Over 40 Years of Environmental News
Arcata, California
Vol. 44, No. 1 February/March 2014
Published by the Northcoast Environmental Center Since 1971
DROUGHT
California Faces an unparalleled water crisis Peak Water in the West | Fukushima Three Years Later | GPU Back to Planning Commission Twin Tunnels | Salvage Logging | Water Woes for Fish | Use Water Smarter | Pacific Starfish
1385 8th Street - Suite 226, Arcata, CA 95521 PO Box 4259, Arcata, CA 95518 707- 822-6918, Fax 707-822-6980 www.yournec.org
EcoNews is the official bi-monthly publication of the Northcoast Environmental Center (NEC), a non-profit organization. Third class postage paid in Arcata. ISSN No. 0885-7237. EcoNews is mailed to our members and distributed free throughout the Northern California and Southern Oregon bioregion. The subscription rate is $35 per year. Editor/Layout: Morgan Corviday Hollis, morgan@yournec.org Advertising: ads@yournec.org Proofreaders: Karen Schatz and Midge Brown Writers: Sid Dominitz, Dan Ehresman, Sarah Marnick, Dan Sealy, Jennifer Kalt, Scott Greacen, Maggie Gainer, Todd Rowe, Tom Stokely, Mark DuPont, Morgan Corviday Hollis, Flora Bain, Kimberly Baker, Rob DiPerna, Ken Burton. Cover Photo: Snow coverage on January 13, 2014. Photo: NASA/NOAA. Artist: Terry Torgerson
The ideas and views expressed in EcoNews are not necessarily those of the NEC.
NEC Staff
NEC Executive Director: Dan Ehresman, dan@yournec.org EcoNews Editor/Web Manager: Morgan Corviday, morgan@yournec.org Coastal Programs Director: Jennifer Savage, jsavage@yournec.org Office Assistant: Brandon Drucker, brandon@yournec.org Office Assistant: Alanna Cottrell, alanna@yournec.org
Board Of Directors
Safe Alternatives for our Forest Environment- Larry Glass, President, larryglass71@gmail.com At-Large, Trinity County Rep.- Bob Morris, Vice-President, bob.morris@wildblue.net At-Large - Chris Jenican Beresford, Treasurer, thegang7@pacbell.net California Native Plant SocietyJennifer Kalt, Secretary, jenkalt@gmail.com Redwood Region Audubon SocietyCJ Ralph, cjralph@humboldt1.com Sierra Club, North Group Richard Kreis, rgkreis@gmail.com Friends of the Eel River- Scott Greacen, scott@eelriver.org At-Large - Dan Sealy, rangerdans@msn.com
News From the Center
This new year brings with it both good news and trying times. Our thoughts are with all species affected by the ongoing drought. This issue of EcoNews is devoted largely to calling attention to the region’s water woes and, we hope, also serving as a call to action in support of a waterwise future. But first, we have some exciting news to report! Welcome aboard, Jennifer Savage! Expanding upon the success of the NEC’s Clean Beaches, Clean Water program, we are excited to announce that we have hired Manila resident Jennifer Savage to be the organization’s Coastal Programs Director. The new position reflects the NEC’s commitment to safeguarding North Coast beaches and waterways through education and action, as well as a continued investment in North Coast’s marine protected areas. Jennifer comes to the NEC following four years with Ocean Conservancy, during which she served on the regional stakeholder group charged with designing the North Coast marine protected area network. The group, comprised of fishermen, divers, birders, conservation advocates, educators and tribal representatives, was the only stakeholder group in the Marine
NEC Member Groups Humboldt Baykeeper
www.humboldtbaykeeper.org 707-268-0664
Sierra Club,North Group, Redwood Chapter
www.redwood.sierraclub.org/north/
California Native Plant Society North Coast Chapter www.northcoastcnps.org
Redwood Region Audubon Society www.rras.org, rras@rras.org
Friends of the Eel River
www.eelriver.org, foer@eelriver.org 707-822-3342
Safe Alternatives for our Forest Environment (SAFE)
Dan Ehresman, Executive Director
Life Protection Act process to unite behind a single proposal. Jennifer is the current chair of the Humboldt chapter of Surfrider Foundation, and contributes a “Week in Ocean” column to the Lost Coast Outpost. She is the most recent host of Coastal Currents (airing Wednesdays at noon on KHUM 104.7 FM), and also joins the NEC team in producing the EcoNews Report (airing on KHSU 90.5 FM every Thursday at 1:30 p.m.). Jennifer will also continue to organize the amazing Ocean Night at the Arcata Theater Lounge—which typically takes place on the first Thursday of each month. Follow the NEC on Facebook or go to www.yournec.org to find out about upcoming shows. NEC Brings Humboldt Baykeeper under our wing Following difficult financial times that culminated in Humboldt Baykeeper reducing staff and closing their storefront office in Old Town Eureka, the NEC is stepping up to take on the role as Baykeeper’s fiscal sponsor to ensure that the important work of protecting Humboldt Bay continues. Humboldt Baykeeper is now settling into their new office in Arcata’s lively Greenway Building— joining the NEC, Friends of the Eel
River, and many other great folks. We are energized to have even more opportunities for idea sharing and collaboration! For nine years, Baykeeper has protected Humboldt Bay with water quality monitoring, toxics watchdogging, land use planning advocacy, outreach and education, and citizen-led lawsuits when necessary. Their work has resulted in the cleanup of dangerous carcinogenic chemicals and the listing of Humboldt Bay as Impaired by dioxins. Baykeeper has also contributed to the establishment of Marine Protected Areas, identified toxic sites vulnerable to sea level rise, and made the case for mandating billboard removal and a bay trail between Arcata and Eureka. With the help of Baykeeper’s committed network of supporters, the assistance of NEC board and staff, and the knowledge and perseverance of longstanding Baykeeper policy director Jen Kalt, we are excited about the opportunities ahead. Over the next year, we will be building on Baykeeper’s successes, and look forward to working together to safeguarding our coastal resources for the health, enjoyment, and economic strength of the Humboldt Bay Community.
Leave a North Coast Legacy Give a gift that will endure beyond your lifetime. Leave a lasting legacy by naming the Northcoast Environmental Center as a beneficiary of your will, trust, or other estate plans.
Your bequest will help us advocate for and educate about the North Coast and the KlamathSiskiyou bioregion for future generations. To learn more, call us at 707-822-6918. The NEC is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, EIN 23-7122386.
www.safealt.org
NEC Affiliate Members Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC)
www.wildcalifornia.org, epic@wildcalifornia.org 707-822-7711
Friends of Del Norte www.fodn.org
Mattole Restoration Council www.mattole.org, mrc@mattole.org (707) 629-3514
Zero Waste Humboldt
www.zerowastehumboldt.org contact@zerowastehumboldt.org
Adopt-a-Beach
Be a part of our growing team of site captains and volunteers! Visit our website for more information and a list of available sites.
www.yournec.org/marinedebris/adoptabeach
Mailbox
Letter to the Editor Thoughts from the Periphery... We assume too much. Wilderness designation will protect the landscape “forever,” conservation easements protect the priveleged “forever,” but we know better. Just pay your rent as cultures war, human populations balloon, computer technologies destroy actual communites and capitalism flourishes in the minds of even some environmentalists! The Rights of Nature Movement could be fruitful, but how strange to have to legislate such things! Our economic culture is mostly antagonistic to nature and steps toward reconciliation are often subsidized by grants from the devil himself! (Not sustainable). I’m sure you understand my boredom when hearing about “the best science” and other college speak. I feel that cultural connections to nature must be spiritual, and all the dry technical talk, while getting laws passed represents the same cerebral mysticism of separateness we know to be a fundamental problem. Anyone struggling to find solutions and reasons to continue in the shadow of empire might consider reading some writings from Wendell Berry, a social critic and apparent optimist! For the Amateurs & Locals, David Gordon , Happy Camp
Letters welcome!
Letters should be exclusive to EcoNews. Letters should be 200 words or less, should be relevant to material covered in EcoNews, and must include the writer’s address and phone number. No attachments, please. Letters may be edited and shortened for space. The NEC reserves the right to reject any submitted material for any reason (e.g. size, content, etc.). Letters may be emailed to editor@yournec.org.
Property Rights Activists Send GPU Back to Planning Commission
Humboldt County’s General Plan Update (GPU)—the 20-year plan for directing development in unincorporated areas—has now been in the works for over 13 years. Just as the Board of Supervisors was reaching the homestretch in the process, they suspended hearings on two sections critical to protecting open space, fish and watersheds. In a split vote, following pressure from special interest groups, the Board decided to send the two sections back to the Planning Commission. In early January, the Builders Exchange, the Humboldt Association of Realtors and the paving company Mercer Fraser submitted letters to the Board of Supervisors calling for the entire GPU to be sent back to the Planning Commission. It should be noted that since the Planning Commission finalized its review of the GPU nearly two years ago, four of its members have been replaced with new appointees, including the two founders of the Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights. The Planning Commission voted 4-3 to make the same request, asking that the Board stop their GPU review and return it to the Commission. On January 13, the Board of Supervisors, in a 3-2 decision, voted to comply (with Supervisors Lovelace and Fennell dissenting). The Planning Commission will now be taking up the Conservation and Open Space chapters at their January 28 and 30, and February 4 hearings. The Conservation and Open Space Element includes polices on riparian and wetland protections, greenbelts and parks, billboards in scenic areas, mining and protections for cultural and archeological resources. The current Planning Commission chair, Bob Morris of Blocksburg, is known for unsuccessfully suing the federal government in 2004 to block endangered species... Continued on page 6
Catch the NEC’s EcoNews Report
Every Thursday, 1:30pm on KHSU - 90.5FM Each show features interviews with experts on a variety of important environmental topics! Past shows are also archived on our website for listening online anytime!
www.yournec.org/econews-report
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Thank you! Peak Water in the West Drought and the Water Wars Fukushima—3 Years Later Draft Review of Twin Tunnels Local Activists Travel to Brazil Post-Fire Salvage Logging Use Water Smarter with Permaculture Eye on Washington Zero Waste Humboldt Friends of the Eel River EPIC Mattole Restoration Council Humboldt Baykeeper California Plant Native Society Kin to the Earth: Neil Young Eco-Mania Creature Feature: Pacific Coast Sea Stars Kids’ Page: Blue Wood
Bouquets A bountiful wildflower bouquet and big thank you to Connie Stewart for your gracious and encouraging support. A bouquet of art-altered meeting agendas to Jessica Hall for your service on the NEC Board and for your intelligent and down-to-earth radio style. We wish you all the best on your future endeavors. A series of bundled blossoms to Daryl and Phyllis Chinn for your generous and delicious donation to Humboldt Baykeeper. A huge thanks to everyone who joined us for our New Year mixer. It is truly uplifting to be with so many who are committed to protecting and celebrating our North Coast environment. Special thanks to supporting businesses: Wildberries Marketplace, Brett Shuler Fine Catering, Arise Bakery, Beck’s Bakery, Cypress Grove, Moonstone Crossing Winery, Pasta Luego and Mad River Brewing Company.
Interested in our regional environmental history? DONATE to our EcoNews Archive project! Visit www.yournec.org/donate, specify the Archive! EcoNews
Feb/Mar 2014
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Thank You!
To all of our members and supporters who have given so far as part of our Winter Fund Appeal (October - January), from all of us at the NEC, thank you! Despite the major environmental challenges we face in the coming months and years, we are inspired by all who are taking action to create the change we need for a more resilient future for North Coast communities (human and wild). Beth Abels James Ackerman Alicia Adrian Terry Allaway Tom and Katy Allen Hezekiah Allen Andy Alm Katie & John Amodio Clifford Anderson Stefanie Anderson Chip Sharpe & Celestine Armenta Susan J. Armstrong Joshua Asarian S.J. & M.L. Bangham Ms. Linda M. Barker Susan K. Barnstein Barbara Barratt Mona Beaver Norbert Beising James & Susan Bentz Chris & Richard Beresford Dr. Robert Berg Joan Berman Lynn C. Berner Emelia Berol Kimberly Tays & Stanley Binnie Bill Birmingham Pat Bitton David Bitts Debra Harrison & Greg Blomstrom Foster Boone Susan & Joseph Bower Renay Radniecki & Bill Bowman Milton J. Boyd, Ph.D. Jeff & Tracy Boyer Teddee-Ann Boylan Scott & Lucinda Bradshaw Patricia Brennan John & Barbara Brimlow Midge Brown & Kevin Patzkowsky Millie Brucker Tania Brunell Virginia Burns Thomas Allyn Burns George Burtchett Lisa Buscho Charlie Butterworth Donna Sund-Caldwell & Kevin Caldwell Rita Carole Gwynneth & Paul Carothers Susan Carson Nancy & Daniel Carter Daryl & Phyllis Chinn Thomas J. Clark Jim & Donna Clark Gregory & Carol Conners Maya Conrad Gail Coonen Sarah Lauderdale & Curt Cooper Romain Cooper Beverly Copeland Nancy and Michael Cox Carol Toffaleti & Bill Croft Suzanne & Neal Crothers Anne & Lisa Crouse Kit Davenport Robert Fox Davey Charlie Davidson
Chandler & Paula Dawson David & Susan Dean Joan Del Monte Natalynne DeLapp Janet Dickey Mike Diggles Kathryn Donahue Chuck Dresel Lois Drobish Jaffa Dugan Wahlberg Susan N. Dunn V.J. Eachus Marjorie Early Brook Edwards Bruce and Marlene Ehresman James Elliott Ryan Emenaker Karin Engstrom David & Patty Epstein Steven Evans Michael Evenson Judith Mayer & Yvonne Everett Wendy Rowan & Ben Fairless Debra Farber-Bush Clark A. Fenton Jeanne Ferroggiaro Joan Ferroggiaro Rob & Suzanne Ferroggiaro Robert B. Flint Jr. William & Wilma Follette Leroy E. French Janis & Gary Friedrichsen Barbara & Robert Froehlich Jim Froland Sara & Daniel Frost Corinne Frugoni Linda M. & John M. Gaffin Margaret Gainer Peter Galvin Gary Garcia Don & Sylvia Garlick Manette & Philip Gerstle John & Sue Gilchrist Don & Sharon Gillespie Stan Gold Steve Gompertz Marvin Goss Eric & Joan Grantz Scott Greacen Ben & Janice Greenberg Donald & Melinda Groom Danny Hagans Stephen W. Hager Lilyan Haigh Lynn Halpern Melody & Gerald Hamilton Richard Hansis Maureen Hart Karen & Jim Havlena Robert & Elisabeth Hawthorne Julie & Lonnie Haynes Phyllis Helligas Ben Henshaw Ryan Henson Sarah Herbelin Harriet Hill
My internship with the Northcoast Environmental Center provides an opportunity for me to communicate my passion for wilderness through photography and writing. Wilderness is an environment that is untrammeled, undeveloped, natural, and provides opportunity for solitude. The wilderness experience is physical, mental, aesthetic, and spiritual. Immersing oneself in wilderness allows for an escape from everyday life into a world of self-reliance, introspection, challenge, and wonder, leading to a better sense of one’s place in the world. Natalie Vaughn - NEC intern Shirley M. Hillman Judith Hinman Henry and Mody Hollomon Gary Hughes Nancy Ihara Mordechai Liebling & Lynne Iser John Jennings Greg Jensen C. Peter Jermyn Milo & Dee Johnson Wilma Johnston Steve & Lynn Jones Heinrich and Peggy Kaestle Rob Katz James A. Kealey Andrew Araneo & Roz Keller Susan Cashman & Harvey M. Kelsey Barbara J Kennedy Kathleen Kinkela-Love Donna Knight Jill Korte Leon & Kathryn Kos Holly & Melvin Kreb Vinnie Peloso & Debbie Krukonis Aldaron Laird Michele Olsen & Roland Lamberson Betsey Landis Michelle Lange Lynn Inouye & Mark Langner Richard & Carol Laursen Carolyn & Peter Lehman Marilyn & Nick Letsos Shawnee Alexandri & Tryphena Lewis Cheryl Lisin Lori Dengler and Thomas E. Lisle James Derden Jr & Judith Little Sky Lloyd John & Judith Longshore Mark & Valorie Lovelace Lesa Lyon Donna Lydon & David Maciolek Stephen Kamelgarn & Debra MacQueen Lynne Manget Conway Matthew Marshall Thomas Phillips & Melissa A. Martel Christine Hemphill & Drew Martin Christopher Matthews Mary Ann Matthews Ken Maurer Pamela A. Mayfield John & Darsty McAlinn
B. Thomas Parry & Julie McDonald W.G. & Cyanne McElhinney James McIntosh Tom & Catherine McNally Mary McNelis S. Bera & S. Meshulam Keytra Meyer Jack & Christina Miller Marion Miller Mike & Jane Minor Richard Jay Moller Thomas & Doris Montgomery James Moore Bob Morris Caroline & David Moyer Noel & Ed Munn Joyce Hough & Fred Neighbor Denver Nelson John & Laura Nennings Gregory & Rene Nesty Cary Frazee & Stephen Nielson Glenda Nikolauson Cynthia Noel Mary Normandia Laurel & Scott North Mark Northcross James O’Brien Wolfgang Oesterreich Chet Ogan Felicia Oldfather Greg & Kay Olsen Susan & Bob Ornelas Frank C & Marian B Orvis Ursula Osborne C. Robert & Rosella Pace Annette Parsons AidCurrent Paypal Richard L. Pederson Jeanne Pendergast Marianne Pennekamp Gena Pennington Sofia Pereira Randall & Debora Perry Tom and Barbara Peters Tia Oros & Chris Peters Bob & Linda Peterson Jeanne Pfeiffer Charles Pfister Robert & Sara Pillow Gail Popham Patrick Porto Mark Pringle
Barbara Cline & Geoffrey Proust Kathryn Radke Dennis Rael Laura Ann Rains Carol & CJ Ralph Rudy Ramp Rick Redfern Nancy Reichard John & Karen Reiss James H. Diego & Shirley Reynolds Jen Rice John M. Rice Virginia Rice William E. Rodstrom Tara Root Dianne Rosser Todd Rowe Ronald & Melanie Ruhnel Lee & Jody Rusconi Lynn Ryan Fawn & Erin Scheer Ida Schellhous Carol Scher Joan E. Schirle Donald E. Schmoldt Mary Schroeder Paul & Kay Schulz HWR Engineering & Science Mary Scott Joe & Kimberly Scriven Dan Sealy Carl Birks & Michael Seeber Mayer Segal Margaret & Mark Shaffer Irith Shalmony Amber Shelton Rhonda Berney & Richard Shipps John and Rebecca Shockley Glenn Siegfried Emily Sinkhorn William R. Skaarup Oona Marie Smith Dr. James P. Smith Jr. Ted W. Souza Harry Spehar Karen Spencer Richard & Donna Spotts Richard & Phyllis Stanewick Nancy Starck
Kurt Stegen James Stephenson Alexandra Stillman Mike Strande George & Margaret Strong Hanna Sturtz Martin Swett Robin Renshaw & Richard Swisher Ayala Talpai Cathy Taylor Ellen Taylor Gwen Thoele Rob & Barb Thompson Deanna R. Thrift Dorothy Tobkin Darus Kayn Trutena Susan Eigenbrodt & Carl Tuck Donald & Andrea Tuttle Stephen Underwood Lucille Vinyard Jessie & Nezzie Wade Fred & Marilyn Wadsworth Anthony & Nancy Wareika Daniel Wassenaar James & Virginia Waters Mr. & Mrs. Watty Jud Ellinwood & Andrea Webb Hart Welsh, Jr. Kimberly Wessells Sally Williams Maureen Davison & Marc R. Williams Mark S. Wilson Jane & Richard Wilson Terri Wilson Patricia-Anne & George WinterSun Margaret Kettunen Zegart Beverly Zeman Gretchen Ziegler Green Library, Serials Department, The Andree Wagner Peace Trust Humboldt State University Library - Periodicals Dept. Earth Care Landscaping Bureau of Land Management Wisconsin Historical Society Library Wildberries Marketplace Mendocino Maples Nursery
Peak Water
in the American West
Water Wars
The Fight for a Water-Wise Future
Peter Gleick
Reprinted with permission from “Significant Figures” on ScienceBlogs.com.
