WEBVTT - Coastlines, Forests & Communities 0:00:00.569 --> 0:00:03.370 Hey, Merrill. Damn. Hey, Mr. 0:00:03.470 --> 0:00:05.010 Munch. 0:00:05.510 --> 0:00:07.770 Hi. This is Munchs and Merrill. 0:00:07.910 --> 0:00:09.110 Yeah, a little creepy, Munchs. 0:00:09.450 --> 0:00:15.680 Hosted by Michael Munchs and Chris Merrill. On KFI AM 61. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.540 My favorite drop so far this year. A little creepy, Munchs. 0:00:19.180 --> 0:00:21.640 I don't like it. I don't like when Debra turns 0:00:21.660 --> 0:00:24.430 the tables on me. I'm Chris Merrill, he's Michael Monks, 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:26.600 and Michael found out he's got a fan club today, 0:00:26.700 --> 0:00:28.720 which is really nice. An awful lot of people who are... Yeah, 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.120 I don't know where these magical shirts came from, but 0:00:31.140 --> 0:00:33.440 they've all got my face holding my golden mics on them, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.500 and it doesn't seem like they're actually enthusiastic about my accomplishments. 0:00:36.580 --> 0:00:40.580 My favorite comment about the t-shirts is, why do you 0:00:40.620 --> 0:00:46.080 have Ellen on your t-shirt? Okay. It's because Heather Brooker 0:00:46.100 --> 0:00:48.680 commented on the Instagram post from yesterday that I look 0:00:48.700 --> 0:00:56.230 like a cross between Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres. That's 0:00:56.250 --> 0:00:58.800 why she's banned from the show. There's a reason it's funny. 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:04.680 Off we go. And once again, it's people in Long 0:01:04.700 --> 0:01:06.940 Beach who are looking to protect everything that they've got. 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.680 And now I think tomorrow we're going to have a 0:01:09.780 --> 0:01:12.320 geologist on who's going to discuss why it seems to 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:13.959 be they're coming down to this decision between do we 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.400 save the houses or do we save the sand and 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.940 the beaches? Yeah. Wow. Tough, tough questions. The eastern end 0:01:19.970 --> 0:01:22.630 of Long Beach's peninsula is It's got a structural problem, 0:01:23.250 --> 0:01:27.209 and it might look like just some beach maintenance. Hurricane 0:01:27.230 --> 0:01:31.330 Marie just exposed how quickly that sand buffer can disappear. 0:01:31.370 --> 0:01:34.589 So now the city is looking at everything from another 0:01:34.670 --> 0:01:39.580 massive sand infusion to rock armor. Rock armor. And a 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.620 long-term restoration project that could cost, Chris, somewhere in the 0:01:43.660 --> 0:01:46.119 neighborhood of $ 150 to $ 350 million. That's according to LAist. 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:51.020 That is a hell of a lot. Let me make 0:01:51.060 --> 0:01:53.480 this argument. Okay. How much money have we wasted on 0:01:53.500 --> 0:01:55.810 a bunch of other crap that hasn't panned out? Like what? 0:01:56.310 --> 0:01:59.070 Homeless services. Yeah. I mean, we keep throwing good money 0:01:59.110 --> 0:02:01.970 after bad on some of these other social projects. This 0:02:02.050 --> 0:02:04.330 is something where we say it's going to, what'd you say? 0:02:04.330 --> 0:02:09.560 150 to 350 million. If it costs 350 million to 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:14.100 save one of the pristine places on our coastline, that 0:02:14.139 --> 0:02:16.480 to me seems like a much better use of money 0:02:16.540 --> 0:02:21.460 for infrastructure and long-term investment. than does the spending we 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:23.020 have on a lot of these different social programs that 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.859 just go no. If the social programs showed results, then 0:02:26.930 --> 0:02:28.929 I would say, oh, look, it's worth it. Look, we've 0:02:28.950 --> 0:02:31.730 cleaned up the streets. Look, graffiti is down. Homelessness is down. 0:02:31.790 --> 0:02:33.430 Whatever it is, right? I'd say, okay, well, that makes 0:02:33.450 --> 0:02:35.889 a lot of sense. But it's not. It's just good 0:02:35.930 --> 0:02:38.730 money after bad. So if we're going to throw money 0:02:38.770 --> 0:02:40.750 at something, throw money at something that has a