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Santa Cruz County’s adjusted case rate recently fell below the state’s threshold (28 per 100,000 per day) needed to reopen in-class instruction for grades K-6, health officials announced at a press conference on Feb. 4. That means local school districts could start applying to the...

Days at the museum

Mike Edward

The June 15 reopening date set by California Gov. Gavin Newsom will now mark another pandemic milestone: the day many Californians can go without masks in most settings. California’s Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly on Monday told reporters the state will continue...

The San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board of Directors on May 8 debated and voted 3-2 to approve a plan addressing the rampant French broom growth in its Olympia Wellfield in Felton.The plan, as proposed by director Margaret Bruce and narrowly approved by the board, had five distinct provisions.When District Manager Brian Lee officially announced the board action the next day, in a press release that was emailed to media, posted on the district’s website and emailed on May 10 to the district’s email list, it mentioned only three of the provisions.Missing from Lee’s press release about the board action – which was distributed by the district’s Santa Cruz public relations firm, Miller Maxfield – was a provision that directed “an immediate hand eradication program” in the Olympia Wellfield. This provision, as described by Bruce and clarified at the meeting for dissenting directors Bill Smallman and Eric Hammer, was for “cutting only,” and would involve no herbicides.The provision also said this no-herbicide cutting of the French broom would be implemented using the $25,000 budgeted for invasive plant removal in the current district budget.Also missing from Lee’s press release sent out by Miller Maxfield was a provision that directed staff to calculate the cost of manual removal of the invasive plants from the watershed – without using herbicides – and add it to the district’s five-year budget documents for the upcoming public debate over water rates.Lee’s announcement did give prominent mention to the fifth provision in the board’s May 8 vote – to begin cutting French broom and carefully applying the herbicide glyphosate to the stumps, identifying large “mother plants” (in Bruce’s words) as the targets of this chemical eradication effort.Lee’s announcement gave that action top billing, going so far as to say that a “super bloom” of the yellow-flower shrub had “inspired” the board to “take a stand to protect the Olympia watershed.”That provision – to apply the controversial herbicide using the “cut-and-stump” method before a “blue-ribbon task force” to be created by the board could weigh in on the method’s safety or effectiveness – inspired Hammer and Smallman to vote against Bruce’s five-part plan.When asked why two of the five provisions of the high-profile decision were omitted from the release and who made that decision, public relations consultant Bill Maxfield wrote:“District staff are confident the press release adequately covers the major points included in the motion that are of greatest interest to the public (selective use of glyphosate; immediate cutting in target locations; applying for a “take permit”; establishment of a task force), understanding that all information/details related to the motion is public and available. The formatting and purpose of the press release is intended to present the gist of the news resulting from the motion, as well as overall context.”The May 8 meeting was not videotaped because it was not a regular board meeting. Maxfield could not say when minutes or audio tapes of the meeting might be available. He also could not provide an immediate answer when asked if either board president Gene Ratcliffe or Bruce had read or approved the text of the announcement before it was released. “The SLV community has really stepped up to actively participate in the district’s discussions about how to address this issue and we’re better for it,” Lee said in the press release. “We have a plan that enables the district to take immediate action, while also making it clear that we’re very much open to a long-term strategy that moves away from use of herbicide.”“It’s time to redouble our efforts to consider new ideas for our long-term effort to protect the watershed,” Lee said. “This plan provides the path to do that.”

