Generations of northern Californians have treasured the Eel River for its fish runs and its recreational opportunities. Waves of sediment following large floods have caused fish runs to decline over the last several decades, but there are signs that fall-run Chinook salmon may be making a comeback as some parts of the watershed recover. At the same time, water quality problems in other places have become so acute that toxic algae closes major tributaries of the river to any contact. (read more)
Time to Demand Change: New Gold Rush Threatens Forests and Fish
With the price of gold reaching new highs, the lure of "gold fever" has proven irresistible to many, and U.S. Forest Service lands throughout the Klamath-Siskiyous are seeing an expediential increase in destructive mining activities. Governed by the antiquated 1872 Mining Act, which was written to encourage development and settlement of the West, modern public lands mining lacks even the most basic oversight and safeguards associated with other for-profit uses of public lands, such as logging and livestock grazing. Increasingly, the "anything goes" nature of the new Gold Rush has resulted in an uptick in threats, violence and violations of the few environmental safeguards that do exist. (read more)
North Coast Living: Citizen's Salmon Survey
 | |
North Coast Living: A 22-year Long Creek Restoration Concluded
Bill Eastwood and Harry Vaughn are men who take the long view. This past week, they put the finishing touches on an environmental problem that Eastwood says dates back to 1965. (read more)
Good Roads, Clear Creeks Program Update
The Mattole Restoration Council's Good Roads, Clear Creeks (GRCC) Program completed another successful work season this year, stabilizing an amazing 106,832 cubic yards of sediment which was threatening to enter the Mattole River and fill in the pools needed for salmon and other aquatic species. GRCC replaced and upgraded 41 old culverts with new, properly-installed culverts, installed 47 armored fords on seasonal access roads that were not maintained regularly, we also decommissioned 23 stream crossings, putting three different road segments to bed. Lastly, GRCC also completed several streambank projects, stabilizing over a thousand feet of streambank with a combination of bioengineering and rock work. (read more)
Sanctuary Forest
Sanctuary Forest's Mattole Flow Program continues to lead the way for our community and the land trust movement in the area of rural water conservation and protection of instream flows. The goal of the Mattole Flow Program is to maintain healthy instream flows for fish and people during the critical dry season. Since 2000 the Mattole watershed and many other north coast rivers have experienced a prolonged pattern of extreme low stream flows threatening the survival of endangered salmonids and the water supply of rural communities. (read more)
Welcome To Our New Partner: Friends of Small Places Targets Gravel Mining
Friends of Small Places is a local Northern CA organization concerned with impacts to rural neighborhoods and river ecosystems brought about by gravel mining and crushing, and asphalt and concrete production. Friends of Small Places (FOSP) was founded by Kristen Lark, Carlos Quilez, and Jessica Puccinelli when they realized how difficult it would be to prevail as individuals against the strong and lucrative gravel industry. (read more)
Watershed Restoration: Thirty Years of Progress
When I was asked a few weeks ago to "write up" some watershed restoration projects--how they worked, how they didn't work, problems, processes, successes, lessons--I immediately started to weigh the comparative merits of a dozen or so projects that might be good examples to evaluate. By yesterday I'd pared it down to three or so possibilities for this edition of Branching Out. But then, tossing and turning at various times during the night, my mind mulled over the broader context and approaches of "watershed restoration" rather than the myriad of details in any particular example of a current restoration or rehabilitation project. For a person involved in watershed restoration, like any number of people carrying out projects for years along the North Coast, there's a whole lot of background that gets "jumped over" by focusing judgment on a particular project. (read more)
Restoration Lessons from Ancestor Creek
Watershed and fisheries restoration is part science, part art, part engineering, and part sociology. Ancestor Creek is just one of the more than twenty tributaries to the Mattole River headwaters where Sanctuary Forest and its partners are working to restore the habitat of endangered salmon as part of the Upper Mattole Watershed Rehabilitation Project. Many of the successes and lessons learned from this project are seen in Ancestor Creek. (read more)
Seely Creek Watershed
Greetings from Seely Creek! (read more)