On Feb. 14, a group of young people from local tribes will travel to the Amazon to meet with activists and indigenous groups — including people with the Arara, Juruna and Xikrin tribes — who are trying to stop construction of the Belo Monte Dam. A news release from the Klamazon Delegation (one of the […]
Environment / Natural Resources
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A Tribe in Mourning
The Yurok Tribe is mourning the death of longtime Tribal Councilmember Bonnie Green, who died Saturday. Green served six terms representing the tribe’s south district on the council, and another as vice chair, and was intimately involved in a host of tribal issues, including battles over fishing rights, management of tribal forest lands and healthcare […]
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Fires in January
We’re not even 10 days into the New Year and, already, in Humboldt and Del Norte counties, at least 10 wildfires have sprouted in our tinder-dry January hills. January. Wildfires. “Yeah, crazy,” says Paul Duncan, battalion chief with CalFire’s Humboldt-Del Norte Unit emergency command center in Fortuna. This means, after an already smoke-filled summer and […]
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King for a Day
The Journal was invited to take a New Year’s Eve float on Humboldt Bay to check out the king tides that came lapping at our shores. Some of the year’s highest tides give ocean watchers (like Humboldt Baykeeper, who provided this tour) a chance to see the coastal fallout of rising oceans. It’s a bit difficult to […]
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Be A King Tides Groupie
King tides are exciting: The ocean creeps up and up into our faces, higher than usual, until we can’t help but stop in the middle of the Eureka Slough Bridge to gaze and wonder, “Where’d that skinny island go?” And then, driving around Humboldt Bay, we marvel at the overtopped dikes and waterlogged bay islands […]
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Barred Owl Killing Has Begun
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s experimental barred-owl demolition — er, reduction — to save the northern spotted owl has begun, reports Jeff Barnard with the Associated Press. So far, 26 members of the species Strix varia have been blammoed out in Hoopa. And many more are targeted. The Hoopa site is one of four sites in […]
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Humboldt Baykeeper Lands New Digs at The Link in Arcata
Local environmental nonprofit Humboldt Baykeeper, which has fallen on tough times financially this year, has found a new home inside “The Link” office building in Arcata (formerly home to Yakima). As the logo collage above attests, The Link has become a hip HQ for local leftie causes and small businesses. Here’s the press release: Greetings, Effective […]
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Happy Birthday, North Coast Marine Protected Areas
Journal correspondent Jennifer Savage sends us this friendly reminder that today, Dec. 19, is the first-year anniversary of our North Coast Marine Protected Areas, part of a statewide network of underground “parks” where a variety of protections aim to conserve habitats, critters, fish, plants and cultural resources. The North Coast MPAs are in state waters […]
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Humboldt Baykeeper Hits Rough Waters
Faced with a mounting fiscal crisis, local environmental nonprofit Humboldt Baykeeper is in the process of dramatically downsizing its organization. The office staff was reportedly laid off recently, and this week Executive Director Jessica Hall learned that she, too, is being laid off. Only Policy Director Jennifer Kalt, whose position has been reduced to part-time, […]
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Upper Klamath Tribes, Farmers Announce Tentative Agreement
Klamath Tribes and Oregon irrigators have reached an “agreement in principle” over the long-disputed waters of the Upper Klamath Basin, saying the groups will work toward a common goal of improving fisheries, water quality and agricultural sustainability in the region. Upper Klamath farmers were dismayed earlier this year when the Oregon Water Resources Department ordered […]
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Peat Miner Must Pay
A complaint filed over a long-time allegedly illegal peat-moss mining operation in Bridgeville has resulted in two Humboldt County residents — peat moss miner Daniel Wojcik and landowner Robert Wotherspoon — entering felony and misdemeanor pleas yesterday for violations of the Surface Mining and Recovery Act and Lake and Streambed Alteration permitting process and of […]
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Snagger Watch
Going fishing? Or maybe just for a scenic wander along some lonesome, lovely riverbank? Feeling the latent cop in you itching to bust out and pop some badboy(girl) bootie? Whoa, calm down, Vig. This is strictly a legal proposition, a request from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for anglers’ friends and fishing-hole frequenters to […]