It is no surprise, of course, that the western United States is dry. The entire history of the West can be told (and has been, in great books like Cadillac Desert [Reisner] and Rivers of Empire [Worster] and The Great Thirst [Hundley]) in large part through the story of the hydrology of the West, the role of the federal and state governments in developing water infrastructure, the evidence of droughts and floods on the land, and the politics of water allocations and use. But the story of water in the West is also being told, every day, in the growing crisis facing communities, watersheds, ecosystems and economies. This isn’t a crisis for tomorrow. It is a crisis today. What is, perhaps, a surprise, is that it has taken this long for the entire crazy quilt of western water management and use to finally unravel. But it is now unraveling. The old adage of the blind men describing an elephant based on their experience touching different parts of it applies to western water. In the past few years, we’ve seen bits and pieces of the puzzle: a well, and then two wells, and then a town goes dry. A farmer has to shift from waterintensive crops to something else, or let land go fallow. Vast man-made reservoirs start to go dry. Groundwater levels plummet, yet the response is to try to drill new and deeper wells and pump harder, or build another dam, or move water from an ever-more-distant river basin. Competition between industry and farming increases. And politicians run back to old, tired, half-solutions rather than face up to the fact that we live in a changed and changing world. Here are a few pieces of the puzzle that we had better start to put together into a coherent picture if we hope to change our direction. • In January 2012, the Texas town of Spicewood Beach ran out of water. Then Magdalena, New Mexico ran out. More recently, Barnhart, Texas. Now Texas publishes a list of towns either out or running out of freshwater. In some parts of Texas, demands for water for fracking are now competing directly with municipal demands. • Because of a severe, multi-year drought (described as... Continued on page 9 Missaiya’s
New World Water “Community not Corporations”
NEW WORLD WATER
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Comparison of snow coverage from January 13, 2013 and the same date this year. Snowmelt from the mountains, under normal conditions, is the source for water recharge for lake and resevoir levels in the spring. Photo: NASA/NOAA.
Dan Ehresman Last year was the driest year on record in California—and some scientists are saying that the state may be facing the driest water year in five centuries. Rivers are running worryingly low and reservoirs throughout the state are at an average of 40 percent of what they would be under typical conditions. Snowpack, which provides over a third of freshwater throughout the state, is at a troubling 10-20 percent of average levels. It is questionable whether we will receive significantand adequate rainfall in the coming months. The photo above provides a striking visual comparison between the snowpack levels on January 13, 2013 and the same date this year. The impacts of these conditions are likely to have farreaching consequences. Unless the sky unleashes above-average rains, the state is faced with one of the greatest resource challenges in generations—making California the frontline of an escalating fight over the world’s most precious resource. With essential community water supplies drying up, devastating damage to our region’s
waterways and agricultural operations at risk of abandonment, some politicians are using the crisis to reinforce outdated, wasteful water policies that have compounded the drought’s impacts. Fortunately, there are many who are stepping up to support another approach that will enable a water-wise and resilient future for fish, forests, farms, and struggling communities.
State of Emergency
On January 22, California Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed a State of Emergency due to what he referred to as a very serious drought of uncertain duration. During his address the Governor connected dots that some politicians are still wary of connecting in public—stating that our water crisis should be taken as a stark warning of things to come. He referenced the recent United Nations Panel on Climate Change report which states— with 95 percent confidence—that human beings are changing our climate. Governor Brown concluded, “This means more droughts and more extreme weather events, and, in California, more forest fires and less snow pack.” Continued on page 10
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Three Years After Fukushima Meltdowns, Concerns Remain, Monitoring Needed
Morgan Corviday Hollis This March marks the third anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan and resulted in one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. As a plume of radioactive ocean water continues to make its way toward the West Coast of North America, with no U.S. government or international plan to monitor it, a new project from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is filling a timely information gap. On March 11, 2011, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded for Japan struck off the northeast coast. The 9.0 magnitude quake caused a massive tsunami that wiped out entire towns, and took the lives of over 15,800 people. Then within just days, three of six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant melted down due to a lack of power and cooling, and released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and ocean. Hundreds of thousands of people became nuclear refugees. Three years later, many areas remain uninhabitable ghost towns, prior residents living in distant, crowded shelters—in some cases with multiple families per room. Here across the Pacific, frightening articles about the impending demise of the North America’s West Coast from Fukushima radiation continue make the rounds on social media, but their claims are generally not supported by actual science. Initially, crucial information from Japan about the severity of the incident and how much radiation was actually released was not readily forthcoming, and monitoring for radioactive fallout in North America was also suspected to be inadequate. Radiation itself and its effects are inherently complex things to try to understand, so it is understandable that many people remain skeptical about their safety from Fukushima radiation. However, the best available science indicates that there is no immediate cause for health concerns on the West Coast, for humans or other species. Fish samples have so far shown detectable but miniscule amounts of radiation from Fukushima, but the data indicate the levels are far below any need for concern. But because there remain many unknowns and ongoing issues, WHOI marine chemist Ken Buessleler and others believe this is an evolving situation that demands careful, consistent monitoring. A new WHOI project and website will provide crucial baseline and ongoing monitoring data. The crippled plant is still leaking highly radioactive water into the ocean from failing seals on some of the thousands of storage tanks filled
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The IAEA International Remediation Expert Mission visits the TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant, October 11, 2011. Photo: Giovanni Verlini / IAEA.
with used coolant water. Also, radiation readings in the nearby ocean suggest that highly contaminated groundwater from contact with the melted cores might be making its way to the Pacific, and no one knows for sure whether such a leak can actually be contained. Occasional spikes in radiation around the plant also raise concern. Also, in November of last year, TEPCO (the company operating the plant) began the precarious and unprecedented process of attempting to remove 1,533 bundles of spent nuclear fuel from the severely damaged Unit 4 building. Fukushima’s Unit 4 reactor was not operating at the time of the tsunami, but damage to the building was extensive. The spent fuel pool sits on an upper level, and the possibility of another serious earthquake cannot be ignored. A wrong move during the painstaking, removal process could spark another serious nuclear incident. As Japan continues to struggle with the aftermath of Fukushima, many still oppose the restarting of the country’s nuclear power plants. The country faces more imports of oil and gas to feed the energy shortage left by closing the nucular plants. The January 17, 2014 edition of Democracy Now! reported on a recent protest held outside the Prime Minister of Japan’s official residence. A nuclear refugee recounted the following: “We couldn’t bring anything from our houses. We didn’t have a toothbrush. We didn’t have a blanket....We had nothing....we thought it would be much better to die. But now, we are here, and we can’t really give up. We want to fight for this cause,” she said. “We don’t want anyone in the world to be in the situation we are in.”
Arcata Recieves Grant to Address Sea Level Rise In January, the California Coastal Commission awarded the City of Arcata an $86,000 Climate Ready Grant. The grant will fund design and permitting of fringe salt marshes or “living shorelines” to protect vulnerable City facilities including the wastewater treatment plant, Klopp Lake and coastal access at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary. Arcata is one of 20 cities, counties and nonprofit organization awarded funds to reduce risks from the warming climate and rising sea levels. As part of the Arcata project, about 22 acres of protective salt marsh will be contructed on the bay side of the rock levees around the waste water treatment plant’s oxidation ponds and Klopp Lake at the Arcata Marsh. The proposted new salt marsh will provide “living shore protection,” creating habitat for birds and eliminating the need for future sea wall construction. The project will also find out the combined carbon sequestration potential of the proposed 22 acres of protective salt marsh, the City’s recently completed McDaniel Slough Wetland Enhancement Project and the Arcata Baylands/ Jacoby Creek Estuary Enhancement Project areas, a total area of over 900 acres. The sea level in Humboldt Bay is anticipated to rise between 16 and 55 inches due to the effects of climate change. Large swaths of Humboldt Bay’s lowlands face increased risk of flooding and erosion from extreme weather events. The City’s staff identified the waste water treatment facility at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary as the most vulnerable vital infrastructure within the City limits that could be affected by sea level rise. Moving the facility is not an option in the next few decades.
For more informaiton, visit WHOI’s new website, www.ourradioactiveocean.org, for more information on their monitoring and results.
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GPU
Continued from page 2
...protections so he could log old growth along the Eel River. He was appointed to the Commission by Supervisor Estelle Fennell in 2012. The previous Planning Commission spent more than three years reviewing the GPU, resulting in overwhelmingly unanimous decisions. With only a handful of split votes on policies in the Conservation and Open Space Element, the new property rights-leaning Planning Commission will undoubtedly come up with a more divisive plan than was recommended in March 2012. This is particularly offensive to those of us who have spent the last year working in earnest to find common ground. For almost one year since it began in late 2012, the ad hoc GPU working group (which included representatives from NEC, Hubmboldt Baykeeper and realtor/developer groups) was successful in finding quite a bit of common ground. Although the working group did not agree on everything, we did find consensus on many issues previously mired in controversy. This collaborative process was effectively put to rest two months ago when the Northern California Association of Homebuilders and the Humboldt Association of Realtors withdrew from the ad hoc working group. In withdrawing from the group and joining the call to send the GPU back to the Planning Commission, the associations have made it clear that they no longer have any interest in seeking common ground. It is worth noting that two Supervisors up for election this year ran four years ago on a platform of getting the GPU done. Now, these two supervisors are aligning themselves with the special interests who want to see the General Plan weakened at the hands of the current Planning Commission. It is imperative that the Supervisors take leadership to complete the review of the General Plan now and put an end to the practices that are destroying forests and watersheds for short-term gain. Now is the time for community members who believe in working together for an ecologically and economically sound future to send a strong message to our elected officials to let them know that abundant, clean water, healthy salmon runs, intact forests, working farms, well-planned development and economically sustainable communities are a top priority. Contact the Board of Supervisors today! Visit www.co.humboldt.ca.us/board/.
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Bay-Delta Conservation Plan Draft out for Public Review
Tom Stokely, California Water Impact Network
The Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) is the latest retread of Governor Jerry Brown’s Peripheral Canal. That scheme, defeated by California voters in a 1982 referendum, would have diverted Sacramento River water around the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta to the South State. The new proposal would achieve the same ends via two tunnels, each 40 feet in diameter and 35 miles long, buried 150 feet below the Delta. The 40,000 page BDCP and public Draft Environmental Impact Report/Statement were released in mid-December after seven years of work and $240 million in planning costs. In 2006, the Department of Water Resources estimated the project would cost $4 billion. That figure has been amended to $67 billion, excluding cost overruns. With cost overruns—which are inevitable—it will likely exceed $100 billion. It also fails its foremost intent: meeting the requirements of the state and federal Endangered Species Acts. Comments are due on April 14. The BDCP proposes investing billions of dollars in inadequately analyzed habitat restoration. This would cost state and federal taxpayers $9 billion,
excluding interest. According to fishery agency scientists, the benefits of the proposed restoration projects are inflated and cannot compensate for excessive water exports from the Delta. Another concern is the tons of mercury that California’s gold rush deposited into the Delta’s sediments. This toxic element will be mobilized into the Delta environment by the BDCP’s habitat restoration projects. Additional agricultural irrigation of the toxic soils of the western and southern San Joaquin Valley would increase the mobilization of selenium, salt, boron, arsenic and other contaminants into Central Valley groundwater and the San Joaquin River. According to BDCP’s own documents, the Twin Tunnels will produce no additional water supplies and will provide no relief during droughts. A consultant hired by water agencies opposed to the Twin Tunnels found that the modeling for the EIS/ EIR is deeply flawed, does not adequately account for climate change and inaccurately identifies the amount of water available for the environment. If the project is built, Trinity and Shasta reservoirs would be emptied much more frequently during drought, leaving no water in the rivers for either salmon or people. Continued on page 19
Fracking Doesn’t Help State Water Woes
Todd Rowe Despite cultivating a reputation as a climate leader, Governor Jerry Brown's friendly stance toward hydraulic fracturing continues to create a rift between his administration and environmental groups. This rift once again became apparent on January 22, when 200 anti-fracking protestors gathered on the lawn of the Capitol building during Governor Brown's State of the State Address, while across from the State House protestors from Californians Against Fracking hung a threestory banner that read "Governor Brown: Climate Leaders Don't Frack. Ban Fracking Now." In his address, Brown spoke about California's drought emergency and stressed its uncertain duration, calling the drought a "stark warning of things to come." Indeed, California is facing the driest year since record-keeping began in the 1840s, and paleoclimatic evidence suggests that the state has a history of long mega-droughts that could last for decades. This is dire news for California's 80,000 farms, 482 municipalities, and 6,700 species of plants and animals.