long-term 0:02:41.010 --> 0:02:44.980 measurable benefit. It's true. We don't do enough investment in 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.950 public buildings. The public realm, if you will, because of 0:02:49.110 --> 0:02:51.790 so much money that's wasted on these programs. We should 0:02:51.830 --> 0:02:53.770 know Long Beach is not part of like the mess 0:02:53.790 --> 0:02:55.990 of Lhasa. They are independent of that. They've got their 0:02:56.010 --> 0:02:58.030 own problem. Exactly. We just talked about it last week 0:02:58.070 --> 0:03:01.790 that they've got their own similar issues to oversight of 0:03:01.850 --> 0:03:04.040 homeless contracts and that there are folks who are taking 0:03:04.060 --> 0:03:07.260 advantage of that limited oversight. On homeless spending. So this 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.959 is absolutely a perfect analogy. I was watching KTLA 5 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:13.560 this morning. They were talking with somebody who went to 0:03:13.700 --> 0:03:16.450 the meeting last night. And the meeting was packed at 0:03:16.490 --> 0:03:18.070 the Yacht Club where they were talking about, what do 0:03:18.090 --> 0:03:20.350 we do? Here's our plans, this sort of thing. Here's 0:03:20.389 --> 0:03:22.570 the options, all the stuff that they were going through. 0:03:22.990 --> 0:03:25.230 And somebody pitched the idea of, let's just build a reef. 0:03:26.389 --> 0:03:28.630 And I thought, well, that's a really interesting idea. Build 0:03:28.650 --> 0:03:31.589 an artificial reef off of Long Beach. The experts said, 0:03:31.889 --> 0:03:35.770 probably not going to do it for us. I think 0:03:35.810 --> 0:03:38.310 this is what's really interesting. Long Beach has spent half 0:03:38.350 --> 0:03:43.740 a century going through sand nourishment, gravel, synthetic kelp. They've 0:03:43.780 --> 0:03:51.240 tried offshore reefs, berms, emergency replenishment. And as my grandfather 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.780 always says, water always wins. No matter what you do, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.800 water always wins in the long run. You got to 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.800 keep that stuff up. And I think we see that. 0:03:59.820 --> 0:04:01.500 I mean, we see that with the LA river. It's 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.640 if you don't take care of the, the, the canal system, 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:05.480 then you're going to have problems there. It all has 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.320 to be maintained. And my God, when you've got, when 0:04:09.340 --> 0:04:12.060 you've got these storms that are pounding long beach, like 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.440 they are, especially the south facing shores, you can't, you 0:04:15.490 --> 0:04:17.270 can't keep up on it. And it's not like you can, 0:04:17.510 --> 0:04:19.990 it's not like you can do a fix mid storm either. 0:04:20.410 --> 0:04:21.710 And that's what so many people were trying to do 0:04:21.770 --> 0:04:23.910 after this Marie And now I think they're trying to 0:04:23.930 --> 0:04:27.150 get ahead of Polo. And then there's another one right 0:04:27.190 --> 0:04:31.720 behind it, too. Rachel. Rachel's right behind Polo. So there's 0:04:31.779 --> 0:04:35.080 another one coming. This is going to take a lot of, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:37.380 it would have taken a lot of preparation, I think, 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.270 had people really understood what we were about to deal with, 0:04:40.390 --> 0:04:43.289 with this El Nino system. We are seeing the local 0:04:43.330 --> 0:04:45.440 emergencies declared. We're seeing it at the county level, the 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.720 state level, that people are starting to mobilize. The emergency 0:04:47.779 --> 0:04:50.960 responders and those types of entities within the government are 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.480 starting to figure out, what are we going to do? 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.810 But it's already here. So you're crafting a plan in 0:04:56.850 --> 0:05:00.310 the midst of the literal storm. It's reactionary. As always. 0:05:00.750 --> 0:05:02.890 It always is. I don't know how much I want 0:05:02.910 --> 0:05:07.229 to put blame on the people of Long Beach, though. Because... 