Escaping water from a bladder used to store water for fire protection has fouled nearby land and run into the Upper Main Eel River in Mendocino County. As a result, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board reports it has fined the property owners where the bladder was kept more than $37,000. Penalty for … Read more
NOAA Fisheries’ absurd proposal to list 23 hatchery salmon and steelhead populations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). You have to hand it to them. It was a wildly creative and successful bait and switch—perhaps the biggest con ever played on the once wild west. The terms were simple. The public would okay the construction … Read more
HOGANSBURG, N.Y. (AP) — A century after the first commercial dam was built on the St. Regis River, blocking the spawning runs of salmon and sturgeon, the stream once central to the traditional culture of New York’s Mohawk Tribe is flowing freely once again. The removal of the 11-foot-high Hogansburg Dam this fall is the … Read more
Fall 2016 Dear Friends, I write to you on Wednesday, November 9th, the day after the election. The morning sun’s bright warmth does not diminish the queasy dread rising, like a cold tide, over what I had dared to hope was a better world. The letter I wrote you last week now reads like a … Read more
Two federal agencies are the target of a second lawsuit alleging they violated the Endangered Species Act by allowing up to 90 percent of juvenile Klamath River coho salmon to become infected by an intestinal parasite in 2014 and 2015. “Rather than taking action to improve river conditions to recover endangered coho salmon, NOAA Fisheries … Read more
Jon Holcomb is an old-time urchin diver with the leathery skin of a man who spends a lot of time on his boat. On a sunny morning in August, he motors out to a cove by the town of Mendocino, and squints across the water. “This was solid kelp,” says Holcomb. “When we first came … Read more
Abstract: We review and build on a growing literature assessing small dam removal outcomes to inform future dam removal planning. Small dams that have exceeded their expected duration of operation and are no longer being maintained are at risk of breach. The past two decades have seen a number of small dam removals, though … Read more
Heavy snow and winter cold settled this month on thousands of Native Americans and their supporters encamped on the banks of the Cannonball River, some 30 miles south of Bismarck, North Dakota. Nearby, the Missouri River slipped past. The river’s clean waters serve as the wellspring in what has steadily become one of the storied … Read more
Big Pot can come with big environmental consequences. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in lush Humboldt County, the Northern California enclave at the epicenter of California’s booming marijuana industry. The signs of pot cultivation in Humboldt are many. A view from Google Earth shows a forested landscape fragmented by clearings, roads, and greenhouses. … Read more
IN PALM SPRINGS, one of the hottest regions in California, precious groundwater has been depleted for decades to build lush golf courses, swimming pools and tract homes. Now the local American Indian tribe is pressing for a right to help manage that water. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which owns two casinos in the … Read more