WILLOWS
Mendocino Wildfire Recovery Virtual Meeting April 1
Mendocino National Forest staff will be discussing the forest’s land management strategy following the 2020 August Complex during a virtual public meeting from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, April 1. The meeting will be available online through Microsoft Teams (http://bit.ly/MendoTeamsMeeting) or by calling 202-650-0123. Presenter slides will only be visible to online attendees.
The August Complex was a lightning-ignited fire that burned 1,032,648 acres from Aug. 16 through Nov. 12 across California’s northern Coast Range. It became the largest wildfire in California’s recorded history. Within the Mendocino National Forest, the fire burned more than 612,000 of the forest’s 913,300 acres.
Mendocino staff have developed a phased approach to assisting with the forest’s recovery. The first phase is focused on removing dead trees along roadways and recreation sites that could be hazardous to motorists, hikers and campers. It also entails thinning concentrations of dead trees to reduce the risk of high severity wildfire in the event of a reburn.
The second phase continues hazard tree and dead fuel reduction, but also introduces replanting of seedlings in areas where natural regeneration is unlikely, as well as habitat and recreation site improvements. The final phase will be a systematic assessment of all the watersheds within the forest’s boundaries to develop individualized restoration strategies, as necessary.
In addition to an overview of the forest’s restoration strategy, resource specialists will discuss the first project being proposed within the strategy’s initial phase: Plaskett-Keller. The Plaskett-Keller Project is located in and around Plaskett Meadows with treatment areas on both the Grindstone and Covelo Ranger Districts. Hazard tree removal and fuel reduction treatments are being proposed on 4,500 acres within the 15,500-acre project area.
Meeting attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about the forest’s strategy as well as the Plaskett-Keller Project. The virtual meeting will be recorded and posted on the forest’s August Complex Restoration webpage at http://bit.ly/AugustComplexRestoration.
—Submitted
SACRAMENTO
California’s gun control laws under scrutiny
As national debates over gun control reignite in the wake of a Monday mass shooting in Colorado and mass shootings last week in Georgia, California is revisiting some of its own decades-old battles to regulate firearms.
Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require law enforcement to use guns manufactured with microstamping technology, which imprints a unique mark on bullet casings linking them to a specific firearm. The Woodland Hills Democrat’s bill comes 14 years after California became the first and only state to require all new semiautomatic pistols be made with microstamping technology — but manufacturers have effectively rendered the law toothless by not introducing new handgun models in the state since 2007. Gun-rights advocates also question whether microstamping technology is effective.
- Gabriel: “The main priority here is to really overcome the obstinance from gun manufacturers. They’ve resisted at every step of the way.”
- Mark Olivia, spokesperson for the National Shooting Sports Foundation: “It sounds great on paper but … it doesn’t hold up. All it does is infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens and make firearms unavailable to them.”
No state has enacted more gun regulations than California, and although its gun violence rate is much lower than the national average, it’s difficult to parse how much of that is due to stricter laws.
Last week, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office signed a settlement in federal court admitting its gun-registration website was so riddled with flaws that potentially thousands of Californians weren’t able to register their assault weapons, putting them at risk of being wrongly charged with a misdemeanor or felony. The same federal judge also said last year that California’s ammunition background check website was so glitchy that it prevented tens of thousands of legal gun owners from buying ammunition in a violation of their Second Amendment rights.
—CALMatters
SACRAMENTO
Governor Newsom Announces Appointments
Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced the following appointment:
Dennis D. Kim, 39, of Roseville, has been appointed Director of Real Property at the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Kim has served as Assistant Vice President and Deputy Director of Real Property at WSP since 2019. He held several positions at the Cordoba Corporation from 2013 to 2019, including Deputy Director of Compliance, Special Projects and Third Parties, Third Party Agreements Manager, Project Manager – Southern California, and Contract Specialist. Kim earned a Juris Doctor degree from Syracuse University College of Law. He is a member of the Project Management Institute. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $188,640. Kim is a Democrat.
—Submitted