0:05:07.230 --> 0:05:09.230 We were warned El Nino was coming. El Nino could 0:05:09.350 --> 0:05:11.920 bring mudslides. El Nino, a super El Nino could mean 0:05:12.060 --> 0:05:14.700 a wet winter. We were told all these things. I 0:05:14.740 --> 0:05:17.020 don't think anybody was really throwing out the warnings that 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.120 El Nino was going to bring what they call a 0:05:19.180 --> 0:05:23.729 Kelvin wave. Yeah. Increasing sea levels for the entire fall 0:05:23.770 --> 0:05:26.409 and into the winter. I don't think we assumed that 0:05:26.610 --> 0:05:29.180 El Nino was going to create a number of hurricanes 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.140 that were going to batter our coastline the way that 0:05:31.180 --> 0:05:33.680 they are. So I can't really blame them because I 0:05:33.700 --> 0:05:35.479 don't think that they had all the information at the time. 0:05:35.620 --> 0:05:38.080 I think that's right. And coastal communities don't ignore their 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.580 coast if they want to keep their coast. And Long 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:45.250 Beach is no different. They routinely move sand from the 0:05:45.290 --> 0:05:48.010 western side of their beach where it accumulates, and they 0:05:48.050 --> 0:05:50.210 put it back to the eastern side where the beach 0:05:50.250 --> 0:05:53.320 is eroding. And that does cost the city. about a 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.300 million to a million and a half dollars every single year. 0:05:56.380 --> 0:05:59.880 But what is that? That's literally rearranging the deck chairs. Yeah. 0:05:59.900 --> 0:06:02.180 Cause you know, water always wins. It always wins. I 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.419 got an idea. Yeah. It's a little off the wall. Okay. 0:06:05.540 --> 0:06:07.760 What if we build a conveyor belt? What would it do? 0:06:08.260 --> 0:06:10.660 Move sand from these places like we're talking about into 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.620 the places that need more sand so that in the future, 0:06:13.700 --> 0:06:16.160 we don't have to all of a sudden mobilize the 0:06:16.339 --> 0:06:19.359 civil engineering units out there to, to, to take loaders 0:06:19.420 --> 0:06:21.370 and dump trucks and everything else. What if we have 0:06:21.570 --> 0:06:25.010 a permanent conveyor belt already in place? It would probably 0:06:25.050 --> 0:06:27.710 be ugly, though. But in such a case, then you 0:06:27.730 --> 0:06:30.490 could react far more quickly if a scenario like this 0:06:30.529 --> 0:06:32.850 ever arises again, which it will. It's not a question 0:06:32.870 --> 0:06:35.020 of if. It will arise again. Well, maybe you should 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:37.420 have gone to the meeting yesterday and pitched that. I'm 0:06:37.460 --> 0:06:40.790 sure it would have been well-received. as a serious suggestion 0:06:40.830 --> 0:06:42.990 in a very serious time. Well, at the very least, 0:06:43.029 --> 0:06:45.990 it gets the mind working, right? I mean, that's what 0:06:46.029 --> 0:06:48.390 brainstorming is about. I'm not coming up with a genius plan, 0:06:48.430 --> 0:06:50.230 but maybe I get your brain thinking about something other 0:06:50.250 --> 0:06:51.730 than how do we get more trucks on the beach? 0:06:51.810 --> 0:06:54.310 Maybe we think about outside the box a little bit. 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.880 I don't know what a rock revetment is, but LAist says- 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.020 Let me bring that for you. Yeah, because my internet's 0:07:01.060 --> 0:07:03.180 not working in the studio today. So I'm very, I 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.400 actually have to, I can only use the knowledge that 0:07:05.420 --> 0:07:07.380 I have accumulated over my years, and that's not good. 0:07:07.750 --> 0:07:11.620 It's basically like when you stack rocks up along the boardwalk. Oh, okay. 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.000 Sort of like a wall on the ground. Yeah, exactly. Okay, gotcha. 