May 8, 2019
Liz Writes Life
Gotta start-off with the hot temps and garden. Wow, 80-degree
temps make it easy to get behind on irrigating. The perennials are sucking-up
all the water I can get to them and farmers are hustling to get irrigation going
on their fields. After the wet, snowy winter I did not expect such a warm
end-of-April and start-of-May.
The frosts last week were not kind to anyone who had
purchased annuals and didn’t have them covered. I bought three six-packs of flowering
impatiens and covered them twice, but the night I forgot is when the frost got
them. Ugh! I think they will make it -- I heard from friends they did the same
thing.
Most of us expect frosts anytime in May, but in checking and
re-checking the forecasts it really does look like the rest of the month could
be frost-free! So, yep, I planned and laid out my garden on Saturday and will
be planting seeds and tomato plants this week. For several decades, I haven’t
even thought of planting until late May.
I am blaming the heat on last week’s growth of asparagus.
Some jumped to three-feet high and are starting to bolt into the froths. Or maybe
it was the manure I put on. I don’t think that was a good idea, cuz the stalks
came up extra thick as well. I prefer the smaller pinky-sized stalks not the
giant thumb-sized ones.
In mid-April, I planted a packet of peas. About half of them sprouted
and are now four-inches tall. The 10-inch tall garlic was looking puny, but a
lot of irrigation has perked them up. Lettuce is six-inches high. The two
rhubarb plants were huge and I harvested over 20 pounds from one of them last
Thursday. Hope to do the other one this week. Oh, and the Fowler lilac, encroaching
on my porch, is in full bloom and smells wonderful. Ah, spring!
Snow
The snowpack looks great after the USFS employees surveyed
the five major snow stations in our surrounding mountains on May 1. The two
lower-level areas in the mid-5,500 ft. elevation were melting fast and Swampy
John on Salmon Mt. is already down to 61 percent of average with 31 inches of
snowpack.
But, Scott Mt. boasted the highest with 50-inches of an
historic average of 26-inches making it 191 percent of average. It is at 5,900
ft. elevation. The other big one was Middle Boulder 1 at 6,600 ft. elevation.
It measured 90-inches with 53-inches the historic average showing 170 percent
of average. Over all, the snowpack is 144 percent of average. This is really
great news!
POW
Brandon Criss, who is Dist. 1 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor and serving
as chairman of the board, spoke at the Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting
on April 25, 2019. He said the new Siskiyou Co. jail is finally moving forward.
The county revised its design and will now use the Charlie Byrd Probation Youth
facility, which only housed a few juveniles because of new state regulations.
Most juveniles that are deemed difficult are housed in other counties. It has
become probation’s goal to get troubled youth back with their families. The new
jail will increase the inmate capacity from 107 beds to 160 beds.
Brandon was asked about the cost of the upcoming June
election and why the state doesn’t reimburse the county for the exorbitant cost
of the special election. He said the state just will not do it. The previous
Siskiyou Co. Clerk, Colleen Setzer, pursued every avenue she could think of and
found the state would not budge. So, the county has to pay for special
elections. Yep, costly.
Discussion on saving the Klamath dams was short. Brandon said
the county detailed its concerns in a (135-page) response to the non-profit
Klamath River Renewal Corp. Definite Plan for removal of four hydro-electric
Klamath dams. Bottom line: Klamath dam destruction must meet all state and
federal environmental regulations and those documents have not been completed
or released. In fact, KRRC has asked, for a second time, to extend its deadline
for answering the extensive questions by Siskiyou Co., PacifiCorp and other
legal interveners. KRRC did not meet the last deadline on April 30, 2019 and
lucked-out because the Federal Regulator Energy Commission did extend the
deadline to July 31, 2019.
Water Users
Brandon also spoke last Saturday night at the Siskiyou Co.
Water Users Assoc., dinner fundraiser, held in Yreka with 200 people in
attendance. He said, “The loss of the Klamath River dams will harm flood
control, a productive fish hatchery, land values and clean hydropower
electricity. That’s why 79 percent of Siskiyou Co. voted in 2010 to oppose dam
removal.”
Measure G was the first major accomplishment by the Siskiyou
Water Users, which was an advisory vote on the 2010 ballot. Brandon thanked the
Water Users for this educational campaign and result. He added that the county
supervisors have used that statistic many times, when lobbying, discussing or
doing legal maneuvering in Washington D.C. on the dam removal issue. Brandon
also thanked Dist. 1 Congressman, Doug LaMalfa, for his “solid support back in
D.C.” to save the Klamath dams.
The supervisors have been “pro-active with a slew of
solutions for the dams and the Klamath Basin Agriculture,” Brandon said, and
then explained a recent legal case that was a good win for the county and (in
my opinion) a black eye to the state.
The Hoopa Valley Tribe argued in a lawsuit that the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission’s relicensing process should continue and that the
401 clean water certification process had been waived.
“As many of you know, from the outset, purely based upon
politics, the State of California has been one of the parties holding-up dam
relicensing by denying the required 401 permit,” Brandon said.
Years ago, the state did not do the 401 certification within
its legal time allotted. So, the county joined Hoopa’s lawsuit claiming, “yes,
the State of California has waived its 401 authority all these years and that
the 401 process should not be used to delay the FERC process.”
The court agreed with the Hoopa and Siskiyou Co. -- and an
appeal by the state has already been denied.
Brandon said the county continues to strategically monitor
this and the myriad of Klamath dam issues.
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and
farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County
and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at:
lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.
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