Southern Humboldt Community Park Board Addresses Social Media Reports

Southern Humboldt Community ParkPress release from Southern Humboldt Community Park Board:

The Community Park Board embraces the Park’s vision to prioritize collaboration with community partners to create diverse opportunities for recreation, education, cultivation, and conservation. The Park’s Board is strongly committed to local agriculture and we are as disappointed as anyone that the prime farmland is not being used this season by the current Farm lease-holder.

Last fall the Community Park Board unanimously voted to pay for and engage Humboldt Mediation Services in an effort to resolve concerns, but unfortunately the Farmer was not willing to complete the process. We understand and respect that it was his personal right to make this decision and hold no hard feelings, though we were deeply disheartened. We also want our community to know that as of this press release the Farmer has not been evicted. We regret that misinformation has circulated in social media.

Because of the threat of litigation we are not able to provide more information at this time. We ask our community to keep an open mind until facts on the matter may be released.

Signed,

Meghan Joyce Matt Banning

Carolyn Hino-Bourassa

C. Alex Hulbert Jesse Hill

SHCP Board of Directors

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Auntie Crips
Guest
Auntie Crips
2 years ago

There’s a lot of animal husbandry going on and we enjoy it a lot. I always thought animal husbandry fell into the category of “farming”. There’s also a nice vineyard. The property seems well managed to me 🤷🏼‍♀️

Plastic sucks!
Guest
Plastic sucks!
2 years ago
Reply to  Auntie Crips

Have you seen all the plastic tilled into the prime ag land?

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  Auntie Crips

“There’s also a nice vineyard. The property seems well managed to me 🤷🏼‍♀️”

You mean the very water intensive vineyard? It was leased and operated by the farm lease holder, you can read about him here:

https://www.sohumpark.org/get-involved/farm-stand/

“About the Community Park Farm”

“Mykal Coelho is the current farmer on the area of the Southern Humboldt Community Park now under cultivation. He grows fruits, vegetables, raises pigs and chickens. He also operates the Farm Stand where seasonal vegetables and fruits are available to the public for purchase. (The tomatoes are spectacular.)”

“Besides the Farm Stand, Mykal is one of many suppliers for the Park’s CalFresh Outreach Program, and local restaurants and grocery stores as well as having a booth at Garberville’s Farmers Market each Friday (May through October).”

“His farming practices include rotational grazing, pasture poultry, the use of cover crops, composting and vermiculture.”

Pepperwood
Guest
Pepperwood
2 years ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

Established vineyards are not water intensive.

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  Pepperwood

You are correct, and how well (no pun intended) “Established” do you think the Park vineyard is, 10, 20 or 30 years? Has this vineyard bared enough fruit to make even one case of wine, compared to the intense irrigation that was used in its first 2 to 3 years after being planted, about 5 years ago!

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
2 years ago

Cryptic. I guess this is for folks who already know the rumors.

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

Is the Park Board just as bad, spreading more rumors or just more alternative facts?

Pepperwood
Guest
Pepperwood
2 years ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

Nice try at implying there are alternative facts; like yours. Let it go. You don’t live here anymore.

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  Pepperwood

Sorry, my BAD, I forgot, no one is allowed to have an opinion about anything on RHBB, unless you live in SoHum! So past years of growing up and living in Redway/Garberville means nothing or owning homes from 1961 to 2015 don’t mean a thing either, right?

Yo Mama
Guest
Yo Mama
2 years ago

That’s absolutely a bullsh*t statement. I know the farmer, he has gotten an eviction notice. Have fun making your 58k for doing nothing. Try dry farming I’m sure it works, right??!

Going for gold
Guest
Going for gold
2 years ago

That farmer produced more food for southern Humboldt than anybody has at that Park in the last 15 years. I think it’s a shame that they evicted him, they should be ashamed. It’s probably a personal issue that they’re turning into something else.

Really???
Guest
Really???
2 years ago
Reply to  Going for gold

You really think he has been growing organic??? Hahaha anyone who has worked elsewhere with him knows how he operates. I never ever get food from there because of it.
Vineyards were never in the original plan, nor was leasing any garden space for private profit.

Giving him all the credit for growing lots of food is ridiculous. He probably told you he did, but ask where all the starts came from last year, who showed up to tend and harvest them. It was a community effort.
He is known for getting nasty in disputes, i warned the board too, but they saw dollar signs.
As far as Im concerned they deserve each other at this point.

Besides all that drama,the park is lovely and its awesome to see how many migratory birds nested there this last year!!!
That was definitely part of the original intention,a corridor to the river and habitat.
The community farm plots are fantastic too!!!
Theres a lot of super drama in the farmers life and seems to always be drama with the board no matter who is at the farm.
Lets just hope everyone can rise above and move on quickly.

In different hands maybe we could see some permaculture and other sustainable growing techniques that people will want to come check out and learn from.

Let the truth be known
Guest
Let the truth be known
2 years ago
Reply to  Really???

^^^^^^^
This.

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago

The Park farm is only as good as the farmer leasing it, the Park Board has nothing to do with the farm, the SHCP Corporation owns the land and the Park Board only administers it, with no board meetings open to the public. For example, here is the contract with the County. How is the Park Board going to feed all those people they claim to feed with no farm to grow food? Guess they keep making $48K per FY with public funding without food to provide? Read the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1asYH30OidvBEzuU_7Crahvgu8ln2E4gn/view?usp=sharing

The Park Board has never been about farming. Their planned development includes commercial rental office space, Concerts, Festivals and commercial events the Park Board can rent or lease out. The Park is just another corporate rent-a-park! Its why they don’t have board meeting open to the public…

VMG
Guest
VMG
2 years ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

Thanks Ed!

