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 KIP EVANS |
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 PHILIP WRIGHT Arcata Marsh  HUMBOLDT COUNTY CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU Old town Eureka  COURTESEY KEVIN FOERSTER Students from Humboldt State University and others indulge in bird observation. |
HUMBOLDT BAY IS ONLY 250 MILES NORTH of San Francisco,
but it was overlooked by early European explorers and remains largely unexplored
today, despite its natural beauty and other assets. In 1806, sailors on an American
fur trade ship, the O'Cain, saw the opening between the two sandspits
that separate the bay from the ocean. But they decided, as recorded in
the ship's log, that "entrance for vessels of a large class is not
convenient, and even impassable for any kind of vessels in strong southwest
winds." The log states that the shores were "thickly populated
with natives and plentiful otters and seals."The native Wiyot continued to live
on the bay undisturbed by outsiders for another 44 years. Ship captains
plying coastal waters between Trinidad and Mendocino apparently did not
notice the bay entrance obscured by the sandspits. Not until 1850 did the
Laura Virginia sail into California's second-largest enclosed estuary.
Captain Douglas Ottinger named the bay after Alexander von Humboldt, the
German geographer-naturalist, not knowing or not caring what the local
people called it. The Wiyot name for the bay is Qalawaloo.Soon mills had been established
onshore and Eureka became a major shipping center for timber exports. Ten
years after the Laura Virginia'S arrival, 34 Wiyot women and children
were murdered in the night on a bay island, along with the six men standing
guard while the other men were ashore. This island is now called Indian
Island. A small Wiyot community at Table Rock reservation commemorates
the 1860 massacre every year.To this day Humboldt Bay has remained
a place apart, remote from currents and events that have wrought drastic
changes in other coastal areas. The entire region has suffered severe hardship
with the decline of the two major industries, timber and fishing. The local
airport is often closed because of fog: it was built during World War II
at a site deliberately selected for its bad weather, to allow pilots to
practice landing in difficult conditions. This may make for a charming
story now, but it is not helpful to a community that hopes to attract some
new, fast-moving industries.In conventional terms the Humboldt
Bay area is an economically depressed community. Jobs are scarce and many
people struggle hard to survive. But from another point of view, this beautiful
area has great potential. It has retained an environment that can provide
a kind of life many people long for and can no longer find in prosperous,
densely developed coastal areas.It's quiet here. You can step out
on the shore and see no other people at all. Wildlife abounds in the smooth
bay waters, broad mudflats, and wet diked meadows. Dairy cattle and egrets
stand side by side in the green spring grasses. Local residents dig for
shellfish along the shore, canoe and kayak on the bay, and scan its surface
for waterfowl resting on this stopover along the Pacific Flyway. They go
out onto the ocean to fish, go inland for sunshine on foggy Sundays. Summer
months bring a surge of tourists and visitors, but this traffic is slight
compared to that of other coastal regions.The 25.5-square-mile bay has one
operating pulp mill and a power plant on its western edge, and when the
wind is right, an odor from the mill permeates Eureka. But in the wake
of a successful lawsuit by the Surfrider Foundation, the mill's effluent
is clean enough for surfing at the North Jetty. Eelgrass grows in the bay,
and eelgrass--so important to the biological integrity of the bay--requires
clean water.In September 1996 a new vision for
the watershed emerged at the Humboldt Bay Symposium, which brought together
community leaders, officials, and both university and high school students
to develop a collective vision for the future of the watershed. In roundtable
discussions, participants agreed that better recreational access to Humboldt
Bay should be a priority. Specifically, there was strong support for a
trail around the bay.A Humboldt Bay Trail would not only
provide for commuting and recreation, but would also serve as catalyst
for activities that would generate further economic benefits, speakers
said, pointing to other regional waterfront trails that have paid off for
the communities that have built them. These include the San Francisco Bay
Trail and the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail, both works in progress. These
trails connect museums, aquariums, restaurants, parks, boating and bike
