What's Next for Humboldt County?

Tucked into the northwestern corner of California is nothing like its counties to the south coastal Redwood's a mild climate minimal traffic and a population of less than one hundred twenty five thousand or just a few of the characteristics that distinguish this rural environment. Hundreds Humboldt County has sustained itself through a resource based economy dependent on timber agriculture and fishing. Over the last 15 years that base has eroded from relatively stable high wage manufacturing type jobs into service sector employment which is dominated by part time low wage occupations. The result to total personal income has dropped to where it is now at nine hundred seventy six levels. At the same time food clothing housing and other expenses have risen sharply. To combat this alarming trend a group of concerned individuals band together in the fall of 1999 to form an organization known as the Humboldt County Economic Development Forum. Its mission was to brainstorm on how the area could diversify its resource based economy and survive.

I think the main thing we do is. We have a place where the economic development entities can get together and do common planning. It's a place where turf is not so important. It's a place where we all can realize that economic development at any one of the areas is good for our public county. One of the first acts of the forum was to commission the Mountain West research group to do a study on what businesses make sense for Humboldt County Mountain West interviewed more than 140 people digested Six case studies of local businesses and poured over numerous information and policy documents before publishing its recommendations. The results of that study were the subject of an all day conference at the Eureka inn. Humble County really stands out to me for its quality of life for people. I am impressed as all. Get out that there are as many of you who have lived here all your lives for many generations or for very long periods of time and are still here.

You have absolutely got the strongest community that I seen in the West so far. The transportation impediments are serious reading and Chico have their location on Interstate 5 simply makes them more accessible for normal kinds of businesses that need to pay attention to markets and to have business resources. In contrast to the business situation and that kind of overwhelming picture that I just gave you about transportation people like to live in humble County. Sample county likes it here says I want to live here. Now I have to make a living. So how do I make a living. Well you know I could go I could go work for somebody else or I could I could start my own business and to start your own business the entrepreneur that is the major source of economic diversification in the county. The overriding recommendations of the Mountain West study were to focus on retaining our current industry create new business startups and attract successful small businesses who want

to relocate within California. So the firm began to take stock of what was working locally so called business success stories that were able to overcome regional obstacles to thrive expand and turn a profit. Sequoia orchids owned by Frey and Roy were in table bluff is one such success story found one in San Francisco and bought. For Friday a Cymbidium orchid and they grew beautifully in this climate. You know there was a greenhouse in the backyard. And they were just doing really well. We sense that there might be the reason might be the climate. A lot of our product goes to re Scheppers in the Bay Area who have contacts all over the country. As far as the Caps hours are concerned it's probably 50 50 50 percent of the cut flowers probably go to the east coast and 50 percent probably stay on the West Coast. We're presently producing roughly a half million. Cymbidiums a year. And our goal is to increase.

To at least a million and possibly one point two million cars a year without increasing the square footage really for us this is probably the size that will stay numerous food products manufacturers like the fresh water sprouting company are also making it work. We do direct store between McKinley Villa Fortuna and we sell to produce companies that take us to further outlying areas and we do one very large wholesale type of sale where we supply stores by dropping off. Pallet falls at the local Wal-Mart store put it in their cooler. It's just the sign the sign of a mature industry. Prices are also prices are actually slowly dropping. So that's pretty tough for me with a fairly stable. Sales base. I can't just like hop in a van and drive a bit further and sell more that that's not really an option with all these distances.

But at the same time at these distances it protected me over the years from other companies coming here. I think it's a good place to have a small business in Humboldt County. It's a good place to start from nothing to build it up to a medium size company. We do have a low cost of living and other amenities that make it worth it to stay here. I'm basically hopeful about the future. Statistically we know that small companies provide the majority of jobs in this country. But can businesses like those just mentioned really be developed to help our faltering economy here on the north coast. The Mountain West perhaps raised more questions than it answered. But one point stood out with perfect clarity and that is that the economic future of Humboldt County is up to us. Humboldt county's historical economic base has been timber specifically soft wood timber production in species like redwood and Douglas fir. But what about the hard woods that

grow right alongside these soft wood timber Giants woods like alder and Madrone in the face of the current timber industry decline. Can hardwoods be utilized to take up some of that slack. Beaver lumber company operating out of Arcadia for the last 10 years is one of the few commercial hardwoods producers in Humboldt County. When we came up here and found that there was a good availability of black oak and other hardwood such as Tanno Alder drone and a few others away we decided to. Set up a small mail and on a small basis a hardwood operation most of the mom and pop type operations back east and there are thousands of hardwood mills back east all cut the average probably 10 15000 feet a day. The very biggest males cut 50000 feet a day here. It's nothing to have one of your soft wood Mills cut two hundred or three hundred thousand feet per shift.

