Some San Bernardino County elementary schools will reopen as early as next week, officials with the San Bernardino County Health Department have indicated.
A multitude of factors went into the decision to attenuate what has been a key provision of the steps that were taken in March 2020 to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Since that time, the shuttering of the county’s schools have been constant. Now, roughly two months after a surge in the sometimes deadly virus, there has been a lull in its spread, and vaccines against the disease are being widely administered.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who in November and December called for the intensification of the precautions he first mandated eleven months ago before successfully contesting last month a petition to the California Supreme Court brought against him and the State of California by the County of San Bernardino seeking that those restrictions be set aside, has reached the conclusion that the threat brought on by COVID-19, the earliest recognized serious version of the virus with the greatest lethal potential, is on the wane, at least for the time being.
The state last year created a four-tiered, color-coded system intended to chart the seriousness of the outbreak county-by-county based on metrics of the spread of the condition. The rankings range from the most serious or widespread purple or tier one, to substantial red or tier two, to moderate orange or tier three, to minimal yellow or tier four.
From the time the tier ranking system was put in place, San Bernardino County has consistently fallen into the red or purple tier, and remained in the widespread category into the fall and winter of 2020. By November and December, San Bernardino County had the highest known infection rate among the state’s 58 counties, which called into question the rationale for the county’s filing of the legal action against Newsom seeking an exit from the restrictions he had imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Despite the seriousness of the pandemic and the deaths that escalated throughout the fall and into the winter, a general social fatigue with the restrictions had set in amongst a major portion of the state’s population. Groundwork to prepare for the eventual opening of schools began in October.
School districts throughout the state as early as last summer were applying for waivers to allow them to reopen. Ultimately, the state in processing those requests formulated criteria to evaluate them, one of which included how the county where those schools are located stands on the four-tier scale. The state’s coordination with the various county departments of health on the school opening issue involves determining whether the districts have a reopening plan and what each plan consists of. Within the same district, some schools have sought to reopen while others have not. By the middle of November, 109 San Bernardino County elementary schools sought a waiver. All of those, along with others submitted later that month and in December have been evaluated by the state. It appears that all but two of the schools that applied have been granted permission to open. At least 120 other applications to open have been submitted by San Bernardino County schools and remain pending, subject to evaluation.
Not all of the schools now free to open will do so by next week.
In some districts, reopening is largely dependent upon teachers having been vaccinated against COVID-19. The state has now allocated ten percent of California’s allotment of vaccine to inoculate teachers and other school staff members.
As of yesterday, 138 schools in the county had been given approval for their reopening safety plans. All of those schools can reopen at will.
A factor in the permission being granted for reopening is that the county’s new infection rate has been dropping drastically over the last three weeks. According to available testing statistics, the number of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people has been in decline from February 4 onward and had fallen below 25 per 100,000 for four consecutive days, from Monday through Thursday of this week. That compares favorably to the 52 new cases per 100,000 the county logged on February 2.
Another factor in the decision to open schools is the medical community’s recognition that school age children have a relatively strong resistance of COVID-19. This is because children from the ages of 5 to 12 who are educated in elementary school settings historically are sharing among themselves viruses such as the common cold on a constant basis.
These include common human coronaviruses, such as the relatively benign 229E, NL63, OC43 and HKU1 types, which usually manifest in mild to moderate symptoms involving upper-respiratory tract impacts virtually indistinguishable from the common cold. Researchers have theorized that the immunity these children cultivate from those exposures are effective in warding off or attenuating, in the vast majority of cases, COVID-19.
-Mark Gutglueck

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors earlier this month consented to move ahead with the hiring of a law firm to represent it in one case while that firm is representing a party the county is suing in another case.
On February 9, the board of supervisors, in action that County Counsel Michelle Blakemore recommended, approved what is in legal terms referred to as a “waiver of conflict of interest.” That conflict, Blakemore said, “arises out of Reed Smith LLP’s proposed representation of the County of San Bernardino in pursuit of the recovery of insurance coverage and Reed Smith LLP’s representation of a party adverse to the County of San Bernardino.”