And like in the case of the United States vs Purdue, if you are rich enough and employ enough Lawyers and PR people, you can lie, cheat, conspire, steal, and even kill!

The SH “park” is a sham, a land grab, and a conspiracy to enrich certain members of the community, kind of like SHCHD, another shady and opaquely operated SoHum “NPO”…

Whether or not a “farmer” was evicted, a fair percentage of the land was straight-up misappropriated,if not stolen. Who really cares about anything else… There is not enough water in the river for the fish, much less all the straws sucking H20 to various thousands of pot farms anyway…

This “press release” contains very little in the manner of real information, and the Board would have been better off to stay quiet.

Thanks! Why did you bother?

Namaste, SoHum, not really missing it…

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  VMG

Yes, you are correct about the land grab by Dazey and McKee. They both got 80 acres each out of the deal, all paid for by public donations to buy the Park back in 2000, sweet deal for them.

Now the Park Board is in the middle of a water grab, using the Garberville Sanitary District to provide potable water to the Park and get their foot in the door to expand this potable water connection with GSD, to supply all the potable water demands (approx 680,000 gallons per year) needed for the Park Boards development plans. The hearing for this is on June 15, 2021. They don’t talk about this in public do they!

commenter
Guest
commenter
2 years ago

I donated six grand twenty years ago to help buy the park and have no regrets: the park is a beautiful community resource, we’re lucky to have it, and lucky to have had forward-looking citizens like Steve Dazey and Bob McKee collaborate in creating it.
I do think the board didn’t do their due diligence in bringing on this farmer; at the time he was brought on board I told a board member they would regret it, well maybe they do now.
Otherwise rock on, park!

Dave Kirby
Guest
Dave Kirby
2 years ago
Reply to  commenter

Yes I agree. I have good memories of gatherings at the park. KMUD had their slack key and luau at the barn. The atmosphere was mellow and a good time was had by all. Yes they buried a pig in a pit. Put that on your list Ed.

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Kirby

Morning Dave,

Just to set the record straight, that KMUD Luau was illegal, no permits. But that event was not good enough for the Park, they needed more, more people, more music, more ticket sales, more parking fees, until it all came to a head in 2007/2008, when shit hit the fan with loud music events staged at the Park until after midnight with music blazing, lots of complaints, so the county shut it down, took the Park out of the General Plan Update EIR and they had to do their own EIR, general plan amendment, get permits and rezone the Park property for events, concerts and festivals. My issue was not with events like the KMUD Luau, its what it turned into and how it would effect the South Fork Eel and wildlife habitat! What you enjoy now at the Park will not be there long, if the Park Board gets its way,

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2595abcvh2M

Pepperwood
Guest
Pepperwood
2 years ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

No Ed, that was a lie. It’s not about nature for you. It’s about your father, as you have said. You don’t live here anymore, let it go.

You’re also referring to the time when reggae was maybe going to be held there. Which would have been nice. Except for you.

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  Pepperwood

Wow, you mean like, “No Luke I am your father”!

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
2 years ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

[Edit: in case you missed the announcement:

  • To all commenters, I’ve updated my comment rules.

    Rule #15 now says: “This website is primarily for getting out news. A commenter may be put on moderation or deleted if, in the eye of the site owner, they create drama or require too much work and get in the way of putting out news.”

    I’m pretty much deleting anything that comes close to directly saying something personal to someone as opposed to discussing ideas or giving information.]

  • Ed Voice
    Guest
    Ed Voice
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Ed Voice
    Resident
    Guest
    Resident
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Ed Voice

    say the names of the politicians who did this!

    stop letting the people who actually screwed us hide behind anonymity

    Prometheus
    Guest
    Prometheus
    2 years ago

    Park? It was a politically approved land grab for cannabis cultivating…

    commenter
    Guest
    commenter
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Prometheus

    that pretty much describes any land deal around here Promo

    Cmon
    Guest
    Cmon
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Prometheus

    What are you talking about????
    Theres no cannabis there.
    If you were a local.you would have been there and know that.
    Stop speeading bs, this situation already has enough of that.

    Gone oh ria
    Guest
    Gone oh ria
    2 years ago

    Still waiting to be surprised by the repugnant [edit] county populace

    Who knows, maybe one day yall will no longer be notorious as immature violent sociopaths who still think growing weed is a radical act of significant civil disobedience

    Yeah,sure
    Guest
    Yeah,sure
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Gone oh ria

    Not really, it was and is about making money, where have you been the last 40 years?
    It was also about growing your own smoke .

    Mike
    Guest
    Mike
    2 years ago

    I’ve quite frequently found that anyone who can’t give information because of litigation or the “threat” of litigation is usually in the wrong. If you were in the right why would you be afraid of the facts? Kinda reminds me of trump and his tax returns… But what do I know?

    Hypocrite
    Guest
    Hypocrite
    2 years ago

    Park board more like circle jerk

    Ed Voice
    Guest
    Ed Voice
    2 years ago

    You know there’s something wrong, when they say:

    Because of the threat of litigation we are not able to provide more information at this time.”

    So if that was true, why make this “press release” and say anything at all?

    So who instigated or perceived this threat? Given the Park Boards track record, I would say no one, its just a lame excess. Threat of litigation is used by public and governmental agencies, not a private property owner like the Park Board!