So hardwoods are really a different. You have to treat them much differently. Winkel says Bieber's total production output is only about 20 percent hardwoods at present a figure he hopes will change in the not too distant future. It's just a matter of time I think before it is merchandise stand and advertise so that more people know about 10:00. I think it's a beautiful wood and has tremendous potential. Winkle isn't the only one who thinks hard woods have possibility. Iris owner of a company called Wild Iris and Bryce Lund has been building a hardwood dream for the last seven years. We realized that Ted particularly lends itself very well to flooring and paneling So we started talking grooving the wood and that's really kind of the bread and butter of the business is the floor and we sell furniture quality lumber. And flooring in 10 km of your own. And the other folks primarily live oak white oak and

black oak and the native species to this area. Wild Iris has a philosophical as well as an economic mission regarding hardwoods manufacture. We found this is that the healthiest stance of forest is what creates the highest quality of lumber. And it's a long term model so we're looking at creating being able to create stands stands in the forest that are going to be providing high quality lumber in perpetuity. Beyond the life of of you know wild iris as it exists now we you know we come in with that attitude of really long term management. The same qualities that make for healthy for us it makes for high quality lumber. What about the consumer end of the hardwoods market. Are these materials products people will buy. Take a look at this home in the Bryson area built by Jerry Wilson. We saw it we liked it. We were lucky enough to be able to have money available to be able to do it. And so we did. I think that in small quantities it's

the quality that you get far from it is so much worth I mean you're not paying. You don't pay it off. I don't think you paid an awful lot for the wood it's the craftsmanship that goes into it later on for the quality and color of it I don't think we could have gotten any cheaper uses for the price itself if you look at what it is per square foot for flooring. As I recall the numbers were exactly the same. Tanno floor seems to just hold up marvelously. We've raised two dogs on it. We've had carpenters dragging dragging their tools back and forth over it and we haven't taken much care to be extra particular particular about it. It doesn't work that doesn't separate So the consumer is receptive. The labor is willing and the resource is plentiful. What will it really take to launch the hardwood industry here in Humboldt County.

And what we need at this point is to move our site which we're hoping to do within the next year. So we're looking for capital we're looking for for venture capital and we're also looking for economic development support to move wild Iris onto another site in which we can become more efficient. I think more can be done with hardwoods. I would like to see several small mills start up. I don't think it will ever replace the softwoods here in volume but there are there is much that can be done and from the law gain from the manufacture of hardwoods comes other jobs in the cabinet shops in the furniture shops in the power manufacturing. So the fact that there is a resource here and resources around the world are drying up. Humble County has something that needs to be developed aquaculture the rearing of fish and seafood products for human consumption is not a new

concept for humble me. Commercial oyster production for instance began in 1945 with seed imported from Japan. Today Coast seafood the offspring of that original endeavor is a major oyster producer for much of the nation. Well we produce about 45 percent of the oysters for the nation. We are currently doing about 300 to 400 thousand gallons a year depending on market. Humble Day last year did ninety thousand gallons of oyster and another hundred forty thousand dozen of Kumamoto oysters that are unique to humble Bay seafood is owned by a larger parent company in Washington where most of its operations take place. Still once the oyster seed comes back from the Washington incubators The growing in harvesting process that takes place here is a fascinating one. That seed is brought here in the fall. Winter is over we call it winter and over in our nurseries we keep it hold it until the spring when the weather

and weather is not as fierce because we do have some fierce winters here. It's winter it over and then broadcast on designated areas which we call beds oyster beds basically the mudflats then in about three years we'll harvest that with a unique Harvester. The. Machine actually has a few impellers to impellers that turn the water up and it forces water to the bottom of the bag. The oysters are forced off the bottom and caught on a conveyor and then through a series of conveyors and and then they water washing they're loaded onto a Scout Scout and about four hours. Twenty two hundred bushels is brought to the town. You Rica Coast Seafoods may be the largest aqua culture operation in the area

but it's by no means the only one. According to Bill Shaw a part time fisheries instructor at College of the redwoods. There are dozens of fish growers tucked away all over Humboldt County. You would be surprised how many trout ponds are in this county. They're all over the place. And they have developed. Kind of a small scale culture operation really for their own use like we would have a vegetable garden in our backyard they have a pond their backyard. Shaw who teaches both at Humboldt State and C-R says his courses cover a broad range of topics from called the worm water fishes to nutrition and biology. He says interest in aqua culture is at an all time high. Sometimes I had a struggle too. Get a full class but in the last year I've had to turn students away. It's the first time in. My four years that I've ever had to do that. A group of them will go on and take fisheries at Humboldt State. Many of them probably will not. And some are actually two