Lawyers are prohibited from representing a client who is either a being sued or has sued another of that lawyers clients unless all parties involve sign waivers of their right not to have as a legal representative a lawyer who or a law firm that is working on behalf of someone involved in a legal action against them.
The office of county counsel is San Bernardino County’s stable of in-house attorneys. In addition to the lawyers within the office of county counsel, the county employs outside attorneys when the legal matters the county is involved in entail an area or areas of the law its in-house lawyers do not possess expertise in.
Such a conflict is inherent in a case the county had brought against Blue Cross, a medical insurance provider, according to Blakemore. Reed Smith LLP represents Blue Cross, she said.
In a report dated February 9, 2021, which was prepared for the board of supervisors’ February 9 meeting but which was in actually prepared ahead of time, Blakemore told the board of supervisors, “In 2020, multiple settlement agreements were reached on behalf of San Bernardino County, the San Bernardino County Flood Control District, and various employees and elected officials. Insurance carriers familiar with the underlying cases have indicated they will not provide coverage for these settlements and associated defense costs. Retaining outside counsel that specializes in insurance coverage advice and litigation is essential to assisting the county and flood control district with the process of ensuring the proper recovery from the insurers under the applicable insurance policies. The office of county counsel intends to contract with Reed Smith LLP, a law firm that has the specialized skills, knowledge, experience and expertise in the area of insurance coverage litigation needed to effectively assist, advise, litigate and otherwise represent the county and flood control district in their recovery efforts.”
Blakemore continued, “In considering this representation of the county and flood control district, Reed Smith LLP has identified a conflict of interest from its representation of Blue Cross of California dba Anthem Blue Cross and Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company in connection with an action filed by the county entitled County of San Bernardino dba Arrowhead Regional Medical Center v. Blue Cross of California dba Anthem Blue Cross, et al. Case No. CIVDS1723565. This Blue Shield action involves various alleged underpayments for certain medical services at the county-owned hospital. The legal issues in the Blue Shield matter are unrelated to the legal services to be provided to the county regarding the insurance recovery services discussed above. No client information received or expected to be received by Reed Smith LLP in the course of its representation of the county in this insurance recovery matter is material to its representation of a party that is adverse to the county in the Blue Shield matter. Furthermore, in conformance with the professional rules of responsibility that govern an attorney’s representation of clients, appropriate ethical screens have been instituted by Reed Smith LLP to ensure that no confidential information pertaining to the county will be shared with Blue Cross or the attorneys acting to represent Blue Cross.”
Blakemore offered the supervisors an assurance that “Reed Smith LLP’s attorneys and staff working on the Blue Shield matter will not perform any work, discuss or have access to documents or information related to the county’s insurance recovery matter. Similarly, Reed Smith LLP’s attorneys and staff working on this matter will not perform any work, discuss or have access to documents or information related to the Blue Shield matter.”
Blakemore said, “County counsel has reviewed the waiver of conflict of interest and believes that as a result of the ethical walls in place, Reed Smith LLP will minimize the risk of prejudice to the county in its representation of the county in this matter.”
The board of supervisors, acting as the top authority overseeing the county, the flood control district and the county hospital, acknowledged a conflict of interest existed and approved the waiver of an actual conflict of interest, authorizing Reed Smith LLP to pursue the recovery of coverage from the flood control district’s insurance carrier.
-Mark Gutglueck

Skeletal remains found near Amboy Road and Danby Road in Wonder Valley on Sunday, January 31 have been identified as those of Erika Lloyd, who had been missing since mid-June.
The confirmation of Lloyd’s death brings painful closure to eight months of mystery and dismay relating to her disappearance, which came after a frenetic six days during which the single mother was searching for solace in the midst of what was for her the overwhelming tension brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Her pursuit of relief ultimately ended in her death in the unforgiving landscape of San Bernardino County’s remote Mojave Desert Outback.
Lloyd, who would now be 38, was 37 at the time of her disappearance.
The maddeningly baffling details of what now appear to have been Lloyd’s last days on earth, in which she drove 503 miles from her Bay Area home to Joshua Tree National Park then back to her home and then back to the national park, covering those 1,599 miles in the course of four days, are no more understandable than they have been from the outset of her vanishing.
