Category Archives: Environment

Articles, Community News, Curry, Economy, Environment, Local Government

Curry County Proposal to Take Over Management of Federal Lands Draws Overwhelming Opposition

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Pistol River in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. | Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service

A proposed resolution stating that Curry County aims to “invoke policing powers of the state” to “clear and thin undergrowth and to remove fire-damaged trees” on federal lands is not a takeover, according to its newest member.

Facing 17 north county residents who opposed the resolution on Wednesday, Patrick Hollinger said he and his colleagues hope to be stewards for lands currently managed by the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and other state and federal agencies. The proposed emergency declaration seeks to hold them accountable, though the Board of Commissioners said Wednesday they weren’t yet ready to approve it.

“We are the closest elected officials to the people with special authority under environmental and jurisdictional law to see these matters through to success,” Hollinger said. “We’re working right now on completely overhauling our land-use plan for the county, our comprehensive plan and our Wildland Urban Interface plans. The state and federal agencies, by law, are supposed to be consulting with the county on an annual basis in order for them to move forward with their plans. That’s not happening. That hasn’t happened in forever. We’re going to implement that going forward.”

Continue reading Curry County Proposal to Take Over Management of Federal Lands Draws Overwhelming Opposition →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Economy, Environment

‘The State Won’t Work With You’; Long-time Shrimper Says Lack of Infrastructure Is Forcing Fleet, Processors Out of California

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District

Randy Smith says he understands why Pacific Seafood shuttered its facilities in Crescent City and Eureka.

The same regulations the Clackamas, Ore.-based processor gave as its reasoning for abandoning Humboldt and Del Norte counties have also forced Smith and other local fishermen to land their catch elsewhere.

Smith, owner of the Mistasea and member of the Crescent City Commercial Fisherman’s Marketing Association, the California Dungeness Task Force and, up until last year, the Newport, Oregon Board of Shrimp Producers, said he bought a house in Oregon about two years ago because “I’m up there more.” The harbors in California are a place to park a boat and do some repairs, he said, but there’s no infrastructure anymore.

“You can’t blame Pacific Seafood for doing what they did,” said Smith, whose father was one of the first fishermen to work with the company when its CEO opened the Eureka processing facility about 39 years ago. “You don’t know how many pots you’ll get to fish with and you don’t know when you’re going to get to fish…. The state won’t work with you and Fish and Game won’t work with you.”

Continue reading ‘The State Won’t Work With You’; Long-time Shrimper Says Lack of Infrastructure Is Forcing Fleet, Processors Out of California →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Environment

CC Harbor Officials May Ask McGuire To Help Support Commercial Fishing; Crab Season Starts Jan. 15

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Crescent City Harbor commissioners are expected to ask State Sen. Mike McGuire to support Del Norte and Humboldt counties’ commercial fishing fleets.

The Board of Commissioners on Tuesday will discuss sending a letter to McGuire, who represents the North Coast and is the highest-ranking member of the California State Senate.

Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said he expects commissioners to discuss the substance of the letter and then he intends to reach out to the Humboldt Bay Harbor District to coordinate on a joint message to the state senator.

Continue reading CC Harbor Officials May Ask McGuire To Help Support Commercial Fishing; Crab Season Starts Jan. 15 →
Articles, Community News, Emergencies, Environment, Science

Cal Poly Humboldt Prof. Discusses Why Today’s 7.0 Temblor Spawned A 6-8 Inch Tsunami In Crescent City

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Map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

Lori Dengler said she wasn’t surprised that Thursday’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake only produced a tsunami that topped out at roughly 8 inches in Crescent City.

But, while Dengler, geology professor emeritus at Cal Poly Humboldt, is still going through the reports and is speaking with the media about today’s temblor, she said one of the outcomes might be a rethinking of how the U.S. approaches tsunami evacuations.

“The Tsunami National Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska has developed a template for if an earthquake happens here and it’s in this magnitude range, this is what we do,” Dengler, whose expertise is in geophysics, earthquake and tsunami hazards and hazard reduction, told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. “Because this earthquake was so relatively close to the coast and their preliminary magnitude was 7.3, it immediately triggered a tsunami warning from basically Santa Cruz to Central Oregon.”

Continue reading Cal Poly Humboldt Prof. Discusses Why Today’s 7.0 Temblor Spawned A 6-8 Inch Tsunami In Crescent City →
Agriculture, Articles, Community News, Environment, Health, Smith River

Smith River Residents Air Concerns About Illnesses They Say Are Linked to Pesticide Use In Lily Industry

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Marilyn Gray Wintersteen admitted she didn’t think much about what growers were spraying on the lily fields in her neighborhood until last year when it hit her in the face.

Wintersteen was planting flowers in her backyard on Ocean View Drive when she got a face full of spray from the adjacent lily field.

“My skin burned, my eyes burned, my tongue swelled up, I had blisters on it [and] I ended up in the ER,” she said. “I got from the back of my house where they were spraying around to the front of my house and bent over to catch my breath. I could not breathe.”

Wintersteen, a 35 year resident, told her story to the North Coast Water Quality Control Board at a town hall meeting at the Smith River United Methodist Church on Monday and to the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Both meetings, and a third at the United Methodist Church in Crescent City, focused on the Water Quality Control Board’s efforts to develop water quality regulations for Easter lily bulb production in the Smith River plain. Those regulations will be in an order monitoring and mitigating the impacts of copper diuron and other pesticides and fertilizers on the watershed aquatic ecosystem. 

