ECONEWSThe Newsletter

of the Northcoast Environmental

Center

Inside This Issue Proposed State Park Transfer..................3 Del Norte’s Tolowa Dunes at RiskTrinity River Tumultous Politics........4-5 Two Perspectives on Dams and DiversionsWater, Water Everywhere?...................6-7 New Greywater lLaws, Watershed Lifeboats, WoesGrowing Local...........................................8 Young Farmers Get Creative To Make a Go Climate Change And Laws......................9 Copenhagen and the Senate Climate Bill

Go Play Outside......................................10 Redwood Forest Fun, Mushrooms & MoreNew Dangers For Spotted Owls...........11 Newly Adopted Laws Challenged In CourtLife Form Of The Month....................... 12 The Pacific Giant SalamanderRecycling In Arcata................................13 Mandatory Curbside Pickup Now in EffectEco-Mania...............................................15 A Monthly Melange of Salient Sillies

Continued on Page 11

Balloon Track Cleanup Moves Forward - Despite Environmental Concerns

The Eureka City Council spent a frenzied three weeks this fall approving various stages of the Marina Center Project at the Balloon Track in Eureka. The Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the Coastal Development Permit were both given the nod – clearing the way for cleanup work to begin.

Conservation groups, including the NEC, are opposing the move because the cleanup plan is inadequate and may even be harmful.

The Marina Center, is a retail and office development for the Balloon Track, proposed by “CUE VI,” a subsidiary of Eureka millionaire Rob Arkley’s Security National. The Balloon Track is the last large undeveloped piece of property on the Eureka waterfront, covering almost 43 acres including Clark Slough and remnant wetlands.

The property was used as a railroad maintenance and switching yard, resulting in contamination by various substances including petroleum hydrocarbons, a variety of solvents, metals, and —most disturbingly— PCBs, dioxins and furans, some of the most powerful known carcinogens.

Failure to Address Dioxin ConcernsThe Eureka City Council certified the Final

EIR as complying with the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act

(CEQA). The Act requires a lead agency to analyze proposed projects for potentially significant impacts to the environment, to allow the public and other agencies to comment on those proposed impacts, and then to identify ways to reduce or eliminate those impacts.

The Final EIR included few changes to address the concerns expressed during the comment period of the Draft EIR. Extensive comments were submitted by both the public and by agencies with specialized knowledge on potential impacts.

The City, however, did insert a new Supplemental Interim Remedial Action Plan (SIRAP) into the Draft EIR – the cleanup plan which constitutes Phase 1 of the Marina Center Development. It was approved by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in June without public review.

The SIRAP is wholly inadequate for a variety of reasons, including its failure to adequately sample for dioxins. It could result in more harm than good by spreading toxic soils around the property rather than removing them from the edge of Humboldt Bay.

Despite this substantial change to the document the City failed to recirculate the Draft EIR, as required by CEQA when significant new information is added, and instead certified it as Final.

The NEC has joined forces with Humboldt Baykeeper and the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) to object to this decision. The groups are preparing to file suit against the City of Eureka for failing to follow the conditions of CEQA

By Michelle Smith

History unveiled: 1946 aerial photo of the Balloon Track being filled with dredge spoils from Humboldt Bay.

NEC Sets New Course On Klamath AgreementsBy Jay Wright, NEC Klamath Coordinator

The Northcoast Environmental Center is building a coalition to support an alternative to the draft Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (Klamath Hydro Deal).

As a member of the Klamath Conservation Partners, NEC will continue to develop an alternative legislative dam removal framework that secures a shortened timeline for dam removal and federal takeover provisions.

While we appreciate the considerable effort that has gone into creating the Klamath Hydro Deal, we cannot support the deal in its current form since it fails to compel Pacificorp, the states of Oregon and California or the federal government to commit to dam removal now.

Instead, the Klamath Hydro Deal leaves the ultimate decision on dam removal to the Secretary of Interior based upon a judgment of whether or not it advances restoration of salmonid fisheries and whether the deal is in the public interest.

Too Many LoopholesAdditionally, the numerous pre-conditions and

off-ramps along the path to anticipated dam removal in 2020 leave too many doors open that could significantly lengthen the timeline or even allow Pacificorp and state or federal parties to back out of dam removal.

The coalition believes the dams must come down as soon as possible. They cannot be operated in an environmentally responsible manner, and they are driving wild salmon to extinction – along with the communities that depend upon the ecosystem of a

healthy Klamath River.

Therefore, the NEC is joining with others who share these concerns to move forward with specific suggestions for how to assure the dams are out within a decade.

We will support and endorse Klamath dam removal legislation under the following conditions:

• The Klamath Hydro Deal (KHSA) should be severed from the proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA). Clean and clear dam-removal legislation that is unburdened by the controversial and costly terms of the KBRA is more politically viable and will more effectively restore the Klamath

River Basin. The vast majority of issues addressed in the KBRA are different than those of dam removal and should therefore be dealt with separately.

• The timeline for dam removal must be shortened significantly. The KHSA should authorize and direct the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a plan for federal removal of the four lower Klamath River dams and submit it to Congress by 2012. Klamath River salmon and river communities should not wait ten years for removal of these antiquated dams to begin.

• Dam removal will be funded through Pacificorp customer contribution of $200 million and an independent $250 million general obligation bond in the state of California. Bond funds must not be attached to additional infrastructure projects in California. If other state-based funding means are impaired or unavailable, a federal contribution must be provided to accomplish dam removal.

Continued on Page x

The Klamath Hydro Deal fails to compel Pacificorp or the government to commit to dam removal now. Photo: Mouth of the Klamath, by Sam Camp © camphoto.com

December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org2

Got something on your mind? Send it in! Please limit letters to 300 words or fewer and include your full name and city of residence. We may edit for space and clarity. E-mail let-ters to sarah@yournec.org by the 20th of the month, or mail to 791 Eighth Street, Arcata, CA 95521. We welcome your thoughts and comments! Start a Dialog.

California Native Plant SocietyJen Kalt (Secretary) jkalt@asis.comRedwood Region Audubon SocietyC.J. Ralph theralphs@humboldt1.comSierra Club North Group, Redwood ChapterFelice Pace unofelice@gmail.comHumboldt BaykeeperPete Nichols (President) pete@humboldtbaykeeper.orgFriends of Del NorteEileen Cooper upsprout@yahoo.comSafe Alternatives For Our Forest EnvironmentLarry Glass lglass@foggy.netEnvironmental Protection Information CenterScott Greacen scott@wildcalifornia.orgAt-LargeJim Clark (Vice President) dancebirds@sbcglobal.netMartin Swett (Treasurer) mswett@pacific.netBob Morris (Trinity County Representive)bob.morris@wildblu.net

NEC Board Of Directors

Volunteer submissions are welcome! Full articles of 500 words or fewer may be submitted by the 15th of each month, preferably by e-mail. Longer articles should be pitched to the editor, contact sarah@yournec.org or call 707-845-3902. Include your phone number and e-mail with all submissions.

Ideas and views expressed in ECONEWS are not necessarily those of the NEC.

is the official monthly publication of the Northcoast Environmental Center, a non-profit organization, 791 Eighth Street., Arcata, CA 95521; (707) 822-6918; Fax (707) 822-6980. Third class postage paid in Arcata. ISSN No. 0885-7237. ECONEWS is mailed free to our members and distributed free throughout the Northern California/Southern Oregon bioregion. The subscription rate is $35 per year.

ECONEWS

Editor: Sarah O’Leary sarah@yournec.orgAdvertising: Sarah O’Leary, ads@yournec.orgProofreaders: Midge Brown, Sid DominitzStaff Photographer: Sam CampWriters: Allison Poklemba, Sarah Marnick, Pete Nichols, Dan Ihara, David Simpson, Jane Lapiner, Beth Werner, Jay Wright, Emelia Berol, Hoopa Tribal Fisher-ies Dep’t, Dr. Loon, Sue Leskiw, Michelle Smith, Dan Ehresman, Nathaniel Page, Lindsey Byers, Kerul Dyer, Jennifer Kalt, Kayla Gunderson, Joe FriedmanArtists: Mark Jacobson, Terry TorgersonCover Art: Trinity River, campphoto.com

NEC Mission To promote understanding of the rela-

tions between people and the biosphere and to conserve, protect and celebrate

terrestrial, aquatic and marine eco-systems of northern California and

southern Oregon.

Every issue of ECONEWS is printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks. Please Recycle.

Arts! ArcataAt The NEC

News From the Center

Bouquets

As the days grow shorter and the rains begin to descend upon the North Coast, the staff and Board of Directors are working hard to keep “your” NEC not only up and running but actively advocating for a healthy environment.

After a challenging summer, we have settled in to our new digs in the Jacoby Storehouse and we are looking to you for help re-energizing the NEC. Stop by for a visit during our office hours: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays. And, of course we’re open for Arts! Arcata each month on the second Friday.

We continue to keep a watchful eye on the Klamath Dam removal process – pushing for the best outcome for the salmon and the river. (See update from our Klamath Coordinator on page 1.) We’re also working to encourage the county to choose the best General Plan possible, one that emphasizes community and protection of our local environment.

We continue to be strong advocates for non-motorized

transportation and a regional trail system, and we are watch-dogging local development to ensure that the best interests of the community and the environment are met.

And on top of all of this, we bring it all to you in this newspaper and on the Econews Report radio show, which airs every Thursday on KHSU-FM. But there is MUCH more to do and we need your help!

We are still looking for volunteers who want to contribute their enthusiasm and expertise. In addition to NEC board positions and grant writing, we need help with: ECONEWS newspaper distribution, database updates, hosting Arts! Arcata and more.

If you have some time and energy to contribute, give us a call at 707-822-6918, or email us at nec@yournec.org. We hope to hear from you soon!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

For the forests, rivers, and coast---Pete NicholsNEC President

Join us on Friday, December 11 from 6 to 9 p.m. for our holiday Arts! Arcata celebration at the NEC office in Jacoby’s Storehouse.

Aside from local art, we’ll be serving local wines furnished by Libation, as well as our usual savory snacks. AArts! Arcata is a great opportunity to meet the NEC staff and check out some of our volunteer opportunities. See you there.

We Want Your Letters!Feeling irritated by something you read here in ECONEWS? Or maybe one of this month’s articles made you jump for joy. Tell us about it! Try to keep your letter to 300 words or fewer and include your full name and city of residence. We may edit for space and clarity. E-mail letters to sarah@yournec.org, or mail to P.O. Box 4259, Arcata, CA 95518. We welcome your thoughts and comments!

Aggressive Squid Heads Into Northern WatersBy Beth Werner

The Humboldt squid, not native to Humboldt but named after the Humboldt Current, has attracted the attention of scientists and fisherman due to its reputation for aggression and its recent expansion north. The mysterious creature has expanded its territory from its home in equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean to the California coast.

Researchers are uncertain as to why the squid are increasing their territory and are investigating what impacts this expansion may have on fisheries and the ecosystem in the newly occupied regions.

The Humboldt Squid spends most of the day at depths between 600 and 3,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. However, it is a mesopelagic species, meaning it travels through the water column to the ocean surface to feed on prey at night.

The creature was first spotted off the coast of Southern California in the 1930s and again during El Nino in the 1990s.

The squid were thought to have moved north with the movement of warmer water, and researchers believed the species subsequently had moved back south to its tropical habitat. However, since 2002, millions of Humboldt squid have been found off the coast of California and have been sighted as far north as Alaska. The squid have been sighted both in the water and washed up in large numbers on the beaches of Southern California – another conundrum for scientists.

Ocean ChangingThe invasion may be a direct result

of climate change, but not the climate change generally related to surface water temperature. The squid lives in the Midwater Oxygen Minimum Zone where the concentration of oxygen is very low.

This is a result of decomposing organic matter throughout the water column that reduces the oxygen content available at depths between 600 and

1,000 feet below the surface. The northern migration of the

Humboldt squid can be evidence that this zone is expanding, suggesting widespread changes in the natural biochemical balance of the ocean.

The Humboldt squid can reach eight feet in length and weigh up to 110 pounds, and it is known by Mexican fishermen as the Diablo Rojo or the “Red Devil,” due to its voracity and aggressive behavior. It is an agile predator with eight short tentacles and two long feeding tentacles. Each feeding tentacle is lined with razor-sharp, tooth-lined suckers to hold onto its prey.

As the squid approaches prey, it hides the longer feeding tentacles within its eight shorter tentacles held in a cone-like shape. Once close enough to strike, the squid will lash out its feeding tentacles and grab its prey. The squid then eats its prey, rotating it quickly as if eating corn on the cob.

Fishing lore includes stories of the Humboldt Squid attacking and even killing people who have fallen into the ocean during this aggressive feeding frenzy.

The Humboldt squid preys upon some of California’s biggest fisheries – market squid, rock fish, Pacific hake, northern sardine and California Anchovy, to name a few. These native predators of the North Pacific Ocean must compete with this new voracious predator, resulting in severely negative impacts on the natural ecosystem and the economy.

Scientists are tagging the squid to better understand the recent expansion to the north as well as the creature’s lifecycle.

Beth Werner has a research background in Water Quality and has a vested interest in the the Bay, coastline and the marine environment on the North Coast.

The Humboldt Squid is an equatorial species named after the Humboldt Current.

Calling All ArtistsThe NEC is seeking artists and photographers to display their work at our office for our monthly Arts! Arcata celebrations. We are currently scheduling artists for 2010. Give us a call at 707-822-6918, or e-mail us at nec@yournec.org to schedule an appointment to show us your work.

This month’s floral tributes go to: Chris Rall, founder of GreenWheels and former policy director for Healthy Humboldt Coalition, who recently moved to Portland, Oregon. Among many other accomplishments, Chris helped Humboldt County move towards a better balance of jobs and housing in future development, which will move us toward state-mandated greenhouse gas reduction targets by making it easy for people to drive less and walk or bike more. Environmental health & justice activist and garbage expert, Annie Leonard, who created the video The Story of Stuff that went viral on the Internet, garnering thousands of views within four hours of its release in 2007. The 20-minute enjoyable video breaks down exactly where our stuff comes from and where it goes – educating elementary school kids to grandparents on the problems of a consumer culture. View The Story of Stuff at www.storyofstuff.com/ Local activists, Tanya Hunt and Aliana Knapp Prasek for organizing Humboldt County events for the International Day of Climate Action on October 24. See story page on page 17.

ECONEWS December 2009 www.yournec.org 3

Proposed Park Transfer Upsets Enviro Groups And TribeThreat of a lawsuit has prompted the state to hold

up a transfer of 1,000 acres of Del Norte’s Tolowa Dunes State Park. The proposed transfer to California’s Fish & Game Department (CDFG) would allow the land to legally be used for hunting.

The park acreage, which is home to dozens of rare and endangered species, was slated to be turned over to CDFG in mid-November - until objections from environmental groups and Native peoples put the brakes on the proposal.

