María Dolores Díaz sighs when she opens her water bill every month because she knows what she’ll see: another bill that she’ll struggle to pay. Diaz looks at the envelope and doesn’t want to open it because she wonders: How much, this time? “Ya nomás miro la carta y ‘aí ya no lo quiero abrir!’ […]
Environment / Natural Resources
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Ranchers, Tribes, State Officials Clash Over Shasta River Water
The land that Jim Scala and his family have been ranching for three generations is parched and brown as far as he can see. The pond where his cattle used to drink is now a puddle, ringed with cracked mud. In other years, water pumped from the Shasta River would have periodically flooded this land, […]
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NCJ Preview: Planning Commission Blow-up, Fair Food Throw-down
This week we’re looking into the conflict that began with a developer violating the terms of his land use permits and bubbled over at a Humboldt County Planning Commission meeting with accusations of lying, “offensive” comments and a damaged relationship between the commission and local Native tribes. Then we’ll swing over to the Humboldt County […]
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Electric Day in California: State to Phase Out Sales of Gas Cars
UPDATE: According to media reports, the California Air Resources Board voted to move ahead with phasing out the sale of gas cars in the state in an effort to combat climate change. PREVIOUS: In its biggest move yet to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and fight climate change, California is poised today to enact the […]
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Fishing Association, Environmental Groups Appeal Fish Farm EIR Certification
The Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association, the Redwood Region Audubon Society and 350 Humboldt have appealed the Humboldt County Planning Commission’s recent approval of an environmental review of a large fish farm on the Samoa Peninsula to the Board of Supervisors. In an Aug. 17 letter , the three agencies listed numerous issues with the review […]
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Wiyot Tribe Reclaims Mouralherwaqh
The fog gave way to the sun late morning on Friday, Aug. 19, as dozens of people gathered around the podium positioned in the meadow. Spruce trees and huckleberry bushes stood in the near distance as the scent of saltwater and highway traffic drifted up from the bay and road below. Tribal Chair Ted Hernandez […]
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Red Flag Warning: Increased Risk of Fire Starts
A swath of interior Humboldt County, and surrounding counties, is under a red flag warning today from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., the Eureka office of the National Weather Service reports. The culprit is an upper level disturbance that will move through the region and mix with “monsoon moisture and an unstable atmosphere,” the NWS […]
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Meet the New Condor Cohort: Introducing A4, A5, A6 and A7
Mentor bird No. 746 is no longer alone in the enclosure at the management and release facility in Redwood National Park with a new group of young birds arriving today for him to teach the ins and outs of what it means to be a California condor. The new cohort of A4, A5, A6 and […]
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Flooding Raises New Concerns for Spring Chinook
Nearly 300 wild spring Chinook salmon made the 85-mile trip to cool mountain waters for spawning this year, up from a mere 90 last year. While still far below, according to the Karuk Tribe and Salmon River Restoration Council, the numbers were at least moving in a positive direction. But soon after the count was […]
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New Cohort of Condors Set to Arrive in Humboldt
Another cohort of four California condors is scheduled to arrive Aug. 16 in a Yurok Tribe-led effort to bring back the endangered bird they know as prey-go-neesh to reestablish a population on the North Coast. This new group of the largest birds in North America, which boast a nearly 10-foot wingspan and the ability to […]
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NCJ Preview: Murals, Fire, Fish and Gyros
This week we’re craning our necks to look up at all the murals from the Eureka Street Art Festival. We’ll talk about how the festival’s artists ended up paining the pillars of the Samoa Bridge and how you can take a tour. And if you’re looking for lunch, we’re talking about the new Gyro Shop […]
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UPDATE: New Evacuation Zone, Hazardous to Unhealthy Air Near Six Rivers Complex as Fire Continues to Grow
UPDATE: The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services has announced a new Evacuation Order due to the Six Rivers Lightning Complex fire in the HUM-E063-B zone south of Willow Creek but states there is “no immediate threat to Willow Creek proper.” The OES also announced that zone HUM-E057 has been downgraded to an Evacuation Warning, […]