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:16.700 All right, so this is the plan. Or at least 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.060 this is what they're looking at. Engineers have looked at 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:24.070 rock revetments and sheet pile walls. That would also cost money, 0:07:24.130 --> 0:07:26.070 about a million and a half to nine and a 0:07:26.150 --> 0:07:29.030 half million dollars, depending on the level of protection that 0:07:29.050 --> 0:07:32.270 they want. I would want all the protection. Especially if 0:07:32.310 --> 0:07:34.690 it's my multi-million dollar house that we're trying to protect. Yeah, 0:07:34.710 --> 0:07:37.480 I want all of it. And the Long Beach... coast 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.960 is so beautiful and so busy. I mean, I think 0:07:41.050 --> 0:07:43.850 often we forget because Long Beach, it's the second largest 0:07:43.870 --> 0:07:47.210 city in Southern California. And if it were not in 0:07:47.230 --> 0:07:49.390 Southern California was dropped in the middle of America, it 0:07:49.430 --> 0:07:51.290 would be one of the major cities in the country 0:07:51.590 --> 0:07:55.350 that we talk about routinely, probably with multiple professional sports franchises. 0:07:55.390 --> 0:07:57.410 It's a big city. I believe they've got more than 0:07:57.430 --> 0:08:00.390 like 450,000 people that live in the city of Long 0:08:00.420 --> 0:08:04.980 Beach alone. And their shore is busy. It's, you know, 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:07.700 the downtown abuts the water just about. They've got all 0:08:07.740 --> 0:08:09.940 the shopping, all the attractions, the Queen Mary and all 0:08:09.980 --> 0:08:15.500 those sorts of things. It's worth investing to save. And again, yes, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:17.900 back to my first point. With all the money that 0:08:17.940 --> 0:08:19.780 you spend and all of these other programs that you 0:08:19.860 --> 0:08:22.700 know have a snowball chance and hell of being successful, 0:08:23.380 --> 0:08:26.070 put the money into something you know you need that's 0:08:26.090 --> 0:08:29.510 going to protect your overall investment. Otherwise, the peninsula is 0:08:29.530 --> 0:08:33.400 going to fall into the ocean. Bye-bye. It's gone now. 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.459 The scary part of it is they have to figure 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.280 this out today. Right, because the storms are brewing. The 0:08:39.300 --> 0:08:43.000 storms are brewing already. And we've been talking a lot 0:08:43.420 --> 0:08:45.900 about El Nino probably to the point of annoyance, frankly, 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.800 to ourselves and to the listeners because it's just a 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:54.420 recurring topic. I don't think it's technically begun. That's a 0:08:54.420 --> 0:08:58.109 good question. I know the super El Nino, that's a 0:08:58.150 --> 0:09:00.630 really good question. Yeah, that's what confuses me is I 0:09:00.670 --> 0:09:03.670 know that we've got these weird conditions. But I don't 0:09:03.710 --> 0:09:08.950 know if the actual El Nino conditions have started. According 0:09:08.970 --> 0:09:12.390 to NOAA, El Nino advisory on June 11th. That was 0:09:12.429 --> 0:09:16.630 just that, hey, we got this thing happening. I don't 0:09:16.650 --> 0:09:19.140 know how they determined whether... They declared it on June 11th. 0:09:20.150 --> 0:09:22.060 That we would have it or that it is happening. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:24.699 They said El Nino is happening. Okay. And that it 0:09:24.740 --> 0:09:27.100 could strengthen even further. Well, here it is. Here it is. 0:09:27.500 --> 0:09:31.380 And they are talking about this going through the winter. Yeah, 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:33.559 into the spring. And if we're at the beginning of 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.940 this situation and you're trying to figure out, and this 0:09:36.980 --> 0:09:43.960 isn't just for Long Beach. This is for inland communities too. Mesa, Capistrano. Exactly. Malibu. 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.370 The coast will feel it first, but when that precipitation starts, 0:09:48.410 --> 0:09:50.449 the mountains, the burn scars, all of that's going to 0:09:50.470 --> 0:09:53.550 be problematic too. So I'm looking forward to hearing what 0:09:53.570 --> 0:09:57.209 the government is planning with their emergency declarations. Conveyor belt. 0:09:57.510 --> 0:09:59.069 I don't know that they've instilled a lot of faith 0:09:59.470 --> 0:10:03.800 in general. No, leadership has been lacking across California for 0:10:03.820 --> 0:10:10.480 a while. Meanwhile, from the feds wanting more roads to 0:10:10.500 --> 0:10:14.040 the state of California wanting fewer of them. We'll talk 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.900 about where the Coastal Commission says your car is is 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:19.400 ruining everything. What does that have to do with the 0:10:19.420 --> 0:10:23.540 Coastal Commission? Unbelievable. That's next as Monks and Merrill continues. 