EcoNews Report

Should we turn California trees into wood pellets to be burned in foreign power plants? That's the proposal being brought forward by Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a nonprofit organization formed by Rural County Representatives of California and Golden State Finance Authority. GSNR has just released their draft environmental impact report for the project, which proposed two wood pelle...

People often say that Humboldt County is a climate refuge. But what does that mean? And after Hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed the Southeast—including communities like Asheville, North Carolina, which was also described as a climate refuge —what is still safe in the age of climate-driven megastorms? Luckily, we have Michael Furniss, local climate nerd, and Troy Nicolini, Meteorologist-In-Charg...

Congressman Huffman is back on the show. With a major election in just a few days, what is the Congressman up to? When he isn't calling voters in swing states—has anyone in Nevada received a call from a "Jared from California"?—he is sponsoring new legislation to protect birds and whales . The Congressman also has new bipartisan fire resiliency legislation that seeks to make our sta...

The second national Week Without Driving just wrapped up, which means that many elected officials, planners, engineers, and community members did their best to not get behind the wheel of a car for seven days. This event highlights the fact that there are many non-drivers in our communities - at least 36,000 people in Humboldt County don't have a driver's license - and raises awareness a...

Hear that howl of joy? It's because gray wolves are coming home to California. Once extirpated from the state, with the last wolf killed in Lassen County in 1924, wolves have been making a quick recovery in the Golden State. Now, only 13 years since the first wolf came back to our state, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) reports that 5 out of the 7 gray wolf families in...

In late August, Russian Riverkeeper and the California Coastkeeper Alliance got what looks like a very significant ruling in their challenge to Sonoma County’s well permitting ordinance. The groups say that by allowing excessive and unmonitored groundwater extraction, the County is failing to protect surface flows in creeks and rivers that fish, wildlife, and recreation need. The court agreed, hol...

Climate change promises to wreak havoc on Humboldt County. And Humboldt County is responding to this threat … slowly.  A draft of the long-delayed Regional Climate Action Plan is here. Colin Fiske, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, and Matt Simmons, climate attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center, join the show to review the draft an...

Eureka voters will be asked to decide on Measure F, the pro-parking ballot measure that opponents warn would thwart ongoing plans to build affordable housing downtown. If it passes, what are the consequences. The California Housing Defense Fund, a non-profit that ensures California's housing laws are follows, recently sent a letter to the City of Eureka warning that should Measure F pass, it...

It's easy to spiral when thinking about all that dooms our planet: forever chemicals, climate change, species extinction, and so on. Feeling overwhelmed by overwhelmed by eco-distress is normal. And there are ways to lessen that anxiety. Eco-chaplain Hanna Nielsen joins the show to discuss how to become a more resilient (and more impactful) person. Hanna, together with the Good Grief Network...

Wildfires are burning across many parts of California, including in Humboldt County. Fires are complicated. Fire is somewhat paradoxical. It is both a natural phenomenon and necessary for forest health, yet some large fires are unnatural. The way to reduce big bad fires may be more, smaller fires.  Complicated things are difficult to understand and even harder to discuss well in public. Luckily, t...

Should we borrow money to pay for urgent environmental priorities? That's the question before voters this fall. Proposition 4 asks for the state to issue $10 billion in new bonds to pay for drinking water improvements, forest restoration work, land conservation, kelp forest reestablishment, and climate action. The bond measure would direct that 40% of funding be explicitly directed towards un...

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...