The remains were identified as those of Lloyd through dental records. The results of an autopsy that was to be performed have not been released, and there was no indication if that autopsy or any other forensic examination has been completed. No cause of death has been disclosed.
Though Lloyd’s death and the circumstances leading up to it remain under investigation, information that has been disclosed to this point supports a conclusion of misadventure rather than foul play.
Statements made by her friends and family to a variety of media outlets suggest that the COVID-19 crisis had put a crimp in Lloyd’s work as a beautician, negatively impacting her cash flow. There have been suggestions that she was seeking to make a getaway to the national park as a break from the challenges in her life.
Of note is that before leaving, she deleted the contents of her Facebook page, though she remained active on Instagram until June 15.
According to her sister-in-law, Lloyd was “under a lot of stress and wanted to get away and unplug.”
An unconfirmed report is that one of Erika’s friends, whose precise identity or gender is not available through any source found by the Sentinel, moved to Twentynine Palms in April 2020. There has been speculation that Lloyd had perhaps made the trip to see that person.
On June 11, she left her 12-year-old son in the care of a friend in Walnut Creek before departing.
There is evidence suggesting she covered the entire 533 miles between Walnut Creek and Joshua Tree National Park on Thursday, June 11, and was camping at the Jumbo Rocks campground the nights of June 11 and Friday, June 12.
Early on Saturday, June 13, she set out on a return trip to Walnut Creek, arriving later that day, and spent the night there with her son and her roommate. The following day, Sunday, June 14, she departed Walnut Creek, again without her son, to return to the Jumbo Rocks campground, where, she represented to her friends, two people identified simply as “James” and “Christian” were looking after her campsite and, presumably, her camping gear. There is credible evidence to suggest that Lloyd arrived at Jumbo Rocks Campground in the late afternoon of June 14. In her journal that was recovered, Lloyd noted that James and Christian were not at the campground when she arrived. According to Lloyd’s mother, she spoke with her daughter for the last time on June 14 or June 15. She said Erika was “talking really fast” and it sounded like she was driving. There was no known telephonic contact between Lloyd and anyone after that.
Park rangers on Monday, June 15 came across Lloyd’s vandalized 2006 Black Honda Accord in the parking area for the Indian Cove campground, some 21.9 miles from Jumbo Rocks but still within the confines of 1,234 square-mile Joshua Tree National Park. There was no camping equipment in the car or in its immediate vicinity when the rangers observed the vehicle. The windshield on the passenger’s side in the front had been broken, and the dashboard damaged. It is believed, based on incomplete information available to the Sentinel, there was at that point damage to the back window, as well. The rangers noted the vehicle’s presence in a report, and left a note on the car. That evening, the car had been removed.
The next day, Tuesday June 16, a video captured the car leaving the north entrance into/exit from Joshua Tree National Park at 1:20 p.m, and the car was later videoed passing a school in Twentynine Palms at 2:50 p.m.
Around 4 p.m. on June 16, after being summoned by a report from a Wonder Valley resident, the California Highway Patrolman spotted Lloyd’s Accord parked on Shelton Road, east of Twentynine Palms, north of the intersection with Highway 62, facing south toward the highway, some 23 miles from Jumbo Rocks campground. The car was blocking the roadway such that it inhibited passage on Shelton Road, which is unpaved. The CHP summoned Twentynine Palms-based Bailey’s Auto Repair & Towing to tow the car. David Bailey, the proprietor of the tow company, subsequently told News Channel 3, based in the Coachella Valley, that the Accord’s rear window was broken, that the front windshield was smashed on the passenger side, that the airbag had deployed and the radio was damaged.
It is believed that in towing the Accord, vibration from traveling the rough roads into Twentynine Palms caused the back window to completely fragment.
In addition, Bailey said, there was damage to the outside front of the vehicle in that the bottom of the radiator and the air conditioning condenser were pushed backwards as if the car had hit a very large object head-on. Bailey speculated that the car had run into a berm beside the road near the intersection of Highway 62 and Shelton Road.
Beginning on June 16, Lloyd’s friends calling her cell phone encountered no answer. They continued to try to reach her.
