisheries and enforce the law is a poster child for the collapse of the Delta’s ecological tapestry,” said Jennings. “The resource agencies have bent over backwards to give San Joaquin Valley farmers additional water, even at the expense of fisheries, and these same farmers quickly sued the agencies when they attempted to release a little water to prevent a massive fish kill.”
Further information, including Interior’s Water Year 2011 B2 Water Final Accounting, correspondence between the agencies and State Board and a report on this years demise of Delta smelt can be found at www.calsport.org.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/20/1232633/-Hoopa-Valley-Tribal- Members-Protest-Westlands-Lawsuit
If we don’t get the requested flows, our salmon are destined for disaster,” said Dania Rose Colegrove, Klamath Justice Coalition organizer and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. “Please come and support our way of life!”
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EDITOR,
The following is used as the preamble for John O’Hara’s novel,
“Appointment in Samarra” (1934). I send it along because it is the sort of brilliant literary sketch I often find in your fine paper, something you may wish to share with your readers. (— Jake Rohrer)
Death Speaks:
Maugham
“There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, ‘Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.’ The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, ‘Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?’ ‘That was not a threatening gesture,’ I said, ‘it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra’.”
—W. Somerset Maugham
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AFTER A TIRING DAY, a commuter settled down in his seat and closed his eyes. As the train rolled out of the station, the young woman sitting next to him pulled out her cell phone and started talking in a loud voice: “Hi sweetheart. It’s Sue. I’m on the train.” … “Yes, I know it’s the six thirty and not the four thirty, but I had a long meeting.” … “No, honey, not with that Kevin from the accounting office. It was with the boss.” … “No sweetheart, you’re the only one in my life.” … “Yes, I’m sure, cross my heart!” Fifteen minutes later, she was still talking loudly. When the man sitting next to her had had enough, he leaned over and said into the phone, “Sue, hang up the phone and come back to bed.” Sue doesn’t use her cell phone in public any longer.
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IRA AND ZIDA, JAZZ STANDARDS — Mendocino Stories & Music Series will present Ira and Zida, Jazz Standards with keyboard and vocals on Saturday, September 7. Each time a jazz standard is played, it is new — no matter how many times it’s been done before, nor how many artists have interpreted it. It is always a fresh understanding. Come take a musical journey in mood and time. Music starts at 7:30PM at the Mendocino Hotel. Ira Rosenberg has been playing piano since he was a boy in New York City. His erudition with jazz, his sensitivity and virtuosity, pull every bit of emotion out of each song. Zida Borcich sang in rock bands during the 80’s, then with Bob Ayres’ Big Band for some years before working with Ira. All Ages Welcome! Doors open at 6:30 PM for bistro menu and full bar. Reserved seating $15, $10 general admission at the door. Call Pattie at 937-1732 or visit www.mendocinostories.com/events_info.html — Pattie DeMatteo
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NORTH COAST ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS SUPPORT PROPOSED FEDERAL PLANT ACT AS STEP TOWARD FEDERAL REFORM
North Coast environmental groups and coalitions representing more than 35,000 supporters have expressed supported for a proposed federal law targeting trespass marijuana grows in a letter to one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA). “It’s important to recognize the severe environmental harms often associated with trespass marijuana grows on public lands, resource lands, and even smaller private parcels,” said Scott Greacen, director of Friends of the Eel River. “It’s not just semantics to describe these as ‘trespass’ grows rather than ‘cartel’ grows. Understanding a problem, using terms that accurately reflect the facts on the ground, is critical to effective policy.” This is only a significant step if it leads to deeper reforms. We hope bipartisan action leading to rapid passage of the PLANT Act can build broad support for policy changes that will truly abate and eliminate the harms associated with these trespass grows, as the most important thing the federal government can do at this point is to act responsibly and let the state regulate small-scale marijuana cultivation. The letter is supported by groups based in Trinity, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Sonoma counties.
— Gary Hughes” <gary@wildcalifornia.org>
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SEAFOOD & HARBOR FESTIVAL — Everyone is invited to the 14th Annual Seafood and Harbor Festival on Labor Day Weekend, Sunday, September 1st at the Point Arena Pier, Port Road, Point Arena. The party starts at 12 noon. Enjoy a local, fresh seafood feast including Salmon Kabobs, Fish Tacos, Oysters, wine, beer and soft drinks, and desserts. Dance to great music by Thrive, Honest Outlaws, Groove Factor and DJ Sister Yasmin. Raffle, kids’ activities, boat rides around the pier (weather permitting) and a smoked salmon contest too; fun for the whole family! No dogs please. More information at www.harborfest.net and 707-227-0939. Benefits the Point Arena Pier. (Yasmin Solomon)
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LOREN MADSEN APPOINTED TO THE ARTS COUNCIL OF MENDOCINO COUNTY BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
The Arts Council of Mendocino County (ACMC) is very pleased to announce the appointment of Loren Madsen to its board of directors. Madsen has an extensive background in sculpture, conceptual art and other media and has exhibited internationally. His work has been featured in museums nationwide and in France, Japan, and Canada. Originally from the East Bay, he has received the New Talent Purchase Award from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources, and Honorable Mention in the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Competition in 1981. His first solo exhibition, in Los Angeles in 1973, consisted of precariously balanced bricks rooted by gravity and friction. An earthquake destroyed the show before it opened. “Despite this divine critique,” says Madsen, “I continued with these early sculptures, which mutated into large site-specific installations, of which the only record is photographs.” By 1994 he was using the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. and other sources to turn data into sculpture and prints. “These are broadly historical if the viewer chooses to engage with the information,” Madsen explains, “and abstract if the viewer does not.” He also designs and builds furniture. Samples of his recent art can be seen at www.newloren.com. Madsen joins other ACMC board members Hal Wagenet, President; Anne Beck,Vice-President; Trudy McCreanor, Treasurer; Jan Stephens and Larain Matheson, Co-Secretaries; Susan O. Gordon and Brandon Kight in supporting the Arts Council’s mission to enrich the quality of life in Mendocino County through promotion of the arts and cultivation of creative communities. Says Madsen: “I feel that an artist best contributes by keeping a voice in the conversation through his or her art.” Arts Council executive director Alyssum Wier states, “We are so pleased to have Loren join the board of directors. Loren first became involved with the Arts Council in 2011 during the HeART of Laytonville Welcome Banner project and his humor, intelligence, experience in the arts, and finger on the pulse of the North County will make him a wonderful addition to an engaged, harmonious, and diverse board of directors supporting the Arts Council’s pursuit of its mission.” The Arts Council’s objectives include expanding opportunities for artists and arts organizations, supporting art education, promoting the role of the arts in the local economy, and increasing public awareness of the value of the arts. ACMC also advocates for artists and arts organizations throughout Mendocino County with government, business, and tourism leaders. More information about the Arts Council of Mendocino County can be found at www.ArtsMendocino.org.