Frank Hartzell

Three experienced fishermen were lost in Mendocino Coast boating accidents in November. None of them were wearing life jackets when their boats flipped or sank. State Parks Chief Ranger Loren Rex warns that no amount of experience on the water removes the need for lifejackets.

At the November 15 ceremony to celebrate the new Pudding Creek Bridge, speakers all praised Caltrans, the state’s transportation agency, for a job well done. But Caltrans still has to get past a lot of historical controversy. And there is a lot more work to be done on the coast’s bridges, which are the region’s most imposing infrastructure.

The Jackson Demonstration State Forest’s Advisory Group, or JAG, passed its first timber harvest plan last week inspired by a new approach Cal Fire is calling its “New Vision.”To show how the principles of the New Vision are supposed to work, Cal Fire forester Kirk O’Dwyer then led a tour of the forest, where the plan is to be carried out.

A local group claims the store violates rules about development on the coast. And the Jackson Advisory Group meets to discuss a new approach to timber harvest plans.

The Skunk Train’s future in Fort Bragg is up in the air now that the railroad has lost its attempt to delay an expensive and potentially damaging discovery process and trial. On Thursday, Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Clay Brennan rejected the Skunk’s request for a stay or delay in the case brought by the city of Fort Bragg against the railroad. The California Coastal Commission has joined the city in efforts to make Mendocino Railway, operator of the Skunk train, comply with their laws and permits and stop using eminent domain.