Regional
- Details
- Written by: Cal Fire Mendocino Unit
MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. — The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, Mendocino Unit has welcomed its new unit chief, Luke Kendall.
Chief Luke Kendall began his career in 1991 as a firefighter I in the Mendocino Unit.
He worked through the ranks to fire captain in the Mendocino Unit, or MEU, before transferring in 2006 to the Siskiyou Unit Fire Prevention Bureau as the pre-fire engineer.
In 2007, Kendall became a peace officer and moved to the unit’s fire captain specialist position. While in this position he was the unit’s law enforcement field training officer, firearms instructor, and a board member of the Siskiyou County Arson Taskforce.
In 2010, Chief Kendall promoted to battalion chief in the Scott Valley Battalion. During this time, Chief Kendall supervised the unit’s Rescue Group Cadre and assisted in the rewrite of the Units Strategic Fire Plan.
In 2017, Chief Kendall promoted to assistant chief at Deadwood Camp.
Throughout Chief Kendall’s career he has served on several committees and teams including the Redwood Empire Hazardous Incident Team as a hazmat specialist.
Since 2018, Chief Kendall has participated in Cal Fire incident management teams and was recently appointed as the deputy incident commander of Cal Fire Incident Management Team 1.
Chief Kendall is excited to return to the Mendocino Unit where his father was a fire captain for more than 25 years and his brother, Matt Kendall, is the current Mendocino County sheriff.
Chief Kendall is looking forward to building strong cooperative agency relationships, supporting Cal Fire personnel as they face longer and more challenging fires, and serving the community in which he grew up.
- Details
- Written by: Caltrans
CHICO, Calif. — Caltrans is alerting motorists and residents that construction is scheduled to resume Monday, April 4, on an intersection and roadway project on State Route 32/Nord Avenue near California State University, Chico.
Construction crews will be working during weekday daytime and nighttime hours and on occasional Saturdays between West Sacramento Avenue east and West Sacramento Avenue west through mid-July.
Traffic-interfering work will be restricted to the overnight hours. Residents in the area may hear loud construction noise, including OSHA-required vehicle backup warning alarms, during nighttime roadwork.
The $5.7 million safety project calls for installing new traffic signals and overhead lighting, median curbs and islands at West Sacramento Avenue (east and west), upgrading sidewalks and curb ramps, restriping the bicycle lanes with green paint and rehabilitating the pavement. Lamon Construction of Yuba City is the prime contractor.
Caltrans advises motorists to “Be Work Zone Alert.” The department will issue construction updates on Twitter @CaltransDist3 and on Facebook at CaltransDistrict3. For real-time traffic, click on Caltrans’ QuickMap quickmap.dot.ca.gov/ or download the QuickMap app from the App Store or Google Play.
- Details
- Written by: California Department of Fish and Wildlife
LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. — The Lake Tahoe Interagency Bear Team, a partnership between the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California State Parks, Nevada Department of Wildlife, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and the USDA Forest Service, is asking all community members to expect increased bear activity following the Caldor Fire as bears prepare to emerge from their winter dens.
Generally, fire can be a revitalizing event for a forest, with downed logs providing great forage spots for hungry bears looking for insects such as termites and grubs.
Wild animals are typically resilient and able to adapt to fire and other environmental changes: It’s part of their nature.
However, during last year’s Caldor Fire, some bears and other wildlife were forced to flee from the flames.
While some bears were hit by vehicles on highways, others may have traveled to the Tahoe Basin for refuge, while many sheltered in large pockets of unburned forest or were temporarily displaced.
A black bear stands next to a South Lake Tahoe home it was attempting to enter. During the evacuation last fall, when streets and homes were empty and no one was around to secure houses, vehicles, dumpsters, or other attractants, habituated bears in the Tahoe Basin — meaning those bears already comfortable around people or those bears that look to people, their homes, and cars for food — were left to roam neighborhoods freely with little resistance. These habituated bears suddenly had no humans yelling, making noise, chasing or hazing them, and no electric deterrents because of power outages.
In the Tahoe Keys community, bears broke into garage doors, windows, and vehicles, causing some homeowners thousands of dollars in property damage (video). The lack of consequences during the evacuation period will have rippling and lasting effects on bear behavior for seasons to come.