Brown told the state that "it is imperative that we do everything possible to mitigate the effects of the drought," but his position on hydraulic fracturing leads many environmental groups to call his speech hypocritical. "By allowing fracking to happen in California, Jerry Brown’s actions are in direct conflict with his rhetoric today on water conservation and climate change," said Food & Water Watch California Director Adam Scow. Hydraulic Fracturing, also called fracking, is the process by which water, sand and hundreds of chemicals are injected deep into the ground at high pressures to fracture the rock and release the gas and oil trapped within. On average, each well consumes between two and four million gallons of water and contamination of watersheds due to mismanagement of fracking wastewater has been documented across the country. The recently passed SB-4, supported by the Brown administration, has paved the way for companies to expand fracking operations in California and exploit the coveted Monterey Shale formation, which contains 400 billion barrels of crude oil.
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Klamath Youth/Activists Travel to Brazil
Nat Pennington the Amazon and its indigenous The Amazon people. Basin is home to Mahlija 60 percent of the Florendo, a world’s remaining 1 6 y e a r o l d rainforest, and holds Yurok Tribal one-fifth of the member and world’s fresh water. part of the The Belo Monte Belo Monte dam project, located delegation going in the heart of the to the Amazon, Amazon, would be states, “Our the third largest river is here to hydroelectric dam Indigenous youth born and raised to be keepers of the fi re: Malija give us life....We ever built, and is the Florendo, Damien Scott, Anna Rose Colegrove, organizer Dania Rose need to keep first step in a larger Colegrove, Sammy Gensaw. Photo: Nat Pennington. every river alive plan to extract the because we cannot live without them. If we don’t Amazon’s vast resources. If completed, the Belo fight to keep them healthy, then we are killing Monte Dam would affect 40,000 people and ourselves and any other life on the planet. The inundate 640 square kilometers of rainforest, but it Amazon River is a huge bloodline for life of the is just the first of many proposed dams, potentially Amazon indigenous as the Klamath is ours.” affecting hundreds of thousands of indigenous Amazon Watch’s Brazil Program Coordinator, people—including some of the world’s last unMaira Irigaray, knows the area, issues and people, contacted tribes. and will accompany the delegation, providing The Belo Monte Dam Resistance Delegation guidance and on the ground support. Along with includes tribal members, native youth and river documenting the early stages of dam construction, activists from Northern California who will travel to the delegation plans to meet with several local Brazil to work with indigenous people in the Xingu tribes including the Arara, Juruna, and the basin, the heart of the Amazon. The intent is to Xikrin, to learn how to best support efforts to connect Native Americans and grassroots activists preserve their homeland and way of life. The from North America with tribes and organizations delegation will return to the U.S. with information working in the Amazon to help them maintain their and firsthand knowledge to hold fundraising unique, rare and endemic cultures. and advocacy events. Native Americans and river activists have long In the words of Zé Carlos Arara, a leader of the campaigned for the removal of four dams on the Arara people: “For us the river means many things. Klamath River, which if successful would be the For everything we do, we depend on the river. For us largest dam removal in world history. Removal of to go out, to take our parents around, to get medical the dams would restore one of North America’s attention, we need the river for all these things. If a largest salmon runs, and allow Klamath tribes to dam is constructed on the river, how will we pass further repair broken cultures and communities. through it?... We don’t want to see the river closed The Belo Monte delegation hopes to connect off, our parents dying in inactivity. For us the river the struggles of indigenous people of the Amazon is useful and we don’t want it to wither away—that with the lessons of indigenous struggles in North we not have a story to tell, that it become a legend America, as well as the environmental hazards for our children and grandchildren. We want them that dams have caused in the Klamath Basin. to see it with their own eyes.” Native youth activists that have long fought for Several upcoming events will help provide their culture will travel to the Amazon to learn support for the delegation and the Amazon. Visit about indigenous struggles in the Amazon Basin, www.yournec.org/econews/belomonte for more. engaging lifelong partners for the protection of
Karuk Tribe and Klamath Riverkeeper Settle ESA Suit Craig Tucker
In December the Karuk Tribe and Klamath Riverkeeper announced that they have reached a settlement with Montague Water Conservation District (MWCD) that will dismiss litigation the groups filed in August 2012. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, alleged that MWCD’s dams and diversions on the Shasta River lead to the illegal killing of endangered coho salmon populations in the Shasta River. According the complaint, MWCD is violating the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) by killing ESA listed coho salmon without a take permit. The Agreement focuses on a new management strategy for Dwinnell Reservoir as opposed to cutting flows to irrigators so MWCD should not see a big difference in the volumes of water it diverts. “We worked hard to find a solution that would start the fisheries restoration process but keep our neighbors in agriculture whole,” said Karuk Chairman Buster Attebery. Historically, MWCD has diverted approximately 22,000 acre feet of water a year on average. The Agreement allows MWCD to divert 20,500 acre feet of water for irrigation although in dry years they may get less and in wet years they will get more. Water models predict that average diversion over time will be nearly the same as historic average diversions. Continued on next page
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Karuk/Riverkeeper
Continued from previous page The Shasta River is considered by many fisheries biologists to be one of the most important spawning and rearing habitats in the entire Klamath Basin. “Since Dwinnell Dam was built in 1926, nearly the entire river has been diverted leaving salmon high and dry. This has been a key factor in the decline of ESA listed coho salmon,” explains Karuk DNR Director Leaf Hillman. The settlement will result in 2,250 to 11,000 acre feet of water being released from Dwinnell Dam for fisheries benefits each year with the exact volume for any given year dependent on how wet the preceding winter was. Currently, fish only receive a few hundred acre feet of water a year in the Shasta River from Dwinnell if any at all. “This is a big increase in flows for fish and we expect the fisheries benefits will be seen immediately,” said Toz Soto, Karuk Senior Fisheries Biologist. The flow plan stemming from the agreement is temporary. Under terms of the settlement, MWCD will have to develop a long term flow plan and habitat restoration measures that will be subject to a formal Endangered Species Act permitting process that will include public input. That process will begin late in 2014. “Litigation was a necessary but difficult route,” said Konrad Fisher, Executive Director of Klamath Riverkeeper. “We hope for a more collaborative approach to end the unlawful dewatering of other Klamath River tributaries.” A recent report detailing the effects of MWCD’s Dwinnell Dam on Shasta river fisheries can be found at: www.karuk.us/karuk2/images/docs/press/2012/ Effects_of_Dwinnell_Dam_FINAL_Lestelle.pdf.
Salvage Logging Damaging to Post-Fire Landscapes
Bobby Shearer the impacts of fire exclusion, encourages spread Fire is an ancient, biologically restorative of invasive weeds and causes degradation of phenomenon, upon which science has consistently biodiversity and watershed function. shown landscapes and wildlife are dependent. The Rim Fire of 2013 was the third largest In fire-evolved wildfire in California ecosystems, it is a history and the necessary contributor largest on record in to habitat vitality and the Sierra Nevadas. It renewal, and many plant burnt about 257,135 species require fire to acres (or 402 square germinate, establish or miles) in the central to reproduce. Fire also Sierra Nevada plays roles in nutrient Mountains, of which cycling and soil health, about 153,000 acres historically burning were conifer forest. The fire occurred on vast areas of California private timberland, on an annual basis the Stanislaus prior to the forest fire National Forest and suppression policies of Yosemite National the U.S. Forest Service Park. Now, 29,648 (USFS). Removal of acres are proposed vegetation from fragile Three weeks after the Rim Fire, new vegetation starts growing. to be logged by the post-fire landscapes Photo: Dorit Buckley, U.S. Forest Service. USFS, mostly under can have devastating the pretense of “recovery and rehabilitation” in areas ecological consequences and directly contradicts where public safety is not an issue. Post-fire logging decades of scientific research. Despite this, post-fire is now a frequently-favored option by the USFS “salvage logging”—removal of woody biomass after on CA public lands, while public participation (via a large disturbance—is a common, highly industrial comments on otherwise-required environmental practice, often justified with false economic and impact studies) is being undermined with frequentlyecological reasoning. sought Emergency Situation Determinations (ESD’s) Immediately after a wildfire burns, natural granted by Chief of the USFS, Tom Tidwell. Salvage rejuvenation begins. Native wood-boring beetles logging on private lands, on the other hand, is burrow into the snags of burnt trees, creating exempt from environmental review in California habitat for cavity-nesting native solitary bees, and logging is now underway on over 16,000 acres pollinators for the spectacular wildflower shows of Sierra Pacific timberlands burnt in the Rim Fire, that follow fires. Ashes and fallen organic matter harvesting an estimated 150,000 to 180,000 million provide habitat for microbiota and nutrients for board feet over the next two years. fertile post-fire soils. Wildfires produce a critical Neither post-fire logging nor scientificallyfirst stage in the multi-century life of a forest. This supported opposition to the practice is uncommon stage can last for several decades and is referred in California. However, in the case of the Rim Fire to as an early seral forest, a very rare habitat type and others, public participation runs the risk of in U.S. forests, mostly as a result of a century of being thwarted by the USFS by streamlining the fire-suppression policy. But not all trees or shrubs permit procedure with ESDs. A trend towards highly die and, shortly after, there is a complex mosaic of reduced involvement of the public is something new growth and remnant “biological legacies” that that people who love wild places should be very supports immensely rich biodiversity. concerned about. Ecologically-informed policy When the post-fire landscape is cleared via regarding fire management and preparedness, as salvage logging there are a number of negative effects. well as an ecologically based assessment of the Removal of the remaining standing trees effectively long-term impacts of salvage logging (including eliminates critical habitat for many species, and seeds salvage-exemption zones and limits on removal of and spores that would create future generations of biological legacies) is desperately needed. Advocacy plant and fungal life are destroyed. Soils are deprived for the development of such policies will require of nutrients and are greatly disturbed. Furthermore, great public involvement. scientists have found post-fire logging exaggerates
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Use Water Smarter with Permaculture Mark DuPont, Klamath Knot Permaculture
The state of California may be the largest and most complex plumbing project in the world, but despite the elaborate engineering and massive infrastructure of its delivery system, the storage tanks are pretty simple— snow in the mountains. Right now we’re in one of the most severe droughts in living memory, the high country is bare and those tanks are empty. The acres of reservoirs and miles of aqueducts will be of limited value with nothing to put in them. There’s nothing like a drought to make you appreciate water and question the way we use it. Some of the cleanest water available falls from the sky and is gathered by our rooftops. Garden incorporating mulch, berms and basins, and grey water. When we miss the opportunity to store and Photo: High Tide Permaculture. utilize it, instead it runs in the street—where it picks up motor oil, gasoline and other Roofwater Catchment & Storage contaminants before polluting creeks. Domestic The average three bedroom/two bath home in water that is used only once to clean could be a temperate climate receives over 38,000 gallons used again to irrigate landscapes and orchards, of rainwater per year on its roof that runs off into but more often than not it joins the same waste storm drains. Rainwater is the cleanest and highest stream as sewage and storm water. quality water available, and many areas of the world Some simple permaculture strategies for water meet all of their domestic needs with roofwater. conservation and drought adaptation, such as those listed below, can help us use—and reuse— Earthworks: Berms and Basins water smarter. “Slow It, Spread It, Sink It” is the mantra coined by water wizard Brock Dolman. Shapes Mulch Saves Labor, Time and Water and contours in the landscape slow the path A good, thick layer of mulch can smother of water so that it can spread out and then sink weeds, improve the fertility of the soil, increase in—restoring the hydrologic cycle by recharging your yields and reduce the amount of watering you groundwater. This can be achieved by replacing need to do—all at the same time. A drip irrigation impervious concrete and asphalt with pervious line can be buried underneath the mulch to make paving stones, and by using a variety of landforms watering easier. Mulch in layers, with nutrient rich to re-contour the landscape into berms and basins. materials (lawn clippings, garden weeds, animal While some earthworks require heavy equipment, manure, rock powders, etc.) near the bottom and most can be surveyed using a simple A-frame level rougher materials (such as cardboard, rice straw and installed by hand with a shovel and hoe. and wood chips) near the top.
Greywater—Using Water More Than Once
One of the best ways to conserve water is to use it as many times as possible. Greywater is any water that has been used in the home, except water from toilets. Dish, shower, sink, and laundry water comprise 50-80 percent of residential “waste” water, which may be reused for landscape irrigation. Most greywater systems are now legal in California.
Composting Toilets
Should we really be crapping into five gallons of drinking water? Arcata’s own Sunfrost sells a “Human Humus Machine” composting toilet that saves up to 3,000 gallons of water/year while converting human manure into a high quality, odor and pathogen free soil amendment. You can also find designs to build your own composting toilet at www.appropedia.net.
Continued from page 4
...“the worst 14-year drought period in the last hundred years”) and excessive water demands, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, back in August, announced it was cutting water released from Lake Powell on the Colorado River to the lowest level since the massive reservoir was filled in the 1960s. Water levels in Lake Mead have already dropped more than... 100 feet since the current drought began in 2000, but even in an average year, there is simply more demand than supply. • Las Vegas is so desperate for new supplies they have proposed a series of massive and controversial ideas, including: a $15+ billion pipeline to tap into groundwater aquifers in other parts of the state, diverting the Missouri River to the west, and building desalination plants in Southern California or Mexico so they can take a bigger share of the Colorado. • Governor Jerry Brown is pushing a $25+ billion water tunnel project to try to improve water quality and reliability for Southern California farmers and cities, and improve the deteriorating ecosystems of the SacramentoSan Joaquin Delta, with no guarantees that it will do any of those things at a price users are willing and able to pay. • San Luis Reservoir in California, which serves the Silicon Valley and other urban users, fell to 17 percent in the summer because of severe drought, making business, communities, and water managers nervous. Other major California reservoirs are also far below average, though massive deliveries of water continue on the assumption that next year will be wet. • Groundwater is disappearing in California, the Great Plains, Texas ([reports show] continuous and often massive declines in almost all Texas groundwater systems), and elsewhere in the West, because our laws and policies ignore the fact that surface and groundwater are connected. Contributing to the problem, water managers and legislators typically put no restrictions on groundwater pumping, leading to inevitable and inexorable groundwater declines. • In the Lower Tule Irrigation District in California, demand for water has nearly doubled much of it supplied by overpumping groundwater. In parts of the district... Continued on page 11
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Water Wars
Continued from page 4 Referring to the drought and increasingly extreme weather in the years ahead, Governor Brown spoke of the need for immediate action, and urged “everyone in every part of the state” to conserve water. He advocated for water recycling and storage, restoration of wetlands and watersheds, forest fire preparation, and investments in safe drinking water infrastructure, particularly for disadvantaged communities. Unfortunately, however, amidst his advocacy for positive actions towards a more water-wise culture, Governor Brown reaffirmed his support for water transfers such as those proposed under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and the ill-advised Twin Tunnels project (read more about the Twin Tunnels on page 6). These water transfers threaten limited water supplies of Northern California and will only exacerbate the problem of unsustainable water use for our southern neighbors. Governor Brown also supports the expansion of fracking in the state, a process that consumes and contaminates high volumes of water in to extract natural gas deep underground, and has potential to contaminate groundwater supplies in the vicinity of the injection wells. (Read more on page 6).
Planning as if the Future Matters
Despite the inclination of some of this state’s leaders towards failed 20th century-style water policy, environmental advocates and scientists are stepping up to point out the error in this thinking. In an interview with the UC Berkley NewsCenter, paleoclimatologist B. Lynn Ingram said she didn’t think many... Continued on page 14
The Rise and Fall of Dyerville
This article is part of an ongoing series in EcoNews on understanding historical landscapes.
Barry Evans Reprinted with permission from the January 16, 2014 edition of the North Coast Journal
This year marks the centenary of the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad link between Eureka and San Francisco. The four-span bridge across the Eel River, just 40 miles south of Eureka, is a picturesque reminder of the once and nofuture railroad. Driving south, as you approach the Honeydew/ Founder’s Grove exit, look to your left. Better yet, take the off-ramp, drive under Highway 101, and admire the bridge from the picnic area opposite the north on-ramp. Historic photo of Dyerville camp. Peter Palmquist/HSU collection. The two “camelback” trusses (the rusty ones) date from 1910, while the shiny Grant. A ferry across the Eel was running by “Warren” design trusses replaced the two older the mid-1870s, about the same time that regular ones damaged by the devastating 1964 Christmas stagecoach service connected the community with flood, the disaster that wiped out several Eel River Rohnerville to the north and the Garberville area communities including Myers Flat, Weott, Shively to the south. By 1890, when the name “Dyerville” and Pepperwood. was adopted (honoring the oldest inhabitant, Not Dyerville, though—by 1964, there was Charles Venson Dyer), the small town boasted a nothing left to destroy. Two previous floods, in hotel, general store, blacksmith shop and saloon. 1937 and 1955, had already wiped out the little Stagecoach travelers from Eureka to San Francisco town. Look around you—the only sign that you’re would have gone through—and probably spent standing on the site of a once-thriving community the night in—Dyerville. is a cluster of historical information boards on the Most of the higher part of Dyerville, back east side of the picnic spot. from the river, survived the flood of 1937. It was Dyerville was built on the site of the former the December, 1955 deluge that finally did it in, Sinkyone village of Ltcuntdun. Taking advantage when, according to Humboldt Redwoods State of the confluence of the south fork of the Eel and Park Superintendent James Warren, the Eel rose its main channel, indigenous people living there 19 feet in one hour! Highway engineers completed would have feasted on huge (pre-logging) runs of the erasure that nature had begun. If you’re in the lamprey and salmon. Soon after its “discovery” by picnic area, you’ll be standing on 30 feet of fill, Lewis Keysor Wood and his companions in January placed there during 1957-’58 construction of the 1850, the natives were run out or murdered by four-lane freeway. early white settlers and loggers who founded a new Much of this information comes from the late community on the site of Ltcuntdun. (The name local historian Margaret Pritchard’s 1987 articles in “South Fork” was later adopted for the railroad Humboldt Historian magazine, available for on-site station at the south end of the railroad bridge.) reading at the Humboldt County Historical Society, The location rapidly became a service center 703 Eighth St. in Eureka. Call 445-4342 for hours. for loggers and, later, wheat and apple farmers Barry Evans (barryevans9@yahoo.com) marvels who took advantage of the rich alluvial soil on at the total disappearance of the community of the flats two miles upstream known as Camp Dyerville, as if it never existed. ...working with clients to improve the social, economic and environmental performance of their organizations and projects.
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Peak Water
Continued from page 9 ...the average depth to groundwater in 1983 was 50 feet. In 2003, groundwater levels had declined to 75 feet. Today it is 125 feet, and some wells 300 feet deep are going dry. In April 2013, John Roeloffs, a farmer and member of the Lower Tule Irrigation District Board, noted “Some guys are drilling wells 800 feet deep.” • There is more and more evidence of declining snowpack in the western US as the climate warms. These are just a few examples of the growing water-related dislocations in the western United States. Writ large, the entire region is at risk. As long as we fail to address the real problems, real solutions will never be applied. First, we must acknowledge that we’ve reached peak water in the American West. We have promised more water to users than nature provides. Until demand and supply are brought back into balance, groundwater levels will continue to drop and our rivers will continue to run dry, destroying natural ecosystems. Second, we must acknowledge that there are limits to new supply and that we must turn to the demand side of the problem. This means figuring out how to use water more efficiently and productively, and thinking about moving some water-intensive activities and products to more water-abundant regions. Maybe it is time to grow less rice, alfalfa, cotton, and pasture with flood irrigation. It is past time to retire the green lawn as an acceptable landscape option in arid climates. All toilets and washing machines should be water- and energyefficient. Finally we have to stop assuming that the water available for future use is the same as in the past. Climate change ensures that it won’t be, but until politicians start to heed the warnings of climate scientists and the on-the-ground evidence of the current water situation, our water problems in the West, and elsewhere, will worsen. Peter Gleick is president and cofounder of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. The Pacific Institute works to create a healthier planet and sustainable communities, conducting interdisciplinary research and partnering with stakeholders to produce solutions that advance environmental protection, economic development and social equity—in California, nationally and internationally. www.pacinst.org
Eye on
Washington
Bad News for Old Growth Forest Management
The newly appointed “ranking member” (highest ranking Democrat) of the House Committee on Natural Resources is one of our neighbors to the north, Pete DeFazio, representing Eugene and much of southwest Oregon. One of his first actions in this position was to offer an amendment to “sweeten” a bad bill that may forever alter how Oregon, and perhaps the rest of the Pacific Northwest, manages old growth forests. Passage of DeFazio’s amendment cleared the way for the House to pass the bill sponsored by the chairman of the committee, Doc Hastings (RWA). DeFazio’s Oregon Senate counterpart, Senator Ron Wyden, upped the ante by passing his companion legislation (S. 1784: Oregon and California Land Grant Act of 2013) out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, of which he is the chair. North Coast conservation groups have illuminated many significant problems if this legislation were to be signed into law: it would water down safeguards afforded by the Northwest Forest Plan and sharply cut protections for old growth forests, it would result in the loss of regional forest management plans that include endangered species associated with mature forest stands, and, more widely, it would limit the ability of communities and scientists to review and comment on forest management plans including impacts to water quality, biological diversity and forest ecosystem management. These issues are of particular concern since Senator Wyden has publicly suggested these practices could be extended to many other parts of the nation—which could put forests of Northern California at even greater risk.
Supporters of this legislation argue that doing away with environmental protections will allow for significant increases in timber harvest and result in greater revenue to local economies. While this could be true in the short-term, we worry that future generations will be stuck with the burdens of today’s harmful plans developed with limited local conservation voice. Moreover, many conservationists do not believe that the legislation will provide truly sustainable, longterm funding for basic community services such as schools, libraries, and sheriffs – leaving struggling communities in the same place they are today. Wyden’s bill is headed for a vote in the Senate in early February. We will be keeping an eye on this legislation.
Let’s Attack the ESA!
At the end of 2013, the chair of the US House Committee on Natural Resources, Doc Hastings, from Washington State, held an oversight hearing on the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In his description of his emphasis for 2014, he wrote: “[I]t is part of this Committee’s continuing review of the Endangered Species Act and how the law could be improved to prioritize recovery and science over lawsuits and closed-door settlements. This effort will continue in the New Year…” Unfortunately the committee’s continued assault on the ESA leads us to wonder how Chairman Hastings is defining “improve” since lawsuits are the last resort method for citizen’s to assure the federal government is doing its job in protecting rare plants and animals. Brett Hartl, Endangered Species Policy Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, responded: “[I]t’s truly amazing that Representative Hastings has nothing better to do than to waste taxpayer money holding circus-like hearings over an agreement that simply requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to do its job in a timely manner and make decisions about protecting species.” We will be following representative Hasting’s progress on “improving” the plight of our nation’s endangered species.
Dan Sealy is the NEC’s Legislative Analyst in Washington D.C.
Robert Berg, D.D.S.
212 J Street Eureka, CA 95501 707-445-0784
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
Redwood Region Audubon Society www.rras.org Every Saturday: Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary. These are our famous rain-or-shine, docent-led field trips at the Marsh. Bring your binocular(s) and have a great morning birding! Meet in the parking lot at the end of South I Street (Klopp Lake) in Arcata at 8:30 a.m. Trips end around 11 a.m. February leaders: 1st, Moe Morrisette; 8th, Jude Power; 15th, Gary Friedrichsen; 22nd, Tony Kurz.
Saturday, February 1: eBird Site Survey–Shay Park. Join Rob Fowler (707-839-3493) to survey Shay Park in Arcata for up to 3 hours, counting every species present. For more info on the eBird Site Survey, visit http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ about/eBird_Site_Survey. Even though “survey” is in the title, this is basically a birding trip. Meet at 8 a.m. at the parking lot at the east end of Foster Avenue. Waterproof shoes or boots are recommended, as we typically walk through a grassy field off-trail and up and down steep stairs that aren’t maintained. Sunday, February 9: Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This is a wonderful 2- to 3-hour trip for people wanting to learn the birds of the Humboldt Bay area. It takes a leisurely pace with emphasis on enjoying the birds! Beginners are more than welcome. Meet at the Refuge Visitor Center at 9 a.m. Call
FIELD TRIPS
Jude Power or David Fix (707-822-3613) for more information. Sunday, February 16: Southern Humboldt Community Park. Jay Sooter (707-444-8001) and/or John Gaffin lead this monthly walk. All ages and experience levels are encouraged to participate and revel in the beauty of the park and its avian inhabitants on this easy 2- to 3-hour walk. Binoculars are not provided, and dogs are not allowed; field guides are usually available, but please provide your own if possible. Steady rain cancels. Meet at 9:30 a.m., parking by the kiosk near the farmhouse at the main entrance.
Sunday, February 16: Eureka Waterfront. Meet at 9 a.m. at the foot of Del Norte St. in Eureka where we will scope for birds off the public dock until everyone assembles. We will then drive to the base of the Hikshari’ Trail at Truesdale St. and bird along the trail to the Elk River Wildlife Sanctuary. Contact leader Ralph Bucher (707-499-1247; thebook@ reninet.com) for more information. Saturday, February 22: King Salmon/Fields Landing. We’ll use spotting scopes to look for waterfowl, grebes, and loons, plus other waterbirds. Meet at 8:30 a.m. near Gils by the
Annual Banquet
S a t u r d ay , F e b r u a r y 8
TH
February 4 is the Deadline for Reservations at Annual RRAS Banquet As most members are aware, the annual RRAS banquet takes place Saturday, February 8, 2014. Speaker Anna Weinstein, the seabird and marine program leader for Audubon California, will summarize results of a 2011 breeding bird survey of the Black Oystercatcher. This charismatic intertidal shorebird has a global population of likely less than 15,000 and is considered an indicator of the health of rocky intertidal habitats. The survey, which included participation from RRAS, revealed important and surprising new information about this beloved species and the importance of our region to it. Anna will share stories from other chapters and discuss future plans and thoughts on how to protect the oystercatcher in California as climate change and increasing coastal use affect its world. The banquet, to be held at Six Rivers Masonic Lodge, 251 Bayside Road, Arcata, features a delicious buffet dinner by Uniquely Yours Catering and locally renowned French chef Alex Begovic, a silent auction, and awards. A no-host social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m., and the speaker at 7:30 p.m. Last day to reserve a spot is Tuesday, February 4! Reservations are available on a sliding scale from $35 to $50. Send checks payable to RRAS, with “Banquet” in the notation line, to RRAS, P.O. Box 1054, Eureka, CA 95502. You must purchase a banquet spot to attend the lecture. Banquet info: rras@rras.org.
Bay restaurant in King Salmon. Dress warmly. Rain cancels. For more information, call Matt Wachs (707-476-9349). Saturday, March 8: eBird Site Survey--Shay Park. See February 1. Sunday, March 9: Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. See February 9. Sunday, March 16: Southern Humboldt Community Park. See February 16. Sunday, March 16: Eureka Waterfront. See February 16. Winter Raptor Census: This is the 7th year of the LoletaFerndale winter raptor census. By car and in a group, we count all vultures, raptors, and shrikes along a 27.2-mile x 1-km transect running from Hookton Slough to the Ferndale Bottoms. Surveys begin at 8 a.m. and finish by 3 p.m. New participants are welcome. Counts are scheduled opportunistically based on weather conditions; to be added to the notification list (no commitment), contact Ken Burton, shrikethree@gmail.com, or call (707-499-1146) for more information.
March Program
F r i d ay , M a r c h 1 4 T H The Southern Latitudes’ Pelagic Extravaganza The remote subantarctic islands of Australia and New Zealand are the breeding grounds for 11% of the world’s seabirds, including endemic penguins, cormorants, and albatrosses. The islands are also home to seals, whales, and unique land birds. Former seabird biologist Laurie Ness recently visited the region and will share photos of its wildlife, including the 2nd photo ever taken of the Chatham Petrel at sea and images of the critically endangered Magenta Petrel, once thought extinct. She’ll also tell us a little about the islands’ fascinating history. Join us for a warm, dry visit to this cold, wet place that few ever get to see. Bring your Dramamine! Southern Royal Albatrosses “gamming” on Campbell Island. Photo by K. Ovsyanikova.
Program starts at 7:30 p.m. at Humboldt Area Foundation on Indianola Cutoff Bring a mug and enjoy shade-grown coffee.
CHAPTER LEADERS OFFICERS President— Hal Genger …………............ 707-499-0887 Vice President — Ken Burton ....................707-499-1146 Secretary—Adam Brown............................. 707-826-0319 Treasurer—Syn-dee Noel............................. 707-442-8862 DIRECTORS AT LARGE Ralph Bucher …........................................ 707-443-6944 Joe Ceriani …............................................ 707-476-9127 Jill Demers ……………………………… 707-667-6163 Harriet Hill………………………………. 707-267-4055 Cindy Moyer.....................................…..… 707-822-1886 Chet Ogan …............................................… 707-442-9353 Susan Penn..................................…......…. 707-443-9660 C.J. Ralph ............................................….. 707-822-2015 OTHER CHAPTER LEADERS Conservation — Jim Clark ...............…... 707-445-8311 Education/Scholarships — Vacant eBird Liaison — Rob Fowler …………... 707-839-3493 Field Notes — Daryl Coldren...........…..... 916-384-8089 Field Trips— Rob Fowler ……….......….. 707-839-3493 Finance— Syn-dee Noel .............................707-442-8862 Historian — John Hewston ...................... 707-822-5288 Membership — Lew & Judie Norton....... 707-445-1791 NEC Representative — C.J. Ralph.......... 707-822-2015 Nominating – Jim Clark …....................... 707-445-8311 Programs —Ken Burton ...........................707-499-1146 Publications — C.J. Ralph..................….. 707-822-2015 Publicity — Harriet Hill............................ 707-267-4055 Sandpiper (Editor): Jan Andersen …...… 707-616-3888 Sandpiper (Layout): Gary Bloomfield ......707-362-1226 Volunteer Coordinator — Susan Penn.…707-443-9660 Website Gatekeeper— Sue Leskiw……...707-442-5444 Lake Earl Branch — Sue Calla................ 707-465-6191 RRAS Web Page...........................……..... www.rras.org Arcata Bird Alert .........707-822-LOON (707-822-5666) The Sandpiper is published six times each year by Redwood Region Audubon Society P.O. Box 1054, Eureka, CA 95502.
New Members
Redwood Region Audubon Society welcomes the following new members and subscribers: Arcata – Kate Brice, Raven Cziglenyi, Michelle Dobosh, Suzanne & Ned Forsyth, Sallie Grover, Sherri Miller, Alexander Robinson, Fiona Shaughnessy, Stefan Solat, Yeager Bayside – B. May, Gena Pennington Blue Lake – Scott Frazer Crescent City – Eulis Bradshaw, Gilbert Clevenger, Stephen Gibbs, Dawna Gunnerson, Anita Janis, Robert Mutchie Cutten – David Hornbrook Eureka – Julie Abrahamsen, Judith Alexander, Judy Gordon, Jessalyn Jackson, Ann Knight, Mike Metro, Charles Penman, Nancy Pratt, Nancy Pringle, Michael Seeber, William Shreeve, Nellie Thompson, Diana Vogt, Melissa Zarp Ferndale – Ellin Beltz Fortuna – Sally Dwelley, Edward Henning, Bette Moore Garberville – R. Hempsch Loleta – Kaitlyn Zoerhoff McKinleyville – Mary Almquist, Carol Wilson Miranda – Richard Michelini Petrolia – Trish Stefanik Redway – Katherine Stadig Samoa – Marta Tennant Trinidad – Kathy O’Shea
We look forward to seeing you on field trips and at our monthly programs.
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN: The Bend in the Bridge
By Jim Clark The initial formation of Redwood Region Audubon Society was triggered by plans to build a bridge across Humboldt Bay from Eureka to the North Spit. The bridge, as initially drawn up, would have gone through the egret rookery on Indian Island. Instead, efforts of RRAS and others resulted in a completed bridge in 1971 that bent around the rookery. Our chapter was born in activism to conserve bird habitat.
Soon after our chapter was incorporated in the late 1980s, we appealed a decision by the Humboldt County Planning Department to allow development in wetlands in the McKinleyville area. This resulted in a settlement that required the planning department to submit wetland reviews to RRAS for 5 years and provided seed money that made it possible to buy tidal lands that are now part of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge (HBNWR). Selling those tidelands to the US Fish and Wildlife Service nearly doubled our initial investment, and we now have a healthy wetland and sanctuary fund. The activism that started in 1969 and reached a settlement in the late 1980s, however, has been dormant for too long. Although we have written letters of support and testified at public meetings for many causes, our chapter has not taken a serious stand on a local conservation issue in over 20 years. This is not for lack of important conservation issues that need attention. As I was compiling our annual chapter report to National Audubon, I was impressed that we led 113 field trips
Thinking of Joining the National Audubon Society?
If so, please use the coupon below. By sending in your membership on this form, rather than replying to solicitations from National Audubon, $20 is sent directly to RRAS. This is how NAS rewards local chapters for recruiting national members. (Otherwise, the RRAS dues share per new member is only a couple of dollars.) Thank you.
Chapter Membership Application
Yes, I’d like to join.