0:10:24.420 --> 0:10:29.340 You're listening to Monks and Merrill on demand from KFI 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:34.620 AM 640. More stimulating talk. Monks and Merrill. It is Tuesday, 0:10:35.070 --> 0:10:38.000 September 29th. So glad to have you along. Really sad 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:50.660 news today. Mr. Belding died. I saw that last night. Yeah, 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.020 really sad. Dennis Haskins. I didn't realize how old he was. 0:10:53.070 --> 0:10:56.870 He was in his late 70s. 75. 75. Okay, mid-70s. Yeah, 0:10:56.890 --> 0:10:58.990 that sounds about right. I mean, Saved by the Bell 0:10:59.730 --> 0:11:03.510 was on in the early 90s. It debuted in 89. 89? 0:11:03.490 --> 0:11:05.870 I think that was when... It was called Good Morning, 0:11:05.910 --> 0:11:09.210 Miss Bliss. Exactly. With Hayley Mills. It was set in Indiana. Yeah. 0:11:09.929 --> 0:11:11.729 And then they said, hey, we like the concept of 0:11:11.750 --> 0:11:14.250 the show. But we need to tinker with it a 0:11:14.250 --> 0:11:16.770 little bit. So season two, all of a sudden, they're 0:11:16.830 --> 0:11:18.530 all here. They're at Bayside High. 0:11:18.750 --> 0:11:18.990 Right. 0:11:19.030 --> 0:11:21.180 What was the name of the school? Was it Kennedy? 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.060 I don't recall. That's a trivia question. Can anybody remember 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.080 the name of the original school the Saved by the 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:31.380 Bell story took place? It was in Indiana with Haley Mills. Yeah. 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:33.760 And Dennis Haskins was not on that one. Was he 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:35.530 not on that one? Maybe he was. I think he was. 0:11:35.550 --> 0:11:41.689 They brought some of them. I believe Screech was on it. Zach. Yep. 0:11:42.179 --> 0:11:43.730 I don't think Mario Lopez was on it. I don't 0:11:43.750 --> 0:11:47.390 think he was either. Jesse Spano? Was she on it? 0:11:47.410 --> 0:11:49.670 I don't recall. I think she might have been. I 0:11:49.690 --> 0:11:51.989 know they did a little bit of retooling. Man, I 0:11:52.030 --> 0:11:54.870 loved that show when I was a kid. I was 0:11:54.890 --> 0:11:57.650 like a tween when that show came out, and I 0:11:57.690 --> 0:12:00.589 just loved it. Every Saturday morning, loved it. Well, I 0:12:00.610 --> 0:12:04.949 think by the time I was introduced to it, it 0:12:04.990 --> 0:12:08.250 was just always on after school. I don't remember the 0:12:08.450 --> 0:12:11.830 original Saturday run. It was always on. Non-stop, yeah. Yeah, 0:12:11.850 --> 0:12:14.290 but it's a big part of the 90s. And then 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.199 they tried to do a primetime version of it. The 0:12:16.220 --> 0:12:20.040 college years. Disaster. Didn't work. Absolute disaster. I think they 0:12:20.059 --> 0:12:22.679 got a full season out of it. It was just 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:24.760 a total... This is not the same dynamics, because Mr. 0:12:24.780 --> 0:12:27.900 Belding couldn't go. Look, you're in primetime. You can't be 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:29.990 putting out hokey jokes that play to kids. You had 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:31.270 to have something that was going to appeal to a 0:12:31.290 --> 0:12:34.250 broader audience. They just didn't. Just didn't. But I did... 0:12:34.190 --> 0:12:37.870 I love that show. I did, too. Do you remember Showgirls? Yes. Which, 0:12:37.910 --> 0:12:40.689 by the way, I actually enjoy as a film. I 0:12:40.710 --> 0:12:41.990 didn't think it was all that bad. I don't know 0:12:42.010 --> 0:12:43.690 why people dump on it. It got panned pretty hard. 0:12:43.710 --> 0:12:46.990 But that was Elizabeth Berkley, the actress who played Jesse 0:12:47.010 --> 0:12:48.970 Spano in Saved by the Bell, trying to shake that 0:12:49.230 --> 