On Saturday afternoon, two men and a dog were found dead inside of their tent by the American River, east of the Highway 160 bridge.
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Category Archives: safety
Mountain lion spotted along American River
Sightings of a mountain lion along the American River have prompted state parks to post warning signs.
There have been four sightings of the mammals this month.
Two of the sightings have been confirmed by employees of the Department of Fish & Game, which has offices at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery.
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Some homeless say they won’t leave illegal camp site
A showdown appears to be brewing as Sacramento police officers evict 150 homeless people from an illegal campground along the American River.
While most of the homeless appear to be complying with orders to pack up their tents and move somewhere else, some say they will stand their ground and face arrest because they have no place else to go.
The confrontation started about 8 a.m. Wednesday when around 40 police officers arrived at the site near the intersection of North 10th Street and the American River. The campers were warned earlier this month that eviction was imminent.
“They asked me what I’m going to do,” said “Brother” Eli, a camp elder. “I said ‘I don’t have anywhere to go.’
“Recent efforts by city officials have added nearly 60 additional shelter beds for homeless men and women, but more than that number are camping at the American River site.
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Effie Yeaw to hold speaker series on Sacramento’s natural wonders
The Effie Yeaw Nature Center along the American River is launching a new speaker series in January to illuminate the region’s natural wonders.The six-speaker series begins Jan. 20 with a presentation on venomous bites and stings.
Each event costs $5 per person, or $25 for all six. Space is limited and registration is required.
The first speaker is Mike Cardwell, an expert on venomous snakes and bite treatment. He’ll discuss California’s only dangerous native snake, the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, how to avoid bites, appropriate first-aid, and common myths about venomous snakes.
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50 years of protecting the American River Parkway
The Save the American River Parkway Association celebrated its 50th anniversary this month and received a resolution from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors honoring its accomplishments over the past five decades.
“We commend the work that a whole host of folks (at the association) have done in providing a strong voice for a precious resource,” Supervisor Don Nottoli said Tuesday as he presented the resolution.
The Save the American River Association is a volunteer, nonprofit group of more than 600 members and a Board of Directors that started in 1961 to develop the American River Parkway and to create a plan to maintain it.
The 23-mile American River Parkway hosts more than 5 million visitors each year for fishing, boating and rafting on the water – and picnicking, golfing and paved walking and bicycling trails for land lovers.
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Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson commits to finding ‘safe ground’ site
Mayor Kevin Johnson on Tuesday pledged his commitment for creating a sanctioned “safe ground” for as many as 100 homeless campers in Sacramento, calling it a final piece of the area’s mosaic of programs to shelter needy people.
“I believe we have waited too long” to create a place where homeless people can legally sleep outside with basic services and access to programs that can help them become more stable, he said at his weekly news conference. “We’ve studied this for three years. This is not that complicated.”
Currently, about 100 campers have pitched tents on the south side of the American River near 10th Street, and the City Council was scheduled to take up the controversial matter for the first time Tuesday night.
Johnson urged some of the campers to join the “nomadic shelter” program, in which homeless men and women sleep in rotating houses of worship on cold winter nights.
Wells Fargo salvaged that program this week by contributing $75,000 to keep it running through March.
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Foresthill Bridge BASE leap caught by Placer sheriff’s copter
A BASE jumper was arrested late Wednesday after an after-dark parachute leap off the Foresthill Bridge near Auburn was spotted by the Placer County Sheriff’s helicopter.
Aaron Joseph McGovern was preparing to sail off the 730-foot-high span into the American River canyon, when the sheriff’s Falcon 30 crew spotted him as they passed the bridge on the lookout just before 8 p.m. for a suicidal woman reportedly somewhere on the deck.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin said Thursday that the crew trained the chopper’s high-powered search beam on McGovern’s jump and followed it down to a landing spot on a trail below.
McGovern, a 39-year-old Olympic Valley resident, reportedly attempted to run down the trail in a futile attempt to dodge the spotlight. He ran about a third of a mile along the trail to the Old Auburn-Foresthill Road, where he at first attempted to get into his vehicle, she said.
But McGovern then reversed course, ran up the trail again and was observed stashing his parachute gear in the bushes, Erwin said.
McGovern eventually hunkered down in another bushy area and refused to come out over the next 15 minutes as the Falcon 30 crew made amplified requests for him to surrender, she said.
The incident ended when McGovern emerged and was taken into custody on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and taking part in an illegal recreational activity in a state park.
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Tent City returns
Only a handful of tents are visible from Highway 160 this Monday evening. The air is dry and the sky cloudless as the sun dips above the camp sites. A small group of men on bikes with gruff dogs on leashes congregates at the entrance to the American River Bike Trail. Others head west along the trail.
A quarter-mile up, there it is: five, six, seven, eight—dozens more tents, zigzagging along the base of the river levy for what seems to be at least three city blocks.
“There were more,” says a man seated in a chair. His name is Brother Eli, who oversees a drug-and-alcohol free area of this new Tent City. Eli says that there were at least 50 more tents here last week—before city police showed up and told everyone to move out.
Officers handed out notices last Thursday afternoon: “It is unlawful to camp in the city,” it read. “This location is scheduled for immediate clean-up. … Any items not removed will be considered abandoned and removed accordingly.”
Campers say a few police visited on Sunday night, but kept their distance. Eli claims to have seen police along the west side of the camp, near North 10th Street and the bike trail, as recently as Monday afternoon.
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Drilling begins on American River Parkway levees
A contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is drilling into levees along the American River Parkway through January to collect soil samples.
Visitors to the parkway are advised to watch out for the equipment and give the crew working room.
This week, the truck-mounted drilling rigs and an equipment staging area are located along the river’s south bank, at Paradise Beach west of J Street in Sacramento. The work will continue eastward to Watt Avenue, on both sides of the river, through January.
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Body found in Lake Natoma identified as missing Folsom man
The body of a man found floating in Lake Natoma has been identified by the Sacramento County Coroner’s office.
The body of Kristopher Crisalli, 35, of Folsom, was found about the 11 a.m. Thursday upstream from Nimbus Flat, near the Iron Point Road access to the lake.
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