 COVID-19 and having to shelter-in-place was bad enough. Wearing a mask and closing up everything—restaurants, movie theaters, concert venues—that makes society enjoyable was bad enough. Students relegated to distance learning, sports seasons canceled, workers doing their jobs remotely or braving the possibility of contracting the virus was bad enough. Then came the fires, fires that came raging over our hillsides and swooping into our communities, decimating our homes and neighborhoods. I raised my eyes heavenward and asked, “Isn’t it bad enough yet?” Wechose to live in the Santa Cruz Mountains for its community-friendly approach to life, its mutual respect for nature and people, its beauty and its tranquility. Towering redwoods, woodpeckers, hillsides that develop waterfalls after heavy rains, firehouses that act as the community centers for holidays and celebrations—all of it melts together into an inviting, comfortable mix of small town living and tremendous heart. And we had to leave it all. We were evacuated to all parts of the state and beyond. Thousands of us who had homes filled with memories and memorabilia, art projects from children and photo albums from weddings; door jambs marking the growth of our kids, and handmade mugs and bowls from ceramics classes. Porches and decks strewn with patio furniture, plants and bird feeders; couches that hosted sleepovers and nursing mothers; chairs that had been arranged with blankets and sheets into the perfect fort; kitchens that served thousands of meals and hosted even more family gatherings. Favorite pillows, favorite books, favorite everythings. All of us were—and still are—desperate to get back to whatever is left. Some will return to only ashes; others will return to homes damaged by smoke and water, stinking of spoiled food grown moldy in warm refrigerators.We will be grateful for even that. We were evacuated from everything that was comforting and familiar and meaningful into the arms of families and friends and strangers and hotel staff who say they understand, but can they really? All of us hunkered down in hotels and campgrounds and the houses of others made to feel welcoming to us, somehow. And there are tears and worry, endless worry and what-ifs that are overwhelming and paralyzing and shared in online communities that are grieving losses we can't yet articulate. My daughter and I fled to Irvine as the evacuation order came through and the fires began coursing down the mountain toward our home in Felton.And though we were safe at the Embassy Suites, with air conditioning and comfy beds and two mini-fridges to hold our perishables, we didn’t want to be there. We were displaced from everything familiar, and feeling disjointed from the unknown that hovered over our heads. My daughter missed everything about home—her bed, her friends, her Schnookie, and especially her brother and father who are both firefighters and at risk on the fire line. She and I would vacillate between quiet acceptance and vocal opposition to our circumstances, but we always came back to understanding that we had no control over any of it.           After days of living in very close quarters, I briefly retreated to Kaiser to pick up prescriptions that I had left behind when we evacuated. When I got in my car, I noticed some ants. I turned on my air conditioning and it was like a confetti cannon—ants came flying out of the vents, pelting me and the inside of the car. I was Just. So. Done. So done with everything being wrong. So done with overwhelming sadness and feeling like a lone reed against the tide. So done with being sad for my daughter who had been removed and isolated from everyone else that she knows and loves. A perennially upbeat person, the Ant Confetti Episode™ was the last straw, and the tears flowed from a deep reservoir of grief that has been filling since February—a wellspring sculpted from loss and fear and helplessness. So much heaviness, so much yet unknown. That was my bottom. Today, many of us have returned home, though many still have not. The community of Boulder Creek is reckoning with not only the loss of hundreds of homes, but also with damaged water infrastructure, and the uncertainty of when cleanup will be done, and what restoration of the area may look like. Firefighters from hundreds of other agencies have descended upon our valleys, and while PG&E is staged en masse at the Graham Hill Showgrounds, the streets of Scotts Valley are lined with fire trucks and engines that brought help from as far away as New Jersey. Signs of love and appreciation dot the landscape as locals share their gratitude for those who came to assist us in our time of need. Drivers honk, showing peace signs and yelling, “Thank you!” from open windows when driving by clusters of firefighters that are traversing the streets of Scotts Valley, looking for a little nourishment after endless hours of battling the blazes on our behalf. These are trying times, and they will shape and define us. In 20 years, people will ask, “Were you living here when the CZU August Lightning Complex Fire ripped through the area?” And we will nod, and say, “Yes, and it made us who we are today.” Not fire, not disease, not plagues of insects can take away our bravery, our purpose, our dedication to our community. They may transform and color our landscapes, but they will not dampen our drive for a better life, a truer love, a safer community. We will take a deep breath, wipe away the tears, and get to work building our kitchens and doorjambs and memories all over again. We are #SLVStrong. 

Col. William Howard Hardwick (USAF ret.)