0:12:53.449 Saturday afternoon image by becoming an erotic dancer in a 0:12:53.500 --> 0:12:58.179 Vegas show. Excellent movie for a teenage boy to watch 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.500 in 1994. Learned a lot about yourself that year, didn't you? 0:13:01.540 --> 0:13:03.380 I did indeed. A lot of stuff that would eventually 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.750 disappoint many members of my family. To Humboldt County, which 0:13:05.790 --> 0:13:07.590 I don't think we talk about Humboldt County nearly enough, 0:13:08.350 --> 0:13:11.880 the Coastal Commission has said, quit driving your car on 0:13:11.910 --> 0:13:15.319 the beach. Humboldt County is asking permission to rebuild a 0:13:15.340 --> 0:13:19.740 short stretch of its storm-damaged Centerville Road, but the Coastal 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:24.060 Commission says only if you don't allow vehicles to go 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:25.960 on the beach. So you can rebuild the road, but 0:13:25.980 --> 0:13:29.060 you can't have any turnoffs, basically. Commission says the vehicles 0:13:29.100 --> 0:13:32.220 threaten sensitive dune habitat. They interfere with public access and 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:37.829 can disturb the federally-threatened Western snowy plover. There is a 0:13:37.890 --> 0:13:41.110 theme in today's show, incidentally, that we care more about 0:13:41.190 --> 0:13:44.790 animals than we do people. Yeah. As I was putting 0:13:44.820 --> 0:13:47.140 the show together, I was just going through and I went, oh, 0:13:47.220 --> 0:13:48.920 once again, we don't care about people. But the minute 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.579 somebody says you've got to save the bumblebees, all of 0:13:50.620 --> 0:13:54.900 a sudden it's put the brakes on everything. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. 0:13:55.580 --> 0:13:59.520 I'm waiting. The plover is an animal? It's a bird. Oh. 0:14:01.140 --> 0:14:05.010 What does it sound like? Can you make a plover noise? 0:14:05.450 --> 0:14:08.800 That's a really good question. The Western Snowy Plover. Uh-huh. 0:14:09.179 --> 0:14:10.620 It's a cute bird. I was going to say, that's 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.780 a beautiful name. That's got to be a beautiful bird. 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.020 I find that the names tend to match my expectations 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:18.220 of a bird. I'm going to call it a cute bird. 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.660 It's a cute bird. It's a cute bird. It's cute. 0:14:21.700 --> 0:14:25.800 Not a beautiful bird. Yeah. It's no peacock. It's no peacock. No. 0:14:26.500 --> 0:14:28.850 Hang on. Let's see if I can find the call 0:14:28.890 --> 0:14:33.920 or the sound. All right. Oh, did you find it already, Jesse? Oh, 0:14:33.940 --> 0:14:40.220 nice job. There you go. Oh. I like that we 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:41.820 have a little water in the background, too. What did 0:14:41.860 --> 0:14:45.040 it say? Deborah, you speak Plover. Can you translate that 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:50.760 for us? Yeah, she's ignoring you. Well, I guess people 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.160 are kind of upset. I mean, irrespective of the presence 0:14:54.200 --> 0:15:00.440 of the Plover. Right. They don't like that. That the town, Centerville, 0:15:00.500 --> 0:15:02.620 is being treated like as they would classify it, a 0:15:02.900 --> 0:15:07.620 busy off-road recreation park. But is it true that it's 0:15:07.660 --> 0:15:10.000 being used that way? Not really. No. What you've got 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:11.920 is fishermen that are trying to get to the location, 0:15:12.810 --> 0:15:14.770 and it's a long haul to get to that location. 0:15:14.830 --> 0:15:17.630 So they're taking ATVs, they're taking cars. Now, I'm not 0:15:17.670 --> 0:15:20.110 so naive as to think everyone's treating the beach with 0:15:20.150 --> 0:15:22.370 respect and they're driving straight to their fishing spot and 0:15:22.390 --> 0:15:25.570 they're unloading and they're driving straight back. I'm not that naive. 