Dear Friends,
Can you believe we are preparing to celebrate 30 years of protecting the Eel River? Many of you have been with us since the beginning, for which we are incredibly grateful. Some of you may have participated in Friends of the Eel River’s very first meeting in late 1994, our initial actions intervening in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proceedings, or helped acquire our nonprofit status in 1998. If so, please reach out, I’d love to include your perspective in planning our celebration.
Please help us finish what we started 30 years ago with a generous donation today.
Since the beginning, FOER has been focused on Eel River dam removal. We knew our moment would come, and now it’s just around the corner. PG&E is about halfway through their timeline for submitting a final license surrender application. Although they recently extended that timeline by six months, the utility claims the delay will not prolong dam removal. We are wary.
More concerning than this short extension of their timeline is PG&E’s apparent lack of planning for additional studies necessary to dam removal and restoration. A great deal of this work is falling on stakeholders, when it should be PG&E’s burden to bear. Dam removal is urgently needed to give the Eel’s native fish their best chance at surviving through rapidly changing conditions, but it needs to be done right. Decisions about releasing sediment, revegetating formerly inundated lands, and protecting habitat need to be based on science and facts, not convenience or cost.
We now expect PG&E’s draft license surrender application to be available for public comment in January 2025. Be sure you’re subscribed to our email newsletter to be informed of your opportunity to comment.
Speaking of doing things right, our staff have been forming new relationships and strengthening old ones while working toward a plan for the Great Redwood Trail that addresses the diversity of opportunities and community concerns. This trail is our opportunity to finally see the incredible mess left by the Northwest Pacific Railroad cleaned up. This includes both the hazards we can see on the landscape and in the Eel River – trash, crushed culverts, rail and rail ties, abandoned railcars, oil drums, and more – but also the less visible hazards like toxic pollution associated with the railroad and the timber industry it supported. Opportunities for restoration also include restoring fish passage to small tributaries and off-channel habitat, and fixing sources of sediment pollution.
But just as with dam removal, the Great Redwood Trail must be done right. When the railroad was built there were no considerations for cultural heritage sites destroyed along the way. The Eel River Canyon likely contains dozens of village sites. Native people must have a say in protecting and regaining access to those places. We all must help ensure that enhancing equitable access to the Eel River does not worsen the looting and destruction of cultural heritage sites that has unfortunately already taken place.
Finally, I want to share that we are still suing Humboldt County regarding the county’s duty to protect public trust resources like fisheries from excessive groundwater extraction in the lower Eel River. While we hope to never see the lower mainstem run subsurface again, as it did in 2014 and 2021, we know periods of drought will return. So we are working to ensure the County upholds its responsibility under the Public Trust Doctrine to manage groundwater use to prevent such adverse effects to surface flows in future dry years. We expect the case to continue into 2025 and hope for a resolution within a year.
The Eel is a river of incredible opportunity and we remain committed to realizing all opportunities for healing both the watershed and the people it flows through.
For the fish and for all of us,
Alicia Hamann
Executive Director