EcoNews Report

The election is over. The Democratic Party has won a historic, sweeping victory, taking both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In doing so, the North Coast's own Jared Huffman is likely to be the next House Natural Resources Chairman and Democrats indicate that they are going to launch immediate investigations into the Trump Administration, including the buyout of offshore wind leases off of California's coast. In California, voters rejected both Proposition 45, which offered substantial changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, and Proposition 40, which would have issued a one-time tax on the accumulated wealth of California's billionaires...

The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act is being considered by the Senate. To its supporters, including some Democrats motivated by a desire to fast-track renewable energy development, the bill provides "streamlining" of environmental laws to reduce costs of project permitting and increase certainty for investors. To its detractors, including this week's guest, Marlyn Twitchell of the Western Environmental Law Center, the law is a dangerous rollback of environmental laws. Because the law is energy- and technology-neutral—meaning that it applies to more than just renewables but basically every major project on federal lands—it means that its not just...

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. 

Redwoods Rising is the ambitious project to restore 70,000 acres of formerly cutover land in Redwood State and National Parks. Ben Friedman, Director of Government Affairs at Save the Redwoods League, joins the show to...

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 new legislation, mostly specifically targeted at releasing most major infill housing from the law's control. Now, a ballot initiative sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce, Proposition 45, aims to significantly reduce the law's reach over broad areas.

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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 our rivers, forests and wildlife, its infrastructure, and the culture of the region. Three of the authors of the chapter on the North Coast—Cal Poly Humboldt Professors Andrew Stubblefield, Rosemary Sherriff, and Jennifer Marlow—join the prog...

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 ecology of the area. Michael Dotson, Executive Director of KS Wild, joins the program to discuss rescission of the Roadless Rule, changes to the Travel Management Rule, and new, larger projects being proposed on public lands in the bioregion. 

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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 have the planning staff to meet new stringent deadlines for project approval, meaning a choice will have to be made: skimp on environmental analysis and public engagement or risk litigation from developers. 

Elizabeth Reid...

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 service and environmental groups.

But our public transit service is also increasingly under threat from funding cuts at the federal, state, and local levels. This month, whether you're a regular rider or have never taken...

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 owls require. Slightly larger than spotted owls, barred owls are able to bully spotted owls from their nest sites. Now, barred owls are pervasive across the landscape and the consequences are dire: just this week, another new paper...

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 Coast, which are being litigated, and the California Attorney General's Office has sent the Trump Administration "notices of intent to sue" for other settlements on the West Coast.

What does this settlement agreement mean for the future of offshore wind off Humb...

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—suggest a likely future: one atmospheric river after another, all winter long. And if it wasn't already obvious, climate change is likely a significant contributor to the warm ocean temperatures (although El Niño ev...

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 proceedings. This means that the Water District would lack “standing” to sue over the final determination by FERC. 

While welcome news, that doesn’t mean that Elsinore is out of tricks it can play. Alicia Hamann, Executive Dir...

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 advocates. Guests Molli Myers of the Klamath Indigenous Land Trust and Alex Leumer of Leumer Consulting join the program to discuss the marriage of restorative justice and conservation and efforts in Sacramento to promote Indigenous management opportunities.

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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 routine, periodic performance reviews of state coastal programs, it appears that this is deliberately to strip power from the state in order to advance more oil and gas developments and “space port” developments desired by Trump a...

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 our streets safer? Better design. Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities and Matt Simmons of EPIC join the show to discuss how we can have lasting safety improvements.

EPD wants to hear your...

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.

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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 slight concentrations are known to kill coho salmon. 

The Wiyot Tribe and Humboldt Waterkeeper sampled 19 urban streams and parking lots that discharge stormwater runoff. Their findings were alarming: Sixty-three p...

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 more and ask questions about a proposed offshore wind heavy lift marine terminal project. Community Advisory Committee members Rachael Smith, Colleen Clifford, and Matt Simmons join Rob Holmlund, Development Director at the Harbor District, to discuss the upcoming...