On Wednesday, June 17, her family reported her missing, giving indication she might be in the area of Joshua Tree National Park. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department dispatched a helicopter to scour the area. That effort was not fruitful.
Lloyd’s camping gear was located at a camping site in Jumbo Rocks Campground. An expensive Yeti cooler she was not known to have owned was found among her possessions at the campsite.
The Morongo Basin Sheriff’s Station was put on a special alert to be on the lookout for any sightings of her throughout the entirety of the more than 3,000 square mile desert area that includes Joshua Tree, Joshua Tree National Park, Twentynine Palms, Yucca Valley and outlying areas. Park Rangers began searching areas within the park. Sheriff’s deputies, including ones with canines, searched areas at the entrance of the park and its periphery, as well as along Highway 62.
The Joshua Tree Search and Rescue Team engaged in an effort to find her or spot any signs that she was in the area.
On June 19, Lloyd’s parents caught a flight from Maryland to California in an effort to help with and intensify the search for their daughter. They posted photos of her and posters alerting the public to her disappearance in the area within the national park as well as in and around Twentynine Palms and Wonder Valley.
Friends and family persisted in trying to reach her by calling her cell phone. On June 20, it was answered by a man who said he had found the phone on June 18 “on Cottonwood,” that is on Cottonwood Drive in Twentynine Palms.
On July 22, 2020, a dirt bike rider found human remains in the desert at a location not precisely delineated.
On August 8, 2020, a man who was going shooting in the desert found a badly decomposed body on Shelton Road in Wonder Valley.
Meanwhile, the Lloyd family, still intent on finding Erika, intensified its efforts. Her parents leased space on billboards in the Morongo Valley to feature oversized and highly visible photos of their daughter and make notice of her being missing.
Doug Billings, a mining and cave expert who is familiar with the area and possesses global positioning, mapping and data-cataloging equipment that allows him and the team he is working with to carry out a methodical survey of the vast desert landscape, joined as a volunteer in the search effort.
While conducting his search in the areas he believed Lloyd was likely to have become lost in or perished, Billings’ search team came upon a red bike later determined to be the one ridden by James Escalante, who disappeared on June 25, 2020 from an area very near to where Lloyd’s damaged and/or vandalized car was found abandoned near the intersection of Highway 62 and Shelton Road.
Six bodies were found in the area in or around Wonder Valley in the 13 months and eight days between December 23, 2019 and January 31, 2021
Human remains were found in Joshua Tree National Park on December 23, 2019. On January 14, 2020 that body was identified as that of Paul Miller.
On January 16, 2020, human remains were found in Joshua Tree National Park. On February 12, 2020, those were identified as Tawny Camarillo, who was last seen on May 13, 2019, in the area of Yucca Valley. Camarillo was reported missing on May 14, 2019.
On July 22, 2020, a dirt bike rider found human remains in the desert at a precise location not identified by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Those remains have not been identified.
On August 8, 2020, proximate to Shelton Road and Highway 62, a body later determined to be that of Escalante was found.
On an undisclosed date in roughly the same timeframe, a body was found approximately a quarter of a mile south of Amboy Road and Wilson Road.
On Sunday January 31, Lloyd’s body was discovered by hikers in a field near Amboy Road and Danby Road.
According to Billings, Lloyd’s skeletal remains were found roughly 2.2 miles northwest of where her car was abandoned.
Billings said the circumstances relating to Lloyd’s disappearance and where she was found is a relatively strong indication that Lloyd perished after an accident, possibly a collision with a sand berm to the side of Highway 62, as was stated by David Bailey. He said Lloyd may have sustained some type of head injury, compounded with possible mental and emotional distress. Emphasizing that he could not make any pronouncement with total certainty, Billings said he believed that Lloyd, who was not familiar with the desert area and was already likely disoriented, probably ran into a barrier on the side of the road at a high enough rate of speed to disable the vehicle and injure herself.