Continue reading Smith River Residents Air Concerns About Illnesses They Say Are Linked to Pesticide Use In Lily Industry →
Agriculture, Articles, Environment, Smith River, Tribal Affairs

(Updated) Public Asked To Weigh In On Pesticide Use In Smith River’s Easter Lily Bulb Industry

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(Updated at 3:58 p.m. with a clarification about Monday’s public meeting in Smith River from the Environmental Protection Information Center.)

Conservationists seeking to eliminate the use of “highly toxic pesticides” on Smith River’s Easter lily fields want to give residents and county officials a chance to voice their concerns next week.

Scientists with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board also want to hear from the public as they continue work to develop water quality regulations for commercial Easter lily bulb production in the Smith River area.

The meeting on Monday will include a presentation from Water Quality Control Board staff on the waste discharge permit process and will give the public a chance to offer testimony.

Representatives with the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), the Siskiyou Land Conservancy and the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation will be part of that discussion at 6 p.m. Monday at the Smith River United Methodist Church before going before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors.

Monday’s public forum will be broadcast live on KFUG Community Radio, 101.1 FM — listen by clicking here.

“We are hoping that affected community members will come to each of the two meetings and help make a compelling case as to why pesticide application needs to be more regulated,” Josefina Barrantes, EPIC’s Del Norte advocate, told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. “We want both the water board staff and the Board of Supervisors to hear how the pollution has affected the community so that it can motivate real change.”

The Water Quality Control Board will also go before the Board of Supervisors at their meeting 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Flynn Center, 981 H Street in Crescent City.

The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a public scoping meeting from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday at the United Methodist Church in Crescent City. This meeting will also be held virtually. For more information about efforts to develop waste discharge permit requirements for Easter lily bulb production in Smith River, click here.

Continue reading (Updated) Public Asked To Weigh In On Pesticide Use In Smith River’s Easter Lily Bulb Industry →
Alerts, Articles, Environment

Severe Geomagnetic Storm May Light Up The Skies & Interfere With Communication Technology

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Graphic presented during a SWPC / NOAA press briefing regarding the threat of severe space weather.

The Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also known as SWPC, held a press conference on Wednesday October 9th to alert the media about a Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch. This storm was ignited by a Coronal Mass ejection that erupted from our sun on the evening of October 8th, 2024.

Video coronagraph footage from the SWPC shows the Coronal Mass Ejection alongside a coincidental photobomb from the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Comet

This fast-moving solar flash sent radiation particles hurdling towards earth, with the potential to envelop earth’s magnetic field causing a G4 Class or severe Geomagnetic Storm. This particular storm was analyzed and anticipated to reach earth on October 10th. Indeed the CME arrived Thursday at 11:15 AM Eastern Time, causing SWPC to upgrade its Storm Watch to a Storm Warning.

Continue reading Severe Geomagnetic Storm May Light Up The Skies & Interfere With Communication Technology →
Articles, CC Harbor, Crescent City, Economy, Environment, Infrastructure

Crescent City Ice Plant Closure Has Community Leaders, Fishing Reps Searching For Alternatives

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Pacific Choice Seafood is expected to cease operating the ice plant in Crescent City on Saturday, according to Interim Harbormaster Mike Rademaker. | Photo by Paul Critz

City, county and Harbor District officials are joining a representative of the local fishing community to find a solution for the commercial fleet’s ice needs.

Pacific Choice Seafoods is expected to stop operating the ice plant at the end of Citizens Dock as of Saturday, Interim Harbormaster Mike Rademaker told Redwood Voice Community News on Wednesday.

A mobile ice plant may be a feasible option long term since it doesn’t need much in the way of permitting to establish at the port, said Josh Mims, whose Community Food Council’s Sea-to-Market Project brought local seafood into Del Norte schools. The concern now, however, is ensuring there’s an ice supply available for the Dungeness crab season, which typically opens Dec. 1 on the North Coast.

Continue reading Crescent City Ice Plant Closure Has Community Leaders, Fishing Reps Searching For Alternatives →
Arts & Culture, Crescent City, Environment, Videos

Pollinator Palooza – 2024

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Join Redwood Voice’s Rory McCain and Ethan Caudill-DeRego as they travel to Crescent Elk Middle School to cover the “Pollinator Palooza” event, which was an event held on April 20th, 2024 featuring poetry, song, and interpretive dance all inspired by “pollinators.”

Environment, Videos

Klamath Promise Neighborhood: Seed to Supper Workshop Series

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On March 21, the Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands Community Food Council hosted the first class of their Seed to Supper Workshop Series. Through this in-person class, a handy guidebook, and 2 hands-on classes held at the Crescent City Food Forest, participants learn about each step of the vegetable gardening process in a matter of 6 weeks!

This workshop was taught by both Master Gardener Angela Gray and DNATL Community Food Council Program Manager Iya Mahan, who invited gardeners of all shades of thumb into the Family Resource Center of the Redwoods to go through Chapter 1 of the guidebook.

Redwood Voice’s Monique Camarena and Ethan Caudill-DeRego covered the first class of the series!

Thank you Iya and Angela for talking to us throughout the KPN Celebration week! To find out what the Community Food Council is doing next, visit: https://www.dnatlfood.com/

To learn from the Seed to Supper Workshop online, you can find all the resources on: https://www.dnatlfood.com/seed-to-supper-resources.html

Other resources that Angela mentioned: