EcoNews Report

The Northwest Forest Plan turns 30 this year. The Plan, which governs federal forest management within the range of the northern spotted owl, was a first of its kind: a landscape level ecosystem management plan. While the Plan has been a success on many fronts, it is also showing its age. Climate change and tribal sovereignty were issues that were never well-addressed in the original plan. Now, th...

Your favorite enviro do-gooders, Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper and Tom Wheeler and Matt Simmons of EPIC, recently went on a fact-finding mission to Norway to investigate offshore wind of the Norwegian coast. Join them and other guests in an exploration of this technology in action.  Support the show

Northcoastoffshorewind.org is a new website designed to provide objective answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about offshore wind with links to primary sources. On this week's show, Matt Simmons of EPIC and Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper answer the top 10 most frequent questions that we get about offshore wind. Want to learn about whales, birds, fish and more? Listen in o...

Chevron deference is no more. What's Chevron deference you ask? Well, it was the backbone of our federal administrative state. Congress often passes laws that are vague or are capable of multiple interpretations. In Chevron , decided in 1984, the Supreme Court said that where a law is vague, the agency gets deference to its interpretation of that law in issuing regulations. In other words, re...

Special guest Congressman Jared Huffman is heading a task force in the Democratic caucus to address Project 2025 , the Heritage Foundation’s policy outline for a second Trump administration. The document is pervaded by anti-science and anti-regulatory animus, with a particular focus on climate science and renewable energy. Friends of the Eel River Conservation Director Scott Greacen goes deep into...

Golden State Natural Resources, a non-profit organization, is partnering with Drax, a U.K.-based energy company, to propose two new factories to turn biomass into wood pellets and an export facility to ship the pellets to be burned for energy in South Korea and Japan. If approved, the mills would be a major expansion of biomass energy in California. Forest and climate advocates warn that biomass l...

In the third episode of Humboldt Waterkeeper's special series on communities at risk from sea level rise, we hear from long-time residents and relative newcomers who share their thoughts and concerns about sea level rise. We are also joined by Laurie Richmond of the Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute, which is a network of academics, tribes, government agencies, NGOs, private consulta...

The Wiyot Tribe has entered into a special partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to help manage Headwaters Forest Reserve, part of the Tribe's ancestral territory. Headwaters Forest needs some help. The majority of the forest is in rough shape from a history of industrial logging, resulting in poor forest health and impaired watersheds. Together, the Wiyot Tribe and the BLM are...

This week on the EcoNews Report, our host Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by the Great Redwood Trail. The project, proposed to be the longest rail-trail in the nation, is the state's opportunity to fulfill its responsibility to remediate the environmental harms caused by the old railroad. These harms include fish passage barrier...

To operate floating offshore wind turbines, we need to know what conditions are like far below the waves. Over a thousand feet beneath the surface, the ocean floor is mostly unmapped, with only scant knowledge about the geologic features present.  Offshore wind developers are going to change that with autonomous underwater vehicles—basically drones of the ocean or underwater robots that can map th...

Petey Brucker, stalwart defender of the Salmon River and friend to many, passed away on April 22, 2024.  On this week's show, we are joined by his daughter, Allegra Brucker, and friends, Larry Glass and Nat Pennington, to talk about the impact Petey had on the planet on their lives.  Listen to Petey's music. OBITUARY: Petey Brucker, 1952-2024 Support the show

The Scott and Shasta Rivers were once salmon strongholds, but over-allocation of water has made these rivers nearly uninhabitable for Coho and Chinook. The State Water Resources Control Board established emergency regulations that set minimum streamflows during the most recent drought. But those will likely expire soon. Without new permanent instream flows, both rivers could run dry.  A coalition...

California’s system of awarding water rights is anachronistic and out of touch with modern needs. Yet, we are still bound by it. The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District is navigating these challenges. The District once provided a lot of water to the pulp mills of Humboldt Bay. When these shuttered, the District faced a challenge: without putting that water to “beneficial use,” the District could...

The Smith River needs your help. Agricultural operations along the estuary are polluting the river with high levels of pesticides. This pesticide pollution is impacting coho salmon, tidewater goby and other wildlife that rely on the river, as well as the human residents that live amongst the pollution. Greg King, executive director of the Siskiyou Land Conservancy, joins the show to discuss his or...

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” - Aldo Leopold Do you also have a gnawing, seemingly ever-present hum in the back of your head—an intrusive thought about the immensity of the climate crisis and your own miniscule ability to do anything about it? If so, you are not alone. Some 83% of the United States thinks that climate change poses a...

This week on the EcoNews Report, we discuss how fish are monitored and counted. Our host Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River is joined by Dave Kajtaniak from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Samantha Kannry from TRIB Research. Tune in to learn about the hopeful returns salmon returns on the Eel and why preserving genetic diversity is so important to giving species the ada...

The industrial legacy of the 20th Century left many contaminated sites around Humboldt Bay. Our second special episode on communities at risk from sea level rise features local residents talking about several of the most vulnerable sites, including Tuluwat Island, Butcher Slough in Arcata, and the nuclear waste storage site above King Salmon. Many thanks to Hilanea Wilkinson, Adam Canter, Jerry Ro...

Spice up your life by checking out the spectacular dunes of Humboldt County! Just like the shifting sands of Arrakis in the iconic Dune series, these sandy landscapes are home to unique and fragile ecosystems, adapted over millennia, which were once at threat from exploitation. And who are the Fremen that protect our dunes from OHVs, invasive species, and other threats? Meet Suzie Fortner, the new...

Klamath River dam removal is underway, with drawdown of the three largest reservoirs occurring now and physical removal of these dam structures scheduled for this summer. The dams have impacted the river for over a hundred years and dam removal has its own environmental impacts. While fish biologists and water quality scientists are confident that the long-term benefits will outweigh the short-ter...

Mass transit along California's North Coast is difficult. The long distances between rural communities are trouble for ordinary battery-powered electric buses, which don't have the range to make there-and-back trips. Hydrogen buses, however, are able to make the long journey. And thanks to a $38.7 million grant, Humboldt Transit Authority is purchasing 11 state-of-the-art buses and build...

Join us for the first in a special series on communities at risk from sea level rise featuring local residents who share their thoughts on the challenges and potential solutions facing our region.  Many thanks to Marnie Atkins, Jerry Rohde, Nate Faith, Troy Nicolini, Adam Canter, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Gra...

The Humboldt Bay Harbor District has been in the news a lot this year. The Harbor District has committed to a "green terminal" strategy that commits the District to a goal of a zero emission terminal capable of building offshore wind turbines. And Congressman Huffman helped to deliver $426m in federal funding for the construction of this new green terminal. What does building a green ter...

Humboldt County's transmission infrastructure is old. Connections to the larger grid are weak and undersized, forcing Humboldt to be reliant on the fracked gas-burning Humboldt Bay Generating Station because we cannot pull enough power from our grid connections to keep the lights on. And, conversely, those same undersized powerlines mean we cannot export the power that would be generated from...

On this week’s episode of the EcoNews Report, host Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River is joined by long-time Eureka resident and fisherman Steve Rosenberg and Humboldt Trails Council’s Advisory Chair Karen Underwood. Alicia and her guests reflect on the history of losing public access to rivers and wild spaces, and discuss modern efforts underway to protect what remains. Featured is the r...

Have you ever wondered what exactly the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District does, who runs it, and how on earth did they manage to get a $426 million federal grant for a Heavy Lift Terminal for building offshore wind turbines? Tune in for a conversation with Chris Mikkelsen, the District's new Executive Director. For more info:  Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Mar...