0:15:25.990 --> 0:15:28.100 I was a teenage boy. I like to rip things up. 0:15:28.380 --> 0:15:29.900 So I know that there's people out there that are 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:31.890 doing nonsense with their, with their trucks and their ATVs. 0:15:32.490 --> 0:15:35.450 No doubt about it. However, I don't think this is 0:15:35.490 --> 0:15:38.190 a situation where you want to just cut everybody off necessarily. 0:15:38.310 --> 0:15:41.790 I do have some, I do have some deference to 0:15:41.830 --> 0:15:43.550 what the coastal commission is saying. And they're going, look, 0:15:43.610 --> 0:15:47.120 we've got issues with erosion happening up and down California's coastline. 0:15:47.620 --> 0:15:49.280 We're going to do what we can to not contribute 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.700 any further to that erosion. However, I think we have 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:57.570 to once again, find balance here. Um, and, I don't 0:15:57.590 --> 0:15:58.820 know how much deference we need to give to the 0:15:58.860 --> 0:16:00.750 Western snowy plover. I know I'm going to have the 0:16:00.820 --> 0:16:04.500 animal people hate my guts on this one, but it's 0:16:04.540 --> 0:16:10.900 a federally designated critical habitat. Indeed. How much of that 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:15.740 have we bulldozed over in the development of America? Not 0:16:15.780 --> 0:16:19.080 always good. I'm somebody who likes to preserve parks. I'm 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.120 somebody that's big on national parks and monuments. I like 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:22.620 all those things. We've got a story in just a 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.760 moment here, how we're going to pave paradise. But at 0:16:25.780 --> 0:16:29.870 the same time, I also think respectful use of sharing 0:16:29.910 --> 0:16:33.770 these habitats is necessary. One of those, we have to coexist. 0:16:34.370 --> 0:16:36.110 The animals were here first. They were, but I'm higher 0:16:36.150 --> 0:16:39.170 on the food chain. So the animals are going to 0:16:39.190 --> 0:16:40.530 have to figure out, I'm going to try to be 0:16:40.570 --> 0:16:43.340 nice to the animals because that's how I am. You 0:16:43.380 --> 0:16:45.560 know me. I'm such a nice guy when it comes 0:16:45.580 --> 0:16:48.440 to the animals. You have murdered many animals with your 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.580 bare hands. Did you or did you not drown a 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:55.510 raccoon in a bucket? That's never been proven. Have you 0:16:55.570 --> 0:16:58.350 or have you not ever punched a porcupine? There's no 0:16:58.430 --> 0:17:03.070 evidence of that whatsoever. None. Wasn't the question, sir. So 0:17:04.310 --> 0:17:07.050 my point, though, is that if we're going to coexist, 0:17:07.070 --> 0:17:08.310 that means the animals are going to have to coexist 0:17:08.330 --> 0:17:10.250 with us, too. We're higher on the food chain, period. 0:17:10.570 --> 0:17:12.169 And that means that if we want to use the 0:17:12.450 --> 0:17:15.980 beach for fishing, part of sustenance, we need to be 0:17:16.020 --> 0:17:17.439 able to use the beach for fishing. Well, there are 0:17:17.460 --> 0:17:20.580 times eliminating the animal population is bad for our own population. Yeah, 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:22.540 I agree with you. And I'm not somebody that says, 0:17:22.580 --> 0:17:25.330 let's just kill all the snowy plovers either. I never 0:17:25.369 --> 0:17:27.710 heard of snowy plovers until this. And now all of 0:17:27.770 --> 0:17:29.350 a sudden. Frankly, I wish you'd stop saying. Now it's 0:17:29.390 --> 0:17:30.950 a hill you're going to die on, right? I've never 0:17:31.010 --> 0:17:32.390 heard of this stupid hill. It's certainly a hill they're 0:17:32.410 --> 0:17:34.630 going to die on to your glee and amusement. You're 0:17:34.690 --> 0:17:37.950 out there like, oh, save the Delta smelt. Who can 0:17:38.290 --> 0:17:41.130 we off next in order to save this bird, this 0:17:41.590 --> 0:17:43.550 fish or whatever else it is? Why is it a 0:17:43.630 --> 0:17:46.169 threat though to the plover? Now what the county wants 0:17:46.190 --> 0:17:49.760 to do. Because they drive over the nest. Oh, okay. So, well, okay. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:51.679 We rip up the. When you rip up the area. Well, 0:17:51.690 --> 0:17:54.280 it sounds like the answers are pretty easy here. The 0:17:54.380 --> 0:17:57.459 county wants to rebuild just a small portion. It's not 0:17:57.500 --> 0:18:00.200 even two-tenths of a mile of road. Storm damage there, yeah. 0:18:00.300 --> 0:18:03.900 They want to fix this. The Coastal Commission is saying, okay, 0:18:04.460 --> 0:18:10.070 but here's the thing. No more off-road vehicle access. Right. 