October 28, 1965 (20 pages)

NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET wad A tency test dA tema l yest adie Whos! inte Bae kesl a itA mies Cakes ents ee a7Y 31a October 28, I965 SERIOUS DAMAGE COULD BE CAUSED BY OPENING SCOTTS FLAT LANDS The directors of the Nevada Irrigation District recently authorized the manager to negotiate with a land use planner to prepare a full site development plan for the district's land around Scotts Flat Reservoir. We are frankly amazed and alarmed by this action. If the district wants to develop the real estate around Scotts Flat, they. will certainly be able to find a planner who will tell them it can be done. That is the job of the planner if he is to earn his living. The reasons for the district's desire to open up some 800 acres around a reservoir which serves water to the Twin Cities area are unclear, but we doubt that any of them could justify the cost and damage such development could bring about. If the district is seeking more revenue, they could get it by selling orleasing district land around the lake for home development. But this would be a temporary windfall and would not benefit district taxpayers by reducing the normal land tax rate in the long run. The district's power partner, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., has been extremely careful over the years to obtain and hold undeveloped large acreage to protect the watershed. Other districts in the business of supplying water throughout the state have taken the same measures. Yet the Nevada Irrigation District, which has been under increasing pressure over the past few months to clean up its water, is now considering, and seems to be committed to taking action, which will surely add to the pollution of the already polluted water. At this point we can see no justification for opening the district lands around Scotts Flat to homesite development. There can be little doubt that no matter how carefully the land is developed, there will be erosion and pollution of the lake if the watershed is disturbed. We can see no long range benefits to be derived from this development which would offset the long range destruction and consequent cost in lost land, erosion, pollution and damage to wildlife. : We strongly urge the district directors to think carefully before making any move to develop the watershed land around Scotts Flat. The way they move will determine if we will have water or mud pies at the lake. IN THE FOOTHILLS VEIN BIG CITY NATIVES ARE SELDOM VERY HELPFUL Finding one's way in the big city can often be a trying task, When one wants to find his way around usually only two types ever appear to help, One is the native, “Uh..yeah,” he says rubbing his chin, “ya go straight ahead three traffic lights counting this one here, Then ya hang a hard right and a quick diagonal left up an alley, Tum left and go two blocks to the Shell station, You'll have to cross traffic here, but you'll be alright if you're careful, Cut across the traffic island and drive up the wrong side of the street until you come to the laundry and then turn left. Go three more blocks and you're there, " All the time you have been nodding your head and trying to absorb all of this. You soon know you have missed something somewhere along the line for after going up the wrong side of the street and turning at ‘the laundry, you find you are back where you started, The second helpful type looks like a native, but he isn't. He looks like he wants to help and sometimes even tries to help, buthe can't really because he too is from out of town and is also lost, eeeeseesteseee @ IT WAS interesting towatch the painting fever catch on on Broad Street in Nevada City last week, One building was repaired and painted and suddenly the owner of the building next door felt he needed a paintjob, Then his neighbor felt it was time for him to paint. The move spread up the street in both directions from the first building and Broad Street will look much better for it. It is too bad the fever doesn't come to town more often, ---Don Hoagland CALIFORNIA POPULATION PRESSURE INCREASES FIRE HAZARD Asa product of population growth and accompanying land-use pressures, there has occurred increasing intrusion of urban development into wildland areas, Many individual homes and cabins, subdivisions, resorts, recreational areas, organizational camps, businesses, “and industries have been located within high-fire hazard areas, The increasing demand for recreation places great numbers of pleasure -seeking people in the mountainous wildlands on holidays, weekends, andvacations, There has been increasing encroachment of urban areas into the watershed lands — moving up the mountain slopes and into the canyons-into areas of increasing hazard and more difficult, fire control, Because of the existing and daily increasing crowded conditions in the foothills and mountains, forest fire vulnerability is overwhelming, The result has been one of dual exposure --increased risk to the watershed resource and increased threat to life and property from watershed fires, No longer does the fire control organization enjoy the advantages of selecting time and place to most effectively execute suppression action, This advantage has been subordinated to the need forthe protection of structural and improvement exposures, The fire problem is no longer one of alone protecting a valuable natural resource--it has grown to encompass people, lives, and property, It is a social problem, and one unique in setting and intensity, Nowhere else are the watersheds so heavily used, and nowhere else are there such large metropolitan areas so close to the watersheds, It is doubtful that there is a place more dependent upon maintaining a balance among the elements; yet there is no place where this balance has been more often and disastrously upset by fire, When it is realized that this complex situation has developed froma purely pastoral economy in a period of lessthan 100 years--a situation without parallel in history--we gain some appreciation of the scope of the problem, The potential for fire disasters in mountain areas will continue to increase unless solutions are found, The loss of structures from wildland fires is not new in California, What is of great concern is the increasing frequency of structural loss from major wildland fires, and the rapidly increasing potential for even greaterloss, including human life, that now exists in many places, Itisa statistical certainty that other disasters will occur--the only question is when and where, Itis true that major fires represent only a small — ae percentage of all watershed fires that start each year, But it is the potential for the major fire and the conditions breeding disaster which are of utmost concern, Direct fire losses and losses due to ensuing flood damage are costly to the individual and to the public, Public benefits must be protected, and the structural exposure charges of fire insurance in hazardous areas brought down toa level comparable to similar developments in other areas, ~-Fire Safety Guides for California Watersheds, published by the County Supervisors Association and the Forest Fire Protection Agencies; first of two excerpts, S96T ‘8Z 19qQ0190** *1083nN AIuN0D epeAeN*** fe)

NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET wad A tency test dA tema l yest adie Whos! inte Bae kesl a itA mies Cakes ents ee a7Y 31a October 28, I965 SERIOUS DAMAGE COULD BE CAUSED BY OPENING SCOTTS FLAT LANDS The directors of the Nevada Irrigation District recently authorized the manager to negotiate with a land use planner to prepare a full site development plan for the district's land around Scotts Flat Reservoir. We are frankly amazed and alarmed by this action. If the district wants to develop the real estate around Scotts Flat, they. will certainly be able to find a planner who will tell them it can be done. That is the job of the planner if he is to earn his living. The reasons for the district's desire to open up some 800 acres around a reservoir which serves water to the Twin Cities area are unclear, but we doubt that any of them could justify the cost and damage such development could bring about. If the district is seeking more revenue, they could get it by selling orleasing district land around the lake for home development. But this would be a temporary windfall and would not benefit district taxpayers by reducing the normal land tax rate in the long run. The district's power partner, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., has been extremely careful over the years to obtain and hold undeveloped large acreage to protect the watershed. Other districts in the business of supplying water throughout the state have taken the same measures. Yet the Nevada Irrigation District, which has been under increasing pressure over the past few months to clean up its water, is now considering, and seems to be committed to taking action, which will surely add to the pollution of the already polluted water. At this point we can see no justification for opening the district lands around Scotts Flat to homesite development. There can be little doubt that no matter how carefully the land is developed, there will be erosion and pollution of the lake if the watershed is disturbed. We can see no long range benefits to be derived from this development which would offset the long range destruction and consequent cost in lost land, erosion, pollution and damage to wildlife. : We strongly urge the district directors to think carefully before making any move to develop the watershed land around Scotts Flat. The way they move will determine if we will have water or mud pies at the lake. IN THE FOOTHILLS VEIN BIG CITY NATIVES ARE SELDOM VERY HELPFUL Finding one's way in the big city can often be a trying task, When one wants to find his way around usually only two types ever appear to help, One is the native, “Uh...yeah,” he says rubbing his chin, “ya go straight ahead three traffic lights counting this one here, Then ya hang a hard right and a quick diagonal left up an alley, Tum left and go two blocks to the Shell station, You'll have to cross traffic here, but you'll be alright if you're careful, Cut across the traffic island and drive up the wrong side of the street until you come to the laundry and then turn left. Go three more blocks and you're there, " All the time you have been nodding your head and trying to absorb all of this. You soon know you have missed something somewhere along the line for after going up the wrong side of the street and turning at ‘the laundry, you find you are back where you started,

The second helpful type looks like a native, but he isn't. He looks like he wants to help and sometimes even tries to help, buthe can't really because he too is from out of town and is also lost, eeeeseesteseee @ IT WAS interesting towatch the painting fever catch on on Broad Street in Nevada City last week, One building was repaired and painted and suddenly the owner of the building next door felt he needed a paintjob, Then his neighbor felt it was time for him to paint. The move spread up the street in both directions from the first building and Broad Street will look much better for it. It is too bad the fever doesn't come to town more often, ---Don Hoagland CALIFORNIA POPULATION PRESSURE INCREASES FIRE HAZARD Asa product of population growth and accompanying land-use pressures, there has occurred increasing intrusion of urban development into wildland areas, Many individual homes and cabins, subdivisions, resorts, recreational areas, organizational camps, businesses, “and industries have been located within high-fire hazard areas, The increasing demand for recreation places great numbers of pleasure -seeking people in the mountainous wildlands on holidays, weekends, andvacations, There has been increasing encroachment of urban areas into the watershed lands — moving up the mountain slopes and into the canyons-into areas of increasing hazard and more difficult, fire control, Because of the existing and daily increasing crowded conditions in the foothills and mountains, forest fire vulnerability is overwhelming, The result has been one of dual exposure --increased risk to the watershed resource and increased threat to life and property from watershed fires, No longer does the fire control organization enjoy the advantages of selecting time and place to most effectively execute suppression action, This advantage has been subordinated to the need forthe protection of structural and improvement exposures, The fire problem is no longer one of alone protecting a valuable natural resource--it has grown to encompass people, lives, and property, It is a social problem, and one unique in setting and intensity, Nowhere else are the watersheds so heavily used, and nowhere else are there such large metropolitan areas so close to the watersheds, It is doubtful that there is a place more dependent upon maintaining a balance among the elements; yet there is no place where this balance has been more often and disastrously upset by fire, When it is realized that this complex situation has developed froma purely pastoral economy in a period of lessthan 100 years--a situation without parallel in history--we gain some appreciation of the scope of the problem, The potential for fire disasters in mountain areas will continue to increase unless solutions are found, The loss of structures from wildland fires is not new in California, What is of great concern is the increasing frequency of structural loss from major wildland fires, and the rapidly increasing potential for even greaterloss, including human life, that now exists in many places, Itisa statistical certainty that other disasters will occur--the only question is when and where, Itis true that major fires represent only a small — ae percentage of all watershed fires that start each year, But it is the potential for the major fire and the conditions breeding disaster which are of utmost concern, Direct fire losses and losses due to ensuing flood damage are costly to the individual and to the public, Public benefits must be protected, and the structural exposure charges of fire insurance in hazardous areas brought down toa level comparable to similar developments in other areas, ~-Fire Safety Guides for California Watersheds, published by the County Supervisors Association and the Forest Fire Protection Agencies; first of two excerpts, S96T ‘8Z 19qQ0190** *1083nN AIuN0D epeAeN*** fe)