“The airbag deployed, so I don’t see how she couldn’t have banged her head pretty hard,” Billings said. “Unfamiliar with area and first time exiting the Utah Trail north exit, she easily could have overshot Highway 62, thinking the Marine Corps base in the distance was the actual town. She could have mistaken some of the structures on the Marine Corps base as being buildings in the City of Twentynine Palms before she crashed, which would put her out on Amboy Road,” he said, and she likely then went on foot in that direction rather than taking Highway 62. “She probably began walking, and went just about as far as that, two to two-and-a-half miles,” Billings said. “She was already disoriented. It was hot. Not as hot as it gets in July or August, but hot enough. She easily could have suffered heat stroke.”
The only information presently available that might contradict a conclusion of misadventure, Billings said, is that Lloyd’s body was discovered a little less than a week after heavy rains in the desert. If she had been buried in a shallow grave, he said, the heavy flow of water that occurred might have carried the earth on top of her away, leaving her body exposed, whereupon she was found on January 31.
“The first heavy rains since she went missing occurred the week before her remains were found, he said.
Billings said investigators might be able to piece together whether or not it was the case that Lloyd had been killed and buried by means of a forensic examination to determine the degree to which her body or her clothes had been bleached or had not been bleached by the sun. If one side of her corpse was not significantly more bleached than the other, Billings said, that would tend to disprove his theory that no foul play was involved, he said. “But understand,” he said, “I am by no means an expert on forensics, with my specialty being the local geography.”
Colin Lloyd, Erika’s brother, in a posting to the Bring Erika Home Facebook page that has since been taken down, wrote, “There is no easy way for me to tell you all this and there’s no easy way for any of us to receive it. My wish is that we can all lean in a little closer, hold each other up, and remind each other more often that we’re here for one another with open arms and endless love; it’s what she would have wanted; it’s the spirit of who she was.”
Colin Lloyd’s posting continued, “We would like to thank the men and women of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, to include their families, all the men and women who performed searches in the desert, Doug Billings and his friends who assisted in the search, the residents of 29 Palms and Wonder Valley. You have all been nothing short of a miracle for us.”
He said his sister’s smile will live on in the memories of everyone who knew her.
“Remember her, cherish her memory, celebrate moments past, and laugh; she would always make you laugh,” Colin Lloyd posted. “Erika adored everyone; she left a bright smile on everyone’s heart; she would remind you of who you truly were and how important and loved you were; she warmed your soul.”
-Mark Gutglueck

By John P. Beall
There’s a lot of talk about the use of grove land in modern-day Redlands. Yes, the city’s jolly little orange-man mascot appears all over public art, packing labels adorn the freeway underpasses (proposed by my brother a decade ago, in fact), children of quarantined households run citrus stands in their front yards, and during the pandemic we see orange hearts and masked citrus signs around town. But in the wake of the recent decision to allow the demolition of the nine acres of orange grove on the J. W. England estate for another tract development, as well as acres of grove land yielding to institutionally-developed industrial real estate and fulfillment centers, this may leave many wondering, “Is there no room for oranges in a modern Redlands?”
When I was growing up, conventional wisdom said that with the loss of labor programs like the Bracero Program, the advent of industrial citrus in places like Florida, and the smaller average size of local fruit meant that “orange groves did not pay.” In fact, certain city officials have even publicly commented along these lines on social media networks, something which one official did acknowledge the city or its officials are not supposed to take a stance on. In reading the most recent city general plan, which calls for zero acres of undeveloped land within city limits within the next 30 years, and given how a larger tax base and more developer fees are to provide the city a way out of its financial straits, it seems the city’s stance is, “Pull ‘em out by the fistful. It’s picking time!”
Here’s why that’s a problem:  My high school history teacher, Tom Atchley, tells a story about life in the pre-Environmental Protection Agency Inland Empire where one could walk out the front door and not see the mountains for the entire summer because of smog. Air quality and heat were some of the reasons why Redlanders who could afford it left the area for the summer for Corona del Mar or the mountains. Parenthetically, this indeed means there is a class component to over-exposure to poor air. Air quality is a problem in Southern California in general, and particularly in the Inland Empire, because we are a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, with the mouth of the valley pointed toward the coast. Consequently, when the ocean winds blow inland, this carries smog and air pollution into the valley, where it remains. In an area that rarely gets a snow day, school-aged students remain indoors from physical education, or during fire season remain indoors due to poor air quality conditions. This is why Richard Nixon, controversial as he is, raised on a citrus farm in Yorba Linda back when Orange County actually grew the fruit for which it is named, was oddly enough the president responsible for founding the Environmental Protection Agency on December 2, 1970. Well, chalk one up for the Republicans! Obviously, air quality has improved nationally over the last 50 years the EPA has existed, but the eradication of pollution is not a done deal, least of all in areas prone to the ill-effects of air pollution.