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 risk of failing; and poorly-constructed ponds at risk of sudden collapse. 

That's where Scott Bauer, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Cannabis Remediation Manager steps in. Working together with nonprofits, local governments, and cannabis farmers, Scott works to c...

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 critters at the River Otter Ecology Project.

For a deep dive, check out Wolves of the Wetlands? River Otter Behavior and Space Use at a Water Treatment...

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 possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds of native plant seeds to revegetate and restore the reservoirs. But it turns out that there's already a need for increased production of native plants within the Eel basin...

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, Humboldt Waterkeeper tested 70 fish across nine species to examine mercury concentrations in fish. Their results? Long-lived species that eat high on the food web have the highest concentrations and should be avoided by those...

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, meaning "the bears" in Spanish), to college football team mascots, like the Berkeley Golden Bears. A new effort led by the Yurok and Tejon Tribes is proposing to study the feasibility of bringing back our...

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 of the Klamath Forest Alliance, is a watchdog for over 5.3 million acres of Forest Service Land and have commented on virtually every timber sale for 25 years. She joins the program to discuss the damage being done to our public forests.

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 no firm plans and its interest was, at present, only exploratory. Now, Congressman Huffman is involved and livid—rightfully so, as he has worked hard on a solution that would work for both parts of his district—and...

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 cattle. Elk were killed and the meadows swallowed up by conifer encroachment and homesteads, and clearcutting smothered cold water gravel with sediment from logging roads and landslides. The river is unwell—le...

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 production" while "giving consideration" to other resource management. Under AB 2494, managing for other resources takes top billing while still allowing for commercial timber production where that production is used as a tool to achieve the resource objectives. EPIC staff Melodie Meyer and Josefina Barrantes join environmental...

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 CalPoly Humboldt, join the show to discuss the legal basis for the God Squad, its invocation by Trump, and the potential for it to be used in the Pacific Northwest. 

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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. 

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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. Check out future repair dates on Facebook: Facebook.com/HumboldtRepairCafe 

Are you a fixer and want to help at a future cafe? Cl...

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 to build new 500kV transmission lines. While this is a big project, new analysis from the Schatz Energy Research Center found that the cost to California ratepayers is low, about $1.68 per year. Tanner Etherton, Awbrey Yost and Jim Zoellick from Schatz...

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 redefine corporate powers under state law to remove corporation's ability to spend money on elections. (Asm. Rogers recommends this article to learn more.)

AB 1699 would remove operational hurdles to prescribed fire and address liability issues with the goal o...

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, the Trump Administration says that it lacks the legal capacity to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and have tossed the endangerment finding and clean car regulations that aimed to reduce emissions by improving efficiency. To break down what this means, Matt Simmons, Climate Attorney...

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, like motorcycle clubs, whose members want to avoid hitting animals when out riding and insurance companies who want to reduce claims. Now there is a bipartisan effort at both the federal and state government to identify hot spots where...

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 street design increases car crashes and pedestrian strikes and how Caltrans could immediately improve safety in Eureka.

Want to take action? CRTP is petitioning Caltrans to better prioritize road safety improvements on 4th and 5th...

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,  essential both to take in the magnitude of the changes happening to our planet and to envision futures where we live within its means. On this week's show, Humboldt friends and neighbors perform mini-plays written as part of Climate Change Action Th...

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 discuss how to become a more resilient (and more impactful) person. Hanna, together with the Good Grief Network, is also hosting a 10-week program this spring on building community and personal resilience. 

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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.

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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 storing carbon away. But there is a concerted effort by the timber industry to offer a different "solution:" cutting down trees to store carbon in wood products. 

Environmental journalist Paul Koberstein, author of the...

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, guests Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities (CRTP) and Matt Simmons, Climate Attorney at EPIC, join the show to discuss the merits and demerits of the Climate Action Plan.

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