EcoNews Report

Trump has revived a little-utilized part of the Endangered Species Act—formally the Endangered Species Committee but often called the "God Squad" as it can decide whether species may go extinct—in a purported effort to boost oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico. Your favorite legal minds, Scott Greacen of eFriends of the Eel River, Matt Simmons of EPIC, and Jen Marlow from CalPo...

On this week's show, your usual host, Tom Wheeler, is in the hot seat to explain EPIC's long-lasting litigation against Caltrans' Richardson Grove Project. 16 years of litigation, boiled down to a half-hour of radio.  Support the show

Have a broken lamp that is too sentimental to toss? Is your favorite knife too dull? Is your laptop running slow? Come to the Repair Cafe! By fixing your items, instead of tossing them and buying new, you are not only saving money, you are saving carbon too. Do-gooder and cafe organizer Wendy Ring joins the show to discuss.  The next repair cafe is Sunday, March 15 from 10-2pm at the Adorni Center...

For offshore wind to fight climate change, that power needs to reach the larger statewide grid where it can replace fossil fuel electricity generation. The catch? Humboldt's current transmission lines are too small to transmit that power out of Humboldt. New transmission infrastructure has been proposed to solve this problem, with the California Independent System Operator selecting Viridon t...

On this week's EcoNews Report, Assemblymember Chris Rogers joins the program to discuss this year's legislative session. Asm. Rogers has emerged as an enviro legislative darling, with bills like year's AB 263, which established minimum instream flow protections for the Shasta and Scott Rivers. Asm. Rogers joins the show to preview three new and exciting bills:  AB 1984 would redefin...

On February 12th, the Trump Administration rescinded the Obama-era "endangerment finding," a legal recognition by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that greenhouse gas emissions were harming and would further harm health and human safety. This endangerment finding allowed the EPA to issue regulations under the Clean Air Act on six climate pollutants, including carbon dioxide. Now...

Roads are a significant barrier to wildlife movement, whether you are a small salamander or a wandering wolf. Environmental activists like guest Steve Blackledge of Environment America have been advocating for the construction of wildlife crossings — physical structures, from big bridges to small culverts — to help mitigate the impact of roads.  But in this advocacy strange bedfellows have emerged...

There is a traffic safety crisis on 4th and 5th Streets in Eureka. These streets are extremely dangerous for people walking, biking, and rolling. While Caltrans has made some improvements to crosswalks, there are currently no plans for major safety improvements to 4th and 5th Streets. Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities (CRTP) joins the program to discuss how str...

On this week's EcoNews Report, we are doing something a little different: climate action theatre. Environmentalists drone about the climate crisis a lot, laden with statistics, science, and doom-and-gloom stories, hoping that with just a little more information, people will straighten up and take this issue seriously.  What is too often missing is the engagement of our imaginations,  essentia...

Does thinking about the climate crisis get you down? Do you feel guilty about your consumption? Do you feel overwhelmed thinking about all that dooms our planet? Your emotional response to the state of the environment is understandable—good even!—but if it is impacting your capacity to live a full and vibrant life, maybe it's time to take action.  Ecochaplain Hanna Nielsen joins the show to d...

Local poets Jerry Martien and Katie Gurin join us for what has become a lovely annual tradition of reflection on the past and the new year ahead. Support the show

The temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, stretching from Alaska all the way down to the redwoods of California, are some of the most productive and biodiverse forests on the planet. In terms of total carbon sequestration and storage, nothing beats them—particularly the towering coast redwoods. In this climate crisis, the best thing we can do is to grow these forests older, safely storin...

The long-awaited Humboldt Regional Climate Action Plan—a multi-jurisdictional strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—is finally up for approval before the Board of Supervisors. (We say finally because the document, which sets emissions reduction targets for 2030, has been in the works since 2018. Seven years of work for a document with a shelf life of four years.) On this week's show, gu...

This week on the Econews Report, we’re joined by Marc Hoshovsky and Bob Schneider, two of the authors of the new book Exploring the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument , which will be published early next year by Backcountry Press. Never heard of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument? It’s an incredibly strange stretch of land, with absolutely unique geologic and botanical features,...

On this week’s EcoNews Report, we take an audio tour of the Siskiyou Crest with Luke Ruediger , chief evangelist for the rugged and wild mountain range that connects the Coast Range with the Cascades along the Oregon/California border. The crest is renowned for its amazing biodiversity, including species, like the Siskiyou Mountains salamander and Baker cypress , found nowhere else on the planet....

This week on the EcoNews Report we're excited to share that the comment period for Eel River dam removal has finally opened! Tune in to hear co-hosts Tom Wheeler of EPIC and Alicia Bales of the Redwood Chapter of the Sierra Club talk with Alicia Hamann of Friends of the Eel River about this important moment. The Wild and Scenic Eel River offers an unparalleled opportunity to restore native fi...

The Yurok people are a fishing people. Since time immemorial, the Klamath River provided for the Yurok, with salmon, eels, eulachon, and other food. Colonization fundamentally upset the balance that existed. The Yurok faced genocide, and those that survived were confined to a small portion of their territory. The Klamath, once a mighty salmon stronghold, was choked by fish-killing dams. But the Yu...

On this week's EcoNews Report, historian Jerry Rohde joins the show to discuss his new book, Northern Humboldt Indians , which you can download as an e-version here . In his book, Jerry details the history of the seven tribes of Northern Humboldt County, with many newly colorized photographs and transcripts of interviews that help to bring to light the indigenous people of the area. The book...

Approximately a third of U.S. residents are non-drivers. Some by choice, but many are physically incapable of driving or financially cannot afford to. The Week Without Driving is an annual campaign that encourages people, especially those who drive, to go a week without their car — use alternative methods, like public transit, walking, biking, or riding-sharing to meet their transportation needs —...

Assemblymember Damon Connolly joins the program to break down what was a historic legislative session. The legislature made major revisions to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) with the stated purpose of helping to build more housing but some folks—like Assemblymember Damon Connolly—are concerned that the legislature may have gone too far and a "clean-up bill" is needed. As...

For decades pesticide-intensive farming of Easter lily bulbs on the Smith River Plain has contaminated groundwater and surface waters of the Smith River estuary, threatening the health of wildlife and humans along one of California’s healthiest, most ecologically pristine rivers. Now the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is considering new regulations to address this persistent poll...

High-severity wildfires that burn communities are obviously bad. But what about high-severity fire that burns in the backcountry? Guest Dr. Dick Hutto, Emeritus Professor of biology and wildlife biology at the University of Montana and author of the recently published book A Beautifully Burned Forest: Learning to Celebrate Severe Forest Fire , makes the case that high-severity fire has been unfair...

On this week's episode of the Econews Report we discuss restoration planning in the Eel River with a rockstar team of restoration experts. Your host Alicia Hamann of Friends of the Eel River is joined by Kaydee Boozel from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Marisa Parish-Hansen and Ruth Goodfield from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Julie Weeder, former NOAA...

Humboldt County just took a big step towards protecting our night sky! In August, the Board of Supervisors approved the Inland Outdoor Lighting Ordinance, regulating outdoor lights to limit light pollution and light trespass. This is a significant win for the dark sky movement and will require new development on unincorporated land to use light fixtures and bulbs that reduce light pollution. But t...

Government often moves slowly. This is a problem when there are immediate safety concerns for a street. The solution: Quick-build projects, which employ cheap and quick materials, like paint or plastic bollards. You may have seen this strategy in action, with new crosswalks and other improvements coming to local streets. Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Transportation Priorities joins the show to...