Please enroll me as a member of the National Audubon Society and of my local chapter. Please send AUDUBON magazine and my membership card to the address below. My check for $20 is enclosed. (Introductory offer)
NAME_______________________________ ADDRESS___________________________ CITY ______________________________ STATE____________ZIP______________ email ______________________________ Local Chapter Code: C24 C1ZC240Z Please make checks to the National Audubon Society. Send this application and your check to:
National Audubon Society P.O. Box 422250 Palm Coast, FL 32142-2250
--------------LOCAL CHAPTER-------------
REDWOOD REGION AUDUBON SOCIETY P.O. BOX 1054 EUREKA, CA 95502
with nearly 1,000 participants. Not having any education programs or participants and only one environmental improvement project for the same year, however, is disconcerting. Just as we made the Route 255 bridge over the bay reroute around the egret rookery, it’s time that our chapter change course toward increased activism, to assure that we and those after us can continue to enjoy birding. To that end, I have agreed to reformulate the Conservation Committee to have more topically oriented meetings that will focus on taking action on the most important local and regional issues To join us in this effort, consider attending the monthly Conservation Committee meetings at noon at the Golden Harvest Cafe in Arcata on the 2nd Wednesday of each month.
Conservation Meeting February 12
The next Conservation Committee meeting will be February 12 at noon at the Golden Harvest Cafe, 1062 G St., Arcata. The meetings have been changed to the 2nd Wednesday of each month. The topic for February 12 will be forming a chapter position on environmental impacts of large-scale marijuana cultivation.
March 28 Deadline for Student Bird Art Contest Entries For the 11th year, RRAS and Friends of the Arcata Marsh are co-sponsoring a Student Bird Art Contest in conjunction with Godwit Days. Some $550 in prizes will be awarded to Humboldt County students from kindergarten through high school who submit a drawing of one of 40 suggested species or another common local bird. Prize(s) also will be awarded for the best rendition of a bird in its natural habitat. Entries will be judged by local wildlife artists and educators. Awards will be presented at the 19th Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival on Saturday, April 19, at 11:30 a.m. All entries will be displayed at the Arcata Community Center during the Festival, and copies of winning artwork will be shown at the Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center during May. A flyer with complete rules and a list of suggested birds is posted at http://godwitdays.org/learning/activitieschildren/bird-art-contest/ or can be picked up at the Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center, Strictly for the Birds in Old Town Eureka, or by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to Louise Bacon-Ogden, 2337 B Street, Eureka 95501. Flyers have been mailed to all schools in Humboldt County. Artwork may be dropped off at Strictly for the Birds, 123 F Street, Eureka, or the Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center, 569 South G Street, Arcata, or mailed to Louise at the address listed above. Entries must be received by Friday, March 28, to be considered. Questions should be e-mailed to sueleskiw@suddenlink.net.
Field Trip Report: Winter Rarities, 4 January 2014 By Rob Fowler Another year has come and gone, and as far as rare birds in Humboldt County, 2014 kicked off with a bang! Many rarities were found on the Arcata and Centerville to King Salmon Christmas Bird Counts, and a couple have popped up in the new year that weren't discovered beforehand. On my 4th annual RRAS winter rarities field trip, the game plan included at least 8 or 9 potential stakeout rarities to re-find—certainly enough to fill the day! Also, even though we are focused on re-finding staked-out rarities, we make a point to enjoy every bird we come across along our journey. So how did we do? Northern Waterthrush: After the group of 25+ signed in and I briefly explained the plan for the day, we headed for our first target bird. At the brown wall at the southeast corner of Butcher Slough Log Pond at the Arcata Marsh, I briefly pished, and about a minute later, the NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH started calling. It came in close but stayed out of view. More often than not, this waterthrush is heard but is difficult to see, so we were satisfied with a “heard-only.” Summer Tanager: Because we were a large group, I called the homeowners that were hosting this species and received assurance that it was OK to visit them. We carpooled to the house on California St. in Arcata and quietly gathered in the front yard to watch the black oil sunflower feeder the bird was frequenting. Within 10 minutes, the SUMMER TANAGER came in, grabbed a seed, and quickly flew out of view. We stuck around for another 10 minutes, and it came back, providing prolonged views. Lawrence’s Goldfinch and Northern Shrike: Paul Lohse’s farm is adjacent to the famous “Blue Lake cottonwoods.” Although the cottonwoods are a popular birding location—especially during spring migration—his farm is always worth a walk-through and Paul welcomes birders throughout the year. His farm is especially attractive to seed eaters, especially from fall through winter, and has attracted many interesting species like Clay-colored, Chipping, and Swamp sparrows, along with Gray Flycatcher and rare eastern vireos and warblers. Paul personally led us through his farm, looking for the female Lawrence's Goldfinch. Every few steps we took, sparrows would burst out of the fallow beds (especially plots with quinoa and amaranth). Within minutes we tallied all expected winter sparrows: Spotted Towhee, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Lincoln's, Sooty Fox, and White-throated. Everyone also got to enjoy a male Yellow-shafted Flicker, which according to Paul, has been present all winter. After about an hour, we walked to the northwest corner and someone pointed out a small, gray finch atop some vegetation: the female LAWRENCE’S GOLDFINCH! The bird took some time to emerge from the vegetation; it then flushed with accompanying sparrows and landed in the open branches of a leafless tree some distance away. Everyone was able to get scope views of this bird, which is only the 2nd winter record for northwestern California. We hadn’t seen the Northern Shrike, but on the way out of Blue Lake, we ran into local birder Alexandra Lamb. She had just seen the shrike to the west of the Mad River
bridge. A few of us cruised over to where she saw it, but a brief search failed to produce it. We then spent about an hour at the foot of South I Street at the Arcata Marsh, where we ate lunch and added birds to our day list. One species we saw can only be found at this location: Forster’s Tern. This bird is somewhat rare in northwestern California throughout the year, but in the winter, a group of 10-20 winters in north Humboldt Bay. Moving on, we left the Marsh and drove to Eureka for our next target: Harris’s Sparrow. I won't belabor our experience walking around urban Eureka looking for a rare bird, but just say we didn’t find it. We did find a female Bullock's Oriole, first identified and called out by Ken Burton. This would be the rarity found during the trip. (Last year on this trip, the highlight was a Baltimore Oriole spotted in Loleta). It was time to leave Eureka and move on to birdier areas. The passengers in my car spotted a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD perched high in a tree. This bird is technically a rarity in northwestern California, so we added it to our score for the day. Our next stop was Quinn Road outside of Loleta to look for the LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. This individual has been at this location since 27 October and has been seen consistently since. It took a couple of minutes, but we got distant views of the bird. Soon after reaching Copenhagen Road from Quinn and heading toward Loleta, we came upon 3 Snow Geese, which were year birds for most and a quick treat on our way to our next targets. Snow and Ross’s Goose are low-grade rarities (though the latter is a bit rarer overall) because a few show up in the fall and winter in flocks of Cackling Geese; both are abundant in the Central Valley. Cattle Egret: This was easily spotted in a pasture off Goble Lane in the Ferndale Bottoms hanging out near, what else? cattle. Local bird extraordinaire and author David Fix calls Cattle Egrets “Beef Bitterns.” Even though the Cattle Egret was our target bird, most people enjoyed even more the Ferruginous Hawks and Tundra Swans that flew over us. Crested Caracara: To try for this bird, we got permission to visit the “Eel River Estuary Preserve,” which is currently private property but en route to be open to the public. [Check out the Wildlands Conservancy website to learn more about this new preserve.] Long story short: we missed it. This bird was the most-expected miss, however. Nonetheless, some of the group did see a Prairie Falcon, which is rare in the winter along the coastal plain in Humboldt County, with only 1 to 2 wintering locally. We also saw a distant Rough-legged Hawk and many red-tails. Sandhill Crane: This bird, first discovered by Casey Ryan and Tony Kurz on 18 December, has consistently been in the same location since: off Grizzly Bluffs Road just east of Lawson Lane/Pleasant Point Drive. As expected, we drove right up to the bird. It was now time to call it a productive day. Ending score: 7/10 rarities. Total species: 93. To see the full trip report with photos and video from the day, visit Rob’s Fowlerope Birding Tours blog at: www. fowleropebirding.com/blog.html.
Lew & Judie Norton © Sue Leskiw
Laurie Lawrence & Ken Burton © Sue Leskiw
RRAS Volunteers in 2013
RRAS would like to thank all the volunteers whose dedication allows our chapter to function. From board members and committee chairs to field trip leaders, Sandpiper contributors, program speakers, and helpers at special events like Godwit Days, please know that you are greatly appreciated. Following is a list of our helpers between November 2012 and October 2013: Julie Alderson, Jan Andersen, Mark & Melinda Bailey, Pat Bitton, Dawn Blake, Gary Bloomfield, Adam Brown, Ralph Bucher, Ken Burton, Sue Calla, Joe Ceriani, Jill Demers, Greg Chapman, Donna & Jim Clark, Daryl Coldren, Linda Doerflinger, David Fix, Rob Fowler, Gary Friedrichsen, Harry Fuller, Pia Gabriel, John Gaffin, Megan Garfinkle, Hal Genger, Will Goldenberg, Harriet Hill, Larry Karsteadt, Christine Keil, Tony Kurz, Laurie Lawrence, Sue & Tom Leskiw, Gary Lester, Ron LeValley, Sandra Lingle, Paul Lohse, Michael Morris, Moe Morrissette, Cindy Moyer, Syndee Noel, Judie & Lew Norton, Chet Ogan, Susan Penn, Karen Pope, Jude Power, CJ Ralph, Josée Rousseau, Gil & Mediha Saliba, David Scheerer, Jay Sooter, Matt Wachs, Ryan Wells, Carol Wilson, and George Ziminsky.
Audubon Nature Writing Deadline March 21 RRAS is sponsoring its 9th annual student nature writing contest. Up to 6 cash prizes will be awarded for the best essay(s) or poem(s) on “What Nature Means to Me” by Humboldt or Del Norte County students in grades 4 through 12. Winners will be published on the RRAS website, www.rras.org, with awards presented at the 19th Godwit Days Festival in Arcata in mid-April. Entries should be no more than 450 words in length; one entry per person. Topics suitable for exploration include, but are not limited to, bird feeding, duck hunting, animal rescue, and observations of the natural world. Entries must include the student’s name, home address, phone number and/or e-mail, teacher name, grade, and school. Deadline for receipt is Friday, March 21, 2014. Send submissions as text within the body of an e-mail to tomleskiw@suddenlink.net or mail a printout to Louise Bacon-Ogden, 2337 B Street, Eureka 95501.
Field Notes
By Daryl Coldren
S U M M A RY O F N O R T H W E S T E R N C A L I F O R N I A B I R D R E P O R T S
November 15, 2013, to January 15, 2014 Field Notes is a compilation of bird-sighting reports for Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties. Sources include the RRAS Bird Box (707-822-LOON), the online northwestern California birding and information exchange (nwcalbird@yahoogroups.com), eBird (http://ebird.org/ content/klamathsiskiyou), and reports submitted directly to the compiler. Reports may be submitted to any of the sources mentioned above or to Daryl Coldren: (916) 3848089; QuiAvisPetit@aol.com. FOS = first of season; HBNWR = Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge; MOb = many observers; NC= not confirmed by another party/not photographed Snow Goose: 1-2, HBNWR, 16 Nov-3 Jan (BE, AL, CB); 1-5, Arcata Bottoms, 22 Nov-12 Jan (IG, CB, AF, MOb); 2-4, McKinleyville Bottoms, 13-19 Dec (MOb); 3, Loleta Bottoms, 2-8 Jan (MOb) • Ross’s Goose: 1, Arcata Bottoms, 18 Nov-2 Jan (GB, BE, RF, SB); 1, McKinleyville Bottoms, 13-16 Dec (MOb); 1, HBNWR, 3 Jan (CB); 1, Loleta, 14 Jan (MC) • Harlequin Duck: 1, North Spit, 7-30 Dec (AL, CR, MOb); 1, Humboldt Lagoons-Sharp Point, 7 Jan (KB, JA) • Long-tailed Duck: 1, Humboldt Lagoons-Sharp Point, 7 Jan (KB, JA); 2, King Salmon, 13 Jan (MW, RF, DC) • American White Pelican: 1, Smith River Bottoms (Del Norte), 29 Nov (LB); 1, flying above Arcata, 13 Dec (CR) • Cattle Egret: 1, Ferndale Bottoms-Goble Lane, 18 Dec-8 Jan (CR) • Green Heron: 1, Arcata Marsh, 10 Dec (MP) • Osprey: 1, Orick, 10 Dec (CD) • Golden Eagle: 1, Dyerville Loop, 11 Dec (JG); 1, Bear River Ridge, 25-26 Dec (MD, KO); 1, Ferndale Bottoms, 3-8 Jan (KB, BE, KO, MOb); 1, Alder Point Rd, 4 Jan (CB) • Ferruginous Hawk: many reports of 1-2, Bear River Ridge, Ferndale Bottoms, Loleta Bottoms, McKinleyville Bottoms, 23 Nov-15 Jan (MOb) • Rough-legged Hawk: many reports of 1-2, Bear River Ridge, Ferndale Bottoms, Loleta Bottoms, McKinleyville Bottoms, 1 Nov-15 Jan (MOb) • Sandhill Crane: 1, Arcata Bottoms-Moxon Rd, 9 Dec (RF); 1, Ferndale Bottoms, 18 Dec-15 Jan (CR) • Pacific Golden-Plover: 2, Arcata Bottoms, 6-15 Dec (RF, JL); 1-5, Ferndale Bottoms, 8-26 Dec (PC, KO, AL, BM); 1, Loleta Bottoms, 20 Dec (PC, KO) • Ruddy Turnstone: 1, North Spit-Vance Rd, 7 Dec (BM); 1, North Jetty, 31 Dec (CS) • Red Knot: 1, Arcata Marsh-Klopp Lake, 13 Dec (AL, PL); 1, Arcata Marsh-Klopp Lake, 11 Jan (KB) • Rock Sandpiper: many reports of 1-6, North Jetty, 8 Nov-11 Jan (BE, SB, MOb) • Glaucous Gull: 1, Fernbridge, 22 Nov (PC, KO) • Burrowing Owl: 1, McKinleyville-Clam Beach, 17 Nov-2 Jan (AL, DC, MOb); 1, Bear River Ridge, 22 Nov-14 Dec (PC, KO, CR); 2, South Spit, 29 Dec (RF, RH) • White-throated Swift: 42!, Ferndale, 17 Dec (SB) • Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: 1, Fortuna-Clendenen’s Cider Works, 15-23 Dec (JSt, MOb) • White-headed Woodpecker: 1, Horse Mountain, 21 Dec (AP, MB, MOb) • Crested Caracara: 1, Ferndale Bottoms, 29 Dec-2 Jan (JA, KS) • Prairie Falcon: 1, Arcata Bottoms, 7 Dec (CO); 1, Ferndale Bottoms, 18 Dec-14 Jan (CR, RF, BE, OH, MOb); 1, McKinleyville Bottoms, 19 Dec (CB, HV); 1, Bear River Ridge, 25 Dec (MD) • Say’s Phoebe: 1, Redwood Creek Mouth, 17 Nov (CB, HV); 2, Loleta Bottoms-Copenhagen
Rd, 3 Dec (KB, MOb); 1, McKinleyville Bottoms, 14 Dec (LP, KZ); 1, Arcata Bottoms, 14-24 Dec (GB, LP, KZ, GC, CD); 1, Big Rock, 15 Dec-1 Jan (MC); • Vermilion Flycatcher: 1, Ferndale Bottoms-Salt River, 29 Dec-15 Jan (GB, MOb) • Ash-throated Flycatcher: 1, Arcata Bottoms, 14-22 Dec (AB, MOb) • Tropical Kingbird: 1, Arcata Bottoms-V St Loop, 15-23 Nov (BE, AF); 1, Arcata Bottoms-Moxon Rd, 15 Nov-3 Dec (KO, PC, RF, MOb); 1, Loleta Pond, 22 Nov (RF); 1, Ferndale Bottoms-Pleasant Point Rd, 20 Dec (PC, KO); 1, Arcata Bottoms-Foster Ave, 21 Dec (TQ, SQ) • Loggerhead Shrike: 1, Loleta- Quinn Rd, 27 Oct-8 Jan (GC, MOb) • Northern Shrike: 1, Redwood Creek Mouth, 24 Nov5 Jan (TK, MOb); 1, Blue Lake-Cottonwoods, 27 Dec-4 Jan (BE, MOb); 1, Humboldt Hill, 29 Dec (PB) • Horned Lark: 1, Kneeland-Barry Rd, 18 Nov (KO); 1, Smith River Bottoms, 22 Nov (LB); 1-10, Bear River Ridge, 22 Nov-25 Dec (RF, CR BE, MOb) • Tree Swallow: 1, Arcata Marsh, 18 Nov (RF); 1, Fernbridge, 14 Dec (BE); 1, Big Rock, 15 Dec (MC) • Violet-green Swallow: 1, Arcata Marsh, 18 Nov (RF); 1, Arcata Marsh, 21 Dec (KS, MOb); 1, Arcata Marsh, 1 Jan (BBr); 1, Blue Lake, 3 Jan (KS, RF, DC) • Barn Swallow: 1, South Spit, 29 Dec (RF, RH); 4, McDaniel Slough, 1 Jan (PR) • Rock Wren: 1, Dyerville Rd, 31 Dec-11 Jan (RF, CB, KO, AL) • California Thrasher: 1, King Range, 31 Dec (RF) • Northern Mockingbird: 1, Garberville-Sprowel Creek
Vermilion Flycatcher, JAN 22, 2014, Salt River, HUM, © Rob Fowler
