UPDATE #2: Natalynne DeLapp, development director for the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), said in a phone interview that the petitioners are disappointed in this ruling, though she stressed that the case is not over. (See the “reporting and monitoring order” referenced below.) More significantly, DeLapp said, is that the project remains on hold pending […]
environment
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Bite You In The Face
That’s what the Humboldt marten does to the porcupine, supposedly. And it’s what the Center for Biological Diversity does, too, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fails to do what the Center wants — in this case, protect the minksy little triangle-eared critter, of which there are apparently only 20 left in California and […]
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Marine Protected Areas Adopted
Do rockfish breathe sighs of relief? No? How about shorebirds? Or sea lions? Perhaps razor clams? (How do those things even breathe?) Okay, well, whether or not they know it, marine life on the North Coast will now enjoy protection in a new network of underwater parks. Yesterday, in a conference room at the Eureka Red […]
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Follow the Sea Dragon
UPDATE: You can record marine debris you suspect is from the Japan tsunami with the mobile device Marine Debris Tracker. Use your discretion, NOAA requests — don’t report everything in sight, only stuff that seems very probably from the event. While we here on land, including on Humboldt’s coastline, await with dread and curiosity the […]
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Forest Protectors Nab Grants
Two tracts of local forested land can breathe oxygen-rich sighs of relief today after the state’s Wildlife Conservation Board approved two major grants that will protect their riparian habitats. The City of Arcata received a $650,000 grant to expand the 793-acre Arcata Community Forest by 22 acres. The acquisition will help link the city-managed community forest […]
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Drugs? Guns? Nooo…BIRDS!
OK, if you’re really good at this gig, you were up before dawn, shivering on the back porch in your Life is good® flannel jammies, listening for peeps in the dark. Or warm-up squawks… “Hm, yes, Zonotrichia leucophrys, I believe I expected you,” you muttered into the darkness. Damned sparrow had carried on all night. […]
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Neighhhhhh, they say
About 80 equestrian trail advocates “flash mobbed at Clam Beach today,” reports Uri Driscoll. They parked about 35 horse trailers alongside the frontage road between U.S. 101 and Clam Beach/Little River State Beach, and then assembled on foot in front of them with sign boards and a petition. They demanded that Redwood State Park listen […]
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Sewage Settlement
The city of Blue Lake has agreed to keep a closer eye on whether any of its treated sewage might be seeping into the Mad River. It will also spiff up its sewage treatment ponds, repairing dikes and adding more aerators to provide oxygen for crud-gobbling microbes. That’s all part of a settlement reached late […]
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Murre Hard Times
Common murre, Trinidad State Beach Photo by Ken Malcomson Oh, cruel, hard Nature, won’t you let me wander your beaches without encountering so many of your soft little reminders of Death? Of All Things Must Go? Seriously: Seventeen sleek little feet-up feather bundles laid amidst piles of drying eel grass is quite enough. Their poor […]
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Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction on Richardson Grove Project
Press release from the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC): A federal judge on Wednesday ordered California state transportation officials to stop work on a controversial plan to cut wider highway lanes through ancient redwoods in Northern California’s Richardson Grove State Park. The judge granted the injunction that was being sought by a group of plaintiffs […]
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Hey, You. Barred Owl.
All this fright and scatter about how the barred owl’s taking over our Pacific Northwest woods, and nobody bothered to ask the barred owl directly about it? As in, “hey barred owl, how many of there are you, really, and have you really come to finish off what the “Spotted Owl–It’s What’s For Dinner” folks […]
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Nichols Discusses Iraq Waterkeeper Efforts on NY Radio
Humboldt Baykeeper Executive Director Pete Nichols appeared on New York radio station WNYC today with Nature Iraq founder Dr. Azzam Alwash. The two discussed the newly founded Upper Tigris Waterkeeper, an effort that the Journal wrote about a couple weeks back. Host Leonard Lopate asks about cleaning up the “cradle of civilization” after years of polution […]