Remember last year how the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, in Bayside, was inundated with sick pelicans? Most slick with oil from their ill-fated rummaging in fish-waste-Dumpsters, a few with fish skeletons lodged in their elegant throats? And the year before, same story, sick pelicans galore? Well this year, so far, the care center has […]
Environment / Natural Resources
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Central Valley Farmers Sue to Stop Trinity Flows
Irrigators in the San Joaquin Valley filed suit this week to block a recent decision to increase water flows down the Trinity River. The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority — a collection of water agencies the operates in from as far north as Stockton down to Fresno — said in its filing that valley […]
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Watershed Worries
Fears of another massive fish kill are growing as tribal officials and biologists size up the combined effects of a low water year and high demand from upstream farmers and local pot growers, the Two Rivers Tribune is reporting. “Dangerous conditions on the Klamath and Trinity become the new normal,” warns the headline in this […]
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River Rising
The Trinity and Klamath rivers are going to get colder, higher and faster next week when the Bureau of Reclamation increases water flows from the Trinity Reservoir. The release is expected to help another strong run of returning chinook salmon in the Klamath, hopefully preventing the spread of disease that contributed to a fish kill in […]
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Planned Trinity Water Release Rankles Central Valley Irrigators
Another round of the all-too-familiar fight over Trinity and Klamath waters has pulled North Coast congressmen and Central Valley irrigators into the mix. The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) — which controls the release of water from the Trinity Reservoir — announced last week that it was considering an extra release of Trinity water this year […]
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Krill Kill
For weeks, now, beach-goers from Bodega Bay to Newport, Ore., have encountered ribbons of pink bedecking their ocean shorelines. It’s krill — millions of the shrimpy critters, many of them impregnated females. A marine ecologist based in Eureka is trying to pinpoint what’s causing this major whale staple to wash ashore in such numbers. According to […]
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H2-Woes: Klamath Ranchers Told to Shut Off Water
It’s getting hot on the Upper Klamath. This week, the Oregon Water Resources Department began telling ranchers to shut off irrigation; their rights to Klamath basin water are superseded by tribal rights. Klamath tribes fought for decades to determine their rights to Klamath River water were the oldest, and won earlier this year. They were […]
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Time to Hang Up the Old Dredge?
It looks like gold mining in California’s rivers is about to get a little harder. The Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking the state to close a loophole in a 2009 ban on suction dredge mining.Fish lovers and gold bugs have been at odds for years. The moratorium, scheduled until 2016, was issued to […]
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Longer Walk to Some Redwood Park Trails
Redwood National Park is closing two unpaved roads, starting on Monday, June 3, saying it doesn’t have the money to maintain them properly. Hikers and cyclists will still be able to use the roads to reach their favorite trails, but driving to those trailheads is out.San Francisco Chronicle outdoors writer Tom Stienstra has a note […]
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Meet the Rat Poison Rep Who’s Super-Concerned About Your Health
You may have heard that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging local businesses to stop selling rodenticides. (The poisonous chemicals, which are often used in outdoor marijuana grows, have been killing Pacific Fishers and poisoning dozens of other wildlife species locally.) But did you see this? A man […]