Rd, 15-30 Nov (JSo); 1, Arcata-Union/11th St, 5 Dec (AF); 1, Arcata-10th/D St, 12-14 Dec (CR, AT, MOb); 1, Eureka-Summer St, 14 Dec (RF); 1 (returning for 3rd year), Eureka-D St/Willow, 15 Dec-12 Jan (GC, DC, AL, BE) • Red-throated Pipit: 1, Orick, 26 Nov (LB, KB, CM) • Lapland Longspur: 6, Crab Park, 17 Nov (TM); 3, Arcata Bottoms-Mad River Slough WA, 25 Nov (RF); 1, Redwood Creek Mouth, 27 Nov (RF, GB); 2, Cock Robin Island, 14 Jan (MC) • Ovenbird: 1, Arcata Marsh, 8-9 Dec (AL) • Northern Waterthrush: 1, Arcata Marsh, 21 Nov-4 Jan (MOb); 1, Eureka, 14 Dec (RF); 1, Sunny Brae, 14 Dec (MD); 1, Copenhagen Rd, 29 Dec (KB) • Black-and-white Warbler: 1, Mad River Co. Park, Nov 23 (AW); 1, Humboldt Bay Bird Observatory, 28 Dec (MD) • Nashville Warbler: 1, Sunny Brae, 15 Nov (JH, AM); 1, Arcata-H St, 16 Nov-10 Jan (TQ, SQ); 1, Arcata-Zehndner Ave, 21 Nov (GB); 1, Arcata Marsh, 21 Nov-18 Dec (MC, MOb); 1, Eureka, 9 Dec-2 Jan (BE); 2, Arcata, 14 Dec (MD); 1, Eureka, 14 Dec (RF, CD); 1, Cock Robin Island, 27 Dec (KO); 1, HBNWR, 3 Jan (CB); 1, Arcata, 10 Jan (KB); 1, Eureka, 13 Jan (SM) • Yellow Warbler: 1, Eel River-Hwy 211 Bridge, Nov 22 (RF) • Palm Warbler: 1, Arcata Marsh, 21 Nov-7
Little Bunting, DEC 19, 2013, McKinleyville, HUM, © Rob Fowler
Jan (MC, MOb); 1, McKinleyville Bottoms, 17 Dec (RB); 1, Ferndale Bottoms-Grizzly Bluff, 29 Dec (CO); 1, Ferndale Bottoms-Salt River, 1-8 Jan (RF, DC, KB, MOb); 1, Goble Lane, 4 Jan (RB, CO) • Black-throated Gray Warbler: 1, Salt River, 10 Jan (OH) • Hermit Warbler: 1, Arcata-Zehndner Ave, 23-26 Dec (GB) • Wilson’s Warbler: 1, Arcata-Zehndner Ave, 17 Nov (GB) • Clay-colored Sparrow: 1, Arcata, 12 Dec (SM) • Swamp Sparrow: 1, Lake Earl (Del Norte), 3 Nov (CD, MOB), 1-2, HBNWR, 15 Nov-14 Jan (AL, MC); 1-2, Arcata Marsh, 16 Nov-8 Jan (MOb); 1, Eureka Golf Course, 7 Dec (KB); 1, Redwood Creek Mouth, 7 Dec (IG); 2, Clam Beach, 14 Dec (LK); 1, Jolly Giant Creek, 23 Dec (EE) • Harris’s Sparrow: 1, Eureka-Huntoon St, 14-21 Dec (RF, MOb); 1, McKinleyville-Salmon Ave, 14 Dec-15 Jan (KS, MOb); 1, Salt River, 31 Dec (MD, BE, MOb); 1, Eureka, 5 Jan (BE) • LITTLE BUNTING! 1, McKinleyville, 12-21 Dec (KS, MOb). This is the 1st record for Humboldt County, only the 4th for California, and the 5th in the lower 48 states. Well done, Keith! • Summer Tanager: 1, Arcata-California Ave, 26 Dec15 Jan (SR, ML, RF, DC, MOb) • Painted Bunting: 1, Trinidad-Ocean Ave, 10 Jan (BBa, MOb) • Tricolored Blackbird: 1-3, Arcata Bottoms-Miller Lane/Warren Creek Farm, 16-17 Nov (RF, KO, AL); 4, Lanphere Rd, 6 Dec (RF) • Bullock’s Oriole: 1, Eureka, 22 Dec (TQ); 1, Eureka, 4 Jan (RF, MOb) • Lawrence’s Goldfinch: 1, Blue Lake-Lohse Farm, 28 Dec-15 Jan (PL, KS, RF, MOb) • Evening Grosbeak: 1, Ferndale-Centerville Rd, 17 Nov (TM); 1, Fay Slough Wildlife Area, 10 Jan (CB). Thanks to all who have submitted their sightings! Special thanks to Rob Fowler for assistance with compiling records. Cited Observers Jeff Allen, Samantha Bacon, Alan Barron, Bob Battagin (BBa), Pat Bitton, Gary Bloomfield, Matt Brady, Bob Brown (BBr), Lucas Brug, Camden Bruner, Ralph Bucher, Ken Burton, Philip Chaon, Greg Chapman, Daryl Coldren, Mark Colwell, Matt Delgado, Cédric Duhalde, Elias Elias, Brad Elvert, Andrew Ford, Rob Fowler, John Gaffin, Ian Gledhill, Owen Head, Rob Hewitt, Jared Hughey, Logan Kahle, Tony Kurz, Alex Lamb, Margaret Lang, Josh Lefever, Paul Lohse, Bruce Mast, Sean McAllister, Tristin McKee, Annie Meyer, Cindy Moyer, Chet Ogan, Kurt Ongman, Michael Park, Amy Patten, Linda Pittman, Shilo Quetchenbach, Tom Quetchenbach, Steve Railsback, Casey Ryan, Keith Slausen, Jay Sooter (JSo), Catherine Spaulding, John Sterling (JSt), Anji Trujillo, Holly Vannoy, Matt Wachs, Andrew Wiegardt, Karen Zumwalt.
Manufacturers Have Responsibility to Reduce Waste What does this mean for the future of the Redwood Coast region?
Our individual responsibility to purchase products that are durable, reusable or at least recyclable or compostable is critical for reducing waste. However, upstream preventive strategies of manufacturers are even more significant for waste reduction. Known as “extended producer responsibility (EPR)” and “product stewardship,” a wide range of manufacturer actions can dramatically reduce preconsumer waste and energy in production and packaging processes, and make recycling and composting of discarded materials easier for consumers. Over the last 20 years, Californians and California’s local governments have learned that implementing recycling and composting systems is complex and difficult. Consequently, there is growing public support for the financial responsibility of “end-of-life (EOL)” product management to shift from taxpayers and local government to the manufacturers and users of products. To date, analyses for developing EOL product stewardship systems for different industry sectors have generally focused on products that generate household hazardous waste or are particularly problematic for local recycling and composting systems. Discarded paint, mercury thermostats, carpet, electronics, cleaners, motor oil, antifreeze, tires and mattresses
are a few examples. A 2009 study by the R3 Consulting Group identified economic, social and environmental impacts of existing EPR programs and compared the effectiveness of government-run vs. industry-run programs. In March 2011, a Joint Assembly Hearing on Producer Responsibility was held in Sacramento by the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials (chaired by Assemblymember Bob Wjeckowski) and the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources (chaired by Wesley Chesbro, Assemblymember, First District.) Lessons learned from reducing the environmental impacts of these products and packaging are beginning to be applied to food and beverage containers, packaging and other singleuse items common to residential and commercial recycling collection services.
Contact Zero Waste Humboldt contact@zerowastehumboldt.org
First, local manufacturers should be alert to the development of legislation that will set EPR standards for manufacturing. Manufacturers that have already undergone the rigorous ISO standards will probably be ahead of the game. Inventors, designers and innovative entrepreneurs who can redesign products and packaging to help manufacturers reduce waste will be filling an ongoing need in the future. Graduates of local high schools, College of the Redwoods and Humboldt State University who are passionate about reducing carbon emissions and working in waste reduction should pay attention to the growing field of product stewardship and extended producer responsibility. The job-creating impact of EPR has been documented and it will become an increasing part of the next-gen workforce. This is the new wave. An ongoing product stewardship webinar series is hosted by the Northwest Product Stewardship Council, and several California and nationwide organizations specialize in EPR and sustainable packaging. Finally, the importance of individual responsibility remains. As consumers, we need to become more aware of and committed to habits that PREVENT waste before recycling and composting is needed. Support upcoming legislation in California for manufacturer product stewardship and responsibility.
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Feb/Mar 2014
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Friends
of the Eel River
Feds clear PG&E to cut flows for Eel River fish
Utility cites risk of sediment collapse; drained reservoir may run dry. Scott Greacen A few people in the Russian River watershed still have a greater claim to the Eel’s water than do the river’s own salmon. After draining its reservoir (“Lake” Pillsbury) into the Russian River with business-as-usual diversions to benefit the irrigators of Potter Valley all through the long, dry summer of 2013, PG&E turned to the Eel River’s struggling fish this winter and said essentially “Oops, guess you’re out of luck.” That’s just one of the ways that management of the Eel River watershed in this still-developing drought exemplifies what Peter Gleick calls “the unraveling crazy quilt of western water management and use.” It is a framework that fails to protect the public trust, but allows the well-connected to leverage public water for private gain. The story turns on the malfunction of an obscure set of rules meant to make PG&E manage the two dams and diversion tunnel of its Potter Valley Project (PVP) to have less impact on Eel River fish, but it illuminates a premise that has not changed since the dams were built, the tunnel dug and the upper Eel’s waters diverted down to Lake Mendocino: Russian River interests’ claims on Eel River water are honored even to the detriment of Eel River fish. Fortunately, our chance to correct history’s error by decommissioning the Potter Valley Project dams is just around the corner, with relicensing due in 2022. For most of the 20th century, the two dams of the Potter Valley Project not only blocked off the prime spawning grounds of the snow-fed Gravelly Valley on the upper mainstem Eel River, but diverted most of the flow of the upper Eel into the Russian River. The damage inflicted on the Eel River’s fisheries by the dams alone was dramatic, and in combination with other cumulative impacts, catastrophic. The three remaining species of salmon and steelhead in the Eel River were listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 1990s. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)— charged with protecting and recovering species
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Lake Pillsbury on the upper Eel River: By late January, water levels in the reservoir behind Scott Dam were 50 feet below the high water mark. Photo: David Keller.
that swim in the ocean, including salmon—finally forced PG&E to alter its releases to harm Eel River fish less with rules adopted in 2004. At the time, Friends of the Eel River (FOER) protested to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which licenses hydropower dams, that the new rules would still allow serious impacts on Eel River salmon and steelhead during low flows. Those concerns fell on deaf ears. So in 2013, though it mostly did not rain from January to June, PG&E continued to send more than 80 cfs (cubic feet per second) down the diversion tunnel from April through October. More than 50,000 acre feet of water went down to Potter Valley. But then it still didn’t rain in the fall, and PG&E found itself with relatively little water left in the reservoir at the beginning of December 2013. Following the flows schedule, the utility began releasing 100 cfs down the mainstem Eel River on December 1, but immediately applied to FERC for an urgent variance. Unless it reduced the Eel River releases back down to the 25 cfs that had been the summer baseline, PG&E said, it would risk running out of water www.yournec.org
in the reservoir altogether in the spring of 2014, as well as damage to the reservoir infrastructure and harms to downstream fish habitat likely to result if the walls of sediment emerging from the draining reservoir were to suffer a “vertical bank collapse.” FERC approved the requested variance, but allowed an after-the-fact comment period, soliciting public input into how best to address such circumstances in the future. Underscoring the importance of the initial “temporary” decision, on January 15, the day before comments were due on the first variance, PG&E submitted an additional request for another variance. The net effect of the successive variances will be to allow the utility to release as little as 25 cfs down the Eel River, until either the reservoir is depleted or rains come. The observant reader will have noted that at no point during the summer did PG&E seek a variance to dimish diversions to the Russian River, which would have left the utility with some options if fall rains failed. While state and federal wildlife agencies signed off on PG&E’s variance requests, the Round Valley Indian Tribes (RVIT) objected to any continued Continued on next page diversions to the...
Feb/Mar 2014
EcoNews
Water Wars
Eel River
Continued from page 10
Continued from previous page
Lake Mendocino on the upper Russian River. The East Branch of the Russian, augmented by Eel River water sent down the diversion tunnel to Potter Valley, flows in its old bed, exposed as water levels drop behind the Army Corps of Engineers’ Coyote Dam east of Ukiah. Photo: Mark Lovelace.
...Russian River. In our comments, FOER agreed with the RVIT and argued as well that the cumulative impact of low flows and PVP operations on Eel River salmon merits reopening the project’s license to improve its low-flow provisions. Current projections say it’s unlikely, but if spring rains do come, it’s not clear PG&E would allow the water to flow down the river. Clearly, the utility continues to treat the desires of Potter
Valley irrigators for cheap Eel River water as a claim equivalent, or possibly even superior, to the need of surviving Eel River chinook and steelhead for enough water to spawn and reproduce another generation. When Gleick suggests western water management must change, he’s talking about how just such a combination of inappropriate infrastructure and entrenched entitlement has proven so hazardous to western ecosystems and so resistant to evolution.
8000 7000 6000
300 250 200
5000 4000 3000
150 100 50 0
2000 1000 0
Winter flows and summer diversions, 2013: flow in cubic feet per second (cfs) for upper Eel River releases below the Cape Horn dam (in blue) and diversions to the Russian River through the Potter Valley tunnel (in red). While even in the very dry 2013, winter flows dwarf summer releases, and Eel flows are much higher than the Russian, a closer look at summer shows the picture reversed: diversions to the Russian stayed above 80 cfs from April through October 2013.
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Feb/Mar 2014
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...news stories captured the seriousness of the situation, explaining that 2013 may be the driest water year in five centuries. Ingram argues that we need to consider long-term fluctuations in weather patterns and plan our infrastructure based on times of water scarcity, rather than eras of abundance. Ingram points out that much of our development has been based on a period of unusually mild weather with more rainfall and less severe droughts. She explains, “The late 1930s to the early 1950s were when a lot of our dams and aqueducts were built, and those were wetter decades.” Ingram cautions the assumption that the wetter weather patterns of the last several decades are something that we can expect in the future, adding, “We might be heading into a drier period now. It’s hard for us to predict, but that’s a possibility, especially with global warming.” Bureaucrats are posturing, and the press is reporting, as if this is a fight between people and fish. Should the powers that be decide to wage this war thinking that fish are only to be seen as collateral damage, it will only compound the manyfaceted problems we face today. The crux of the matter that is so sadly being left out of the popular picture is that we have built our farms, towns and water-infrastructure based on periods of water abundance—leaving us ill-equipped during periods of drought.
A Water Wake-Up Call for California!
With California’s current water crisis, we have a stark reminder that our existing water policies put all residents—human and wild—at grave risk. Rather than putting our limited resources into outdated, expensive and ecologically devastating “solutions” such as water transfers, diversions and dams, there is an increasing call to move forward with comprehensive, water-wise planning throughout the state. Numerous organizations, individuals, and forward-thinking municipalities are promoting a retooling of our contemporary water policy to encompass regional self-sufficiency, resiliency, and the 4R approach—reduce (conservation and efficiency), reuse (rainwater harvesting and graywater use), recycle (water reclamation) and restore (ecosystem restoration). Such an approach will not only help protect local communities against ongoing droughts, it will keep water in our streams, rivers and lakes during times when fish need it most, provide green jobs and bolster local economies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help ensure all California communities have access to safe, clean water. As people come to terms with extreme and unpredictable weather patterns as the new normal, we must take action now to fundamentally change how our collective, finite water supply is managed and adopt forward-thinking, water-wise policies that will lead us towards a more resilient, droughtadapted future.