The tides are reversing, and air pollution is getting worse in the Inland Empire. While the forces at play are bigger than just Redlands, it is time policymakers wake up to what their policies mean in the big picture. Changed global supply chains drive increased demand for importation through the Port of Los Angeles. In fact, the Port of Los Angeles is the single busiest port in the Western Hemisphere, clocking in at 9.46 million twenty foot trailers in 2018. That means an average of 25,917 trailers heading through Southern California by semi-truck or flatbed railroad car, all 365 days per year. This is partly because it is the single largest port in the United States for the reception of imports from the Far East, as global supply chains began shifting with federal trade policies in the period between 2002 and 2008. Part of this shift is also driven by the increase in size of the cargo ships. The Port at Los Angeles is one of the few ports on the Pacific seaboard that can receive these “mega-ships,” which are so big that they are unable to fit through the Panama Canal or beneath the Golden Gate Bridge to arrive at port in the Bay Area. This is the force that carries, and will continue to carry, trucks through Redlands on the I-10 whether or not those goods are warehoused in the Inland Empire. However, this is why the Inland Empire is now considered a gateway market for investors in industrial real estate.
Redlands policymakers do play a role in how this market force impacts our community. As Redlands develops more and more fulfillment centers, the warehouses from which products ordered over the internet are shipped, the citizens of Redlands encounter incalculable but real costs. There is increasing demand on our roadways as an increasing tide of trucks enter and leave our area using roads that our local, county, state, and federal tax dollars pay to maintain. There is a commensurate deterioration of our roadways and streets. There is also more demand on our energy grids from large commercial properties. Additionally, the increased traffic and traffic backlogs that trucks create cause an increase in air pollution with more vehicles idling or driving at less-efficient speeds.
We benefit from increased commercial activity. I am certainly not anti-Amazon. That does not mean there are not costs, however, and unfortunately when the trucks leave, we still breathe the air. This has public health impacts; the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency among others both note the increased incidence of respiratory conditions such as asthma in communities with increased exposure to air pollution. Over 23 million Americans and 6 million American children suffer from asthma. Zooming out further, the World Health Organization notes that globally over 4 million people die annually from health conditions related to air pollution, more than any other single cause in their study, including lack of access to clean water, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and even COVID-19. While we all are exposed to poor air quality, those less mobile or less fortunate can often find themselves more exposed than other people to these forces.
I think all of us can agree on the importance of green space in counteracting the deleterious effects of air pollution, and in Redlands we are blessed with an abundance of trees that beautify our city and clean our air. I know this will sound odd, but as someone working in finance, I do this math and research on carbon emissions and offsets often. Here are some interesting facts regarding trees recapturing carbon dioxide:
• According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 60 mature trees, defined as at least ten years old, can remove one metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) on average from the atmosphere per year.
• Also according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average density of an acre of healthy forest is 60 trees per acre, so we can say one acre of mature trees removes one metric ton of CO2 from the air each year.
• Some types of forest are even better at sequestering CO2, like rainforests, which remove on average 2.5 metric tons of CO2 per acre per year.
• Commercial groves and orchards are planted more densely than natural forests. Citrus and avocado groves are planted at an average of 110 trees per acre, apple orchards (looking at you, Oak Glen) at 150 trees per acre, and almond groves (like those being allowed to die and be torn out in the Central Valley for reasons touted as an environmentally-conscious conservation of water) anywhere between 75 and 180 trees per acre.
By this math, all this means that an acre of citrus land could be over 80 percent more effective at carbon sequestration than an acre of U.S. forest land, and only 28 percent less effective than an acre of rainforest in the Amazon. Put plainly, an acre of grove land is closer in efficiency to an acre of rainforest in the Amazon than an average acre of forest land here in the United States.