Tolowa Dunes Park and the adjoining 5,500-acre Lake Earl wetland complex provide habitat for at least 43 rare and federally and state listed species, including peregrine falcon, western snowy plover, marbled murrelet, Oregon silverspot butterfly, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout. In addition, more than 300 bird species use Lake Earl with as many as 100,000 birds found there during seasonal migrations.

The transfer was initially moving forward without public notice or environmental review.

But conservation groups got wind of the deal, and in late October Friends of Del Norte, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), and the Center for Biological Diversity wrote a letter to State Parks Director Ruth Coleman opposing the transfer.

Not Just Hunting The groups say this proposal raises questions far

beyond the issue of hunting, including the potential of transferring State Park lands at a time when the state is seeking to close many parks to save money.

Waterfowl hunting is illegal in California State Parks. However, hunting continued to be allowed at Tolowa after it was officially classified as a State Park in 2001.

Roy Stearns, director of communications for State Parks, explained that park officials believed that, under the Keen-Nejedly Wetland Preservation Act, it was permissible to “facilitate a temporary yearly transfer of this property to Fish and Game to allow hunting.”

But a recent legal examination of the situation determined that the act most likely does not allow such a temporary yearly transfer, Stearns said. “We must now take a new and honest look at what is allowed,” he said. “Meanwhile, we prohibited hunting [in the park].”

However, a 2002 letter to Rep. Mike Thompson from the North Coast Redwoods District of State Parks, indicates that State Parks knew then that hunting could not be permitted on state parks land.

Perhaps in response to pressure from local hunters and politicians, CDFG and State Parks came up with the plan to complete the proposed land transfer by mid-November in time for duck-hunting season.

Conservation groups have accused both agencies of not only proceeding with the transfer in secrecy, but with deliberately ignoring environmental laws.

“The contemplated giveaway of these dune swale ponds is particularly outrageous because they are unique in the California state parks system, and have a tribal heritage that goes back thousands of years,” said Scott Greacen, executive director EPIC. “We were shocked to hear about this transfer because State

Parks in this region is otherwise doing a good job of protecting tribal cultural resources.”

Tribal representatives said that the land does indeed include areas of cultural significance for the tribe.

“The area is a place of our genesis, for our creation story,” said Suntayea Steinruck, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Smith River Rancheria. “It has a high level of spiritual importance to us.”

Steinruck said it was “definitely upsetting not to be consulted [about the land transfer] especially with the significance of the area.”

“We feel like we’re stewards of our ancestral land,” she said. “Our duty is to protect not only the resources under the ground but also all living things.”

An Indication Of State Parks’ Future?Others wonder if the proposed land transfer might

be the beginning of the state’s attempt to divest itself of some costly-to-maintain state parks.

“The Governor apparently intends to save State Parks by disposing of them,” said Karen Schambach, California Director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). “While State Parks can’t be sold, Fish and Game lands don’t enjoy that same protection. Is this the first step towards selling our parklands off to private interests?”

The conservation groups made it clear in their letter to State Parks that they will file suit if the land transfer proceeds without a public review process or following environmental laws.

Stearns said that the transfer will likely not occur in time for this year’s duck-hunting season. “We are still reviewing this internally with the hope of coming to a decision soon,” he said, adding that the agency plans to “pursue a course that we will make very transparent to the community once we’ve selected it.”

The conservation groups emphasize that their opposition is not to specifically target hunting practices. In addition to providing habitat for several imperiled species, the park is a site of numerous popular trails and a favorite spot with hikers, bicyclists, naturalists and others.

“All public uses must be considered before a decision to transfer interest in such lands could properly be undertaken,” their letter states.

However, Del Norte County leadership seems to favor hunting over other uses. In a recent unanimous vote, the Del Norte Board of Supervisors made the decision to send a letter to CDFG and the State Parks in support of waterfowl hunting, saying this use was important for local residents.

TAKE ACTION Write to the Governor and tell him you object to this land transfer, and that the state of Cali-fornia should not play fast and loose with our beloved state parks. Governor Arnold SchwarzeneggerCapitol Building No. 1114Sacramento, CA 95814Send copies of your letter to State Parks and to CDFG:Ruth Coleman, DirectorCalif. Dept. of State Parks1416 9th StreetSacramento, CA 95814Acting DirectorCalifornia Dept of Fish & Game1416 9th StreetSacramento, CA 95814

By Sarah O’Leary

• During the interim period prior to dam removal, all annual dam licenses should be subject to interim conditions deemed necessary for the adequate protection of fish, wildlife, water quality, or other aquatic resources. Interim conditions must be subject to public and expert agency review and comment.

This approach represents the prudent course for Klamath River Basin restoration. The Klamath salmon are suffering now from these dams. Waiting until 2020 or later, as the Klamath Hydro Deal suggests, for dam removal to begin is not acceptable.

The current position of the NEC is not a departure from the broad outlines of the Klamath Settlement Agreements; rather it should be seen as an alternative tactic to arrive at the goals that the proposed Klamath Hydro Deal framework fails to reach.

FERC Relicensing A Poor OptionThe NEC has long believed that a negotiated

outcome to solving the complex problems of the Klamath Basin holds more hope than other alternatives such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing process or continued litigation. The FERC option fails to acknowledge the very real dilemma of disjointed outcomes.

In his book, Dam Politics: Restoring America’s Rivers, Dr. William Lowry posits that two main factors drive outcomes of dam removal and restoration:

political receptivity to change and the physical complexity of the ecosystem. Unfortunately, the Klamath Basin presents the quintessential case for low political receptivity to fundamental changes along with a massively complex spatially diverse ecosystem.

The FERC, in crafting their comprehensive plan for the Basin, may not find a clear path forward to removing all four dams and creating free-flowing conditions with volitional fish passage. Instead, they could arrive at some disjointed outcome such as partial fish passage or removal of some, but not all four Lower Basin Klamath dams.

Fundamental ecosystem restoration demands that Iron Gate, Copco One & Two, and J.C. Boyle dams be removed. To avoid jeopardy and arrive at recovery, fish species need access to the entire Basin. We cannot afford to risk the partial solution that FERC relicensing presents.

Additionally, the NEC continues to be troubled by the linkage between the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydro Deal. We believe the KBRA, because of its sheer complexity and expense, has the potential to frustrate the opportunity for fundamental changes and dam removal outcomes. We do not believe the combination of the two offers a clear path to clean dam removal. This is why we are supporting alternative legislation aimed at fundamental changes offering Basin-wide solutions.

NEC Sets New Course On Klamath continued from page 1

An overview of Tolawa Dunes State Park and Lake Earl, the largest coastal lagoon in California. The dune ponds provide waterfowl refuge during hunting season, but State Parks has proposed to transfer a thou-sand acres of the park to California Department of Fish and Game so it can be opened up for hunting. Photo: F.L. Hiser Jr.

Be An ECONEWS Intern!Internships are a great way for students and professionals to gain new skills and valuable experience for future job searches. Student journalists can earn credit while interning at ECONEWS, along with a stipend. This internship is also open to students majoring in other disciplines who want to improve their writing skills and get hands-on environmental reporting experience.Interns benefit from editorial coaching on how to write more effectively.But you don’t have to be a student to take advantage of this opportunity. Everyone is invited to apply for an internship. ECONEWS interns help with all aspects of the newspaper, depending on their interests and skills – reporting, writing, photography, layout, design. Web interns assist with designing and updating our web site. This position is a great fit for those looking to hone their skills in the growing fields of online blogging and social network marketing. Interested? Send an e-mail to sarah@yournec.org, listing your interests and qualifications.

December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org4

Two Perspectives On the Trinity:(Editor’sNote) Caught between a water grab to the south and the tumultuous Klamath knot to the

north, the Trinity River flows from its headwaters in the Trinity Alps to Trinity and Lewiston Dams, where flows are diverted south to quench the mounting thirst of Central Valley agriculture.

The Trinity once supported large runs of steelhead, fall and spring chinook salmon, and smaller runs of coho salmon. Those days are gone. While hatchery runs of steelhead and fall chinook remain abundant, wild runs of all species are seriously threatened.

To make any sense of the complex web of politics a-swirl over this important tributary to the Klamath River, an understanding of the political history of dams and water diversions is necessary.

Following are two analyses of this complicated history from the Hoopa Valley Tribe – whose people have resided along the Trinity for millennia – and from the NEC’s representative to the Trinity restoration’s public advisory group.

Trinity River, Photo: Pat Jackson, Jackson Web Design and Photography

The discovery of gold in the 1840s changed the face of the Trinity River forever. Irresponsible mining practices altered the natural course of the river and left it contaminated with heavy metals. Fish survived, but the next fatal blow, dams and diversions, will take decades to correct.

When Congress approved the diversion of the Trinity River to the Central Valley in 1955, Congressman Clair Engle said, “Not one bucket full of water will go into the Central Valley until the needs of the Trinity River are met.”

Despite his good intent, the promise was never kept. From 1963 to 2004, about 90 percent of the Trinity River was diverted to the Central Valley.

“Within 10 years after the Trinity River Diversion began, 80 percent of the Trinity’s fishery resources were destroyed,” said Mike Orcutt, director of the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Fisheries Department. “We have been working ever since to restore them.”

While the Tribe continues to seek promised help for already under-funded Trinity River restoration efforts, the state and federal government are passing legislation that could negatively impact the river even more.

The Water Transfers Facilitation Act of 2009, introduced in October by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, could grant permanent authority to the Bureau of Reclamation to approve and expedite Central Valley Project water transfers of up to 250,000 to 300,000 acre-feet per year above and beyond what they are currently authorized to transfer.

Feinstein staffers insist the bill will not affect Trinity River supplies, but river advocates are skeptical due to the bill’s lack of protections for the fishery needs of the Trinity. Trinity River advocates also question why the benefit of speedier transfers is being given to contractors, who get rich by selling Trinity River water, when the contractors haven’t fulfilled their current obligations to the restoration projects.

Word has it Feinstein is considering amendments to the bill that would remove all north-of-the-delta water transfers and require that transfers not harm other environmental commitments. Feinstein’s office needs an urging from the public that this bill, H.R. 1759, keep protections for the Trinity River Restoration Program at the forefront.

“The Trinity River and its communities have sacrificed enough,” Orcutt said. “But it continues to be some of the most sought-after water in the state and our guarantees of water and restoration continue to go undelivered.”

Bay Delta Bill PackageIn November, the State legislature passed an $11.1

billion bill package that aims to overhaul California’s water supply system. (See sidebar)

The package’s focus—although it incorporates many other perks to entice southern California voters and appease dam-removal proponents to the north—is to chart a process for overhaul of the Bay Delta system. Some call it improved conveyance, conservation and restoration plan. Others call it a plan for the Peripheral Canal. Most agree that the Bay Delta system is in dire straits, but few agree on how to solve the crisis.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe recognizes the desperate state of the Bay Delta system, but believes building a more efficient system of moving water from north to south could be detrimental to the Trinity River.

“The plumbing exists to move the Trinity River from its origin all the way to Los Angeles,” Orcutt said. “We fear an improved conveyance system in the Delta poses a danger to the Trinity River if pre-existing promises are not fulfilled.”

Restoration Efforts UnderminedCurrently, Trinity River restoration is funded at

about 50 percent of what was promised.In the ‘90s, Congress authorized the Secretary of

the Interior and the Hoopa Valley Tribe to adjust diversions of the Trinity River and prepare a fishery

restoration plan, stating that water and power contractors were to pay the cost of restoration.

In 2000, just days before the Clinton Administration exited the White House, then Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and the Hoopa Valley Tribe signed the Record of Decision (ROD) – which outlined a plan for recovery of the Trinity River and its fish and wildlife populations. The ceremonial signing took place at a Trinity River site that has been sacred to Hoopa people for thousands of years.

Before the ink was dry, Central Valley contractors filed a lawsuit to stop the restoration efforts. Westlands Water District and others fought to evade their financial responsibility for environmental restoration.

During the litigation, flows were locked in favor of Central Valley interests until 2004 when a court ruled in favor of the 2000 ROD, stating that restoration efforts were “unlawfully overdue.”

About 43 percent of Trinity River water began to flow its natural course, to the Lower Klamath River and then to the sea.

Humboldt’s Missing WaterPrior to congressional approval of The

Trinity River Division Act in 1955, Humboldt County residents and politicians fought to prevent the diversion, but to no avail.

The five-year fight ended with the act being passed, but with a provision for Humboldt County.

“Not less than 50,000 acre-feet shall be released annually from the Trinity Reservoir and made available to Humboldt County and

A History Of Broken PromisesBy The Hoopa Tribal Fisheries Department

Billions For Water?State legislators passed the biggest water bill in decades in November, one that could potential-ly cost Californians $11 billion plus interest. No one questions that major changes and upgrades to state water management are in order, but this bill has many flaws and has drawn fire from newspaper editors across the state.

Before the bill can be implemented, funding will have to be approved via a statewide bond mea-sure next November. Given the bill’s numerous failings, the enormous debt load the state is under, and the current state of the economy, it is unlikely voters will support it.

Many criticize the fact that it unfairly asks urban users to cut their water use by 20 percent, while demanding little of agriculture, which uses 80 percent of the state’s developed water resources.

Although initial efforts were made to include measures to reform groundwater policies and address illegal stream diversions, those mea-sures were largely abandoned in the final bill.

Unrealistic expectations for growth do not take into account the finite, already over-allocated water supply of the state, and this bill opens the door for costly construction of more “storage” (i.e. dams) that will not solve the real problem. One of the new dams implicitly supported in the bill would require a Peripheral Canal to ef-fectively send water south.

The building of a canal around the Delta has been a hotly contested issue, and opponents charge that the water bill implicitly supports the canal, and is a pathway to its construction.

The $250 million funding for the state’s portion of the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA) also is included in this bill. As opposition to the bill grows, this presents a dilemma for the Klamath Settle-ment Agreement parties.

If the bill is defeated at the ballot box, what back-up plans are in place for funding the Klamath Dam removal?

Many have also criticized this bill for not requir-ing more conservation measures, which could reduce the need for more costly and environ-mentally damaging dams.

A new report – California Water Solutions Now - released by the Environmental Water Cau-cus shows that conservation measures could provide all the additional water needed by the state through the middle of the 21st century. The report can be viewed at: www.ewccalifornia.org/reports.

downstream water users,” reads the second proviso in the 1955 Act. Although this was reaffirmed with a Bureau of Reclamation contract in 1959, the water was never delivered.

“That 50,000 acre-feet of Trinity River water has the potential to greatly improve conditions on the mainstem Trinity River and the Lower Klamath River,” Orcutt said. “The time is ripe to secure that delivery for the benefit of Humboldt County in light of the water crisis affecting California.”

The California Department of Water Resources estimates that an acre-foot of water is worth about $32.50. That means about $1.6 million worth of Humboldt County water is being exported to the Central Valley.

Tom Stokely, long-time Trinity River advocate and water policy coordinator for the California Water Impact Network, said, “There is no other cold, clean water available in the Klamath-Trinity system. Without it, I believe the fish are at a huge risk.”

