EcoNews Report

The U.S. has a long history of wolf annihilation, reintroduction, and recovery. Now the federal government has stripped protection of wolves under the federal Endangered Species Act. Joining us to talk about what this means for wolf recovery on the West Coast are Amaroq Weiss, West Coast Wolf Advocate, Center for Biological Diversity; Kimberly Baker, EPIC's Public Land Advocate; and John Mellgren, Attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center.

For more info:

• Pacific Wolf Coalition
• Wolves on the West Coast. The Center and allies petitioned California to protect wolves under the state Endangered Species Act and, in June 2014, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to grant our petition. Those protections were extremely timely because only one year later, California's first known wolf family, the Shasta pack, was confirmed in the state, and the following year a new pair was confirmed in Lassen County.

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Mike Belchik, senior fisheries biologist with the Yurok Tribe, joins Gang Green to give an update on  Klamath dam removal (spoiler: it's on track to be completed by 2024!) and helps resolve a number of myths concerning the Klamath dams that you might see shared on social media. 

To wit: (1) No, it won't increase in-stream water temperature (dams do that); (2) No, it won't result in severe flooding (these are hydroelectric dams, not flood control dams, and don't operate to control flooding); Yes, while there is a loss of power generation, that power generation is not very large (~170MW at full capacity, which hardly ever happens) and the power is not particularly low-carbon when you consider the methane produced by the reservoir behind the dams. 

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Congressman Jared Huffman has spent his entire federal legislative career on an idea: a holistic approach to address the needs of federal lands within his congressional district, combining new Wilderness and Wild and Scenic River designations with prescriptions for active forest restoration and more. After six years of drafting and stakeholder engagement, Congressman Huffman released his bill in 2018. Of course, with Trump and a McConnell-led Senate, the bill never made it past the floor of the House. But, as the old saying goes, elections have consequences. The 2021 General Election and the Georgia Senate runoff have fundamentally improved the odds that Rep. Huffman's bill will pass this year. Among other things, Rep. Huffman's former Senate co-sponsor, is now our Vice-President.

Ryan Henson of the California Wilderness Coalition joins Gang Green to talk about the details of the bill, some of his favorite new wilderness areas, and breaks down the prospects of the bill's passage in the 177th Congress.

Check out the bill and more at https://mountainsandrivers.org/

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Friends of the Dunes Executive Director Mike Cipra joins us to talk about new national recognition of the importance of  Lanphere and Ma-le'l Dunes in the northwest corner of Humboldt Bay. On January 19, these unique public lands were designated as one of three new National Natural Landmarks by outgoing Secretary of the Interior David H. Bernhardt. 
 
These lands are being recognized by the National Park Service for their outstanding variety of sand dunes ecosystems, from coastal dunes to beaches.  Now managed by the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and Bureau of Land Management, these dunes are important cultural sites to the Wiyot Tribe. They are remarkable for a diversity of native plants, habitats, and pollinator, in large part due to 40 years of restoration work to remove European beachgrass, iceplant, and yellow bush lupine to restore natural dune movement. 

No access rules are changing as a result, and the designation may help prioritize the area for  funding to continue ongoing restoration work that has relied heavily on volunteers for decades.

More Info

• Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes Designated National Natural Landmarks by U.S. Department of the Interior - Ryan Burns, LoCo
• Friends of the Dunes website has area maps as well as a map of wild places you can explore with your dog
• BLM: Ma-le’l Dunes CMA maps, equestrian access, etc.
• HBNWR on Dune Restoration and Wildlife & Habitat
• National Natural Landmarks Directory
• Deja vu in the Dunes, by Jerry Martien 

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The 2020 August Complex was the largest fire in recent history, burning over one million acres. Scientists warn that large fires like these will likely become more common in the future, as climate change produces longer fire seasons and more extreme weather. 

If large fires are the new future, what can we learn from the August Complex? One lesson that might be surprising to some is that the fire had large beneficial effects on the fire-adapted landscape.

Ryan Henson from the California Wilderness Coalition joins Gang Green to talk about wildfires, the environmental costs of fire suppression, and how we should (and should not) approach post-fire management.

More info:

• “Post-Wildfire Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk,” Science, Jan. 20, 2006.
• “Salvage Logging, Ecosystem Processes, and Biodiversity Conservation,” Conservation Biology, June 20, 2006.
• “The forgotten stage of forest succession: early‐successional ecosystems on forest sites,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, March 2, 2010.
• “Stop the Salvage Logging of Post-Fire Forests,” EPIC, Sept. 21, 2020.

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On this week’s EcoNews Report, guest Carl Segerstron from High Country News joins Gang Green to discuss how Western far-right anti-government extremism contributed to the siege on the U.S. Capitol. From the Sagebrush Rebellion to Cliven Bundy to the Capitol, you can trace the roots of right-wing terrorism, and see how politicians (looking at you, Ronald Reagan) fed the movement by playing into their paranoia. 

REQUIRED READING:

“The Washington, D.C., siege has Western roots and consequences,” High Country News, Jan. 8, 2021.

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On this week’s EcoNews Report, Gang Green heads south to learn about the Jackson Demonstration State Forest outside of Fort Bragg and the new timber harvest plans that are being proposed for the forest. The planned logging raises important questions facing the future of sustainable forestry: Can we grow old-growth faster by logging mature second growth? What’s the best way to store carbon, in 2x4s or in forests? And should public forests be managed primarily for timber production?

For more on the proposed logging, check out:

• Mendocino Trail Stewards
• “ACTION ALERT: Tell CAL FIRE Not To Log The Western JacksonDemonstration State Forest,” EPIC.

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2020 was more than just a miserable year. It was a transformative one as well. America and the world will never be the same. Gang Green breaks down the highlights and lowlights from the past year and how we are forever changed. Plus, what are our New Year’s resolutions?

Alicia suggests this resource for holding on to some of the lessons of 2020 and making sure we don't just go back to "normal" - because that wasn't working for a large fraction of people!

• Anti-Racism Daily

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Our panelists take a look back at local environmental work in 2020 and take a look forward to big issues in 2021. 

The discussion includes mercury levels in local fish, the Potter Valley dams on the Eel River, Caltrans’ Richardson Grove project, management of the region’s National Forests in the shadow of catastrophic wildfire, and more.

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A favorite American political tradition is the idea of the “first 100 days in office.” Gang Green breaks down the roots of this tradition, what President-elect Joe Biden has said will be his environmental priorities in the first 100 days, how the Georgia Senate run-off election may mean for his legislative agenda, and what environmental groups are urging him to do.

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