EcoNews Report

The venerable Save the Redwoods League was founded in 1918. Some hundred-plus years later, the League continues to be a major force in redwood conservation and restoration—although some of the work today may seem unfamiliar. To restore redwood forests, Save the Redwoods League is often employing some of the same tools that led to the loss of 95% of old-growth redwoods: chainsaws and logging trucks...

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is under attack. CEQA is blamed by some for virtually all issues, from housing to high gas prices, and there are corresponding calls for its "reform," a slippery word with a variety of meanings from light-touch efforts to reform to larger dismantling of California's flagship environmental law. The legislature has responded with various...

California's Fifth Climate Assessment is about to be released. The Assessment is broken up into nine different regions of California, as climate change is going to affect regions differently across the state. The Assessment not only looks at what climate models forecast for each region, but also dives deeper into how climate change is going to impact the region's natural systems, like ou...

On this week's show, we travel to the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion, whose steep knot of jagged peaks, sinuous rivers, and deep canyons support a biodiversity hotspot. The Klamath-Siskiyou Wildland Center (KS Wild), based in Ashland, Oregon, is charged with protecting this special place. Recent Trump regulatory rollbacks and new, more aggressive projects are placing new strains on the delicate e...

On this week’s EcoNews Report, we dive into Prop 45, the ballot initiative forwarded by the California Chamber of Commerce that would significantly alter the California Environmental Quality Act by rolling back protections in the permitting for projects like dams, data centers, and freeway expansions. Many of the proposed changes are going to be directly felt by rural areas like ours who don’t hav...

September is Transit Month in California, and here on the North Coast the occasion is marked with plenty of events, activities, and advocacy . Public transit provides lots of economic , social, and environmental benefits to our region, as attested by transit riders themselves and in a recent open letter to state leaders from a variety of local business, labor, education, health care, social servic...

Barred owl removal is moving forward in California and new data suggests that removals are working as intended: freeing up northern spotted owl habitat that was lost to barred owl invasion. A new peer-reviewed paper in the journal Biological Conservation used GPS locators on 56 barred owls in Northern California confirms that barred owls preferentially choose the same older forests that spotted ow...

Offshore wind developer RWE announced that it has accepted a "settlement" with the Trump Administration. In exchange for abandoning three offshore wind leases — including one off of Humboldt County's coast— the German energy company will receive $1.22 billion to instead invest in fossil fuel projects. The Trump Administration has reached similar settlements for projects on the East...

A supercharged system of warm water off the Pacific Coast threatens to offer a wet and stormy winter. This "super" El Niño is likely to a record-setter, with temperatures already in virtually uncharted territory and months left to continue to climb. Predicting what this super El Niño will do in Northern California is tough but previously strong El Niños—such as 1982-83 and 1997-98—sugges...

Remember how a shady Southern California water agency, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, announced that it wanted to take over the Potter Valley Project on the Eel River, seemingly to thwart dam removal? We have some good news. Earlier this month, the Federal Energy Regulator Commission (FERC) denied the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District’s petition to “intervene” in their procee...

The effort to rematriate land, natural resources, and political sovereignty back to Indigenous peoples offers an important opportunity for restorative justice. It also offers an opportunity for better land conservation, moving from extractive colonial models of land management to more holistic management. Yet, land back has been met with caution from conservatives and even some environmental advoc...

The Trump Administration is going after California’s coast. To curb California’s power to stop harmful development off of its coast, NOAA has announced a new review of the California Coastal Management Program. The program is California’s way of implementing the Coastal Zone Management Act and allows more power for California to review and check federal projects off our coast. While NOAA conducts...

The Eureka Police Department has announced a year-long campaign to reduce traffic violence. According to EPD data, injury collisions increased by 18% so far in 2026 . Unfortunately, the police lack a lot of the tools necessary to help reduce collisions. Traffic enforcement has been shown to be effective but without a persistent visible police presence, benefits decrease over time. So what can make...

Explore the exciting world of abalone! Author, naturalist, and environmental historian Ann Vileisis talks to the Gang Green about the sad, strange and sometimes hopeful history of California’s abalone. LINKS: Ann Vileisis’ web page. Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish Support the show

Could a chemical in our tires be killing salmon? That's what Humboldt Waterkeeper and the Wiyot Tribe have set out to study. The chemical, 6PPD-quinone, is a breakdown product of 6PPD, which is added to tires to prevent cracking and wear. When tires grind away, little bits of the rubber become susceptible to react with ozone. These are then swept away by rain to local waterways, where even sl...

Despite Trump's best efforts, offshore wind ain't dead. The Humboldt Bay Harbor District has been steadily at work developing its Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project, the port facility that will be used to assemble and service wind turbines. And there are updates to share with you. The Harbor District-convened Community Advisory Committee invites you to attend a community meeting to learn...

The Green Rush is over and we are dealing with the consequences. Abandoned cannabis farms speckle the landscape. And on these abandoned farms are a variety of environmental harms that need remediation: improperly graded roads and undersized culverts send sediment into salmon-bearing streams; piles of garbage rotting in the wildlands; pesticides, fertilizers and petroleum improperly stored and at r...

How well do you know river otters? They are cute (obviously). But did you know they are carnivores? They are the apex predator of our local watersheds, hunting on fish, crustaceans, and even waterfowl! Otter experts Charlotte Norman and Gina Culver join the program to talk about the diets of local otters and their complex social lives. You can report an otter sighting and learn more about these cr...

This week on the EcoNews Report our host Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River is talking about the recently launched Eel River Native Plant Network. She's joined by her colleague at Friends of the Eel River, Julie Weeder, and Adam Canter, Wiyot Tribe Natural Resources Director, and Audrey Jackson, Wiyot Tribe Nursery Manager. When the Eel River dams are removed, we'll need possibl...

Episode #86 Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, particularly harmful to young children and developing fetuses. Mercury is commonly present in fish, but in wildly different concentrations based on the life history of the species. What local fish species are safe to eat and at what amounts? Humboldt Waterkeeper is there to help. With our guest fisheries biologist, Ross Taylor , and volunteer fishermen,...

Grizzly bears were once native to California, from the redwoods all the way to the Mexican border. Euro-American settlers wiped out the species in roughly 75 years, with the last reported grizzly bear seen near what is now Sequoia National Park in 1924. Despite that literal absence from the state, grizzlies are also still everywhere: from the California state flag, to place names (like Los Osos, m...

The Trump Administration is taking an axe to the Forest Service. They are "reorganizing" the Forest Service, eliminating Regional Offices and Research Stations. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is virtually gone—and with it opportunities for public engagement. And Trump is pushing to get out the cut, meaning bigger, more impactful projects.  Kimberly Baker, Executive Director...

On April 21st, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins rocked the North Coast with a Tweet: She claimed that a Los Angeles-area local water district, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, wanted to purchase the Eel River dams to operate them for hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. The Water District has since walked back Sec. Rollin's Tweet, claiming that it had...

The Elk River was once idyllic: baby salmon once grew big and healthy in the slack waters of its estuary, Elk once browsed in meadows by the river, and returning adult salmon once laid their eggs in cold river gravel, kept shady by old-growth redwoods. The watershed was stewarded by the Wiyot people. And then colonization screwed things up. The lowlands were diked and drained, turned over to cattl...

How should state-owned demonstration forests be managed? For private timber production or for climate, biodiversity, clean water, and other values? That's the question being considered by the California legislature with AB 2494 (Rogers). AB 2494 proposes a virtual reserval of priorities. Currently, state law directs that these public lands be managed for "maximum sustained timber product...