that I know of in some of our classes are getting into farming because of their classes at sea are one is raising of all things catfish in Garberville. And. He says he's doing real well and another one who has a piece of property in nearby and he's going to develop a little farm. Given the enthusiasm of the students. The experimentation going on and the apparent viability of the industry. I ask both Cod and Shaw about the opportunities to expand aquaculture County. I think what we have to look at is what is what is available in this area. We're doing aquaculture how much space is truly available. And then if it's available can you actually get it. And then once you get it. Are you allowed to do what you want to do. It's just so hard to do. Start an industry here. You've got to really have quite a capital. In. The banks. Why not

lend you the money because of the risk. There's tremendous risk in farming the sea. From storms and now we're having a drought. And so it's a tough occupation. There's many agencies involved that should be probably scaled down to a more centralized group localized agency that screens the environmental impact statements and the overall permit process. It's very lengthy and costly. The the most expensive part of growing fish. Pen reared salmon or trout what have you. Number one is the water. We have that too is the weed generally made from fish carcasses. Today we're underutilizing humble bass

fish offal. We should be developing that with the fisherman's market association with the city the county and collectively creating a new industry which would only take a few years and probably put humble Bay as the premier salmon fisheries in the country. We have always seen the bow your honor to our society as a rich from of creative expression that can beautify entertain and perhaps stimulate our emotions and intellect. But do we also recognize that artists are valuable contributors to our local economy the arts as a community bring in millions and millions of dollars and how that happens is several ways. Artists who sell their work artists who receive funding grants federal assistance the money comes here and it stays here because this is where they spend it. The amount of turf. That may be drawn to specific artistic activities also raises money. This is true in the

theatres music CSU summer series there is a very very broad spectrum of activities. That actually generate It's been estimated. Artistic activity in this community generates approximately around 55 million dollars a year as humble art Council's director have for ignorance and is familiar with those doing art as a business. Like Paul Lubitz and his business partner Holly Haas German who created the popular Holly Ashley line of jewelry in 1981. Today there are 30 to 40 employees manufacture and distribute a huge variety of colorful earrings bracelets and necklaces throughout the United States. Like most successful entrepreneurs Osterman and Lubitz were initially drawn to Humboldt county's unique quality of life. Well I think first we chose Humboldt County as a place to live. Holly is having and her grandparents were from market price they moved to arcade at a young age and I came here as a student and

fell in love with it. Starting a business was secondary to having a nice place to live. You had Lance started by neural engineering here year to 975 is another small art based manufacturing company tucked away in Arcadia that is enjoying success in several big markets throughout the country. There's just a sliver of the economy that can really afford only ups that we make here because there's so much time into them. The materials are very precious and expensive. That the lamps just by their design tend to be at the high end. So we've had to go out of the area in order to this to establish markets and his wife Janine. Both graduates of the art department at Humboldt State are the lamp designers. They use the raw materials of glass and metal to create each product line. They can take anywhere from three to lamps. OK there's two and two unique features to our lamps besides the design. I would

say and one is the way we heat form the glass and that is in a kiln we bend it fuse it or twist it. And we've been doing that in developing different methods of doing that for almost as long as we've been in business. So I feel like that has a unique edge in our designs. The other side of it is our own Bronze foundry that we have right here where we cast our own Bronze parts for the lamps. This is really important because this gives us the ability to create structure to support the shades or the bases in a way that's unique because the grass tends to be heavy and you need a real strong support system. So our casting gives you a unique capability of designing new lamps gives us the strength to support the shades. And since we do it we do it right here ourselves. That's the second one makes our lamps like Lubitz know Hilliard feels the pluses of Humboldt County outweigh the minuses of doing business here.

The pace of life that we live here in a county allows us to focus on quality. And I've often thought that if we lived in Los Angeles that you know when you're out there running around the freeways you're back in traffic you get you're standing in lines that you're not going to be able to go to your studio and do a really quality work you're going to focus a little bit more on money making what's selling on what's trendy what's hot. Here in Mobile County I feel like we can focus on true values. And that is quality and. A good living experience. So is Humboldt County a hospitable place for artists to do business. And if so what kinds of economic development support do artists need and how can Humboldt County take advantage of this and market itself more successfully as an arts community. I think that arts and home county are inextricably linked. You know that I think a lot of people are here because of the hours and now we have the summer arts festival. We have heard

more live theater per person than anywhere else in this country. The way I think I think that's one of the strongest parts of Humboldt County and there's is this I don't from pastels on the plaza to the mask addition to the cultural center there's always something. So I think it's a great many. Professional consult with have been in this community and said develop your cultural base if you want more money in this community and what that means as artist live work space performance spaces adequate museums space. There's wonderful wonderful prototypes all over the country now of communities that have done they've recognized that their greatest natural resource that was already there it only needed to be nurtured and harvested. Where is the cultural activity. And so what happens is you do that and it's the same thing. Somebody coming through here no longer comes through they

come to. I mean. They're. Way. Way. Way.