Burke touts fisheries restoration experience in Fifth District race

With the June 2 primary closing in, Mary Burke is asking Fifth District voters to trust a career built on salmon, steelhead and floodplain restoration to guide county government from Fieldbrook to Hoopa.

Burke, the North Coast regional manager for CalTrout, was featured by Redwood News in a candidate spotlight as she sought the District 5 supervisor seat. CalTrout says her work spans the Eel River, Mad River and Prairie Creek, and that she coordinates the Eel River Forum, a group focused on salmonid and ecosystem recovery. The organization also says Burke earned a master’s degree from Humboldt State University and has worked in freshwater and tidal wetland projects.

In the spotlight, Burke used a rapid-fire question-and-answer format to argue that her background in fisheries restoration, volunteering and public service would translate to county leadership. She said her professional work has been about building large projects on the North Coast to restore salmon and steelhead populations, linking environmental recovery to local economic and community goals.

That pitch matters in a district that stretches across Fieldbrook, Hoopa, Korbel, McKinleyville, Orleans, Orick, Trinidad, Weitchpec, Westhaven and Willow Creek. Those communities sit far apart and often depend on county government for decisions on roads, services and long-term planning, making communication and follow-through especially important for a supervisor.

Burke said her priorities would include economic development and tourism, but she framed tourism as more than visitor promotion. In her view, Humboldt County’s tourism plan should help build places where people want to live, work and play, a message that ties her campaign to broader questions about housing, local jobs and how the county spends its limited attention.

She also said she would continue work on incorporation, exploration, stewardship, tax incentives and advancing Vista Point Park. Burke emphasized that she and current Supervisor Steve Madrone are different people with different strengths, even as she runs with support from Madrone and Congressman Jared Huffman.

Burke pointed to the long arc of restoration work at ‘O Rew in Prairie Creek, saying in a March 24 CalTrout profile that she has spent about a decade on the floodplain restoration effort there. That kind of timeline is central to her argument: she is presenting herself as someone who has worked on projects that take years, coordinate multiple partners and demand patience from the public.

For voters weighing the district’s next supervisor, Burke is offering a governing style centered on environmental stewardship, economic growth and clearer communication across a county where the distance between communities is often as important as the distance between policy promises.