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The Environmental Protection Information Center
California: The State of Wildlife Kimberly Baker & Rob DiPerna California is home to more species, including endemic species (those found nowhere else on Earth), than any other state in the nation. North to south, spanning over 500 miles, the state bridges the temperate boreal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest to the subtropical deserts of Mexico. This remarkable diversity of habitat provides for an outstanding array of animals and plants. Over 60 percent of California’s 3,488 native plants are endemic. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) Special Animals List includes animals that are threatened and endangered under the Endangered Species Act, but also unlisted species that have been declared sensitive, at-risk or declining. According to the 2011 Special Animals List, the majority of California’s wildlife are in need of conservation measures: 88 percent of amphibians, 87 percent of native fish, two out of three mammals, and nearly half of all birds and reptiles are “at risk.” There are multiple stressors affecting our wildlife including water management, logging, excessive grazing, mining, urban sprawl, invasive species, toxic chemicals and the looming specter of climate chaos. Most of these animals have been listed for decades and populations continue to decline. The decline of California’s wildlife is indicative of the failing health of our ecosystems. One of the primary keys to wildlife recovery and conservation is the preservation of a connected landscape. At EPIC we believe that our society must work to protect habitat connectivity for wildlife health and survival. Here in the Pacific Northwest portion of the state, an outstanding opportunity exists for landscape connectedness. While some areas are protected as wilderness, most of the habitat linkages are currently under-protected, and require formal recognition in order to secure their integrity well into the future. In particular, millions of acres of privately held industrially managed forestlands make landscape connectivity a major challenge. EPIC’s Biodiversity and Endangered Species Defense Program works to increase protections for imperiled species of northern California by upholding and improving environmental laws and leveraging public participation to secure changes in management regimes. We use ongoing project-byproject review to monitor and influence projects that affect threatened and endangered species on both private and public lands in California. This disciplined advocacy continues to be a
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Service, however, has failed to make the required determination, citing budget sequestration, lack of funding, and its workload as a result of settlement litigation with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). In December 2012, EPIC filed a formal 60day notice of intent to sue the Service for failure to complete the 90-day finding. At this time, EPIC is still awaiting a finding from the Service to determine if the petitioned action “may be warranted.”
distinguishing feature of EPIC’s work regionally and statewide. The following provides a taste of EPIC’s program initiatives to protect biodiversity and advocate for endangered species. Gray Wolf: EPIC and its allies filed a listing petition for the gray wolf to gain protection for the species under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) in 2012. In October, 2012, the California Fish and Game Commission (the Commission) determined that listing “may be warranted” and added gray wolves as a candidate species. The gray wolf will remain a candidate under CESA, and are protected from harm in California, until the Commission makes a final listing determination. EPIC also participates actively in the national effort to prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) from de-listing gray wolves in the lower 48 states. Over one-million comments were sent to the FWS urging them to keep gray wolves on the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) list. A peerreview report of the FWS proposed de-listing is expected in February. Northern Spotted Owl: In 2012, EPIC filed a petition requesting that the Fish and Game Commission list the northern spotted owl as either “threatened” or “endangered” pursuant to the CESA. After a great deal of delay, the petition was accepted in August 2013, and the commission found that listing “may be warranted” and designated the owls as a candidate species. DFW now has one year to conduct a full status review and must then render a full status report for consideration by the Commission prior to the final hearing on the proposed listing. EPIC will be involved with every step of this critically important CESA process. EPIC also filed a petition with FWS, in 2012, requesting that the Service “up-list” the owl from “threatened” to “endangered” under the federal ESA. Federal law requires a 90-day finding to determine whether or not up-listing “may be warranted.” The www.yournec.org
Humboldt Marten: EPIC and CBD filed a listing petition for Humboldt marten pursuant to the federal ESA in 2010. In January 2012, the FWS Service issued a positive 90-day finding. The Service, however, failed to render a 12-month finding to determine if the petition is warranted. In April 2012, EPIC and CBD filed a formal 60-day notice of intent to sue. The Service has since agreed to a settlement with CBD that includes a requirement for the Service to make its 12-month finding on the Humboldt Marten petition in 2015. EPIC continues to work closely with CBD to advance listing for the Humboldt Marten. Spring Chinook: EPIC and allies filed a petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to list the Upper Klamath/Trinity Spring Chinook salmon as either “threatened” or “endangered” under the federal ESA in January 2011. The NMFS issued a positive 90-day finding in April 2011. The 12-month finding denied the petition on the basis that the spring Chinook were not genetically distinguishable from the fall Chinook run. The NMFS argued that while spring Chinook populations have precipitously declined, fall Chinook population numbers remain viable, and that listing was therefore not warranted. EPIC, with partners, continues to explore all of its options to secure protections for the spring Chinook. In 2014, EPIC will continue its cutting-edge education, advocacy, and strategic litigation to protect, enhance and restore California’s amazing native wildlife as an integral element of our organization’s dedication to defending the fabric of life upon which our well being and future depends.
Feb/Mar 2014
EcoNews
Growing Environmental Stewards: from Kindergarten to Career
Flora Brain In fact, the Field Institute overall aims The Mattole Restoration Council to mirror the multifaceted reality of (MRC) nurtures environmental ecological restoration: it takes not only stewards in ways you may not expect. stellar scientists, but writers and poets, Not only does the MRC light the spark storytellers and schoolteachers, parents in youngsters with our long-running and beauraucrats, and people who have K-12 program, but we keep fanning lived on the land and seen its seasons, the flames with innovative programs its storms and droughts. Ecological serving high school interns, college restoration requires collaboration and students and fledgling professionals broad support. For this reason, we look in ecological restoration. forward to thinking outside the box and The MRC has provided ecological offering a wide range of courses. The education to the Mattole watershed’s Mattole Field Institute aims to provide K-12 students since 1999. Through our on-the-ground education to college Mattole Ecological Education Program students keen to experience the vibrant, (MEEP), we have trundled kids out of complex world of ecological restoration. brick-and-mortar classrooms to poke Looking beyond college, in our effort around in creeks, the Mattole River to support environmental stewards across and estuary, tide pools and forests for all stages of their careers, the MRC also the last fifteen years. This longevity offers extensive internships in Native means MEEP is held to a high bar in Ecosystems Restoration (NER). These Sungnome Madrone (far right) instructing participants in the Mattole Field Institute’s terms of curriculum excellence. You 2012 Estuary Restoration field course. Students explored the riparian forest adjacent competitive, four month internships expose to the Mattole River Estuary in order to appreciate forest succession, structure, and just can’t take the same elementary committed individuals—typically college function in this ecologically dynamic location. Photo: Flora Brain. student to the same creek with the same graduates with some prior experience in macroinvertebrate sampling activity two years in The Mattole Field Institute is offering restoration—to the nitty-gritty details of restoring a row. Around here, you can’t expect to wow said an expanded field course in Estuarine native ecosystems. Emily Cooper, a 2012-2013 student with the same field trip that an older sibling NER intern, reflects, “My overall understanding told her about last year. MEEP is consequently Dynamics & Habitat Restoration to HSU of ecological restoration grew exponentially, along students in the spring 2014 semester. with my love for the northern California region an ever-rejuvenating program, with innovative lessons prompting kids to directly experience, and the small communities surrounding the to apply our community’s experiential restoration understand, and love the environment. Mattole River watershed…The Mattole Restoration knowledge to support and train college students But let’s face it: high school in rural SoHum Council and all of its hard-working, dedicated studying restoration. The result was the Mattole can be a vulnerable time. How do we, as a employees showed me what it takes to run a Field Institute. The newest of our educational community, convey to teenagers that they have successful non-profit organization.” Currently programs, the Institute offers hands-on courses options for their future, and open doors to fulfilling working for The Nature Conservancy’s Oregon in ecological restoration and related topics. When experiences in conservation? Enter Nick’s Interns. chapter as the Oregon Coast Field Steward, Emily our first field course concluded in May 2012, Created in loving memory of Nick Raphael by his says, “I believe that my internship experience at one HSU student shared some frank and simple parents Ray and Marie, the Nick’s Interns Program the MRC played a pivotal role in my career path feedback, affirming what we’re doing, stating, “I provides paid summertime work opportunities and where I am now. I would highly recommend learned more during this one week in the field for high school students. Interns work with local the NER internship program to anyone who is in the Mattole than I did all semester long [on non-profits and agencies, including the MRC and interested in building his or her conservation campus].” Other participants described how our the BLM, on a wide range of local restoration and restoration career!” field-based studies illuminated concepts and and stewardship projects. How significant can it If you are not already involved in some way with theories that they studied in college. be for a teenager to spend a summer working as the Mattole Restoration Council, please join us as Currently, the Mattole Field Institute is a member of a team on a variety of restoration we work to nurture environmental stewards on their offering a five day course on Estuarine Dynamics projects? Just ask Megan Albee, a recent intern. journey from kindergarten to college to career. & Habitat Restoration to HSU students. While At the end of her internship, she wrote, “So I am its scientific basis primarily attracts ecological off to college and this session of Nick’s Interns To learn more about our projects, restoration and forestry majors, this field course is pushing me in the right direction. It made me or to make a donation to support us, aims to provide a comprehensive picture of realize how much I want to go into Environmental the challenges—historical, social, political, and Sciences to make a change in the world.” please visit www.mattole.org. ecological—involved in restoring an estuary. MRC had also recently begun to wonder how
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Feb/Mar 2014
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County Fails to Protect Salmon Stream
After two rambling hearings on Dec. 10 and Jan. 7, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 (Lovelace dissenting) to approve the Halvorsen Quarry reclamation plan without adequate protections for water quality, fish habitat, and nesting bald eagles. The quarry is adjacent to Rocky Creek, a cohobearing tributary of Humboldt Bay. Rocky Creek’s lower reach—which was once low-gradient slough and wetland habitat before being diked off from the bay’s tidal influence—has recently been restored to support juvenile over-wintering coho and tidewater goby. Humboldt Baykeeper and CalTrout appealed the Planning Commission’s approval after many of our concerns were ignored. While County staff agreed with several of our appeal points— including requirements for water monitoring and better protections for nesting bald eagles—the four Supervisors stripped those provisions from the final permit, saying they were unnecessary. This decision was based, in part, on the quarry operator’s dubious claims that the rock is not being sold commercially, essentially ignoring photographs and copies of advertisements to the contrary. Despite the failure to protect water quality and fish habitat, the final approval does not allow expansion of the quarry beyond its current footprint. The original proposal would have allowed the quarry to expand to five acres without increasing the size of basins designed to catch sediment-laden runoff. If the Schneiders continue to commercially mine, they will also have to get an NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board to ensure that Rocky Creek and Humboldt Bay are protected from runoff. Although the County is the lead agency for regulating mining according to state law, our appeal raised a number of questions about the County’s oversight of mining, much of which is done in or adjacent to rivers and streams. Rock and gravel is essential for stormproofing dirt roads to protect streams from sediment, which threatens the survival and recovery of coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout, tidewater goby and other aquatic species. But to ignore direct impacts of the mining itself on a salmon stream—which could be mitigated with a stormwater protection plan—is irresponsible.
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Bay Billboards on Borrowed Time
Jennifer Kalt Humboldt Baykeeper has been working for several years to have billboards legally and permanently removed from Humboldt Bay’s shoreline between Arcata and Eureka. Our goals include protecting sensitive habitat, public trust lands and the coastal Scenic View Area designated by Humboldt County in the 1980s. The billboards were erected decades ago, but are frequently rebuilt and repaired without permits. Nowadays, they are built with copper-treated wood posts driven into coastal wetlands, despite restrictions on use of treated wood in or near waterways, particularly salmon habitat. Tidal wetlands are designated public A Humboldt Bay billboard lies face down in the mud. Photo: Jen Kalt. trust lands. Such lands are “held in trust safety—in this case, the safety of highway travelers. for the people of the state that they may enjoy… In 2006, the City of Arcata won a billboard lawsuit free from obstruction or interference from private on appeal, clarifying that cities and counties parties” (from the Public Trust Doctrine of the can require permits for rebuilding and repairing California State Lands Commission). billboards, contrary to the billboard company’s Last September, Humboldt Baykeeper and claims (Viacom Outdoor, Inc. v. City of Arcata). the NEC successfully advocated for removal of This decision upheld Arcata’s 1999 billboard billboards as a condition of Coastal Commission ordinance. Unfortunately, the County has no such approval of Caltrans’ 101 Safety Corridor ordinance, despite years of talk. Improvement Project. Removing billboards will As it has done in the past, the City of Arcata offset the impacts on scenic views of the half mile has notified CBS that a building permit is required long, 25-foot high interchange at Indianola Cutoff. to rebuild the billboard and that the City will begin Caltrans recently began studying how to go about enforcement proceedings if a permit application having the 101 Corridor billboards removed. is not submitted by January 24 for the illegally Then, sometime during the night of Jan. 1, one reconstructed billboard at Gannon Slough. of the large billboards standing in the Humboldt Late night marauding notwithstanding, Bay salt marsh was cut down. On Jan. 10, another Caltrans will need to remove the billboards billboard was found toppled alongside Highway between Arcata and Eureka before applying for 101 next to Gannon Slough. The City of Arcata posted coastal permits for the Indianola Interchange. a stop-work order the same day, but the billboard was Humboldt Baykeeper, the NEC and others are hastily rebuilt without a permit. A third was found actively working with Caltrans and other agencies face down in the pickleweed on Jan. 19. to remove these billboards permanently. Along with many others along Humboldt Bay, these three billboards are on lands owned and managed by public agencies. Caltrans’ Outdoor Advertising office in Sacramento routinely Humboldt Baykeeper moved in January to join renews these permits, despite lack of landowner our colleagues at the Link in Arcata. Thanks to the permission—and even outright objection. NEC, Friends of the Eel River, Arcata Technology According to Caltrans records, the majority of the Center Partners and individual donors. Stay Humboldt Bay billboards are on property of the tuned for 2014 to ring in change and opportunity North Coast Rail Authority, which has called for as we restructure and refocus on the essential billboard removal and even refused rent checks work of protecting Humboldt Bay! from CBS Outdoor since 2007. Our new address: Just like any structure, billboards and other 1385 Eighth Street, Suite 228 signs are required to follow Universal Building Arcata, CA 95521 Code standards to protect public health and
We’ve Move d !
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Feb/Mar 2014
EcoNews
NORTHCOAST CHAPTER Beginners and experts, non-members and members are all welcome at our programs and on our outings. Almost all of our events are free. All of our events are made possible by volunteer effort.
Evening Programs
Second Wednesday evening, September through May. Refreshments at 7 p.m.; program at 7:30 p.m. at the Six Rivers Masonic Lodge, 251 Bayside Road, near 7th and Union, Arcata. Botanical FAQ’s: At 7:15 p.m. Pete Haggard (or another presenter) shares a brief, hands-on demonstration and discussion of a botanical topic. February 12, 7:30 p.m. Plants VS The Yellowstone Volcano. Jennifer Whipple, who lived in Yellowstone National Park for 34 years as a rangernaturalist and the park’s botanist, will share a tale two million years in the making. Perched on the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains, the composition of Yellowstone’s flora is the result of various events including glaciers and caldera explosions. The presentation will discuss both the common and rare species in the Yellowstone region
including the three endemics whose life history is intimately associated with the geothermal systems in Yellowstone. March 12, 7:30 p.m. Early Cretaceous Flora of the Klamath Mountains—a student-led fossil discovery near Redding, California. Late 19th early 20th century reports lead to the discovery of layers rich in anatomically preserved plant fossils. The fossil flora reflects the plant diversity of the Californian coast 120 million years ago. Many plant groups, as well as other types of organisms are present, yet some of the fossils pose problems of identification; others may tell the story of their journey from the parent plant to their final resting place in the sediments of a convulsed tectonic plate margin.