The East Valley was home to over 15,000 acres of citrus groves at the turn of the 20th Century. Today there are 2,500 acres in active commercial production and still more smaller parcels that surround the scenic and historic grove homes of Redlands. This means the commercial groves of Redlands offset on average 4,500 metric tons (or over 9.9 million pounds) of CO2 from the air annually. The remaining commercial grove land alone offsets 27.8 million U.S. ton-miles of truck cargo each year. If all 15,000 acres were still standing, the total acreage could have offset 92.6 million U.S. ton-miles of truck cargo.1 In the case of the J.W. England groves, those nine acres could pull an average 16.8 metric tons of CO2 annually from the air.
We can all speak in favor of the benefits of cleaner air and less air pollution, but we need to acknowledge that the war on carbon emissions globally is not fought only in far-off Brazil. Certainly, Redlands is not going to end the issues of global air pollution single-handedly, but public policy choices made in Redlands every day can fight air pollution right here in this valley. Redlands should certainly still be able to grow, but at a certain point we have to acknowledge that tearing out orange groves to do so is a costly choice that future generations of this city will curse this generation for making.

“Without vision a people perish.” -Proverbs 29: 18-27

John P. Beall is a fifth generation Redlander, a former member of the City of Redlands Parks Commission and a utility-scale green energy investment professional. He can be reached at jpbeall@outlook.com.

Footnote:    1An average freight truck fully-loaded moves a max of 10 tons an average of 45,000 miles per year, meaning each truck generates 72.9 metric tons of CO2 on average every year. Long-distance semis on average 100,000 miles per year according to Federal Highway Administration. Trucks generate on average 162 grams of CO2 per US ton-mile, or 6,172 US ton-miles/metric ton of CO2. In 2018, trucks moved 68% of all freight domestically by weight (16.5B tons total, or 11.22B tons by trucks). Thus the US average ton-mileage in 2018 is 504.9Q US ton-miles, creating appx. 81.8T metric tons of CO2 in just 2018.

Interested San Bernardino County residents are being called upon to apply to assist the board of supervisors in redrawing the county’s supervisorial district boundaries. Every ten years following each census, the board of supervisors must redraw the five districts’ boundaries, conditional upon population changes.
Each board member is to appoint one member to the San Bernardino County Redistricting Commission along with one alternate. The board’s appointments to the commission are to be made on April 20.
“I encourage residents to apply to serve on the redistricting commission,” said Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca, Jr. “The decisions made by the commission will impact our community for the next decade. We must ensure equity, fairness, and transparency in the process.”
Members of the commission must meet certain criteria, Limitations on the commission’s membership include an exclusion of those who are heavily active politically.
Each member to be chosen must be registered to vote in the county. Each commissioner may not be an elected county official or a family member, staff member, or paid campaign staff member of an elected county official.
Those who have served as a staff member of an elected official during the past four years is not eligible to serve as a commission member. Nor can a commissioner have served in elected office or campaigned as a candidate for an elected office in the last four years.
Furthermore, anyone who has served as a member of a political party central committee during the past four years is ineligible. Those who have contributed more than $500 per year to any elected office candidate in the past four years cannot be a San Bernardino County Redistricting Commission member, either.
The seven-member San Bernardino County Redistricting Commission will consist of two members appointed by the presiding judge of the Superior Court, one of whom is to serve in the capacity of the commission chair. The remaining members of the commission will be nominated by the members of the board of supervisors, with each supervisor appointing a single commissioner and his or her back-up or alternate member.
The commission is scheduled to hold its first meeting in May.
Commission members and alternates will receive a stipend of $100 for each meeting they attend and reimbursement for mileage exceeding 20 miles round trip from their home.
Applications signed in ink must be postmarked no later than April 5 or hand-delivered to the clerk of the board of supervisors’ office by 5 p.m. on April 5.
The application is available at
https:/Icms.sbcounty.gov/Portals/45/AdvisorvRedistrictingCommissionApplication.pdf?ver=202
1-02-12-090449-457 or by contacting the Clerk of the Board at (909) 387-4831.