News from the Center
Successful Event
In August, we had another very enjoyable summer event supporting the NEC. Thanks to everyone who made it to our Summer Patio Party at Jan & Gary Friedrichsen’s beautiful home! The walks through...
Volunteer Spotlight: the Butt Walkers
The Butt Walkers
The self-named “Butt Walkers” at Humboldt County’s Environmental Health office have removed over 2,000 toxic cigarette butts and picked up 58.5 pounds of trash off the streets in just three short months...
Sea Level Rise Threatens Humboldt Bay’s Nuclear Legacy
Is Humboldt Bay vulnerable to sea level rise? Yes. Unfortunately, in addition to buildings and roadways, we must also consider the risks to spent nuclear fuel.
The King Salmon area is one of the communities...
Caltrans Punts Sea Level Rise Planning for 101 Corridor Project
In August, the California Coastal Commission met in Eureka to consider the long-anticipated permit for Caltrans’ “Eureka-Arcata Highway 101 Corridor Safety Improvement Project,” which features an interchange at Indianola Cutoff, a left-turn signal...
Trinity Prescribed Burn Plans Spark Concern
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) recently closed the comment period on its plans to introduce prescribed fire in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. The proposed project area comprises approximately 58,000 acres or about 11 percent...
Forest Defense Not Giving Up on Mattole: Mature Forests Need Protection
by Ellen Taylor
Forest defense in the Mattole is recovering from the painful losses incurred by the recent logging by Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) on Rainbow Ridge in the Mattole, the location of several tree...
CA Legislature Missed Opportunity to Reduce Single-Use Plastics
The Zero Waste movement has stirred consumers, taxpayers, ratepayers, and climate change activists to adopt less wasteful practices in their daily lives. Awareness is also increasing that we’re all paying for the wasteful packaging...
Available Parking Leads to More Driving
People drive cars, so there needs to be places for them to park. Development standards in practically every American community require developers and property owners to provide specific amounts of parking for new construction....
Enviro Groups Concerned About Wind Energy Project
In September, a coalition of local environmental groups sent a letter to the director of the Humboldt Planning Department to express concerns and recommendations regarding the proposed wind farm to be located on two...
Adopt-a-Beach Volunteers find Aquaculture Debris
This edition of Casey's Coastal Column features guest author Robin Hamlin, Adopt-a-Beach volunteer.
Have you ever found small pieces of 3/4 inch black plastic pipe while walking on the beach?
A group of friends and I...
‘Conditional’ Approval for Trinidad Hotel Depends on Water
On August 8, at its only North Coast hearing of 2019, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) reversed the recommendations of its staff and issued a conditional concurrence for a proposed 100-room, five-story Hyatt hotel...
The Crude Reality of California’s Carbon Market: More Pollution
Cap-and-trade, the popular name for California’s carbon market, is touted as the global warming salvation of humanity. This market-based scheme of commercializing carbon is also euphemistically referred to as a “carbon pricing mechanism.”
Carbon markets...
New Water Permit for Dairies / North Group Sponsors Campers
Water Board Adopts New Permit for Dairies
At its August meeting in Santa Rosa, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a new clean water permit for dairies. The Waste Discharge Requirements permit...
EPIC Honors Civil Rights Attorney Dennis Cunningham
Dennis Cunningham is a legendary civil rights attorney who has spent his lifetime defending activists since the 1960s. From suing the Chicago Police Department for the murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton, to representing...
Eye on Washington
Correction notice: In the Aug/Sep issue of EcoNews a sentence was accidentally changed in the editing process. The sentence should read: “Congressman Huffman was also in the news when he managed to shuttle an...
Brave Climate Change Scientists Choose Hope Over Politics
This article is the result of interviews conducted by the author with Drs. Ziska and Caffrey in August of 2019. Full disclosure: Dr. Caffrey was willing to be interviewed due to the author’s previous...
High Costs and Risks of Nuclear Waste
by Mike Manetas
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a public hearing in Eureka on August 26 to gather input and ideas on formulating a policy for creating Community Advisory Boards (CABs) to monitor decommissioning...
A New Approach to Social Change: Community Benefits Agreements
We have an opportunity here in Humboldt County to form a more perfect democracy and vibrant positive economy through the use of Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs).
Social change groups—environmentalists, labor, and racial/social equity—have formed a...
Pachamama Alliance Comes to Humboldt
by Donna Luckey
In recent weeks the news of increased fires in the Amazon has been overwhelming. The accelerating destruction of the rainforest is tragic, and yet not at all new: we have heard about...
Youth Taking the Lead
Greta Thunberg and other youth activists around the world demand climate action.
Earlier this year in the Feb/Mar issue of EcoNews, the Kin to the Earth column introduced readers to Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish...
UN Report: Unprecedented Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’
Press Release, United Nations
The following is excerpted from a press release from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), May 2019
Up to 1 million species currently threatened with extinction,
many within decades.
Nature...
We Need to Talk About Global Grief
by Dorine Leisz
Grief about the world. It’s a pervasive feeling these days, whether or not we register it and recognize it for what it is. I have talked to people that experience it in...
Birds in Decline
Press Release, American Bird Conservancy
New study finds one in four birds in North America have disappeared
in last 50 years
A study recently published in the journal Science reveals that bird populations in the United States...