EcoNews Report

What’s the state of the Klamath River in July 2020? Despite a recent series of wins and progress on dam removal — not great. 

Mike Belchik, a senior water policy analyst with the Yurok Tribe, and Daniel Cordalis, a staff attorney for the Tribe, walk the Green Gang through what’s happening on the region’s largest river this season — including the threat of upcoming low flows and, with it, fish-killing disease.

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Author, naturalist, and environmental historian Ann Vileisis talks to the Green Gang about the iconic California abalone. 

Read about her new book here:

• Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish

Read about her previous books - Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get it Back and Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America’s Wetlands here:

• Ann Vileisis’ web page.

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Spring-run chinook and summer-run steelhead are exceedingly strange creatures. What makes them different from their (more numerous) winter-run colleagues? Why are they an important indicator of the health of a river? What’s their future?

Scott Greacen (Friends of the Eel River) and Tom Wheeler (Environmental Protection Information Center) host a discussion on these odd fish, with Bill Tripp of the Karuk Tribe, consultant Craig Tucker and fish researcher Samantha Kannry.

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Better know a ranger district! Kristen Lark, ranger of the Six River National Forest’s Mad River Ranger District, virtually stops by to sing the praises of the beautiful stretch of land she oversees — from Ruth Lake to the Lassics and just into Humboldt County.

What’s it like to be a ranger? Tune in and find out!

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CalTrout’s Darren Mierau and Klamath dam campaign veteran Craig Tucker join the Green Gang to talk through the nascent plan to remove Scott Dam and restore salmon and steelhead to the upper Eel River.

For more about the Potter Valley Project Two-Basin Partnership's proposed solution for Scott Dam Removal, click HERE.

For more info about dam removal and the Potter Valley Project:

• Friends of the Eel River
• Action Alert! Submit comments on the Feasibility Study Report Filing to FERC
  
  
  

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Griff waited 20 years for his dream job. At long last, he is a naturalist at Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which he describes as church for nature-lovers. 

Naturalists go live on Facebook every day at 3 p.m. during the pandemic @NorthCoastRedwoods (Griff’s are Friday and Sundays), He also does “lives” on Fridays and Sundays at 3:30 p.m. @HumboldtRedwoodsStatePark. 

Here are a few recent editions: 

• What Good are Ticks?
• What is that sound coming from that huge redwood tree?!
• Rash or not, this plant is so cool!

Follow him @GriffWild on Facebook and @TheNatureNut on Instagram.

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A roundup of local environmental news from Gang Green. Humboldt Baykeeper celebrates that the Planning Department has refused to allow reconstruction of a downed billboard. The NEC reports on a new air curtain burner being tested by the Forest Service that will hopefully keep smoke levels down from debris burning. EPIC announces new lawsuits and the successful settlement with Humboldt County over the controversial contract with Wildlife Services. Friends of the Eel River previews the big news: we are one step closer to the end of Scott Dam!

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Humboldt State professor Sarah Jaquette Ray talks with hosts Tom Wheeler and Alicia Hamann about how to avoid burnout, why peddling hope and leveraging guilt are not effective, and how we can move past the illusion of partisan division to working toward climate justice.

A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, by Sarah Jaquette Ray. University of California Press.

Available for curbside pick-up at Eureka Books and Northtown Books in Arcata. 

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Everything you ever wanted to know about e-bikes! Tom Wheeler is joined by Chris Johnson of Adventure’s Edge and Nancy Stephenson and Sofia Valenzuela of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority to about the miraculous new generation of electric bicycles and why they’re kind of a game-changer.

Plus: everything you need to know about the RCEA’s new electric bike rebate program. What is it, why is it, and how do you take advantage of it?

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Are you bored at home? Do you keep seeing a bird in your backyard and wonder, “what are you?” On this week’s EcoNews Report, the Green Gang investigates backyard birding! Stay sane during the shelter in place by birding without having to leave your house!

For more info:

• Common Birds of Northwest California (via Northtown Books).

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