For more information about the Trinity River and current efforts to protect it, contact the Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries Department at (530) 625-4267 x12 or the Trinity River Restoration Program at (530)623-1800.

ECONEWS December 2009 www.yournec.org 5

The Trinity River Division, passed by an act of Congress in 1955, authorized construction of two dams, power plants, a hatchery, and diversion tunnels on the upper Trinity, with the goal of diverting water for use in Central Valley agriculture, 400 miles away.

When the dams were completed in 1963, the largest tributary of the Klamath River suddenly became a tributary to the Sacramento River. Despite promises that no more than half of the upper Trinity’s waters would be diverted, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) began sending 90 percent of the water south – resulting in a near complete collapse of the fishery by the mid-1970s.

Flows were increased slightly during the ’80s, and a restoration program was initiated that included a 12-year study to determine how much water was required to maintain a healthy fishery.

Then, on a warm and lovely day in December of 2000, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt came to Hoopa Valley to sign the Record of Decision (ROD) on Trinity River flows.

This event was to make restitution for all the damage the federal government had done to the rivers and fisheries of the Trinity Basin: a new beginning and a path to healing and restoration, not only for the river and fisheries, as Babbitt pointed out, but for the people of the Trinity River basin.

The Record of Decision, the outcome of 20 years of studies, mandated increased flows in the river, returning base flows to the roughly 50 percent originally promised, along with a large restoration program.

After Secretary Babbit had finished the usual litany of thanks to the various players, he concluded, “And as for the Bureau of Reclamation, I’d like to say one thing: It’s never too late to repent your sins…”

New Threats Now, in a tandem move that could once again

threaten Trinity River flows, the USBR and the state of California are setting the stage for increased water diversions to central and southern California.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which constructs and manages federal dam projects in the western U.S., has applied to the State Water Resource Control Board for the extension of antiquated permits that allow for diverting up to 90 percent of the Trinity’s waters. These permits, created in the 1960’s, do not reflect 40

years of damage to the fisheries and habitat in the Trinity, or the Record of Decision that seeks to restore Trinity fisheries.

Although the USBR is under the Department of the Interior, it appears they intend to ignore the 2000 Record of Decision.

In response, Friends of the Trinity River board members Tom Weseloh and Byron Leydecker sent a letter to USBR in October asking the Bureau to withdraw the application.

The letter pointed out that Trinity Lake is being drawn down and diverted in violation of official state water quality objectives, and that this diversion is at the expense of Trinity River fisheries.

Weseloh and Leydecker request that “sufficient cold water is retained in Trinity Lake to prevent a drawdown of that water such that Trinity River could reach lethal temperatures for fish in late summer, temperatures that exceed state mandates.”

“No one wants a re-run of the disastrous Klamath fish kill,” their letter reminds the USBR officials.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the federal agency that oversees ocean fisheries and habitat, and is an arm of the Department of Commerce, sent their own letter to USBR in November to protest the petition to extend the permits for the Central Valley Project (CVP).

NMFS recently released a Biological Opinion that concludes that “proposed operations were likely to jeopardize five listed species throughout the range of the CVP” (from the Trinity to the San Joaquin River.) It provides a set of actions as a “reasonable and prudent alternative,” as required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Formal ESA consultations between NMFS and the Bureau of Reclamation regarding water permits on the Trinity are scheduled to be completed early next year.

Emelia Berol is the NEC’s representative to the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group, a public advisory group to the Trinity River Restoration Program’s management council. She has been attending meetings, photographing, writing about, and documenting the Trinity River and its tributaries since 1993.

Learn More For more in-depth information about Trinity River politics and restoration efforts, visit the following web sites:Friends of the Trinity River: FOTR.orgTrinity River Restoration Program: www.trrp.netCentral Valley Project:www.usbr.gov/projects/Project.jsp?proj_Name=Central+Valley+Project

New Water Grab Threatens River Recovery

By Emelia Berol

Map and descriptions of Trinity River diversion facilities, courtesy Trinity River Restoration Council. For more detail, see www.trrp.net/TrinityRiver/facilities.htm

A River Emptied By Dams And Diversions

Trinity River, Photo: Samp Camp, ©campphoto.com

Trinity Dam and Lake: Trinity Dam regulates flows and stores water for various uses. The dam forms Trinity Lake, which has a storage capacity of 2,448,000 acre-feet. Trinity Powerplant: Has two generators with a total capacity of 105,556 kilowatts Lewiston Dam and Lake: Lewiston Dam is about 8 miles downstream from Trinity Dam. The dam creates an afterbay to Trinity Powerplant and regu-lates releases into the Trinity River. Lewiston Dam forms a reservoir with a storage capacity of 14,660 acre-feet. The trans-basin diversion begins at Lewiston Lake via Clear Creek Tunnel to Whiskeytown Lake.Judge Francis Carr Powerhouse: Located on on Clear Creak, has two gen-erators with a total capacity of 141,444 kilowatts.Whiskeytown Dam and Lake: Located on Clear Creek, Whiskeytown Dam stores Clear Creek runoff and diverted Trinity River flows discharged from Judge Francis Carr Powerhouse. Whiskeytown Lake has a capacity of 241,100 acre-feet and provides recreation facilities. The Spring Creek Tun-nel diverts water from Whiskeytown Lake to the Spring Creek Powerhouse and Keswick Dam on the Sacramento River.Lewiston Powerplant: Lewiston Powerplant at Lewiston Dam has one gen-erator with a capacity of 350 kilowatts.Trinity River Fish Hatchery: Operated by the California Department of Fish and Game, has a production capacity of roughly 40 million salmonid eggs. It is located immediately downstream from Lewiston Dam. The hatchery was constructed and operated to help mitigate for lost production of habi-tats upstream from the Trinity River Division.Clear Creek Tunnel: 17.5 feet in diameter and 10.7 miles long, It is the conduit for the trans-basin diversion.

Additionally, Trinity County and the California Water Impact Network have filed protests with the Bureau, citing conflicts of interest and the potential threat to fisheries presented by a permit extension.

December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org6

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The state of California has adopted new Greywater Code, and proponents of innovative water conservation methods are celebrating.

Most of California faces an ongoing water crisis, and in a June letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger, the Natural Resources Defense Council recommended four key water management tools, “...including efficiency, water recycling, improved groundwater management, and urban groundwater capture.”

Additionally communities are abuzz with new ideas for preserving our ecosystems, such as responsible stormwater management, rainwater harvest and low impact development. Now there’s a new tool in the toolbox to reduce the impacts of development in rural and urban watersheds: A revised, realistic Greywater Code.

Last February, in response to annual drought conditions throughout California, Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a State of Emergency and called for a 20 percent reduction in urban per capita water use by December 31, 2020. The much-improved Greywater Code is an important step to reach this goal.

The new standards, which took effect in August, allow for the installation of simple, low-cost greywater systems with little agency oversight so long as general rules are followed with regard to health and safety.

What is Greywater?Greywater is “waste” water from household

sinks, showers, bathtubs and washing machines that has not been contaminated by bodily waste or toxic chemicals. It comprises 50 to 80 percent of residential wastewater.

“It’s a shame to lose this precious resource when greywater can be reused for other purposes, especially landscape irrigation,” states author and greywater advocate Art Ludwig in his book Create an Oasis with Greywater. Utilizing greywater for irrigation of trees, shrubs and gardens has proven to be a safe and effective water management strategy.

Humboldt County residents use, on average, 140 gallons of water per person per day. A residence

with a well-designed greywater system can reduce household potable water consumption by up to 80 percent – a significant savings in areas burdened with supply issues.

Greywater: Now A Legal ResourceBy Dan Ehresman

Get InvolvedAlthough the Greywater Code passed as a statewide measure, it is subject to change by local municipalities.Just after California adopted the code, San Fran-cisco’s chief plumbing inspector (citing fears of do-it-yourself plumbers running amok) tried to gut it. Fortunately, the city’s Building Inspection Commission rejected the proposed changes, supporting the new code in full. Even though this outcome was positive, it dem-onstrates the importance of public involvement and conversation with governmental officials to ensure the Code remains intact, in its intended form.

Learn MoreFor more information on greywater history, sys-tems design and installation visit: www.greywa-teraction.org , or www.greywater.net

Read the new Greywater regulations and as-sociated documentation at: http://www.hcd.ca.gov/codes/shl/graywater_emergency.html

Dan Ehresman is a regenerative design consultant and serves as a policy analyst for Healthy Humboldt, a coalition of public interest organizations working for a County General Plan that provides healthy housing and transportation choices while protecting resource lands and watersheds.

The failure to reuse greywater is one cause of overburdened sewage treatment facilities and spetic systems. Pictured, sew-age outfall in Delray Beach. Photo: Steve Spring/Marine Photobank

Greywater, usually considered ‘wastwater’ and flushed away, can be reused for irrigation to grow food and other plants. Photo: Dan Ehresman

While a few Humboldt Bay towns and cities are faced with the odd circumstance of an overabundance of municipal water supply, much of the rest of the county experiences seasonally low water levels. The Redway Community Services District issued restrictions on residential water use this year. The Mattole, Eel, Van Duzen, and other local rivers are critically low in summer months, resulting in dire consequences for salmon and other aquatic species.

The Sewage Connection In addition to water supply issues, failing septic

tanks and overburdened sewage treatment facilities plague many local municipalities. Aging wastewater infrastructure and facilities are functioning at or close to capacity in wet weather months due to infiltration of rainwater.

Moreover, even when our sewage treatment facilities are functioning properly, treated water – loaded with contaminants – is released into Humboldt Bay and local waterways. Failing septic systems also contribute contaminants daily to our surface and groundwater.

As Ludwig points out in his book, reducing a septic system’s flow by taking out the greywater greatly extends its service life and capacity. Aside from the obvious savings obtained by utilizing “wastewater” for irrigation, greywater reuse decreases the burden on both septic and sewage systems. It also reduces the use of toxins such as chlorine during the treatment process and decreases the amount of contaminated effluent released into the ocean and other waterways.

Greywater reuse provides many other benefits, including:

yNatural Treatment – Provides more effective treatment and is less energy and chemical intensive than municipal treatment facilities;

yNutrient Cycling – closing the loop – Allows reclamation of otherwise wasted nutrients such as those found in biocompatible laundry soap;

yGroundwater Recharge – Replenishes groundwater supply;

yEducation – Increases water awareness, which leads to more informed use of household chemicals and increases water conservation.

California’s revised Greywater Code is an important step toward sustainable stewardship of the planet. And while greywater reuse may not solve all of California’s water woes, it has the capacity to connect our water usage in our homes to the water needed in our gardens, bringing us ever closer to the understanding of how our everyday choices affect our immediate environment.

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ECONEWS December 2009 www.yournec.org 7

In an odd reversal of the water challenges facing the rest of the state, the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District has too much water and too little money.

The situation puts the district’s rights to the Mad River at risk, has changed river levels, and is likely to drive up local water rates. However, it also gives the District an opportunity to set a precedent in water law.

The district has state permits to put 75 million gallons of the Mad River to “beneficial use” every day for the next 20 years. Last October, the shuttering of its main customer, Evergreen Pulp Mill, left it with 60 million gallons a day of water for which it has rights and capacity, but no use.

“The way that California water law works is that the state owns the water and grants permits to people who are going to use it for beneficial uses,” explained district board member Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap.

“Beneficial use” is a legal term. Thirteen uses are specified by the state, including letting the water run into the ocean for fish. But the district’s permit is for industrial use, and before it could use the water for anything else it would have to apply to the state to do so.

Evergreen Pulp, along with its cousin Simpson Pulp Mill, was the district’s raison d’etre. The Matthews Dam and a diversion from the lower Mad River were built in the 1950s to attract industry such as the two mills to the area.

For a few decades the scheme worked well. The mills moved in and their enormous water purchases subsidized the construction and maintenance of a separate, municipal water system.

In 1993 the Simpson plant closed. The remaining mill continued to pay most of the District’s bills in the intervening years. But with Evergreen now gone too, ratepayers must shoulder the costs of upgrading and maintaining the municipal waterworks.

Use It Or Lose It?Furthermore, the district’s inability to use its entire

permitted quantity of water puts it at risk of losing control of that water.

Under California’s “use-it-or-lose-it” water permitting rules, another municipality could theoretically convince the state that it has a better use for the water, and the state could grant them the rights to it.

At present, the extra water is flowing into the ocean,

flooding the estuary with higher-than-natural summer flows, since the district can’t hold the extra water in its reservoir.

In 2029, the district will have to go back to the state and demonstrate that it is appropriately using all the water permitted. Even so, “there could be a challenge to our water rights before 2029,” said Sopoci-Belknap.

That’s because five years of non-use can constitute water abandonment under state law.

To gain a right to the water, though, outsiders would have to build their own waterworks on the Mad. Then they’d have to find a way to pull the water out of the river, which would be both physically and politically challenging.

The rivers on both sides of the Mad are federally-designated Wild and Scenic, meaning that no further dams or diversions can be built on them. This eliminates the possibility of a headwaters diversion from the Mad like on the Trinity or Eel Rivers.

Nonetheless, the District’s operating costs are rising and its infrastructure is in dire need of capital improvements. If they can’t find a way to make money off their industrial capacity, average rates for 75,000 municipal customers in Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville, Manila, Blue Lake and Fieldbrook will increase by at least $40 a month.

New Beneficial Uses?Board member Aldaron Laird is kicking around the

idea of building a low-head hydropower facility at the bottom of the river. While such a device would protect the District’s water right by providing a beneficial use, it might be economically unfeasible. The deregulated power market allows PG&E to pay the district 4 cents a kilowatt-hour for power from the dam and charge 16 cents a kWh to run the pumps downstream.

Blue Lake fisheries biologist Bill Kier wants to leave the water for fish, an option that no water-use agency in California has yet chosen.

He believes that now is a propitious moment to carry forward environmental law by floating such a plan.

“The notion of leaving water in the river for

fish is completely gonzo,” Kier said. “I’m suggesting the water district be pioneers. Push it from the standpoint of social policy evolution.”

The Mad River is well suited to salmon runs, he added. Fog cools

the lower reaches, and young fish can grow strong in its long estuary before they venture out to sea. His plan wouldn’t generate any money for the District, though.

Public Input SoughtThe Water District board is holding a series of

public-input meetings to address these issues. In the first three meetings, which took place in October, citizens spelled out criteria by which to judge potential options for use of the water.

“We’re hearing that local control is very important,” said Sopoci-Belknap. “We’re hearing that environmental protection is very important. People are also concerned about rates.”

The next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 19 at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka, will be a day-long brainstorm on potential water-use options. All members of the public are encouraged to attend.

Water Woes On The Mad River: Use It Or Lose It?By Nathaniel Page

Kin to the Earth

Speaking at the 2009 Bioneers Conference in San Rafael in October, Brock Dolman repeatedly reminded his audience of the importance of “hydro-literacy.”

He pointed out that 60 percent of Americans can’t even name one

component of their hydro

cycle – where water comes from and how it gets to you. Dolman advocates a “watershed approach” to the

looming problems of climate change, sea-level rise and potential drought.

