Well friends, I write this the day after the election and two months after the birth of my second baby. As so many of us are, I am wrestling with hope and despair. New life brings such promise, yet grave new dangers face families like mine. Our work gives me hope. But hope must be fueled by action.
Friends of the Eel River has spent 30 years preparing the way for dam removal, the single most important restoration action we can take for the future of the Eel River. Our path to recovery may have just gotten rockier, but we are up to the challenge.
We have always relied on the support of our community to achieve significant wins for the Wild and Scenic Eel River. Regardless of the storms to come, we will continue to earn your support, and we will keep moving forward toward recovery of our magnificent watershed.
For three decades, Friends of the Eel River have played a critical role in mitigating the harms the Potter Valley Project causes Eel River salmon and steelhead, from reducing out-of-basin diversions nearly 20 years ago, to protecting cold water reserves today. We told decision makers how dangerous Scott Dam is years before state and federal regulators moved to protect it from seismic risks.
Now, we certainly cannot expect any help from a federal administration that has made its opposition to healthy rivers and environmental protection only too clear. But it’s not obvious the next administration will be interested in messing around with Eel River dam removal; the first version was, remarkably, fine with removal of the Klamath River dams.
Not only has Klamath dam removal now been successfully completed, but PG&E faces a dilemma with Scott and Cape Horn dams that is in many ways worse than Pacificorp’s Klamath challenges. The Potter Valley Project no longer produces any power, and has had its storage reduced, it costs PG&E millions of dollars annually to maintain and operate, and generates enormous structural and environmental liabilities. For the utility, dam removal is just smart business.
For our part, we will remain focused on protecting things that won’t rebound with the next election cycle. The Eel’s summer steelhead won’t come back if they’re lost because dam removal is needlessly delayed. Next year we expect to see significant movement toward dam removal. PG&E will file their final license surrender application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and we will advance the necessary studies to ensure that dam removal is done right. It’s more important than ever that you help keep us in the game, we need your support to continue our meaningful role in Eel River dam removal.
Our goals have always been long-term; revitalizing a watershed like the Eel doesn’t happen overnight. And dam removal is not the only tool in our toolbox. It is incredibly exciting to see decades of persistent work coming to fruition on a variety of programs.
The deepening threat to federal protections for our waters and wildlife underscore the importance of strengthening the parallel system California’s laws, courts, and agencies can provide. That is part of why we are seeking to extend the protections of the Public Trust Doctrine under California law to fish and wildlife harmed by unregulated groundwater extraction in the lower Eel River. Our challenge to Humboldt County’s refusal to act comes to trial next summer. If the court does order the county to require sustainable groundwater extraction in the lower Eel River valley during dry years, it will move our rugged coastal outpost to the forefront of California water law.
We’ve also put in over a decade pursing remediation of legacy impacts from the Northwest Pacific Railroad, now better known as the Great Redwood Trail project. We are working closely with a coalition of trail, transportation, and Eel River advocates to engage with the nascent Great Redwood Trail Agency’s long process of trail design and construction. Our support for the Great Redwood Trail is shaped, of course, by our unblinking focus on Eel River fisheries and our long history with the GRTA’s predecessor agency, the NCRA.
We are determined to uphold the promise that Great Redwood Trail development will finally secure the cleanup of rail impacts and debris that California citizens were promised decades ago. We will ensure fish access to off-channel habitat is restored, toxic pollution is cleaned up, and other restoration goals associated with the Trail are prioritized. Stay tuned for the release of the draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Report in the coming months.
Of course this project will take time, not least to ensure no further harm comes to cultural resources and sacred places within the trail’s footprint. The river belongs to everyone, but access has been largely locked away by private property surrounding the river for far too long. Restoring public access to the river must come with protections to prevent further looting and vandalism of places with deep meaning for indigenous people displaced from this landscape in previous centuries. We are committed to finding a respectful path forward for the GRT.
Friends of the Eel River is unique in that the health and future well-being of the Eel River is our singular focus. If you care about the future of your beloved river, please help us continue our fierce advocacy.
Keep your heads up, take good care of yourself, and please stay with us.
As always for the fish,
Alicia Hamann
Executive Director