EcoNews Report

Highway 101 through Eureka is one of California’s most dangerous stretches of road. Structurally, the road is bad for non-vehicular users: it is wide, fast, and crosswalks are too spaced too far apart, to name a few problems. Local agencies and advocates are looking for ways to make Broadway safer for people walking and biking.  What do wetlands, contaminated soil, and traffic congestion have to d...

On this week’s episode, Gang Green talks about the 2020 general election and what it means for local and federal environmental issues. Locally, Gang Green is excited about environmental scientist Scott Bauer making it to the Eureka City Council and the passage of Arcata’s Measure A, which will fund parks, greenspace protection and wetland restoration. On the federal side, President-elect Joe Biden...

Much has been made of how Justice Amy Coney Barrett will rule on questions of abortion and healthcare, but what about her stance on the Chevron deference? If you don’t know what that is, you are not alone. On this week’s EcoNews Report, Gang Green goes legal nerd and dives into the bedrock of our federal administrative state. We promise this isn’t boring. Required reading: My Word: Will Justice Ba...

New Zealand mudsnails are small--about the size of a peppercorn--but they can be a BIG problem for watersheds where they are found. On this week's EcoNews Report, the Green Gang sits down with Darren Ward , Associate Professor of Fisheries Biology at Humboldt State University, and Jacob Pounds, environmental scientist at the Blue Lake Rancheria , to learn about new infestations in the Mad Riv...

Washington is a mess. With the Feds failing to lead on climate change, is there any hope for our planet? On this week’s EcoNews, Gang Green dives into what it would take to translate the principles and values of the Green New Deal - you know, the thing that your crazy uncle says will ban hamburgers - into local legislation.  Special thanks to Colin Fiske, Executive Director of the Coalition for Re...

On this week’s EcoNews Report, the Green Gang interviews fire ecologist Lenya Quinn-Davidson about this year’s record fire season and what people can do to reduce fire risk on their properties. ( Did you know it can be as easy as cleaning out your gutters? ) More Info: Humboldt County Prescribed Burn Association California Prescribed Burn Association Support the show

On this week’s show, we hear from the award-winning California artist-naturalist Obi Kaufmann about his latest book, The Forests of California: A California Field Atlas . Like his two previous best sellers, The California Field Atlas and The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource , The Forests of California explores the Golden State’s wild places in an attempt to center...

This week, we are joined by Jacobs Pounds of Blue Lake Rancheria Environmental Department, who recently detected toxic algae in the Mad River from Blue Lake to Arcata. Anatoxins are powerful neurotoxins produced by blue-green algae when populations explode or "bloom" during unusually warm, low-flow conditions. These toxins have been detected in other local rivers and across the West, but...

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 Interp...

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.yourn...

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 t...

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 devel...

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...

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. Support the show

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...

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....

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...

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. Support the show

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-kill...

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 Lands...

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...

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! Support the show

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...

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:...

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...