While studying owls, salamanders and other endangered vertebrates as an endangered species vertebrate biologist, he reached his own “watershed moment” when he realized that if the hydrologic cycle of a place is compromised then the carrying capacity of life in that place would be accordingly compromised.

“[We] have to start thinking like a watershed because that’s the scale,” he said. “If you fly up in a plane about a thousand-foot level from your project site, you go ‘oh I get it, I’m actually in a container - a cradle - called a watershed with a drainage attachment.’”

“You can have your head down in the creek trying to fix it up for the fish for a long dang time,” Dolman continued. “Until you realize that if you want to save the river, you start at the ridgeline.”

Dolman has devoted much of his adult life to educating and advocating for healthy watersheds and smart uses of water and land. He heads up the Water

Institute, a program of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) in Sonoma County, and also directs the Center’s Permaculture Design Program and co-directs their Wildlands Biodiversity Program. In his spare time, he works with local political entities advocating for water rights and water-quality protection – once even dressing up as a totem salmon for a Board of Supervisors meeting.

The Water Institute, established in 2004, stands for Watershed Advocacy Training Education, Research and Restoration, representing a five-pronged approach to watershed management. “Watersheds are … interesting units upon which community organizing can happen on a geographic scale,” said Dolman.

Much of the work of the Water Institute is participating in public processes around policy and land use decisions, he explained.

“[We] are directly involved in actually helping to rewrite policy,” he said. “For example, I’ve been involved with a large number of people in the process of rewriting the new California grey water code – to try to make parts of that code more accessible and affordable to people.”

Education and RelationshipsAnother important component of the Water Institute’s

work is education. “If you’re going to do advocacy, one of the important things is to do training and education around just basic literacy.”

To this end Dolman has coordinated “Basins of Relations” trainings for the last decade. “Lots of folks up and down the coast in many different watersheds … have done this residential training at OAEC and then gone on to start a citizen-based watershed effort,” he said.

Dolman emphasized that every watershed is unique with its own challenges and work to do. “[It’s] about the relationships between the people you share that basin with. Each watershed, in my opinion, ends up looking like a lifeboat and you’ve got to get your community together to batten down the hatches of your living watershed lifeboat because the future isn’t looking so certain.”

Soil Saves CarbonIn the midst of the current buzz about preserving

forests in order to sequester carbon, Dolman reminds us that healthy soil is also an important piece of this puzzle. Carbon is fixed through photosynthesis, making plants an important component of carbon storage. Since part of the carbon is stored in the below-ground portions of the plant, Dolman points out that this area may be a safer place to store carbon than above ground where they are susceptible to fire and other natural threats.

“It’s important to honor that each vegetation community has its rightful place,” he said. “What would be called ‘carbon farming’ puts the carbon in the form of humus and black fixed carbon into the soils – this is one of the areas that needs a lot more recognition.”

Forestry certainly has its role, Dolman acknowledged, but organic farming that increases the percentage of carbon in the soil over time should also be considered as a form of carbon sequestration. “If it can be done in an agriculturally productive manner that’s still fish-friendly and wildlife-friendly, then we may have some integrative solutions here,” he said.

Tying this idea back to the importance of water, Dolman said, “As we increase the humus content in the soils, we can increase their water-holding capacity, increase the sponge so to speak, so our water storage capacity can go up. We can pattern the land to slow that water down, spread it out and sink it, get into the soil.”

To Dolman’s mind, most human settlements need a retrofit to be more ecologically literate – and this is the idea behind permaculture, which he defines as a ‘design methodology for regenerative human settlement patterns.” A good retrofit will promote resiliency in the face of an uncertain future, he said.

“The watershed lifeboat analogy is helpful,” Dolman said, “when you think about how we can retrofit every human land use behavior to be integrated in a way that you’re solving a bunch of your perceived problems: food security, air security, fire security, soil water, fish, people, plants.”

Brock Dolman: Your Watershed Is Your LifeboatBy Sarah O’Leary

Photo: OAEC

 

 

Top: Ruth Lake, where the Mad River’s flow is controlled to provide water to coastal municipalities Left: A pump station on the Mad River between Blue Lake and Arcata pumps Mad River water. Photos courtesy of Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District.

December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org8

Growing Local: Young Farmers Get CreativeBy Lindsey Byers

High food prices, the environmental impacts of industrialized agriculture and rising oil prices are causing more and more people to look locally for food security. But it’s not always easy, especially for folks who want to start their own farms.

The current mean age of an American farmer is 57, and this is likely due to barriers for young people such as high start-up costs and the fact that agricultural land is lost at a rate of 3,330 acres a day. The outlook for those looking to get started in farming isn’t exactly encouraging, but it’s not impossible. They just need to be more creative than in generations past.

Walking around farmers markets in Humboldt County, you’ll see a good number of youthful faces behind your kale and potatoes, but the actual number of young farmers has decreased 30 percent nationwide since 2002. Young people looking to get into the agriculture business face tremendous obstacles, and this has caused young agrarians to get crafty in their ventures.

Young IdeasEddie Tanner, 30, a local vegetable farmer won

the Economic Fuel competition for his business plan for a 120-person Community Supported Agriculture project (CSA). He just finished his first season and is offering a winter share option (get yours today at arcatacsa.com).

Some of the ways that Tanner makes it happen are by leasing his land from the school district and getting a discount on seed and garden products by keeping a blog on the website Freshman Farmer (www.freshmanfarmer.com).

Kevin Cunningham, 28, and Melanie Olstad, 33, have found a niche market on the North Coast by operating a 40-person grain CSA. Cunningham and Olstad grow barley, buckwheat, oats, rye and are doing trials with wheat. (CSA shares still available by e-mailing shakeforkcommunityfarm@gmail.com)

Another creative solution comes from Greg DiBenedetto, 32, who operates a local edible landscaping company called FoodScapes (www.humboldtfoodscapes.com). Greg has a vision of interconnected neighborhood gardens where each household grows a specific crop, and a trading network between neighbors meets all neighborhood food needs.

These local farming entrepeneurs are making a go of it for now, but they must continually search for innovative ways to keep their endeavors afloat.

“Capital is the number one obstacle,” said Cunningham. “Farming, like any manufacturing industry, is very capital intensive to start new, and land prices can be prohibitive.  I also find knowledge to be a very important link.  A major amount

of farming knowledge is traditionally passed down from generation to generation.”

Resources & Local Assistance Access to knowledge: Many

local farms offer internships and apprenticeships. It is important to have clear goals about working on a farm and to express these early to the farmer. Then follow up with specific questions. Local farmer Isaiah Webb, 31, relates, “It is easy to get a job on a farm, but not all are going to teach you how to be a farmer.”

Land: Many of us want to be stewards of a piece of property but financial realities get in the way. For us penniless wannabes, creativity is required. Collective farming, leasing land, FarmLink programs and crop sharing are all ways to break into farming with smaller start-up costs. According to the Greenhorn Guide for Beginning Farmers, the first step is to, “Tell everyone you meet that you are looking for land. Don’t beg or moan, just brightly mention it. Brightly mention your love of this community and your hope to find land.” (Get the guide at greenhorns.net/reading.html)

Capital: That green paper is another major roadblock to farming dreams. In addition to land, equipment, seeds, supplements and water all cost money. Loans are one solution. A quick search on the Internet produces hundreds of loan opportunities geared toward just about every demographic of beginning farmer. Some alernative solutions toward reducing costs include trading services/labor for equipment use and utilizing volunteer labor on your farm.

Marketing: Today’s farmers must be business savvy in order to succeed. “The farmers market right now is totally saturated… which is why I went with a CSA,” said Tanner. Market research and business plans can help coalesce your vision and assist in setting goals. Help is available locally at the Small Business Development Center, the UC Cooperative Extension office, Community Alliance with Family Farmers or the Farm Bureau. There are also many tools online that are geared specifically toward creating a farm business plan. One such site is www.nybeginningfarmers.org.

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Politicians and leading climate scientists from all over the world will gather in December, under the auspices of the United Nations, in an unprecedented effort to address the gravest threat humanity has ever faced – climate change.

During the two-week conference in Copenhagen, participants will attempt to develop an agreement that, among other things, significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. If such reductions are not made very soon, it is likely that increases in CO2 levels will create irreversible and disastrous heating of the Earth.

The United States plays a crucial role since its greenhouse emissions had until very recently been the highest. However, U.S. leadership has heretofore been unwilling to engage in solutions.

At the Bali climate meetings in 2007, the representative of Papua New Guinea made the following plea to the U.S.: “We seek your leadership. But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.”  

Now, a new administration in Washington has begun to restore hope. The U.S. has yet to announce, though, what level of reductions it is willing to make or how it will achieve these reductions. Legislation by the U.S. Congress – which ultimately determines these matters – does not seem likely to pass until the first half of 2010.  

Pact UnlikelyBecause of these political realities, the Copenhagen

Conference is unlikely to produce a singular document to guide our climate future. It should, nonetheless, enlarge the framework for the ultimate creation of such a document, hopefully in the first part of next year.

Nevertheless, by indicating at the conference the target to which it hopes to commit itself, the U.S. can demonstrate how serious it is about achieving that new treaty.

The conference, with or without a firm commitment by the U.S., will serve to bring politicians, scientists, social activists and environmentalists from all over the world into the dialogue. It remains to be seen whether that dialogue will lead to substantive agreement on a host of climate issues that still hang in the balance.

The history of these negotiations stretches back to the Kyoto Protocol which was signed by 184 countries – nearly all the nations of the world. The U.S is the only developed country to refuse to sign. Now the question is: will the Kyoto Protocol continue beyond the end of its first accounting period after 2012, or if not, what form will a new framework take?

Key IssuesFour key issues related to that question will be

discussed at Copenhagen: d Emission reductions by developed countries; d Assistance to developing countries by developed countries;

d Reversal of deforestation so that more carbon can be stored in forests;     d How adaptation to climate change should be handled. Emission Reductions And Assistance To Developing Countries: An understanding of the term “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities” can help an average person better understand a crucial element that negotiators will face. It means that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere due to more than 150 years of industrial activity, an idea recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Under the “Differentiated Responsibilities” concept, developed countries might be asked to help finance the transfer of clean-energy technology to developing nations. Nations that currently have little or no energy infrastructure will thus be able to skip the stage in which development depends on the use of conventional energy sources that emit greenhouse gases, and go directly to using clean energy. Reversal of Deforestation: Almost 17 percent of annual climate impacts come from what is termed “Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry” (LULUCF), which includes all types of land-use modification as well as deforestation.

Deforestation causes the largest portion of these emissions and climate impacts. Several countries, primarily in tropical areas have developed a proposal called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation which would, among other things protect tropical forests. Adaptation: Even if the full impact of climate change were limited through mitigation measures that reduce emissions, there will be significant needs for adaptation to the impact of levels of global warming

that are already unavoidable. This could range from developing new varieties of seeds, to vast new water conservation measures, to disaster relief for areas hit by typhoons or other extreme climate events. An unresolved issue is to what extent should such relief be provided to developing countries by developed countries.

President Obama traveled to China in November, his first state visit to this country that is another key climate player. He will receive his Nobel Peace prize in Oslo, Norway on Dec. 10, but he has yet to announce whether he will attend the Copenhagen conferences.

Obama has indicated the U.S. will set an emission reduction standard at Copenhagen. What level will be announced? How will it be received by the world’s governments or by our own Congress? Ultimately, what can the U.S. offer to the conference?

Many have said that the fate of the world as we know it hangs on these negotiations. If decisions are not made this December in Copenhagen, when will they be? And if governments fail to take effective action, what should we as individuals and communities do?

As the English Whig writer, Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for people of good will to do nothing.”

The future is still in our hands.

Dan Ihara holds a doctorate in economics. David Simpson has written widely about climate change including the stage production, “What’s Funny About Climate Change?” Jane Lapiner produced and directed that show and is the artistic director of the Human Nature touring theater company. All three plan to travel to Copenhagen in December.

Map indicates participation in the Kyoto Protocol, where dark green indicates countries that have signed and ratified the treaty, yellow is signed, but not yet ratified, grey is not yet decided and red is no intention of ratifying. The only country that has no intention of ratify-ing the Kyoto Protocol is the United States of America. From Wikipedia

Copenhagen: A Turning Point For The Climate?By Dan Ihara, David Simpson and Jane Lapiner

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Conservation groups and climate change activists are grumbling about the inadequacy of the new climate bill making its way through the Senate. The bill, known as the “Kerry-Boxer Bill,” passed through one senate committee in November, but it falls far short of mandating the measures needed to halt devastating climate change.

“It is a sad day when the lead environmental committee in the Senate passes a bill that contains pollution-reduction goals far less than scientists tell us are necessary to stem global warming and avert catastrophe,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). “It is even more distressing that this bill contains Clean Air Act exemptions that will eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) longstanding duty to reduce greenhouse pollutants based on scientific standards. This is not a time to cheer. The fossil-fuel industry has received what it wants and will now seek more.”

CBD cites three fundamental problems with this bill: an insufficient reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the authority of the Clean Air Act, and poor provisions for carbon offsets.

By requiring only a 20-percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, the bill sets a standard far below what scientists have identified as necessary to stop global warming and ocean acidification. This standard is also much lower than what most European nations have agreed to and hope to win world agreement on in Copenhagen in December.

The bill’s emission standards will allow already damaging levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to increase to levels approaching approximately 600 parts per million.

Additionally, in a concession to pressure from conservatives, the bill now bans federal scientists from determining the safe level of greenhouse gas concentrations as required by the Clean Air Act. How can you determine the necessary level of emission reductions if you don’t first know what the safe level is?

The bill’s carbon offset provisions are so vast and poor that they undermine even its modest emission-reduction goals. Economists have determined that many industries will invest in dubious offsets instead of reducing their carbon emissions.

CBD has spearheaded a letter writing campaign to urge our elected leaders to seriously address the problem of climate change – not apply false band-aids. Visit their web site at www.biologicaldiversity.org for more information.

Senate Climate Bill Disappoints

December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org10

Eco-Kids Section

Go Play Outside: Redwood Forest Fun

If you have a swath of redwood forest at your neighborhood’s margin, chances are this daily presence just blurs into the backdrop of you and your children’s lives. When was the last time you crept low across the damp forest floor to see what creatures were living in the duff, or examined the dusting of lichen on a deep furrow of bark?

With mushrooms popping and salamanders tip-toeing, the short moist days of autumn are a glorious time to explore the closest chunk of redwood forest you can find.

Still need more inspiration to get outside and play on a rainy day? Starting your redwood forest explorations at the computer may help to motivate the troops and deepen the experience.

San Francisco-based Save the Redwoods League

offers a wealth of online resources to teach kids about the Earth’s tallest beings. Their new online Redwood Transect Kit for Educators is fun to navigate and encourages visitors to learn about the redwood forest and then spend time outside exploring using a transect activity. (www.education.savetheredwoods.org)

Somewhat like a treasure hunt, this method asks kids to follow a real or imaginary transect line through an area of forest and keep track of what they find such as leaves chewed by insects or other animals, seed pods, signs of fire or footprints. The website features a photo album to share images kids captured along the way as well as their redwood inspired artwork and poetry.

