Santa Rosa’s own Chris Rogers, who we elected to the California State Assembly last fall, has been doing big things in his first few months in office. The Press Democrat reports that a Bigfoot-related bill he introduced as an “inside joke” among fellow lawmakers — meant to serve as a “placeholder bill” until the real one he’s writing is ready, which is apparently a common practice — got picked up and picked apart by Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” last Saturday night. Watch the Colbert clip below.
“My friends,” the comedian says, “We live in truly paradigm-shattering times. Which is why I was not surprised to be shocked by how startled I was that this week California introduced a bill to recognize Bigfoot as the state’s official cryptid.” Assemblymember Rogers reps the entire North Coast — “a region known as the epicenter of Bigfoot lore,” in the words of SF Gate. And he tells the PD that what began as a lighthearted spoof bill amid trying political times might now become an actual initiative. From our local paper of record: “The bill has generated a buzz among community members who are having fun with it and want to see it actually passed, Rogers said. ‘I think the reaction we have gotten from folks might be because there is a moment of levity that we can provide in an otherwise tense political climate,’ Rogers said. ‘We have been hearing from people across the nation who want to come and testify on the bill. It has been a bit of a fun week for us.’”
Next up: No, those aren’t baby Bigfoots you see in the Sonoma County Parks wildlife-cam footage above. But they’re arguably the next coolest thing: the first-ever bear cubs to be spotted on film at Hood Mountain Regional Park, where park staffers have been trying for years to help the local black-bear population thrive. The park is located just east of the Sonoma Valley area, in the Mayacamas range between Sonoma and Napa counties. (And just like the West County parkland situation we discussed earlier in the newsletter, Hood Mountain is part of a growing open-space empire in East County that just gained another critical 100-acre corridor last summer, bringing the total area for potential bear-roaming to a whopping 17 square miles.)
“We’ve been tracking bear activity at this park for more than 9 years, but this is the first time we’ve seen cubs on our wildlife cameras,” county park officials wrote on Facebook last week. “This shows that bears are not only traveling through the park, but also living and reproducing there.” Bay Nature magazine also ran a great piece last summer on the increasing presence of black bears in the North Bay — and how “for the first time in history, they’re starting to occupy this ecological niche once filled by grizzlies.” Eat your heart out, official state cryptid.
Note from Simone: This piece originally appeared in the weekly email newsletter I write for the Bohemian, called Wine Country Today. Subscribe here!
