EcoNews Report

This week on the EcoNews Report, we hear from California State Parks, North Coast Redwoods District staff about their Interpretive programs, how they are working to tell unique stories, uplift diverse voices, and how use of digital technology during Covid has increased access to learning about these incredible public lands. Our guests include Interpretive Program Manager Marnin Robbins, and Interpreters at Humboldt Redwoods State Park, John Griffith and Erika Granadino.

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This week on the EcoNews Report, Casey Cruikshank, Coastal Programs Coordinator for the Northcoast Environmental Center, talks with us about Coastal Cleanup Day. This year the event lasts all month, so there's still time for you to participate and find out for yourself why picking up a little trash is really about so much more.

Learn more or join this year's event here: https://www.yournec.org/coastalcleanupday/

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Three major phenomena are shaping the future of the transportation system in Humboldt County and nationwide: climate chaos, autonomous vehicles, and the road safety crisis (particularly for non-vehicular road users). These phenomena will only grow in importance and influence in the decades to come. Yet today, as transportation officials at every level continue to repair and maintain our existing transportation system and draft plans for the future, these phenomena are often relegated to the status of minor considerations, or are ignored completely.

A new report from the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities documents what all this means for local transportation and identifies specific actions local governments should be taking. CRTP Executive Director Colin Fiske joins hosts Tom Wheeler (EPIC), Alician Hamann (Friends of the Eel River) and Larry Glass (NEC) to give you the details.

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Our guest is Mike Cipra of Friends of the Dunes, a local conservation organization which is in the process of acquiring the Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Property (a.k.a. the Dog Ranch and Poovey Tract). The 357-acre property is scheduled to be purchased from Security National this fall. Friends of the Dunes has decided to be interim owner for up to 5 years while a permanent plan is developed to manage the area for habitat conservation and public access. 

Just south of the Manila Dunes, this acquisition will create a continuous connected area of more than 1,600 acres of dunes, including the furthest southern extent of coastal dune forest in the world. 

More on the tussle over this property:

• Buying binge reflects his vision, Arkley says - North Coast Journal, 2005
• Arkley's 'Dog Ranch' on the Market - North Coast Journal, 2014

For more info on the flora and fauna of the area:

• Flora & Fauna of Lanphere Dunes

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Our guest is Michelle Kunst of the Trinidad Coastal Land Trust, which manages some of the most popular beaches in the Westhaven/Trinidad area. Michelle explains the how, why, where, what, and when of the upcoming Snapshot Hum Coast BioBlitz 2020 project and how you can use just a smart phone and the iNaturalist app to gather observations for this "bioblitz" community science effort. No expertise of local plant and animal species is required!

To help create a snapshot in time of biodiversity along the Humboldt County coast, download the iNaturalist app and join the Snapshot Hum Coast BioBlitz 2020 project. All it takes is a visit to your your favorite coastal area anytime  August 17 and 31, photographing the flora and fauna and uploading your observations to iNaturalist.

Click HERE to learn more including a short video on how to use iNaturalist .

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This week’s show is a lightning round on various environmental news from around the region: New developments on Eel River dam removal, the NEC’s “Trashathon,” Baykeeper's COVID-safe bay tours, EPIC sues the federal government on recent drastic changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, and more.

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The Northwest Forest Plan — first adopted in 1994 — guides the management of federally owned forest lands in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. A lot has changed in the last 26 years, but the plan has mostly remained static.

Until now! Mike Anderson of the Wilderness Society joins hosts Tom Wheeler (EPIC) and Scott Greacen (Friends of the Eel) to preview an upcoming effort to revise this important document, and to think about how to incorporate everything we’ve learned in the last quarter-century.

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Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission either moved along the Klamath Dam removal project, or else it threw a big wrench in the works. S. Craig Tucker, consultant to the Karuk Tribe, and Mike Belchik, senior water policy analyst with the Yurok Tribe, joins Scott Greacen (Friends of the Eel) and Tom Wheeler (EPIC) for a spirited discussion on the new news about the state of dam removal. What does the FERC ruling mean? Will it speed up dam removal or slow it down?

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The Trinity is the only North Coast river that is partially diverted into the Central Valley Project — the massive waterworks that feeds the Central Valley and southern California.

Today the Green Gang checks in with Tom Stokely, salmon water policy advocate at Save California Salmon, to talk about the Sites Reservoir, a big new dam and reservoir proposed near Colusa.

If it gets built, how might Sites Reservoir affect the health of the Trinity River and its salmon run?

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Tom Wheeler of the Environmental Protection Information Center talks with Meredith of Redwood Forest Defense, a group conducting treesits on Green Diamond Resource Company land (Yurok ancestral territory) near Trinidad.

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