Kids Ecology of the Redwood Forest is a teacher- created site that serves as a mini-photo guide to the

flora and fauna of the redwood forest. View photos of fern or conifer types before

heading outside to look for these on your walk. Learn the finer features of the coast redwoods, real-life giants.

For extra credit watch a series of short videos produced by 7th grade students on the wonders of the redwood forest. “Banana Slugs!” is not to be missed. To find this site visit www.humboldt.k12.ca.us/fortuna_un/5-8/ and click on “Mr. K’s Redwood Page”.

Allison Poklemba is the coordinator for the North Coast CREEC (California Regional Environmental Education Community) Network. To learn more about family friendly environmental education activities visit www.creec.org/region1.

The California Coastal Commission invites California students from kindergarten through 12th grade to submit artwork or poetry with a California coastal or marine theme to the annual Coastal Art & Poetry Contest.

Eight winners will be chosen and awarded $100 gift certificates to an art supply or book store. Each winner’s sponsoring teacher will receive a $40 gift certificate for educational supplies.

All winners and honorable mentions will receive tickets for their families to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Winning entries will be exhibited throughout the state, including at the Ford House Museum in Mendocino and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro.

Entries must be postmarked by January 30. For rules and entry form (and helpful links for teachers and students), visit www.coastforyou.org , and follow the links, email coast4u@coastal.ca.gov.

C L R T T O A D S T O O L F F U T S G

A T B D O E S S P O R E B F O R H O N

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L U T E T Y O O L M Y C E L I U M E L

O P H L R T M O L O B A A M N H A G I

B U F R U R O H A O V M U S O R M I A

N F I O F U I N H R U U Y H V A I L N

R F N M F S A M S H O S O O M I N L S

T B K M L R B I R S Y R F U N G U S L

J A H O E Y H K A U F J O G J N S I S

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A L E E P O R T A B E L L A E R F J I

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BUTTONCAPFAIRY RINGFUNGUSGILLSHYPHAEMORELMUSHROOMMYCELIUMMYCOLOGYPOISONPORTABELLAPUFFBALLREISHISHIITAKESPORETOADSTOOL

Did you know that mushrooms are part of a larger group of plants known as fungi?

A fungus is different from an ordinary green plant because it can’t make its own food. Fungi have been around since prehistoric days. Remains of fungi have been found in dinosaur pits!

The Egyptian pharaohs (kings) reserved mushrooms for their own plates. It was forbidden for anyone else to eat them. They believed the mushrooms had magical powers.

The ancient Romans fed mushrooms only to their warriors because they believed mushrooms gave them god-like strength.

(From The American Mushroom Institute).

Search the forest floor carefully and you may even find banana slugs entwined in the DNA exchange dance. Photo: Allison Poklemba

by Allison Poklemba

Art And Poetry Contest

By the Ocean” Terrance Wang, Grade 7, winner of 2008 Coastal Art & Poetry Contest

All About Mushrooms

Find These Mushroom WordsPuzzle created by Sarah Marnick

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ECONEWS December 2009 www.yournec.org 11

New Dangers For Spotted Owls

Dioxin Cleanup Nearly CompleteWhile controversy swirls over the

proposed cleanup of the Balloon Track, a successful eradication of lethal contaminants is moving forward just down the road.

Cleanup of the former Simpson plywood mill adjacent to Eureka’s Del Norte Street Pier is underway, eliminating a major source of dioxin to Humboldt Bay.

The project is a result of a collaboration between Humboldt Baykeeper (HBK) and Simpson Timber Company to design a cleanup plan for the wetland channel that runs next to the former mill and connects to Humboldt Bay.

The plan entails removing dioxin-contaminated sediment and restores the area with native vegetation. The result will be a safe place for local and migratory birds and other wildlife, as well as a cleaner bay for fish, shellfish, and the people and wildlife that eat them.

In 2005, HBK discovered that although a so-called cleanup of the former plywood mill had been conducted under an order from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, it had only addressed the contamination from pentachlorophenol, or “penta.”

This toxic wood preservative was banned in the 1980s due to extremely toxic components that were known to cause cancer and birth defects in humans and wildlife.

But there had been no tests for other dangerous and much longer-lasting contaminants, such as the suite of compounds known as dioxins and furans. HBK knew from past experience with penta that these sites are invariably contaminated with dioxins, and that wherever penta was used, dioxins are sure to be found. Despite this fact, the Regional Board had signed off on a cleanup that had looked for penta alone.

In 2006 HBK collected sediment samples from the channel and was stunned to find dioxin in

the sediments as high as 89,000 TEQ (or “toxic equivalent quotient,” a concept used to create a comparative baseline for toxic contaminants). HBK

notified Simpson Timber of these sampling results and filed an action against them for violations of federal environmental laws.

Later that year, HBK and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics filed suit against Simpson in order to require the cleanup of the dioxin and furan contamination in the wetland channel adjacent to Humboldt Bay. At that time the property was being used as a Flea Mart. It is adjacent to the only public fishing pier on the Bay, where many locals fish regularly for subsistence and recreation.

As a result of their federal suit, HBK was able to get Simpson Timber to the table to talk about—and eventually agree to—a full characterization and cleanup of the wetland channel next to their property. In addition to the proper cleanup, a fund was established at the Humboldt Area Foundation to support other restoration projects around Humboldt Bay.

To get a glimpse of the work being done, head down Waterfront Drive toward the Palco Marsh—you will be able to see the cleanup and replanting in action.

by Michelle Smith

A group of conservation organizations, including the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) filed a lawsuit in November that challenges new rules that could cause harm to declining northern spotted owl populations across Northern California.

The suit takes on both California’s Board of Forestry and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFire). The groups claim that the Board of Forestry’s newly adopted rules illegally authorize CALFire to allow timber corporation employees to determine whether or not logging plans would result in spotted owl habitat destruction.

With the new rules, CALFire can determine “take” and “take avoidance” of northern spotted owls. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) defines “take” as an action that would directly or indirectly harm the federally threatened northern spotted owl, or its habitat.

“This is regulatory overreach,” said Natalynne DeLapp, policy associate for EPIC. “CALFire has neither the biological expertise nor the legal jurisdiction to make these determinations.” Under the ESA, only California’s Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) or US Fish and Wildlife Service may determine whether “take” may occur or be avoided.

By passing these rules, the Board of Forestry replaced the agencies authorized to evaluate impacts on endangered species with private contractors, who could be influenced by their employers in their findings.

“In order to secure adequate protections for northern spotted owl habitat, an owl biologist must possess

sufficient independence and authority to be able to clearly state where threats to habitat may exist, without fear of retaliation or their future employment,” said Scott Greacen, executive director of EPIC. “These new rules create an egregious conflict of interest and represent a failure by the Board of Forestry to protect California’s wildlife resources.”

Northern spotted owls continue to decline across the Pacific Northwest. According to the 2008 Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan, surveyors found that losses of NSO habitat are higher on privately owned lands [than federal lands] and that populations are “declining at an average rate of 3.7 percent per year across their whole range.”

“We need impartial biological assessments to protect and restore declining spotted owl populations, now – not after a lengthy legal process,” said DeLapp. “We would like to see the US Fish and Wildlife Service re-engage with the Board of Forestry and CALFire to create regulations that would fully protect this imperiled species.”

In July EPIC won a very similar case against the CDFG and the Board of Forestry. The Court struck down a series of regulations passed by the Board, because they allowed CALFire to determine “take avoidance” of coho salmon.

By Kerul Dyer

Balloon Track continued from page 1

on a major project that has the potential to significantly impact our environment – in this case Humboldt Bay.

Coastal Wetland Rules IgnoredIn early November, the City approved CUE VI’s

Coastal Development Permit (CDP) application for the completion of the SIRAP on the Balloon Track.

Under the Coastal Act, local agencies such as the City of Eureka are granted authority over development within the Coastal Zone, so long as they follow state and federal rules governing these lands. The Coastal Act and the City’s own requirements for coastal development have specific prohibitions on development within sensitive areas such as wetlands and other “Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas,” known as ESHAs.

In this case, the City violated its own rules and made a unilateral decision that none of the wetlands or Clark Slough were ESHAs, approving the permit without admitting that the impacts to the slough and wetlands need to be addressed.

The NEC, Humboldt Baykeeper, and EPIC again raised concerns about this blatant disregard for local, state, and federal environmental laws, and are appealing the City’s decision to the Coastal Commission.

The Ballon Track cleanup plan is flawed, and could result in toxins entering the Bay. We cannot allow such harm to our environment to continue unchallenged, especially when it is done in clear violation of existing laws.

Baby spotted owl. Photo: Noel Soucy

Kerul Dyer has been active in forest defense since 1989. She cofounded the Oxygen Collective, which worked extensively to educate the public about controversial logging plans

Hazardous waste contractors remove contaminated soil adjacent to the site where plywood was sprayed with a pentachlorophenol mixture that contaminated the wetland channel. Superfund levels of dioxin were found in the channel, which is hydrologically connected to Humboldt Bay and Palco Marsh.” Photo: Michelle Smith

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December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org12

Life Form of the Month

The Pacific giant salamander (Dicamptodontidae), an elusive and secretive reptile, is predominately active at night when it hunts for small aquatic animals like tadpoles and caddis flies. It quickly lunges at its prey and engulfs the whole body with one bite.

This predator is the largest of the United States salamander species. It can be nearly 13 inches long, but most reach a length of between 10 and 12 inches.

The salamander has four toes on the front feet and five toes on the back feet, which make it an exceptional digger and climber in muddy areas. Its tail makes up close to 40 percent of its body length and allows the reptile to be quick and agile in the water. The head is narrow in comparison to the stout body.

This species can be identified by the dark, blotchy marbled pattern against light brown skin and a tan belly. The salamander has brassy colored irises and large black pupils.

The Pacific giant salamander ranges from the northernmost part of California, including Humboldt County, all the way to British Columbia. It lives in the damp underbrush of coastal coniferous forests as well as creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes.

During the day it often hides under decaying logs and in rock crevasses along bodies of water, which makes it both an aquatic and terrestrial species.

These reptiles can be very territorial and defend their homes by biting, tail thrashing and secreting

a foul-tasting substance from their tail glands. They are also one of the few vocal species of salamanders. They let out what some call a “bark” or “croaky growl” when threatened.

The salamander breeds in spring and autumn. The females migrate to streams and rivers and deposit between 85 to 200 white eggs that are either strung or clumped together. The female then aggressively protects her eggs from males and predators for about seven months.

When the larvae hatch they are about an inch long,

and they continue to live in the yolk sac for another two to

three months before they start eating and hunting on their

own. The salamander does not reach full sexual

maturity for five or six years.

Although the salamander mostly dines on small aquatic insects and animals, the larger, older species can eat small

mice, shrews and even garter snakes.

The Pacific giant salamander is considered to be a threatened species in British Columbia, where logging and land development have nearly wiped them out.

Salamander populations are stable in the Unites States and are not threatened. However, the salamander populations are still at risk from logging and build-up of silt in streams and rivers.

Troubled Economy Slows Restoration WorkBy Jennifer Kalt

California’s bond freeze last December dealt a severe blow to the conservation and restoration industry, halting an estimated $2 billion of funding allocated for already-funded projects.

The backlog of voter-approved bonds for conservation-related projects, school infrastructure and parks has grown to $60 billion. The freeze temporarily stopped 58 different Humboldt County projects with a total budget of $25.8 million.

Though the hold was eventually lifted for already-approved projects, the state’s budget crisis has left the restoration industry reeling, causing layoffs and even some bankruptcies and closures. Many are now wondering if next year’s projects will be funded.

Blow To New BusinessNumerous restoration-based companies and non-

profits have sprung up in the last few decades, and many were funded in part by state bond money.

Pioneering what has become a new science-based industry, local restoration workers, geologists and hydrologists focus on restoration of fish habitat through re-engineering of roads, removing fish barriers, replacing undersized culverts and placing instream structures to restore stream channels and deep pools.

These efforts are aimed at improving fish habitat, such as spawning beds that became choked with

sediment due to poor land management practices like clear-cutting and road construction on unstable slopes.

One state-funded program has completed hundreds of projects from Del Norte County to Southern California. The California Department of Fish and Game’s (CDFG) Fisheries Restoration Grant Program was established in 1981 in response to rapidly declining populations of wild salmon and steelhead trout and deteriorating fish habitat

in California. Through competitive

grants, the program has invested over $180 million to support projects from sediment reduction to watershed education throughout coastal California. In 1998, the program became funded through then-State Senator Mike Thompson’s SB 271, and in 2006, by Proposition 84, a bond initiative approved by the state’s voters to support water quality and conservation projects.

Funds SlashedHowever, the program lost about 50 percent

of its funding last year, and grant levels for 2010 remain uncertain. Though the program received proposals totaling $47 million, without bond funding, there will only be about $15 million allocated to these important projects, said Gary Flosi, Senior Biologist and regional program coordinator for the CDFG in Fortuna.

For every dollar cut, three dollars of federal funding are also cut, since federal grants require a 25 percent match from the state.

Last summer, a group of conservationists launched the Association of Conservation and Construction Workers (ACCW) to represent, support and advocate for conservation contractors and workers and the organizations that employ them.

David Simpson, a long-time restorationist and salmon advocate from the Mattole watershed, developed a survey to compile information on restoration workers across the state. Early results indicate that these companies and non-profit organizations have typically experienced 50 percent budget cuts, leading to massive layoffs.

Without restored funding for the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program and other bond-funded

grants, important programs such as the Mattole Restoration Council’s “Good Roads, Clear Creeks,” the Yurok Tribe’s Watershed Restoration program, County Resource Conservation District programs, and many others could face budget shortfalls, causing their restoration work to be severely curtailed.

Progress In Doubt“When you look at the 1941 and

1972 aerial photos, it is amazing that so much regeneration and hill slope stability has been accomplished,” said Simpson. But there is so much more to do, and without continued funding, the accomplishments of recent years could unravel along with the economy.

Since climate change models predict more intense winter storms, fish populations are threatened by increased erosion and landslides that deliver

sediment to already impaired streams. Summer drought periods are also predicted to intensify, further threatening salmonids that suffer from rising water temperatures and eventually are trapped in pools as streams dry up, leaving them vulnerable to predators.

California was once famous for the mighty salmon and steelhead populations that thrived in our coastal rivers and streams. A Native American cultural icon as well as major food source, salmon and steelhead are now imperiled by sediment from scarred landscapes and high temperatures caused by logging in riparian corridors.

Fish canneries that once harvested the bounty of the Eel, the Klamath, and other major rivers are long gone. After decades of abuse, and now budget cuts and bond freezes, can wild salmon populations be restored?