0:18:10.210 --> 0:18:12.810 And Humboldt County says, look, we want to rebuild this road. 0:18:12.850 --> 0:18:16.090 We want to make it weatherproof for the future. And 0:18:16.150 --> 0:18:17.689 then we want to have a ramp that goes down 0:18:17.710 --> 0:18:19.590 to the beach so that people can still access it. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.359 And the Coastal Commission is saying no. Oh, no ramp. 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:24.659 No ramp. No access to the beach is what they 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.440 want to say. The thing is, it's a long hike 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:33.050 if you're trying to drag something through the beach. On foot. Yeah. Yeah. No, 0:18:33.090 --> 0:18:35.330 who are the workers that are going down there? Is 0:18:35.350 --> 0:18:37.790 that what you're saying? That there are workers? Fishermen. Fishermen 0:18:37.810 --> 0:18:40.210 just going down the beach. On the coast, like standing 0:18:40.270 --> 0:18:45.449 on the beach? Yeah. Okay. What's the problem? Well, why 0:18:45.490 --> 0:18:47.840 do they have to drive there? It's just too far? Yeah. 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:50.740 And if it's like me, I don't like to walk. 0:18:52.340 --> 0:18:53.940 I don't know if I've got a problem with this rule. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.040 And I usually don't like the Coastal Commission. You're just 0:18:56.060 --> 0:18:58.260 all Coastal Commissioned up here. No, I'm sorry. I mean, 0:18:58.460 --> 0:19:02.260 call me Team Plover. Whoa. I'm on Team Plover. All right. 0:19:02.340 --> 0:19:03.500 I don't think it's a big deal to ask a 0:19:03.540 --> 0:19:05.580 fisherman to walk to the water. All right. Well, we'll 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:07.540 see how you feel about this because now we've got 0:19:07.900 --> 0:19:09.639 the feds say we should build more roads in the 0:19:09.660 --> 0:19:12.199 National Forest. And then, I don't know, I start to 0:19:12.220 --> 0:19:15.720 envision like a big L.A. style freeway blowing past Shadows Perch. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:20.770 But what they actually plan on building... You'll hear about 0:19:20.810 --> 0:19:22.189 that in a moment. And then what the opponents are 0:19:22.210 --> 0:19:25.250 saying about more roads that could make wildfire danger even worse. 0:19:25.290 --> 0:19:28.590 That's next. KFI AM 640 live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. 0:19:29.450 --> 0:19:34.590 You're listening to Monks and Merrill On Demand. From KFI 0:19:34.890 --> 0:19:38.449 AM 640. On Demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hit that 0:19:38.490 --> 0:19:41.720 follow button. Never miss a moment of Michael's antics. Follow 0:19:41.740 --> 0:19:43.540 us on the social medias at Monks and Merrill, at 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:45.619 Monks and Merrill, where it's day two of a special 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.169 surprise for Michael Monks. The whole team got together. to 0:19:49.190 --> 0:19:51.230 pay homage. You'll be able to see that. He was 0:19:51.270 --> 0:19:53.389 not happy about it. Was it homage? I'm going to 0:19:53.430 --> 0:19:56.820 call it homage. We pay tribute to you. Trump administration 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:01.560 wants to eliminate 2001's roadless area conservation rule. What that 0:20:01.580 --> 0:20:04.440 does is restrict new roads and commercial logging across tens 0:20:04.460 --> 0:20:06.700 of millions of acres of national forest. Administration says those 0:20:06.740 --> 0:20:10.420 restrictions do make it harder to thin the forest. Makes 0:20:10.460 --> 0:20:12.460 it harder to reach fires. Makes it harder to manage timber. 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.500 Opponents say, no, you're actually going to make it worse. 0:20:16.070 --> 0:20:18.689 And we don't want to pave paradise just to put 0:20:18.730 --> 0:20:22.170 up another road that we can jam all our cars into. 0:20:22.690 --> 0:20:25.470 Melanie Schlatterbeck is the executive director of Hills for Everyone. 0:20:25.490 --> 0:20:28.270 She joins us right now. Melanie, what are we looking 0:20:28.290 --> 0:20:30.200