Could a chemical in our tires be killing salmon? That's what Humboldt Waterkeeper and the Wiyot Tribe have set out to study. The chemical, 6PPD-quinone, is a breakdown product of 6PPD, which is added to tires to prevent cracking and wear. When tires grind away, little bits of the rubber become susceptible to react with ozone. These are then swept away by rain to local waterways, where even slight concentrations are known to kill coho salmon. 

The Wiyot Tribe and Humboldt Waterkeeper sampled 19 urban streams and parking lots that discharge stormwater runoff. Their findings were alarming: Sixty-three percent of samples (12 out of 19) exceeded the U.S. EPA aquatic screening levels. Jen Kalt and Sylvia van Royen of Humboldt Waterkeeper and Tiffany Douglas of the Wiyot Tribe join the show to discuss their study. 

To learn more, check out their report!

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Despite Trump's best efforts, offshore wind ain't dead. The Humboldt Bay Harbor District has been steadily at work developing its Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project, the port facility that will be used to assemble and service wind turbines. And there are updates to share with you. The Harbor District-convened Community Advisory Committee invites you to attend a community meeting to learn more and ask questions about a proposed offshore wind heavy lift marine terminal project. Community Advisory Committee members Rachael Smith, Colleen Clifford, and Matt Simmons join Rob Holmlund, Development Director at the Harbor District, to discuss the upcoming meeting and offshore port development. 

We hope to see you at the meeting!

DATES/TIMES
Wednesday, June 24th: 5:30-7:30 p.m.
WHERE
Arcata Community Center
PRICE
Free

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The Green Rush is over and we are dealing with the consequences. Abandoned cannabis farms speckle the landscape. And on these abandoned farms are a variety of environmental harms that need remediation: improperly graded roads and undersized culverts send sediment into salmon-bearing streams; piles of garbage rotting in the wildlands; pesticides, fertilizers and petroleum improperly stored and at risk of failing; and poorly-constructed ponds at risk of sudden collapse. 

That's where Scott Bauer, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Cannabis Remediation Manager steps in. Working together with nonprofits, local governments, and cannabis farmers, Scott works to coordinate clean up of abandoned sites. Scott joins the program to discuss the historic and ongoing impacts from cannabis production and what is being done to address them. 

And you are helping too: each time you buy cannabis products from a legal California market, a portion of your taxes go to environmental programs. 

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How well do you know river otters? They are cute (obviously). But did you know they are carnivores? They are the apex predator of our local watersheds, hunting on fish, crustaceans, and even waterfowl! Otter experts Charlotte Norman and Gina Culver join the program to talk about the diets of local otters and their complex social lives.

You can report an otter sighting and learn more about these critters at the River Otter Ecology Project.

For a deep dive, check out Wolves of the Wetlands? River Otter Behavior and Space Use at a Water Treatment and Recreational Wetland in Northern California, by Jeffrey Black, Cal Poly Humboldt.

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This week on the EcoNews Report our host Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River is talking about the recently launched Eel River Native Plant Network. She's joined by her colleague at Friends of the Eel River, Julie Weeder, and Adam Canter, Wiyot Tribe Natural Resources Director, and Audrey Jackson, Wiyot Tribe Nursery Manager. When the Eel River dams are removed, we'll need possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds of native plant seeds to revegetate and restore the reservoirs. But it turns out that there's already a need for increased production of native plants within the Eel basin, just to support existing cultural and ecosystem restoration projects. The new Eel River Native Plant Network is connecting all kinds of folks to collaborate on increasing regional capacity to produce native plants, not just now, but for generations to come. 

Learn more about the network: https://www.eelrivernativeplantnetwork.org/

Wiyot Tribe native plants in Soulatluk: https://www.wiyot.us/314/Native-Plants

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Episode #86

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, particularly harmful to young children and developing fetuses. Mercury is commonly present in fish, but in wildly different concentrations based on the life history of the species. What local fish species are safe to eat and at what amounts?

Humboldt Waterkeeper is there to help. With our guest fisheries biologist, Ross Taylor, and volunteer fishermen, Humboldt Waterkeeper tested 70 fish across nine species to examine mercury concentrations in fish. Their results? Long-lived species that eat high on the food web have the highest concentrations and should be avoided by those most sensitive to mercury. Other seafood, like salmon, oysters and clams, are good for eating frequently because of their extremely low mercury levels. 

Want to know if your fish is safe? Download these pocket-sized images for handy reference (click to print or download to your phone):

• Women <45 and Children             
• Women >45 and Men

You can also download the full report, Mercury Testing of Sport/Food Fishes from Nearshore Ocean Waters of Humboldt County, California.

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Grizzly bears were once native to California, from the redwoods all the way to the Mexican border. Euro-American settlers wiped out the species in roughly 75 years, with the last reported grizzly bear seen near what is now Sequoia National Park in 1924. Despite that literal absence from the state, grizzlies are also still everywhere: from the California state flag, to place names (like Los Osos, meaning "the bears" in Spanish), to college football team mascots, like the Berkeley Golden Bears. A new effort led by the Yurok and Tejon Tribes is proposing to study the feasibility of bringing back our grizzlies to the state. A new bill in the legislature, SB 1305 (Richardson), would direct the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to study potentially reintroducing the species to the state through scientific, socioeconomic, and tribal consultations to assess its feasibility.

Tiana Williams Clausen, Director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, and Peter Alagona, professor at UC, Santa Barbara, join the program to talk about grizzlies in California, both in the past and hopefully the future. 

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The Trump Administration is taking an axe to the Forest Service. They are "reorganizing" the Forest Service, eliminating Regional Offices and Research Stations. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is virtually gone—and with it opportunities for public engagement. And Trump is pushing to get out the cut, meaning bigger, more impactful projects. 

Kimberly Baker, Executive Director of the Klamath Forest Alliance, is a watchdog for over 5.3 million acres of Forest Service Land and have commented on virtually every timber sale for 25 years. She joins the program to discuss the damage being done to our public forests.

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On April 21st, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins rocked the North Coast with a Tweet: She claimed that a Los Angeles-area local water district, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, wanted to purchase the Eel River dams to operate them for hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. The Water District has since walked back Sec. Rollin's Tweet, claiming that it had no firm plans and its interest was, at present, only exploratory. Now, Congressman Huffman is involved and livid—rightfully so, as he has worked hard on a solution that would work for both parts of his district—and has initiated an investigation into this affair. 

Alicia Hamann and Scott Greacen of Friends of the Eel River join the show to discuss whether the public should take this threat seriously and what can be done to keep dam removal on track.

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The Elk River was once idyllic: baby salmon once grew big and healthy in the slack waters of its estuary, Elk once browsed in meadows by the river, and returning adult salmon once laid their eggs in cold river gravel, kept shady by old-growth redwoods. The watershed was stewarded by the Wiyot people. And then colonization screwed things up. The lowlands were diked and drained, turned over to cattle. Elk were killed and the meadows swallowed up by conifer encroachment and homesteads, and clearcutting smothered cold water gravel with sediment from logging roads and landslides. The river is unwell—legally recognized as impaired under the Clean Water Act. And absent intervention, it is unlikely to get better anytime soon. That's where CalTrout comes in. In projects from the river's headwaters to its mouth, CalTrout is working to recover the function of the river. Katy Gurin and Bill Matsubu of CalTrout join the show to discuss their restoration work. 

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