North America’s Largest SalamanderBy Kayla Gunderson

Restoration of a “Humboldt” crossing in the Salmon Creek watershed, Headwaters Forest Preserve. After removal of a culvert and truckloads of fill (Top Left), the seasonal streambed was reshaped to follow its originalchannel, reducing sediment delivery to Salmon Creek (Top Right). Photo : Pacific Watershed Associates of McKinleyville.

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Jen Kalt is the California Native Plant Society representative on the NEC board.

ECONEWS December 2009 www.yournec.org 13

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A city-sponsored mandatory curbside recycling program started up in Arcata on November 1. The program includes a weekly collection of recyclables as part of garbage pick-up service.

The new service will cost residents a minimum of $11.24 per month, plus a deposit for the required recycling bin.

Although some community members have objected, the city and the Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC) believe that the service will provide many benefits both to residents and to the environment.

More convenient recycling means more participation, which conserves natural resources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and saves landfill space.

Many community members have questions about the new mandatory service. ECONEWS spoke with Allison Poklemba, education manager for ACRC, to get the scoop.

Who exactly must subscribe to the mandatory service?The Arcata program applies to all people who live

within the city limits. The first stage began November 1 for single-family households. By spring, those who live in these multi-family units should have curbside recycling service.

What items can be recycled through the curbside recycling service?

Materials are collected in two categories: mixed paper and containers.

Mixed paper can include: unwaxed cardboard (no milk cartons or ice cream boxes), chip board like cereal boxes and tissue boxes, newspapers with inserts, magazines, and officepack – all colors of paper, junk mail, envelopes. Please don’t include aseptic containers like soymilk and juice boxes, or paper that has been contaminated by food such as pizza boxes, paper plates and paper cups. Egg cartons cannot be recycled because their fibers have already been recycled so many times.

Containers accepted include all colors of glass bottles and jars, #1 through #7 plastic bottles and containers (rigid plastic only), aluminum, tin and steel cans, as well as aluminum foil, pie tins and other formed containers. We no longer accept lids smaller than three inches in diameter, such as soda bottle lids. Larger lids like yogurt container lids are okay. Containers should be rinsed free of food and liquid.

Why can’t we recycle paper that has touched food?Most of these items have a waxy coating that keeps

them from falling apart when they get wet, but makes them unrecyclable. Also, stinging insects like yellow jackets are attracted to food residue and could collect in your recycling bin, and vermin can be attracted to the recycling as it sits at the processing facility waiting to be sorted.

We also need to minimize germ exposure for the sorters, which is why things like tissues aren’t acceptable.

What about other types of recyclables? Should residents continue to take them to the drop-off site?

Yes, because there are still some things that require special handling that people need to recycle or dispose of safely. We’re calling it the CHaRM now– The Center For Hard to Recycle Materials. We’ll accept things like appliances, electronic waste, fluorescent bulbs, motor oil – you can’t put in your curbside bin but are still recyclable.

What if a resident already recycles, composts, and takes their landfill garbage to the dump? Are they still required to subscribe?

Yes. The City of Arcata has a system in place for

exclusions to the mandatory program, but these apply to people who can demonstrate that they recycle or compost virtually all of their waste, or sometimes unique situations such as the home location making pickup too difficult. People can contact the City of Arcata Environmental Services directly to apply for an exclusion.

How do residents who currently don’t have garbage pick-up subscribe? And when is the deadline?

Call Arcata City Garbage to sign up for service, all residents should have received a letter explaining the process. I believe there’s a one-month window so people need to be signed up by December 1.

Are there penalties if residents don’t subscribe by the deadline?

The City of Arcata has a series of ramifications in place for people who are not participating. I think what will happen is that the property owner will be billed for the service, whether it is used or not.

Will paper and containers still be accepted at the ACRC drop-off?

It is a very expensive service to maintain. Once the city’s contract expires and we no longer have that funding, we’ll stop collecting paper and containers at the 9th and N Street site. The city has indicated they will continue to fund it until the full rollout of their curbside collection is complete. At that point we will pull the paper and container bins, unless there is some other funding mechanism in place. We are exploring options because we do realize that we service many people who do not live in Arcata, who will be impacted by the pulling of those bins.

What about those folks who won’t receive curbside service – where should they take their paper and containers if and when ACRC discontinues drop-off of these items?

The Eureka Recycling Center (next to the Transfer Station at 1059 West Hawthorne) is the obvious choice since people are most likely dealing with trash as well. There’s also Humboldt Sanitation on Central Avenue in McKinleyville, but Eureka Recycling accepts a greater

variety of materials such as #3-7 plastics. People who live in outlying areas can also check humboldrecycling.org because there are several small drop-offs in rural parts of the county.

Will ACRC expand its collection of other recyclables?Once the paper and container bins are pulled it

will open up some valuable space to expand out the reusables depot, mainly for building materials – windows, doors, cabinets and such. So there will be an added benefit for reuse activity.

Mandatory curbside recycling pickup has been in place in Eureka since the end of August. Has it been shown to be successful? Are more people recycling now?

I give a resounding yes to that. We expected that people would shift their recycling activity away from the drop-off site on West Hawthorne, but we’ve actually seen that collection there has remained steady. Yet we have a tremendous amount of new materials coming in through curbside collection. So, it looks like we’re accomplishing our goals.

What else does the recycling public need to know?People need to be aware that other humans are

sorting the recycling, and we want to be careful not to jeopardize their health by putting hazardous waste in the recycling stream.

We get buckets of materials like medical sharps, plastic tubing, IV bags, bandages, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, and bottles and cans that are still filled with hazardous liquids such as insecticide. Picking out these things is not only dangerous for the employees but it’s really inefficient for the whole process. When such items are discovered the recycling process must be stopped for several minutes. Up to 20 percent of a typical workday can be spent dealing with hazardous waste.

It’s really important for folks to dispose of such waste properly.

Where can people find out more?Our web site is packed with valuable information:

www.arcatarecycling.org

Arcata Mandates Curbside Recycling

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December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org14

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Robert Berg, D.D.S.

Eco-nomics with Dr. Loon

“If you find yourself chewing the memory card in your cell-phone to destroy any record of your misconduct, something has gone terribly wrong with your character.” So says an SEC enforcement director, announcing inside-trading charges against a hedge fund executive.

I don’t know why this surprised me, maybe because I hadn’t read the financial news for a month. I was on an island 1,500 miles north, in a town about the size of Arcata 40 years ago, with a tight-knit embattled environmental community. It may not be a majority of the island’s 9,000 people, but with a couple of thousand Native Alaskans, and roughly the same number of very large bears, wild nature still has a strong constituency.

It felt like I was soaking up wealth—along with health, two things we know are best together, and are always found together in nature. My first clue to this abundance was seeing four boat basins the size of our one. Of course this sign of wealth also carries the possibility of its depletion. For the first time the Yukon River salmon fishery was closed this year. Native subsistence fishing has also been drastically reduced.

The small environmental community, an island in a sea of Palinites, is also under siege by many forces familiar to us. After mowing down old-growth spruce for decades, the local pulp mill has closed, leaving the usual toxic legacy. But here they suffer the regular incursion of 2,000-passenger cruise ships, the kind our harbor commission drools over, which enriches the even smaller segment of the population that was closing up shops and heading south for the winter when I arrived.

But like an LA tourist in a remnant redwood forest, I was overwhelmed by the richness of what’s left. I was in the land of the potlatch.

“Wealth display,” the first anthropologists called it, then something more complicated: “total prestation.” Outwardly it’s a condolence ritual, one clan bringing gifts to another to console them for someone who’s died. This Tlingit ceremony was prohibited in 1904, but along with their language this central feature of their culture is returning. Their cultural wealth appears to have its source in the abundant natural wealth, and again this can be correlated with health. The Tlingit were strong enough to drive out the first Russian trading colony, and they retain some of this fierceness in dealing with public agencies.

At a hearing on a proposed clear-cut in the Tongass National Forest, a local fisherman, Gabriel George, referred to the source of this strength: “These lands are vital not only to our subsistence, but also to our sense of being as Tlingit people.”

Among the gifts of the potlatch are objects into which stories are woven or carved, connecting the deceased with particular places and their ancestral history. Native foods, likewise, are carried to the potlatch, and they also connect to stories and places that support the Tlingit sense of being. This is what “total prestation” means. The gift touches and renews the family, the house, clan, and the land itself. So people and bears and salmon all know who they are.

I saw a few dentalia shells in shops and museums,

but not the large ones that used to be traded down the coast to our end of the Northwest maritime culture. Traditional stories say they grew more valuable as they traveled, often stopping to name places and endow them with some of their value. The Yurok and Wiyot and other local tribes share that deep sense of belonging to a place, and a strong awareness that their identity depends on its well-being.

Like the potlatch, the shell strings carried stories, repaid the loss of a life, and re-tied (re-ligio, to re-tie) the knot between people and place. When miners and settlers treated dentalia like money, life became cheap and people’s character began to go wrong.

Sanity (sanitas, health) requires that we begin to re-connect money with wealth. It’s not as mysterious as the anthropologists make it sound. We do it even when we exchange dollars for line-caught snapper, or carrots grown in Orleans. The taste always improves when our food comes with a place and a story. It feeds our sense of being. Much more nutritious than a cell-phone memory card.

(The Gabriel George statement and other cultural insights come from Thomas F. Thornton’s Being and Place Among the Tlingit.)

Dr Loon will be taking a sabbatical from this column while he writes an economic history of Humboldt County. If he figures anything out, he assures us that you’ll read it here first.

Your Money Or Your Wealth

Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West, by James Lawrence Powell, 304 pages, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2008, $29.95

Some would say this is just another doomsday book. But others argue that is an important insight into the politics and science of the water system, especially irrigation and hydroelectric

power generation. Powell is the executive director of the National Physical Science Consortium at the University of Southern California and author of several books.

Using examples from the Colorado River water system, Powell cautions us about the dam-building mania of the last century and the three enemies of irrigation societies (and we have become one, according to Powell): salt, silt and politics.

While salt buildup was a historic danger of ancient agricultural societies who flooded their fields and eventually affected agricultural yields, modern societies face silt buildup due to slowing the flow of rivers and streams, and global warming which increases evaporation and reduces the river flows based on snow melt.

The politics of irrigation, reaching into the highest levels of government, complex and fascinating, paints

a picture of competition among river basins for the precious water, especially here in the West.

Dishing up a healthy serving of all these problems, Powell warns us that the future of our superdams – such as the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams on the Colorado River – is doomed to failure because of low water levels (and thus inadequate power generation), silt (which clogs irrigation systems and puts pressure on existing dams) and the politics of water.

Powell defines “dead pool” as a condition when the water level behind a dam is too low to spill water or generate hydroelectric power; or when silt buildup behind a dam causes the water to overtop the dam and collapse it.

Harking back to 1878, a report on the “arid states” of the West by John Wesley Powell, director of the US Geological Survey, predicted some of the problems that would result from westward expansion. The nine states that make up the various Colorado River basins were (and still are) locked in a struggle for declining water and increasing population.

Anyone interested in the current struggles connected with water rights, food production and energy generation will enjoy this book. Taking the time to study the maps will add to the educational experience.

An Epitaph To The Era Of Big DamsBy Joe Friedman

Joe Friedman has published articles on music and the arts, most recently for the Humboldt Beacon, and has appeared on or produced a half-dozen music CDs. He lives in McKinleyville with his wife Ann and teaches French at College of the Redwoods in Eureka.

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BAD BUSINESS, GOOD CLIMATE: Carbon dioxide emissions will decline by 2.6 percent this year, the International Energy Agency has predicted, the largest drop in 40 years.

The reason? Mainly the economic recession, although government policies also have played a part.

MOTORISTS BEWARE: Researchers in Germany have come up with an iPhone application that allows motorists to drive a car using their cell phone.

The iDriver converts the iPhone into a real-life equivalent of a video game controller, capable of directing a two-ton minivan, with separate buttons to accelerate and brake, along with a steering wheel that exploits the iPhone’s motion-sensitive capabilities.

Instructions are sent to the specially-rigged car over Wi-Fi, with the “driver” able to navigate from a distance via a live video stream from a camera on the roof. So far, the application – developed by a firm specializing in software for cell phones – is not commercially available.

GREEN MACHINE: The world’s first almost-waterless washing machine is being developed by the British start-up Xeros and may be introduced next year.

It relies on thousands of polarized nylon beads that stick to dirt and stains, leaving clothes dry and using 90 percent less water and 40 percent less energy, the company says.

POND SCUM POWER: A Florida firm has contracted to run a 4,500-acre site in China to commercially produce biodiesel from green algae.

The firm says the fast-growing algae can ingest carbon dioxide straight from the smokestacks of power plants, thus also lessening pollution.

Meanwhile in the German town of Penkun, the world’s largest biogas plant is converting manure – along with corn and grain – into biomethane that generates heat and electricity for the town’s 50,000 inhabitants.

SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT: A Japanese study of urban crows found that the crafty birds often drop nuts at traffic intersections for cars to roll over and crack.

What’s more, according to the study, when traffic was heavy, the crows waited for the “walk” signal before snatching their snacks from the street.

PENNY-PINCHING: The sex hormone testosterone causes men essentially to be stingy, according to a study by neuro-economists at California’s Whittier College.

They gave it to 25 male university students, and then tested their generosity through a simple economic computer game asking them to split $10 with another volunteer in any way.

Overall, the testosterone cream caused a 27 per cent reduction in the generosity of the offers – and a more potent variant of testosterone exerted an even stronger influence on behavior. In a linked study, researchers found that the hormone oxytocin, sometimes called the cuddle chemical, influenced generosity the other way, boosting it in the same game by 80 per cent.

FEATHER YOUR NEST: Australian researchers want to replace the petrochemicals used to make synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester with chicken feathers.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization says it has made fibers out of the tough protein keratin found in waste feathers.

WARMTH: Sweden is becoming the first country to allow companies to put “climate-friendly” labels on food products.

The firms must somehow prove they have reduced greenhouse gas emissions to earn the label.

STRESSED OUT: Australia’s cuddly koalas are dying of stress, largely because they are finding fewer eucalyptus trees that they depend on for food and water.

Their worries bring out the disease Chlamydia, a virus that breaks out in stressful times, like cold sores or rashes in humans. Scientists say the disease may be infecting up to 90 percent of koalas, whose population has already declined to fewer than 100,000 from historic highs of millions.

IG NOBEL PRIZES: Bras, beer bottles, knuckles and panda poo were among the winning subjects of this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes, an annual spoof of the Nobel Prizes sponsored by the magazine Improbable Research under the motto “first laugh, then think.”

Among the awards given at Harvard on October 1 for real research were:

  d the Public Health prize, for creation by a Chernobyl survivor of a dual-use brassiere with cups that double as gas masks, for the wearer and a needy bystander;

  d the Peace prize, for the discovery that a full beer bottle can indeed crack someone’s skull and, surprisingly, that an empty beer bottle is even more lethal;

  d the Physics prize, for learning that pregnant women don’t tip over because they have a more pronounced curvature in their lower backs than men, and so their bodies balance better;

  d the Biology prize, for the discovery that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.

  d for Veterinary Medicine, for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

  d for Medicine, to Donald Unger, an allergist from Thousands Oaks, California, for disproving his mother’s warning that cracking your knuckles could cause arthritis by cracking the knuckles on his left hand twice a day – but not on his right – for more than 60 years, without harm;

  d and for Math, the winner was Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, who showed how to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.

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NORTH GROUP NEWS

CNPS HAPPENINGSNews and Events from the North Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society

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December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org16

Beginners and experts – non-members and members – are all welcome at our programs and on our outings. Almost all events are free, and all are made possible by volunteer effort.

EVENING PROGRAMSAll programs take place at the Six Rivers Masonic

Lodge, 251 Bayside Road, near 7th and Union in Arcata. Refreshments at 7 p.m.; program at 7:30. November 11, Wednesday. “Just What Is a Rare Plant Anyway?!” Department of Fish and Game botanist Tony LaBanca will provide the answer to this question and many more, as he discusses what’s behind the mystique of rare plants, reviews some select rare plants of the North Coast, how they are listed and ranked, and the important conservation implications of their rankings.December 10, Wednesday. Member’s “Show and Tell” Night An informal evening for anyone to share photos, artifacts, reading, or food related to native plants and their habitat. Tell Ron Johnson (677-0147; beth@reninet.com) what you want to share. Participants and their topics include chemist Bill Wood on banana slugs’ relationship to plants, rare plant botanist Dave Imper on serpentine beauties of Ring Mountain in Tiburon, landscaper and poet Donna Wildearth on treats of Forest Highway 1, planner Stephanie Klein on

invasive weeds, and photographer, art historian Ron Johnson will present some stunning plant images.January 13, Wednesday. “CNPSers in Patagonia – the Southern Tip of South America.” Travel with renowned HSU botanist, author, and plant ecologist, Dr. John O. Sawyer to the rich, southern hemisphere rainforest where redwood-equivalent alerce grows, to the bizarre araucaria forest, to the continent’s southernmost forest, and to the spectacular, rock-and-ice Torres del Paine National Park. See Patagonian wildflowers, southern beech, surprising species in familiar genera such as Baccharis, Gaultheria, and Ribes, all in the land of condor and penguins. Please look for details on these events and watch for new additions on our website, www.northcoastcnps.org. Sign up for e-mail announcements at NorthCoast_CNPS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Join a native plant gardening discussion group at NorthCoast_CNPS_Gardening:subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

New Native Plant Publication: A Manual of California Vegetation, Second Edition, by John Sawyer, Todd Keeler-Wolf, and Julie Evens. This guide to California’s diverse plant communities focuses on conserving both the individual species and the surrounding habitat. The vegetation classification system introduced in the first Manual of California

Vegetation has since become widely accepted as the state standard. This completely updated edition has been expanded to include the following: More than 485 descriptions of vegetation types; 352 vegetation maps, descriptions of regional variation; detailed life history information; data on fire, flooding, and other natural processes; restoration and other management considerations; and revised and expanded lists of references.This comprehensive guide will be of interest to botanists, ecologists, environmental scientists, and natural history enthusiasts—a must-have for land-use managers and conservation planners. It can be purchased from the California Native Plant Society, Sales Department, (916) 447-2677, Ext. 204, or on the web at www.cnps.org.

Group/Chapter Election Coming UpThe following slate will be running for 2-year terms on the North Group Executive Committee, to begin in January: Ned Forsyth, Gregg Gold, Felice Pace, and Jennifer Wood. Watch for the next issue of the Redwood Chapter Needles newsletter that contains the ballot.Campers Learn & Enjoy Themselves “Thrilling,” “awesome,” and “fun” were among the adjectives used by the four campers North Group members supported to attend July’s Towering Trees & Tide Pools Camp near Orick. The children, aged 10-12, learned about beach creatures, dissected a squid, wrote stories, hiked through old-growth redwoods, studied a stream, and made and raced boats. Their essays described evenings of games, skits, singing, Native American storytelling, and munching s’mores around the campfire.NG Screens Ocean Acidification FilmMore than 50 people – both Sierra Club members and the general public – attended a free showing in October of “Sea Change,” a film about ocean acidification. The group’s Climate Change chair, Jennifer Wood, organized the session and invited Humboldt State oceanographer Dr. Jeff Abell to answer audience questions about this growing environmental problem.The movie follows a quest by a Norwegian fisherman’s son to find out about the problem of ocean acidification by interviewing scientists and journalists. According to the film, one third of the carbon dioxide put into the air ends up in the ocean. CO2 was once considered a waste product that the ocean could take care of, but it’s becoming more difficult to counter as the ocean becomes increasingly acidic. The lower pH is starting to dissolve the shells of tiny organisms known as pterapods, which represent the second lowest level of the food chain.A warming Earth changes both ocean chemistry and biology. “We are conducting an irreversible experiment on the one ocean we have,” stated one expert. “Ocean acidification poses an unambiguous threat to commercial fishing… If you’re a shellfish, you’re in trouble.” Coral reefs face another potential disappearance from the Earth (these organisms went when the dinosaurs went extinct and were gone for 2 million years).One filmed interviewee stated that the problem could

be solved through devoting 2 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product to cut greenhouse gas emissions; another opined that calls for alarm may be heeded too late, we are so close to the tipping point that the situation can’t be reversed.Dr. Abell stated that the ocean’s natural buffering could handle 350 parts per million of CO2, which has already been exceeded in the atmosphere. “The

rate of acidification is important because organisms can’t adapt fast enough,” he said. Abell believes the role of scientists is to make sure that people have good information and politicians don’t bend the truth.

Meetings & OutingsSat, December 5 – Headwaters Forest Reserve. This 11-mile hike is level for first 4 miles, passing through scenic second-growth redwood along Elk River. The last mile is a steep climb through old growth. Carpools meet at the Herrick/101 Park and Ride at 9 a.m. or trailhead parking, end of Elk River Road at 9:30 a.m. No dogs. By reservation only, call leader

Xandra, 707-441-0702.Tues, December 8 – Executive Committee Meeting. Discussion of conservation issues from 8-9 p.m., following business meeting from 6:45-8 p.m. at Adorni Center. Info: Gregg, 707-826-3740.Sat, January 9 — Redwood Loop, Arcata Community Forest. This 6.2-mile hike covers several internal trails through beautiful second-growth redwood forest. It features a 1200-foot elevation gain, drop, and gain again, for a steep hike both in and out. Leashed dogs allowed. Meet at Redwood Park Trail sign in parking lot off 14th Street at 9 a.m. Call leader Xandra for info or carpooling, 707-441-0702.

Tues, January 12 – Executive Committee Meeting. Discussion of conservation issues from 8:15-9 p.m., following business meeting from 7-8:15 p.m. [note new beginning time] at Adorni Center. Info: Gregg, 707-826-3740.Sat, January 23 – Headwaters Forest Reserve. [See December 5 listing above].

Top: Audience awaits North Group showing of the film, A Sea Change. Photo: Sue Leskiw.Right: Sven Huseby and grandson Elias on-location in California during filming of A Sea Change, the first film about ocean acidification. The award-winning film has captivated audiences around the world.

The Good News Page

ECONEWS December 2009 www.yournec.org 17

Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay pledged in October to reach “net zero deforestation” by 2020, largely by creating gigantic protected zones in the vast Atlantic Forest that stretches over the three countries.

Only seven percent remains of what once was almost 200,000 square miles of subtropical forestland in the region, largely because it has been cleared for agriculture and the growth of cities.

The Atlantic Forest is home to more than 20,000 plant species – of which 8,000 can be found nowhere else – as well as 1,000 bird species and hundreds of species of mammals, amphibians, fish and reptiles.

To preserve it, Argentina will implement new land-use plans, Brazil has promised to protect areas covering 10 percent of the forest and Paraguay has extended its own net-deforestation law to 2013. The countries also intend to introduce economic alternatives to people who depend on the forest for their livelihood.

The Atlantic Forest provides fresh water to millions of people and also is home on the border of Brazil and Argentina to the spectacular Iguazu Falls, which is taller than and twice as wide as Niagara Falls.

The pact comes at a time when experts say that, despite conservation efforts, global deforestation still is consuming the equivalent of 36 football fields a minute.

Halting forest loss has been identified as one of the most cost-effective ways to keep the world from runaway climate change, and the World Wildlife Fund has challenged global leaders to support a target of zero net deforestation by 2020.

The Internet Age may have brought more environmental destruction in the form of landfills overflowing with obsolete computers and gadgets, but it also has ushered in innovative tools for environmental activism.

An example is the outreach division of Google Earth, which offers resources and knowledge to nonprofits and public benefit organizations so they can visually tell their story to hundreds of millions of people.

One such effort pairs indigenous knowledge with the latest technology in an effort to preserve a 600,000-acre ancient Brazilian rain forest, along with the culture of the tribal members who reside there.

Chief Almir Surui, the leader of the tribe – which did not experience contact with the modern world until 1969 – recently visited California and spoke at the 20th annual Bioneers Conference in San Rafael about the partnership with the Mountain View technology company.

“Forests are very important for the welfare of the indigenous people and for the world,” Surui said.

Surui was the first of his tribe to graduate from college. After Googling his home in an Internet Cafe and viewing the stark destruction surrounding his tribal land, he got the idea of collaborating with the company. He traveled to California in 2008 to meet with Google Earth officials,

The Surui tribe included 5,000 members when it first came into contact with outsiders due to the construction of the BR-364 highway through nearby

Cacoal, Brazil. Within a few decades their numbers were reduced to 1,300.

Over the last few years, Google Earth employees have trained members of the Tribe to use Google software along with You Tube, Blogger, mobile phones and other technology to photograph illegal mining and logging operations and to tag those photographs with location information before uploading to Google Earth.

The high quality satellite images will now make it easier to monitor and defend the land from loggers and miners.

Since 1970, more than 232,000 square miles of Amazon rain forest have disappeared, a swath nearly the size of Texas. Another 3,860 square miles is predicted to be destroyed this year, taking it with it more biodiversity and cultural resources.

The Surui hope that the compelling visuals of the devastation of deforestation will enlist new allies in their struggle to preserve their ancestral home.

View images and learn more at http://earth.google.com/outreach/amazon1.html

Chief Almir Surui. Photo: Bioneers 2009

Amazon Tribe Partners With Tech Company To Save Rainforest

The brown pelican, once nearly exterminated by DDT use and hunting, has now recovered and is being removed from the federal Endangered Species list.

First declared endangered in 1970, wildlife officials are crediting the bird’s recovery to the 1972 federal ban on DDT, a toxic pesticide that stormwater runoff carried into the ocean where it contaminated the fish that the pelicans ate. The birds also suffered from widespread loss of coastal habitat and from being hunted for their feathers.

Now, more than 650,000 brown pelicans can be seen flocking in the skys across Florida, the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“This is an Endangered Species Act victory that demonstrates the great success we can achieve when we work together,” said John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation. “Maintaining that success will require confronting climate change and its relationship to coastal restoration and the species that depend on these important ecosystems.”

Conservationists caution that continued active environmental restoration will be needed to preserve this victory.

“The future of the brown pelican depends on the same strategies that will benefit coastal residents,” said Audubon’s Louisiana Bird Conservation Director Melanie Driscoll. “Pelicans and people need a strong, well-funded coastal restoration plan that will speed the recovery of coastal marshes and the barrier islands that are our first defense from hurricanes and their primary source of food and shelter.”

 Three Nations Vow Zero Forest Loss

Greenhouse Gases Galvinate Activist Gatherings

Pelicans Recover

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The international climate-justice movement gained some solid momentum last October 24, when hundreds of thousands of people gathered in 181 countries, to draw attention to the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The International Day of Climate Action, organized by 350.org and local activists is being hailed as the most widespread one-day political protest in history. More than 5,000 events took place that day on every continent.

The protest and rallies focused on the number 350 because scientists say that 350 parts per million is the most carbon dioxide that can exist in the atmosphere without further accelerating climate change. The current C02 concentration is 390 parts per million.

“That’s why we need a huge worldwide movement to give us the momentum to make real political change,” said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, adding that on this day world leaders finally heard from citizens and scientists rather than corporations and big polluters.

Local “350 Day” actions included a rally in Arcata’s Redwood Park, where participants formed themselves into the number

350 for an aerial photo, and a bike ride and protest at Richardson Grove – where a highway widening project threatens to take out redwood trees in order to allowed increased truck access.

“The earth can heal the wounds of industrialized society, including climate change, if we give it a chance,” said Aliana Knapp-Prasek, who organized the Southern Humboldt protest. “Decentralized organizing efforts like these can help the community come together to address the global issues, locally.”

Activists at a rally in Arcata’s Redwood Park formed themselves into the number 350, as part of an international protest against rising greenhouse gas emissions. Photo: Kyana Taillon

December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org18

Since 1886, Arcata’s weekly newspapers have captured the town’s colorful history ą the wonders and woes, celebrations, calamities, milestones and always-interesting people, places and things that make Arcata the most intriguing city in Humboldt County. Now, in an unprecedented collaboration, Arcadia Publishing presents On This Day In Arcata, featuring stories from the archives of the Arcata Union and Arcata Eye newspapers. Using images from several local collections, On This Day In Arcata offers insights into Arcata’s history sometimes familar, often surprising but always as fascinating as the town itself. In On This Day In Arcata, you’ll read all about the installation of the statue of William McKinley and the Arcata Women’s Christian Temperance Union fountain, the opening of the Hotel Arcata, Minor Theatre and Humboldt State University’s Founder’s Hall and Behavioral and Social Sciences Building, the creation of the iconic Humboldt Honey and the fires that have changed Arcata through the years, plus the scandalous deliberations of Arcata’s Spinsters’ Matrimonial Club, and more! Compiled by Arcata Eye editor Kevin Hoover, author of The Police Log: True Crime and More in Arcata, California, and The Police Log II: The Nimrod Imbroglios, On This Day In Arcata connects Arcata’s past and present, bringing history to life as never before. Available at stores locally.

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A coalition of tribes, conservationists and fishing groups sued the state of California in October, hoping to block a proposal that strips endangered species protections from threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River watershed.

The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) proposes to issue Watershed-Wide Incidental Take Permits (ITPs) which could destroy habitat in the Shasta and Scott rivers, two of the Klamath’s key salmon spawning tributaries.

The permits would allow illegal dams, water withdrawals, and livestock grazing in streambeds to continue unchecked. ITPs for coho salmon are required under the California Endangered Species Act because of the species’ status as threatened.

“These proposed permits are essentially licenses to kill salmon,” said Erica Terence of Klamath Riverkeeper, lead plaintiff on the case. “With conditions deteriorating for fish every year on the Scott and Shasta, CDFG should be proposing programs that expand protections for fish, not destroy them as these watershed-wide permits would do.”

While local officials blame lack of rain for this year’s record low flows in the Scott and Shasta rivers, peer-reviewed science shows that steadily increasing irrigation withdrawals are largely to blame for no-flow and record low-flow conditions in these rivers.

California currently issues individual permits to allow farmers and ranchers to continue lawful use of these rivers while threatened salmon are present, as long as their activities do not jeopardize fish survival and efforts are made to mitigate harm.

But in the Scott and Shasta, the agency is planning a blanket waiver for all farming activities – without first determining whether any activities are harmful to salmon or even illegal.

The program could also be replicated by CDFG in watersheds throughout the state.

If you’re planning on air travel this holiday season, Google wants to help you offset your climate impact by using their free airport wi-fi service.

Google’s Free Holiday Wi-Fi program provides holiday travelers with free Wi-Fi in 47 of the nation’s airports, including Seattle, Sacramento and Portland, through January 15. Once logged in, travelers can make a donation to the nonprofit Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which Google will match up to $250,000.

“We encourage all air travelers to use the free Wi-Fi access to learn more about Climate Savers Computing, and to download one of our free PC Power Management tools,” said Lorie Wigle, president of Climate Savers Computing, an

international nonprofit committed to reducing IT-related energy consumption.

“You’ll immediately reduce the carbon footprint of your computer, and if you make a donation, you will help us bring power management to more people, reducing their carbon footprint too,” she said.

By participating, travelers can join the organization’s efforts to move toward a clean, sustainable economy through energy-efficient computing. For example, funds will help the organization deliver tools for reducing energy consumption to college and university students.

More information about the free Wi-Fi networks, including a full list of participating airports, is available at www.freeholidaywifi.com.

Top country music artists have joined forces with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Gibson Foundation to launch the “Music Saves Mountains” campaign aimed at protecting the mountains of Appalachia from mountaintop removal.

The musicians include Emmylou Harris, KKid Rock, Sheryl Crow and more. All were present at a November fundraising event, held in Nashville, to kick off this campaign to protect the local mountains from destructive coal mining practices.

“We must join together with one voice to send the message that we will not sit idly by while our mountains and our inspiration are being blown apart,” said Harris. “Together, our music can save mountains.”

Mountaintop removal, an extreme form of strip mining that extracts coal with explosives, literally blows up ridgelines to provide easy access to thin coal seams below. Leftover rock, rubble and mining waste is dumped into valley streams below.

“Rarely does an environmental issue hit home as close as the issue of mountaintop removal does for country music,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., senior attorney with NRDC. “This campaign aims to protect these mountains so that they may inspire music for generations to come.”

Visit MusicSavesMountains.org to learn more about mountaintop removal, see what participating musicians are doing to protect the Appalachians, and find out what you can do to help end this devastating practice.

Singing For The MountainsThe dewatered Scott River winds through

agricultral fields. Photo: Klamath River-keeper, Lighthawk

Emmy Lou Harris speaks out against mountaintop removal.

Coalition Sues For Salmon

Airport Wi-Fi Service Helps Climate

All those interested in our fungal friends are invited on a free hike to observe forest fungi on Sunday, December 13 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The hike is presented by the Humboldt Bay Mycological Society and the City of Arcata.

Participants will explore the Jacoby Creek Forest to locate and observe mushrooms and other fungi. To join the hike, meet in the parking lot near Round Table Pizza at the Uniontown Shopping Center, 600 F Street, at 9 a.m. to carpool to Jacoby Creek Forest.

Tour leader Scott Davison will share some of his findings from a three-year research project he has conducted inventorying the fungi in the Jacoby Creek and Arcata Community Forests.

Hikers are encouraged to bring rain gear, water and lunch as well as wear appropriate hiking shoes for this moderate hike. A picnic will follow the hike if weather allows.

For more information call the City of Arcata Environmental Services Department at 822-8184 or eservices@cityofarcata.org.

Mushroom Hike

10-Month Herbal Studies ProgramFebruary - November 2010 Meets 1 Weekend a Month

Dandelion Herbal Center Beginning with Herbswith Jane Bothwell

January 13 - March 10, 20108 Wednesday Evenings • 7:00-9:30 pm at Moonrise Herbs • Plus 2 Herb Walks

Dandelion Herbal Center • janeb@arcatanet.com

Register Online or Call 707-442-8157www.dandelionherb.com

ECONEWS December 2009 www.yournec.org 19

• FOD Humboldt Coastal Nature

Center Restoration, Meet at 220

Stamps Lane in M

anila, 9:30 a.m.

Info: 444-1397

SundayMonday

TuesdayWednesday

ThursdayFriday

Saturday1

23

67

89

10

1314

1518

1617

19

2021

2223

Upcoming Events In January

• Jan. 9- North Group Sierra Club(NGSC) Redwood Loop, Arcata Comm

unity Forest

Hike. Info: 441-0702• Jan. 13 - CNPSers in Patagonia – the Southern Tip of South Am

erica.

Info: www.northcoastcnps.org• Jan. 12- NGSC Executive Com

mittee M

eeting, 7-8:15 p.m.. Info: 826-3740

• Jan. 19- Mesm

erizing Marine M

amm

als, 7 p.m. BLM

King Range Office.

Info: 986-5411• Feb. 13- W

inter Plant Hike, 11 a.m.- 3 p.m

. Nadelos Campground. Info: 986-5411

EcoNews Report,

1:30 p.m.

KHSU FM 90.5

EcoNews Report,

1:30 p.m.

KHSU FM 90.5

• Friends of the Dunes (FOD)Little River State Beach Restoration, 9:30 a.m

. Info: 444-1397• FOD Lanphere Dunes Guided W

alk, Pacific Union School at 10 a.m.

Info: 444-1397• NGSC Headw

aterS Forest Reserve Hike. Info: 441-0702

• North Group Sierra Club Executive Com

mittee M

eeting and Public Discussion, M

eet at Adorni Center, 5:30 p.m

. ExCom M

eeting8 p.m

. Public Discussion Info: Gregg 826-3740

• California Native Plant Society (CNPS), M

ember’s “Show

and Tell” Night, Info: 677-0147

EcoNews Report,

1:30 p.m.

KHSU FM 90.5

• FOD Manila Dunes Restoration,

9:30 a.m. Info: 444-1397

• FOD Manila Dunes Guided W

alk, 10 a.m

. Info: 444-1397

Kwanzaa24

25

January 1

26

January 227

2829

3031

• FOD Property Tour, Meet at 220

Stamps Lane in M

anila, 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Info: 444-1397M

ushroom Hike In Jacoby Creek Forest

9 a.m.-2p.m

. Info: 822-8184 oreservices@cityofarcata.org.

Arts! Arcata Jacoby Storehouse, 6 to 9 p.m

. Info: 822-6918

Hanukkah (begins at sundown)

DAILY C

ALEND

AR• Redw

ood National and State Parks call 464-6101 for road, trail and campground info.

Centers open daily in Crescent City 465-7306. Prairie Creek, Jedediah Smith, and Kuchel.

Call for times.

• Every Saturday Friends of Arcata Marsh tours of Arcata M

arsh or Wastew

ater

Treatment Plant at 2 p.m

. Info: 826-2359• Every Saturday Redw

ood Audubon Society’s free field trips of the Arcata Marsh and

Wildlife Sanctuary at 8:30 a.m

. at Klopp Lake Parking Lot. • Arcata Com

munity Recycling Center open 9 a.m

. to 5 p.m. daily.

Info: 822-4542• Eureka Com

munity Recycling Center open 9 a.m

. daily. Info: 442-2541, For m

ore recycling options visit www.humboldtrecycling.org

• Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center, 569 South G St. Hours: Tues.-Sun. 9 a.m

. to 5 p.m.,

Mon. 1 to 5 p.m

. Info: 826-2359• Every Tuesday “The Environm

ental Show,” KMUD-FM

, 91.1(88.3 FM Arcata) at 7 p.m

.• County Hazardous W

aste facility open every Saturday from 9 a.m

. to 2 p.m.

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NWWashington, D.C. 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111Switchboard: 202-456-1414

www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

Senator Barbara BoxerWashington, D.C.

112 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510202-224-3553 or 415-403-0100 boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/

index.cfm

Senator Dianne FeinsteinUnited States Senate

331 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510Phone: 202-224-3841 or

415-393-0707 feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.

cfm?FuseAction=ContactUS.EmailMe

Congressman M

ike Thom

pson231 Cannon Offi

ce BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515Phone: 202-225-3311317 3rd Street, Suite 1

Eureka, CA 95501Phone: 269-9595

mikethompson.house.gov/contact/e-mail.shtml

Governor Arnold SchwarzeneggerState Capitol Building

Sacramento, CA, 95814Phone: 916-445-2841

gov.ca.gov/interact#email

Assemblym

an Wesley Chesbro

State CapitolP.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA

94249-0001Tel: 916-319-2001

710 E Street, Suite 150Eureka, CA 95501

Tel: 445-7014legplcms01.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/

ContactPopup.aspx?district=AD01&

Humboldt County Board of

Supervisors825 Fifth Street, Room 111

Eureka, CA 95501(707) 476-2384

co.humboldt.ca.us/board/

California Department of

Forestry Humboldt-Del Norte Unit HQ

725-4413118 S. Fortuna Blvd, Fortuna,

95540-2796Mailing Address: PO Box 944246,

Sacramento, CA, 94244-2460Physical Address: 1416 Ninth Street,

Sacramento, CA, 94244-2460

North Coast Regional Water

Quality Control Board 5550 Skylane Blvd. Suite A

Santa Rosa, CA, 95403-1072 707-576-2220 or 707-523-0135www.swrcb.ca.gov/northcoast/

about_us/contact_us.shtml

Secretary of AgricultureU.S. Department of Agriculture1400 Independence Ave. SW

Washington, DC 20250 AgSec@usda.gov

Environmental Protection Agency

www.epa.gov/epahome/hotline.htm

Air Pollution Hotline1-800-952-5588

Hum

boldt Bay Municipal W

ater District

828 Seventh Street/P.O. Box 95Eureka, CA 95502Phone: 443-5018

www.hbmwd.com/contact_us

California Coastal Comm

ission45 Fremont Street Suite 2000San Francisco, CA 94105-2219

415-904-5200710 E Street, Suite 200

Eureka, CA 95501445-7833 or 445-7834

www.coastal.ca.gov

Speak Up and Speak O

ut

EcoNews Report,

1:30 p.m.

KHSU FM 90.5

EcoNews Report,

1:30 p.m.

KHSU FM 90.5

1112

• North Group Sierra Club Bull Creek South & North Trails, M

ust register w/ M

elinda, 668-4275

New Year’s Eve

First Day of Winter

• Friends of the Dunes Holiday Party, 5- 8 p.m

. Info: 444-1397 or info@friendsofthedunes.org

• FOD Ma-l’el Dunes Guided

Walk, 2 p.m

. Info: 444-1397•Salm

on Spawning Hike,

10 a.m. -3 p.m

. Ancestor Grove. Info: 986-5411

45

Merry Christm

as

2010!Endangered Species Act

was signed by President Nixon in 1973

•NGSC Executive Comm

ittee M

eeting, 6:45-8 p.m. at Adorni

Center. Info:826-3740•Discoverying Phytoplankton, 7 p.m

. BLM King Range Office.

Info: 986-5411

December 2009 ECONEWS www.yournec.org20

E-m

ail

Nam

e

City

Zip

Address

Join the NEC and support

our conservation work.

In our fast-paced lives, the indispensable life supports like air, w

ater and wild nature are often

overlooked. Your tax-deductible mem

bership donation w

ill get ECON

EWS delivered into your

mailbox every m

onth – and allow us to continue

to educate and inform the public about crucial

environmental issues that affect this region and

our entire planet. M

ail in this mem

bership form, or join

online at ww

w.yournec.org.

Mem

bership Levels:

$20 Student/Retired $35 Regular

$50 Fam

ily $65 O

verseas

$1,000 Lifetime

My check is enclosed

Please bill my credit card:

VISA M

asterCard

Or sign up for a m

onthly pledge and enjoy the com

fort of knowing that you are continually

supporting our efforts to protect this region.M

onthly Pledge Am

ount $__________

Bill my credit card

Send me a pack of envelopes

C

redit Card #

E

xp. Date

State

Phone

Northcoast Environm

ental Center

791 Eighth St., P.O. Box 4259 A

rcata, CA

N

ON

-PRO

FIT OR

G.

U.S. PO

STAGE

PAIDArcata, C

APER

MIT N

O. 3

The San Jose school district paid $720,000 for a m

achine that was supposed

to churn out 800 pizzas a day. But because of frequent breakdowns, the

device has made only about 2,000 pizzas in the last tw

o years, which w

orks out to about $360 per pie – or $45 a slice.

What’s m

ore, the school district, conscious of demands for healthier school

lunches, has since taken pizza off the lunch menu. N

ow the m

achine is put in use only one day a w

eek, for Friday “pizza parties” that rotate among the

district’s 26 elementary schools.

That $45 can buy a San Jose slice, or it can be

more than enough to purchase a m

embership in

the NEC

(where pizza, adm

ittedly, is occasionally consum

ed). And it’s m

emberships, from

new

comers or renew

ing friends, that provide the lifeblood of your environm

ental center.It’s not only the cash, though that is vital,

but your mem

berships demonstrate the

strength in numbers of citizens w

ho care for our precious bioregion.

Our thousands of m

embers have been a

steadfast bunch while the center goes through

trying times, and w

e thank you. But unless you think that all our environm

ental issues have been resolved, you know

that the natural world

still needs its advocates – as the NEC

has been since 1971.

Whether it’s been forests, rivers and

endangered species or recycling, urban planning and toxics, the N

EC has been educating,

agitating and litigating for decades – often over late-night pizza.

So please give us a piece of the pie. And happy

holidays, too.

Get A

Slice

                 Of Y

ou

r NE

C

WA

NT

TO

MA

KE

A R

EA

L D

IFFER

EN

CE

?A

re you looking for a meaningful w

ay to use your administrative talents and skills? H

ave some extra tim

e that you’re looking to fill? Perhaps you are the person the N

EC is looking for.

As the year com

es to a close, the NEC

has restructured and brought its finances into realignment, and w

e are now turning our energies

to rebuilding our staff and conservation programs. W

e need an experienced person to help with these efforts during the next year.

We need help from

a person who can volunteer half-tim

e or more, w

ith some or all of the follow

ing qualifications: • Experience w

ith business administration

• Skills in helping people reach their potential • Interest and experience w

ith environmental conservation

• Interest in making a great difference to conservation on the N

orth Coast and K

lamath-Siskiyou bioregion

If this sounds like you - we w

ant to hear from you! Please e-m

ail us at nec@yournec.org and w

e will get back to you prom

ptly.

ECO

NE

WS

Vol. 39, No. V

I I I Decem

ber 2009A

rcata, California

Informing Th

e North C

oast On Environm

ental Issues Since 1971

Photo: ©Sam

Camp / cam

pphoto.com

Trin

ity River W

ater Grab

S

tory pages 4

-5

Also

Balloon

Track: C

leanu

p or Cover u

p?T

olowa D

un

es State P

ark Giveaw

ayM

ad R

iver: Use It O

r Lose

It?