Because bears are so intelligent, once they learn something, it’s difficult to break their bad habits. For this reason, it’s extremely important to be proactive in preventing bad habits from forming in the first place.
Due to the amount of damage bears caused to homes, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife last year conducted a Trap/Tag/Haze operation in South Lake Tahoe to provide relief to hard-hit areas, which allowed residents to begin repairs, replace doors, refrigerators, and other damaged items in order to move back into their homes.
Bears were marked and moved to nearby, unburned habitat in an attempt to interrupt the cycle of break-ins and food rewards that went unchecked during evacuations.
Once moved, these bears were hazed upon release with airhorns, paintball guns, and nonlethal rounds, to give the bears a negative human interaction that will hopefully prevent them from returning to the area.
Not all these problem bears were caught and hazed, as evidenced by the continued presence of several bears that continued to break into homes in the Tahoe Keys area throughout the fall and winter months.
While what happened during the Caldor Fire evacuation couldn’t be prevented, homeowners and visitors can do their part to prevent or deter this kind of bear behavior in the future, especially as this mild winter turns to spring and bears begin to emerge from their dens in search of food.
Below are steps residents and visitors can take to help Tahoe bears live a wild but fruitful and healthy life:
• Businesses should require employees to keep dumpsters locked at all times.
• Use bear-resistant trash containers.
• Do not allow unsecured attractants such as bird feeders.
• Remember that feeding bears (or any wild animal) is against the law.
For more information on peacefully coexisting with bears, visit www.TahoeBears.org. To report human-bear conflicts:
• In California, contact the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at 916-358-2917 or report online using the Wildlife Incident Reporting (WIR) system at apps.wildlife.ca.gov/wir.
• Non-emergency wildlife interactions in California State Parks can be reported to its public dispatch at 916-358-1300.
• In Nevada, contact the Nevada Department of Wildlife at 775-688-BEAR (2327).
• If the issue is an immediate threat, call the local sheriff’s department or 911.
- Details
- Written by: Caltrans
“The CTC’s welcome decision to green light more than half a billion dollars to maintain and repair California’s aging transportation infrastructure is not only in keeping with our time-tested ‘fix-it-first’ strategy but also represents another big step to build and maintain a transportation system that serves all who travel in California, whether by foot, bicycle, bus, train or automobile,” said Caltrans Acting Director Steven Keck.
Projects approved this week include:
· $2.1 million toward erosion control on Route 36 near Bridgeville in Humboldt County.
· $11.5 million toward improvements on Route 96 at Aikens Creek Bridge, Bluff Creek Bridge, Slate Creek Bridge and Rube Creek Bridge on Route 169 in Humboldt County.
· $3.5 million toward culvert replacement on U.S. 101 near Garberville from the Alderpoint Road Overcrossing to south of Myers Flat in Humboldt County and on Route 271 near Piercy in Mendocino County.
· $4.1 million toward construction of a retaining wall and roadway realignments on U.S. 101 near Piercy in Mendocino County.
· $1.8 million toward roadway realignments on Route 1 in Mendocino County near Gualala.
· $1.4 million toward pavement and guardrail upgrades on U.S. 101 near Willits in Mendocino County.
· $1.2 million toward pavement and guardrail upgrades on U.S. 101 near Fortuna in Humboldt County.
· $1.88 million toward improvements at Elk Creek Bridge on Route 1 near Fort Bragg in Mendocino County.
The CTC also approved the 2022 State Highway Operation and Protection Program, or SHOPP, a four-year, $17.9 billion program of projects to preserve and protect the state highway system.
Most of the 2022 SHOPP projects are focused on improving pavement, bridges and other highway infrastructure. All the 2022 SHOPP projects are available on the Caltrans’ Ten-Year Project Book website, ProjectBook.dot.ca.gov.
SB 1 provides $5 billion in transportation funding annually split between the state and local agencies. Road projects progress through construction phases more quickly based on the availability of SB 1 funds, including projects that are partially funded by SB 1.
For more information about transportation projects funded by SB 1, visit RebuildingCA.ca.gov.
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