Watershed advocacy group Friends of the Eel River has announced that Scott Greacen will be the organization’s new executive director. Departing executive director Nadananda will continue to serve on the organization’s board of directors and work on special projects.
Nadananda served as the organization’s executive director for 17 years and has overseen the group’s most notable accomplishments, including successfully advocating for increased flows out of PG&E’s Potter Valley Project.
”When I started advocating for the recovery of the Eel River in 1994 I never imagined we would have progressed so far, and yet there is still much work to be done,” said Nadananda, founder of Friends of the Eel River. “I first spent time by the Eel River in the early 1990s, and at the time California Department of Fish and Game officials declared the river dead. I did not accept that assessment then, and I don’t accept it now. The progress we have made over the past 17 years is proof that with more water, the river and its fisheries can and will recover.”
Nadananda first moved to the North Coast in the 1970s. After leaving the region for a number of years she returned to the area in the early 1990s, when she learned of the environmental damage caused to the Eel River and its fisheries by the dams that divert its cold headwaters into the Russian River.
What began as a study group into the health of the Eel River, supported by the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) in Garberville, soon evolved into an independent non-profit organization. Since its formation in 1995, Friends of the Eel River has successfully advocated for increased flows into the river to the benefit of the native salmon and steelhead that once numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Thanks in part to the organization’s work under Nadananda’s leadership, the 2011-2012 chinook spawning run is one of the strongest in decades.
”It is my great honor to accept the baton from Nadananda and continue advocating for the full recovery of the Eel River,” said Mr. Greacen. “I look forward to an ongoing partnership with our community and the board as Friends of the Eel River works toward removal of the Eel River dams and recovery for the river and its fish.”
Prior to joining Friends of the Eel River as North Coast director in 2010, Mr. Greacen worked with EPIC, serving as its executive director since 2006. A graduate of Reed College and Lewis and Clark Law School, Mr. Greacen is an attorney. He lives with his wife, two children, and a number of animals near Arcata. David Keller, of Petaluma, will continue to serve as Bay Area director for Friends of the Eel River.
