Salmon Forever

	Measuring stream velocity with an orange peel and measuring tape Photo: Clark Fenton

Salmon Forever was founded in 1996 to encourage enlightened, constructive public debate on issues related to forests, watersheds, and the beneficial uses of water. To fulfill this mission, we work with the scientific community, the public, and regulatory agencies. We also conduct scientific research using relatively low-tech methods accessible to community volunteers. A key part of our work is monitoring turbidity and suspended sediment. We also examine revegetation rates on logged-over lands, the extent of canopy cover, and the ?batting average? of certified engineering geologists who provide consultation about timber harvesting?associated landslide risks. We are interested in the mechanisms by which impacts occur and methodologies for cumulative impact analysis. (read more)

Human Nature - On the Road

Margaret Nazar and Jane Lapiner at Fish Camp - Arctic Red River Photo: David Simpson

A seat sale on an Inuit-owned airline finally enabled us Human Nature principals to parlay a small research grant into a long-delayed trip to the Canadian Arctic in September. The intent was to gain perspective on climate change for our impending production, Global Warming the Musical. Specifically, we set out to talk with elders who had lived many years on the land and could speak with authority about change. We visited five Inuvialuit and Gwich'in communities around the Mackenzie River delta; the farthest north was Tuktoyaktuk, on the Beaufort Sea, a large bay of the Arctic Ocean. The Mackenzie is the third-largest watershed in the Western Hemisphere (following the Amazon and Mississippi). The delta is a vast maze of ponds, lakes, channels, and rivers-more water than land-that drains north into the Beaufort Sea which is rendered shallow by Mackenzie sediments over most of its thousands of square miles. Framed to the west by the Richardson Mountains and upland tundra, the Mackenzie country is enormous, austerely beautiful, and almost entirely wild. (read more)

The Gienger Report... Diggin' In

The stream/gully leads directly to the South Fork Eel Photo: Dave Engel, Regional Water Quality Control Board

So here we are, the Fall of the year 2000, and what came of the issues that had our attention during the summer? What's it look like for this winter and in 2001? Of course, the overall issue of protection and recovery of forestland species and watersheds will continue for some years, decades, and perhaps millennia (if we're lucky). Getting down to near-term specifics: the last column focused, among other topics, on some heartening developments. These included progress by the Non-industrial Stewardship Forestry Group (NSFG) in developing broad consensus and alternatives for helping the small landowner cope with watershed and species conservation, and the regulatory process. The NSFG, initially called "the Fortuna Group", meets regularly with representatives of a broad range of interests. The group includes the Institute for Sustainable Forestry (ISF), the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), foresters working with small landowners and with non-industrial timber management plans (NTMPs), small landowners, Departments of Fish & Game and Forestry, and local state Assembly and Senate staff. Unfortunately the Legislature was unable to incorporate small changes agreed to by the NSFG for the California Forest Improvement Program, but a new session of the Legislature starts in December. (read more)

Gypsy Legal Fund: Lawsuit Goes to Court

	David "Gypsy" Chain Photo: Tigger

The lawsuit for David "Gypsy" Chain is set to go to court on March 26, 2001, in federal district court (Oakland). The trial is expected to last four weeks and the suit condemns the harassment and murder of protesters. Compiling evidence chronicling years of Pacific Lumber's abuse of environmental protesters, the legal team is conducting depositions of both employees and management. (read more)

Friends of Yosemite Valley
Friends of Yosemite Valley is leading the effort to protect and restore Yosemite Valley and the Merced River watershed. A new generation of commercially driven plans is threatening Yosemite, while bordering the park numerous corporate resort developments await federal land exchanges, public-funded roads, and other approvals. (read more)

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