For more details and later additions, visit:
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Field Trips & Plant Walks February 15, Saturday. McKinleyville’s Pocket Parks Field Trip. There are several small public reserves available in McKinleyville, good places for short walks all through the year. Leafless deciduous trees and shrubs will provide an identification challenge. We hope to walk on Parkside Trails, Midtown Trail, Norton Creek Wildlife Area, and Hewitt Ranch. Please call Carol at 707-822-2015 for more information and to let her know you’re coming. March 30, Sunday. Patrick’s Point Day Hike-Mist Maidens, Angelicas, and Trailing Currants. These rare plants will be some of the sights we will find while walking about 2-4 miles in Patrick’s Point State Park. We will learn how to identify them and how rare they are. False Azalea, Selaginella, and Grape Fern are other unfamiliar, but not “rare,” plants we will see. Also enjoy the “common” shrubbery, as well as Western Trillium. Dress for the weather; bring lunch and water. Meet at 9:00 a.m. at Pacific Union School or at 9:30 at the park visitor center. Return mid-afternoon. Please tell Carol (822-2015) you are coming.
GARRYA ELLIPTICA: Coast Silktassel
Donna Wildearth Garrya elliptica is a handsome, woody, evergreen shrub or small tree with several common names: coast silktassel, wavyleaf silktassel, tasseltree, and quininebush (referring to the bitter alkaloid found in the bark, leaves, and fruit). The tassels or catkins are the distinctive, elongated flowers which begin to open in our area around the first of the year, making it one of the earliest native plants to bloom. Coast silktassel has separate male and female plants. The male plants are usually preferred as ornamentals because their catkins are longer—up to 12” in some cultivars—and more supple. Female catkins are shorter, around 2 - 3-1/2”, and stiffer than the male catkins. However, the female plants are the ones that bear the grape-like clusters of small, fuzzy, purplish-brown fruit. A male plant in full bloom is quite a sight, bedecked with long pale catkins that resemble strings of pearls against the grayish-green leaves. Both male and female catkins are worth examining closely. I once described them in a poem as “subtle yellow grey-green mauve intricate shapes delicately articulated.” Coast silktassel grows from western Oregon
EcoNews
Feb/Mar 2014
southwards along the California coast as far as Los Angeles County and can also be found inland in some northern and central California counties. Locally the plant is fairly common on coastal bluffs and dunes, especially around Trinidad and Patrick’s Point State Park. The plant can reach a height of 1029’ with a roughly equal spread. With its distinctive flowers and leathery evergreen foliage it is prized as an ornamental landscape plant. It grows in sun or part shade, needs moderate water, and requires well-drained soil. If desired, it can be trained as a small tree. Many botanical names convey interesting historical information, and that is true for the genus name Garrya, which commemorates Nicholas Garry, secretary of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who accompanied David Douglas on some of his expeditions to the Pacific Northwest. Donna Wildearth is a teacher and the owner of Garden Visions Landscape Design in Eureka. She is passionate about native plants. Photo by Donna Wildearth.
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Kin to the Earth: Morgan Corviday Hollis “I'm a vampire, babe, suckin' blood from the earth. Well, I'm a vampire, babe, sell you twenty barrels worth.” - Vampire Blues, 1974 These lyrics from Neil Young were a good indication of his feelings toward the oil industry at the time, and it’s clear that his distaste and concern have only grown stronger. In January, he embarked on a tour of his home country of Canada to support Indigenous efforts opposing the extensive tar sands development and government energy extraction policies that threaten Indigenous ways of life and the environment. The tour was titled “Honour the Treaties” because tar sands development and the resulting environmental damage violates Canada’s treaties with First Nation peoples. All profits from the tour will go to the Athabasca Chipewyan Nation Legal Defense fund to help them fight tar sands expansion. Young has a long history writing music that makes a political statement and designing tours around an activist message. From the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings, drug abuse and homelessness, the depletion of the ozone layer and resource extraction, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has used his music and his stature as a celebrity to educate and inspire action against injustice. His current opposition to the expansion of the Alberta tar sands has earned him sharp criticism from the Canadian government. The Honour the Treaties tour featured press conferences at each location moderated by environmentalist David Suzuki, and included First Nation leaders and anti-oilsands activists such as
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Neil Young
Neil Young performing in Norway in 2009. Photo: Per Ole Hagen.
"It confuses me to hear people shouting at us that musicians should just shut up and entertain. Where the hell did that lame-ass idea come from? Music was, is and always will be about social condition and cause and change. Music speaks for the oppressed and downtrodden. Music launches revolution." - Neil Young
climate scientist Andrew Weaver. Each press conference also featured a showing of a shortened version of Greenpeace’s powerful anti-oilsands film, “Petropolis.” “There is a profound disconnect, particularly in Canada, and internationally, between science and policy. The Alberta tar sands represent the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in Canada.... The Alberta tar sands represent the poster child for environmental destruction and degradation,” stated Weaver. “To me it’s a basic matter of integrity.... Canada is trading integrity for money,” said Young. “Our future depends on science. Science is the roadmap. Science cannot be ignored as inconvenient.” “Behind this sad and incredibly tragic story of what Canada is doing to the First Nations people.... That is where Canada came from. We made a deal with these people. We are breaking our promise. We are killing these people.” “We need to start thinking about the future, is how I feel. I want to work towards the future. I hope that we can make a difference for our grandchildren.” Experts state that continued expansion of tar sands extraction will be “game over” for the global climate. View Petropolis here: http://tinyurl.com/gppetropolis.
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Twin Tunnels
Continued from page 6 Proponents claim rising sea levels and earthquakes could ultimate breach Delta levees, causing a massive inflow of salt water to the south Delta pumps that supply water to southern California cities and San Joaquin Valley agribusiness. However, no Delta levee has ever yet failed from an earthquake, including the 1906 San Francisco quake and the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. The Delta Protection Commission has instead recommended reinforcement and elevation of Delta levees for $2 - $4 billion. BDCP proponents, predictably, reject levee improvements, saying that would undercut the rationale for the Twin Tunnels. The BDCP also fails to address other threats to the system, including earthquake risks to the California Aqueduct and San Luis Dam. The subsidence of several key aqueducts due to unregulated overdrafting of groundwater likewise is ignored. Many water agencies are pulling out of the deal because it is such a deeply flawed investment. The Bakersfield Californian reports multiple members of the Kern County Water Agency are withdrawing from the project. Minutes from recent Westlands Water District Board of Directors meetings reveal deep reluctance to expend hundreds of millions of dollars for the project’s unknown “benefits.” Several other water agencies have expressed outright opposition to the project, including Friant Water Users, Contra Costa Water District, East Bay MUD, San Joaquin Exchange Contractors, San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, Tehama Colusa Canal Authority and the South, North and Central Delta Water Agencies. The concern now is that Twin Tunnel proponents will ask Congress to override the findings of federal fishery scientists, who concluded the project will not restore endangered species and will jeopardize their future existence. In short, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan is a bad investment, and has nothing to do with conservation. The State Water Board acknowledges that Delta pumping must be reduced below the level promoted by the BDCP to adequately protect the Delta. California can secure reliable water supplies, protect our wallets and safeguard the environment through a series of local and regional initiatives emphasizing conservation, recycling, stormwater harvest and saline groundwater desalinization.
Feb/Mar 2014
EcoNews
Eco-Mania
CLEANING UP DIRTY MONEY: The world’s treasuries print nearly 150 billion new banknotes every year, at a cost approaching $10 billion, because about 150,000 tons of old bills are too dirty and become destined for shredding and disposal. The main culprit for this costly turnover is human sebum, the oily, waxy substance the body produces to protect skin and which connects with oxygen in the air and turns the money yellow. But a team of scientists tested “supercritical” CO2 on banknotes from around the world and found that it effectively removed oxidized sebum and motor oil while leaving intact security features such as holograms and phosphorescent inks.
A merry melange: salient or silly.
GOING BATTY: About 100,000 bats have fallen from the sky and died because of a heatwave in Australia. Mass deaths at an estimated 25 separate colonies have been reported in southern Queensland. “The heatwave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in south-east Queensland,” said a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. ADIEU AMPHIBIAN: A frog named after Charles Darwin has become extinct because of a deadly skin disease. The frog was discovered by the father of evolution in 1834 in Chile during his voyage around the world. It was notable for having evolved to escape predators by looking like a dead leaf. It had a pointy nose and males carried young tadpoles around inside their vocal sacs.
SPROUT BATTERY: Scientists have created a battery powered by Brussels sprouts—and then used it to light up a Christmas tree. The power source came as a relief to British children after a poll found 67% of them thought the tradition of eating Brussels sprouts at Christmas should end. Copper and zinc electrodes were placed in each Brussels sprout to create a chemical reaction between the electrodes, generating a current which was stored in a capacitor and released through 100 LEDs. GRIM PORTENT: For the first time in 35 years, fishing for shrimp off Maine has been banned, and global warming is one of the suspects. Surveys in Greenland show similar declines, suggesting that a rise in numbers of cod, which prey on shrimp, is to blame. The most likely reason for this is warmer waters since shrimp reproduction is dependent on water temperature.
CHIMPS IN COURT: The first lawsuit seeking to establish the “legal personhood” of chimpanzees was filed in a New York court by the non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project. The group asked the court to declare a 26-year-old chimp named Tommy “a cognitively complex, autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned” in a small, dank cage. It demanded his immediate release to a primate sanctuary.
HYDROGEN VEHICLE: In southern California, Hyundai this spring will start leasing the Tucson, a fuel-cell car that combines hydrogen from the tank with oxygen in the air--leaving water as the only waste product, and making the cars green. Unlike battery-powered vehicles, which need hours to charge, refueling takes minutes—and a full tank should last for 300 miles. Honda and Toyota plan to follow Hyundai’s lead with fuel-cell cars. COAL COUGH: Breathing fumes from coalfired power stations is to blame for more than a million cases of respiratory symptoms a year in Britain. That includes 1,600 deaths annually and over 350,000 lost workdays can be attributed to air pollution from coal-burning, according to figures by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), a non-profit group in Brussels.
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Feb/Mar 2014
MIXED NEWS: Green energy is growing faster than all other sources of power, probably overtaking gas in three years—but powerful policy changes are still needed if we are to avoid the two degrees Centigrade increase that amounts to dangerous global warming, say climate scientists.
DESERTED DESERT: Native wildlife in the Sahara desert is in catastrophic decline, says the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London. They found that half of the local species—such as leopards and Saharan cheetahs—are extinct or confined to just one percent of their range. PROPER POOPING: Dogs use the Earth’s magnetic fields while defecating, according to new research. A team from the Czech Republic and Germany studied the body positions of 70 dogs across 37 breeds while they excreted, and found that they preferred to poop while aligned with the northsouth axis. www.yournec.org
FOOD COSTS/COSTLY: Eating healthily costs about $1.50 more per day, which could be a real barrier to healthy eating, says the Harvard Business School. The study added that the best way to make healthier foods more affordable is for governments to subsidize healthy foods and tax unhealthy ones, as has been attempted in the U.S. with sugar and sugary beverages.
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Pacific Coast Sea Stars Class: Asteroidea
Ken Burton Sea stars–popularly known as by studies of the predatory effects starfish, although they’re not fish– of Pisaster ochraceus on mussels. are among those animals that look In what is now cited as the classic so different from us, and move so species-removal study, Pisaster slowly, that it’s sometimes hard were removed from some study to think of them as animals at all. plots and not from others. In the Yet they and the other members control plots, they kept mussels in of the phylum Echinodermata check and many species were able (“hedgehog skin”)—including to thrive; but in the treatment plots, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and mussels became super abundant sand dollars–are more closely to the point that they crowded related to us than are nearly all out almost everything else. The the other invertebrates. Keystone Species Concept since Adult echinoderms are has been applied to many species characterized by radial (as opposed in a wide variety of ecosystems. to bilateral) symmetry; and a Starfish can, by their presence, unique, water-based vascular absence, or abundance, serve as system that produces the indicators of the health of marine hydrostatic pressure that operates ecosystems. They are sensitive thousands of “tube feet,” used for to pollution and may disappear remaining stationary, moving, Above, sea stars gathered on a rock in the intertidal zone. Photo: NOAA’s National Ocean Service. from some areas due to marine feeding, and hygiene. Many Below left, a close-up of the tube feet on the underside of a starfish arm. Photo: Dave Sykes, Flickr.com CC. contamination. They also are echinoderms also exhibit amazing sensitive to changes in temperature and thus record as early as 450,000,000 years ago. regenerative powers, routinely re-growing may fall victim to warming oceans resulting from Larval sea stars (and other echinoderms) are lost limbs and sometimes creating whole new climate change. Th eir skeletal structure appears bilaterally symmetric and most are planktonic, organisms from severed limbs—a neat trick! to make them relatively immune to increased capable of limited movement but generally Starfish are extremely diverse, ranging from ocean acidifi cation, which is threatening shellfish drifting in the water column at the mercy of the familiar, five-limbed, purple or orange Pisaster worldwide; but of course shellfish are necessary ocean currents. Some are capable of asexual ochraceus of our for starfish survival. reproduction. Eventually they settle, left side intertidal zones to Pacific Coast starfish are now under threat down, and completely reorganize their body plan the giant, manyfrom a mysterious ailment that causes them to into the radial form we recognize. limbed sunflower disintegrate in as little as a few days. What’s being Most starfi sh are predators on other benthic seastar of the called sea-star wasting syndrome causes lesions (sea-fl oor) invertebrates. Th e classic slow-motion northeast Pacific that lead to arms falling off and ultimately the predation event involves a starfish attaching itself and the mobile, animal’s body essentially melts, turning into what to the two sides of a bivalve—such as a mussel or delicate brittle some have described as “goo.” The culprit is likely clam—using hydraulic suction at the tips of its stars that crawl a bacterium or virus, though contaminants have tube feet, gradually pulling them apart by wearing across sea floors not been ruled out; suggestions that radiation out the muscle that holds them together. Th is worldwide. They from Fukushima is to blame are groundless. The creates a breach wide enough for it to insert its are found from the epidemic has reduced populations from Alaska to stomach and digest the shellfish’s tissues. poles to the tropics Santa Barbara by up to 95% just since September. In their position near the top of the benthic and to depths of All five sites tested in Del Norte and Humboldt food chain, starfish fill an important ecological up to 20,000 feet. show signs of the disease. Localized outbreaks of They reproduce role and are considered “keystone species”; that this sort of thing have been documented before both sexually and is, they have a disproportionate effect on their but never at this scale. The rich diversity of our asexually and environment relative to their abundance. The tidepools soon may be just a memory. appear in the fossil concept of keystone species was, in fact, prompted
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the Kids’ Page:
Blue Wood?
Did you know that you could find blue-
green wood in the forest? The wood doesn’t grow that color—the wood changes color because a particular kind of fungus grew on it— the green elfcup fungus. It most commonly occurs on dead oak, alder, beech, and hazel, and usually the bark has already fallen off the wood. It can also be found on dead redwood.
The fungus body, called mycelium, lives in the dead wood. The mycelium is made up of long root-like strands called hyphae. The hyphae secrete enzymes that help break down the dead material and absorb it. The absorbed nutrients help it grow. It is these enzymes in the green elfcup fungus that cause the wood to turn blue-green. The “flower” of the fungus is called the apothecium—this is the part you can see growing on the wood. It is blue-green and shaped like a saucer or disc and is smaller than a pencil eraser. If you’re lucky enough, you can see the apothecia, usually during the fall. Most of the time though, the blue stained wood is easier to find than the apothecia. Italian artists have used this special colored wood since the 1600’s in fancy woodworking. They call it “green oak”. Next time you are on a hike, look for this beautiful fungus!
by Sarah Marnick
Above right, the flowering part (apothecia) of the green elfcup fungus. Photo: Dan Molter (shroomydan), via Wikimedia CC. Below, blue-green stained wood. Photo: Oskar Gran, Flickr.com CC.
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Save the Skulls
A Philadelphia museum has the perfect gift idea for the person who has a love of science and a dark sense of humor. For a $200 donation, you can preserve one of 139 skulls dating back to the 19th century. Vibrations from footsteps have caused the skulls at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which have been on continuous display for more than 100 years, to lose or crack their teeth. The skulls were amassed by 19th-century Viennese scientist Josef Hyrtl to debunk the study of phrenology, the belief that the shape of a skull determines a person’s moral caliber—and that different races are actually different species. Donors can choose a specific skull to sponsor.
Here at the NEC, where skulls haven’t cracked despite their constant running into skullduggery which threatens our environment, that $200 can instead buy four family memberships. That’s an inexpensive price for the NEC’s skull sessions. So use the cartilaginous framework of your vertebrate head and the convoluted part that’s inside your cranium. Instead of cracked skulls, you’ll be making a donation to courageous hearts. So, give the NEC your contribution of time or money—or brain power. Thank you.