Sigh! The end of an era...
Now's the time to snap up that cute little Scotia vacation cottage, PL's selling the town.
By the time the enviros get done, Humboldt County will only have two products left. One's illegal, and the other (tofu) ought to be.
Are you sure you're not confusing Scotia with Samoa? Samoa was recently acquired by a developer. Scotia is in an ongoing discussion with Rio Dell over becoming part of that city, and the parties to the discussion are Rio Dell and Pacific Lumber, so I'm pretty sure they still own the town. They've been talking about selling the houses to the employees who are living in them, and forming a Utilities district to provide public services.
I think the bay dredging was a bit more extensive this time, but the ongoing problem Humboldt County has is that there's no rail transportation out of there and the closest major market is two hundred fifty miles away by truck. You also can't truck anything to the east.
I was in Port Hueneme when the west coast dock shortage provided them with a huge boost. Most of the BMW's in the state now come in through there and auto companies have become major employers. It'd be lovely if something similar happened in Humboldt County, but I don't forsee any huge increase in shipping in the near future. The roads aren't going to get better, and the North Coast Railway would be three years away from operating if it started now, and it hasn't.