rental spots, and other services, all within view of the water. They are
popular with both residents and visitors.Some trails already exist on Humboldt
Bay, but you cannot get from one to another without driving. Eureka has
a 2.32-mile walkway along its historic waterfront, built as part of the
city's waterfront revitalization project. With the help of the Coastal
Conservancy, trails have been built around the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife
Refuge, along the Mad River Slough and Dunes area, on Palco Marsh in Eureka,
and in Manila Park. In all, 15 miles of trails run along the 48-mile bay
shoreline. In addition, the nine-mile Hammond Trail connects Clam Beach
and the mouth of the Mad River Estuary, across fields, neighborhoods, parks,
and along bluffs above the river to its mouth. All these could be connected
with new trails, creating a network of trails. About 75 percent of the
shoreline is in public ownership.To date, however, there is no comprehensive
plan to provide the necessary foundation for a regional trail that would
knit all the separate pieces together along the entire 48-mile length of
the bayshore. In the case of the San Francisco Bay Trail, the vision was
embodied in legislation sponsored by Sen. Bill Lockyer, who saw to it that
$300,000 was provided for a comprehensive plan. Because the plan existed,
communities and agencies incorporated the trail into general and specific
development plans over the years. In the absence of a comprehensive Humboldt
Trail Plan, opportunities may be overlooked as easily as the bay has been
for so long.Some opportunities are on the horizon,
in the form of public works projects now being planned. The City of Eureka
and the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District are
in the midst of negotiations to dredge portions of the inner-reach channel
along the city's waterfront to improve navigation and safety and to make
Humboldt Bay competitive as a world-class port. Part of the goal is to
attract regular cruise ship visits and increase the demand for visitor
services. Trail advocates argue that a waterfront trail should be part
of the harbor improvement project. Tourists on cruises will come without
cars, and will want to walk or rent bikes, surreys, and kayaks. They will
want to explore beyond the historic district's shops and move out into
the wild.Meanwhile, the Redwood Community
Action Agency (RCAA) in Eureka has taken on the task of developing a Bikeway
Improvement Plan. With a grant from the North Coast Unified Air Quality
Management District, RCAA seeks to reduce automobile emissions by increasing
the attractiveness of alternative commuter options. The focus of this project
is on potential improvements or construction of bicycle routes between
and within the communities of the central Humboldt County Coast, which
includes Humboldt Bay.Heather Gramp, a member of the Humboldt
Bay Bicycle Commuters Association, believes that people would commute by
bicycle to Eureka more often if the routes were safer. She rides on the
inland route between Arcata and Eureka, along Old Arcata Road. The shoulders
of this heavily used road have been slated for widening for years. "I
have been blown off the road, so I would prefer to avoid high-speed traffic
in my commute," Gamp says. "At the same time, I would love to
use a path around the bay to walk my dog on weekends."The feasibility analysis for the
RCAA project, scheduled for release in July, will highlight several potential
routes, possibly along abandoned railroad trestles, on levees, along a
city right-of-way for the waterline from the pump station on the Mad River
to Eureka, beside the highway, or next to active railroad tracks.No funding has been proposed for
the Bikeway Improvement Plan. So is this study merely an exercise in futility,
an idea destined to be filed away? Jennifer Rice of the RCAA says no, the
analysis is an essential first step. "No alternative transportation
or recreation options we have today would exist if someone hadn't explored
the possibilities," she says."Our hope is that people will take this plan and expand on it. Turn thoughts into pathways!" Trail advocates point out that there will never be a time more propitious than now for a trail plan: as more people discover the attractions of the Humboldt Bay area, waterfront development will foreclose major options that are open today.  Julie Brush is a member of the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project. She served last year with the Coastal Conservancy in Eureka, assisting Conservancy project manager Mark Wheetley in developing the Humboldt Bay Symposium. She currently works at the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District. |
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