Friends of the Eel River

Friends of the Eel River works for the recovery of the Wild and Scenic Eel River, its fisheries, and communities.

In 1994 our founder Nadananda organized a small group of dedicated Eel River enthusiasts to advocate for the river and its fish. One of our first formal actions was to intervene in proceedings of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This was the start of Friends of the Eel River and our journey to save the Eel River’s struggling salmon and steelhead.

This is truly a critical time for the Eel River. We have the opportunity to remove the two dams on the upper mainstem Eel. And we have some truly remarkable native fish populations with potential for recovery. Despite the stressors and uncertainties of climate change, scientists generally agree that the Eel River holds perhaps the West’s greatest promise for salmonid recovery.

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Friends of the Eel River Staff

Kanan Beissert

Administrative Manager

Kanan Beissert was born and raised in Los Angeles County, where a continuous drought taught him the importance of preserving our planet’s most precious resource: water. Attending Environmental Charter High School sparked his passion for the natural world, and in 2018 he moved to Arcata to attend Humboldt State University. He was part of the first graduating class of Cal Poly Humboldt, earning a degree in Environmental Science & Management with an emphasis in Education & Interpretation in 2022. In his free time, Kanan loves to draw, take his dog hiking, and sprawl out on the shore of the Eel River.

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Scott Greacen

Conservation Director

Scott Greacen joined Friends of the Eel River as our North Coast Director in 2010 and served as Executive Director from 2012 to 2017. He worked at EPIC (the Environmental Protection Information Center) from 2003 to 2010, ultimately serving as Executive Director. Scott is a member of the California bar and a cum laude graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, OR. His undergraduate degree is from Reed College, another Portland school with a disproportionate number of alumni active in environmental advocacy.

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Alicia Hamann

Executive Director

Alicia Hamann grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She was fortunate to spend her youth exploring the mountains, forests, and rivers of the greater Portland area. Alicia moved to California in 2006 and earned a BA in Anthropology with a minor in Business Administration from Humboldt State University. She was drawn to Humboldt County by the vast wilderness and unique communities. After serving as Administrative Director for Friends of the Eel River from 2013 – 2019, Alicia now serves as Executive Director. Alicia also has experience volunteering as a board member for several local organizations including SCRAP Humboldt, Big Brother Big Sisters of the North Coast, the Northcoast Environmental Center, and the Same Old People.

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Julie Weeder

Program Manager

Julie Weeder was born and raised in Michigan. She earned a Bachelor of Science with High Honors from the University of Michigan in Anthropology/ Zoology, and a Master of Science from Michigan State University in fisheries management with an emphasis on ecology and evolutionary biology. After working as a fish biologist in Maryland and Florida, she moved to Northern California in 2008 and was the Recovery Coordinator/Ecologist for the Arcata office of NOAA Fisheries for 17 years. Julie brings experience in many topics as they relate to the Eel River, including recovery and restoration planning, monitoring, and estuarine processes/habitat restoration. She enjoys spending time with her partner Dave, visiting their daughter Violet at college in the Bay Area, and creating wildlife habitat in her yard using native plants. Her latest creative interest is using natural materials as dye.

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Friends of the Eel River Board of Directors

Jane Arnold

Board Member

Years served: 2025 – present

Jane is a retired fisheries biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. She has experience working on water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, watershed analysis, environmental review, and permitting for water rights and lake and streambed alteration agreements.

Elaine Astrue

Board Member

Years served: 2019 – present

Elaine is a former technical writer in Silicon Valley, now retired and working part time as a bicycle and alternative transportation advocate. Elaine has experience in fundraising, community organizing, and organizational management.

Mike Belchick

Board Member, President

Years served: 2016 – present

Mike is a Senior Biologist with the Yurok Tribe Department of Fisheries. Mike has extensive experience working with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, most recently on Klamath Dams removal, as well as in fisheries biology, advocacy, Tribal relations and messaging.

Timothy Donaghy

Board Member

Years served: 2025 – present

Tim is a digital project manager and small business owner who has worked extensively with triple bottom line companies such as Patagonia, Orvis, Martin Guitar, Oboz Footwear, and others. Living in the Eel River Valley, he is happiest when spending time on the river fly fishing or floating in an IK.

Virginia Graziani

Board Member, Vice President

Years served: 2019 – present

Virginia is a former Board Member of the Redway California Community Services District from 1995 – 2011, and former Reporter for Redwood Times with a special interest in water issues and local government.

Drevet Hunt

Board Member

Years served: 2018 – present

Drevet is the Legal Director for California Coastkeeper Alliance. He has significant legal expertise relevant to both organizational management and environmental protection.

Mark Lovelace

Board Member, Treasurer

Years served: 2018 – present

Mark is the President for LPG Consulting, working with local governments to address regulatory challenges presented by the newly legalized cannabis industry. He is also a former Humboldt County Supervisor and his experience is extremely helpful in navigating the political landscape from an inside perspective.

Melodie Meyer

Board Member

Years served: 2025 – present

Melodie is a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo and is from Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Melodie has a law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 2020 where she specialized in environmental law, Federal Indian law, and tribal law and worked with Indian Law firms and environmental nonprofit organizations. Melodie worked for the Yurok Tribe focusing on enforcement of Tribal environmental laws, Klamath River restoration, Tribal water rights, and more. She is now the Conservation Attorney for the Environmental Protection Information Center.

Derek Shaw

Board Member

Years served: 2019 – present

Derek is a Philosophy PhD. and Lecturer at Cal Poly Humboldt. He has broad experience in environmental consulting and monitoring.

Some of our staff and allies after a great day defending the Eel River at the California Supreme Court

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Stronger Together

At Friends of the Eel River we are working to protect and recover the Wild and Scenic Eel River, its fisheries, and communities. To achieve this objective, we must approach our work with systemic equity. Because diversity is a core value for our organization, we strive to make our work inclusive by addressing the roots of white supremacy culture. This involves promoting diverse perspectives, fostering an inclusive environment among our leadership team, and increasing equity in activism by improving access to resources and information.

Specific Goals

Improve diverse representation among our Board of Directors
Work closely with Indigenous allies and support their projects
Accept funding only from institutional sources with strong Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion values
Invest in socially responsible banking and financial institutions
Use our communication platforms to create space for perspectives that have been historically underrepresented

Resources

Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture
From Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, ChangeWork, 2001

Kimberle Crenshaw’s Ted Talk “The Urgency of Intersectionality”
October 2016

I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet.
Published June 3, 2020, by Dr. Ayana Johnson in the Washington Post.

Building an Anti-Racist Environmental Movement Must Start With Us
Published June 26, 2020 by the League of Conservation Voters

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources from EDUCAUSE

Indigenous Peoples of the Eel River Watershed

The Eel RIver is the ancestral and current home to a diversity of native people, including Wiyot, Lassik, Nongatl, Wailaki, Sinkyone, Cahto, Yuki, and others. Native people in the Eel were subject to brutal treatment and their populations decimated in the 19th and early 20th centuries, yet today many people are working hard toward cultural revitalization. There are several federally recognized Tribes, including the Round Valley Indian Tribes, which is a product of forced relocation of at least seven different groups of native people in part by way of the deadly Nome Cult Walk. Below is a list of recognized Tribal Nations:

Wiyot Tribe

Bear River Band Rancheria

Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria

Round Valley Indian Tribes

2024 Annual Report

View .PDF version

Advancing Eel River Dam Removal

In 2024 PG&E said they are planning for the Potter Valley Project dam removal to be the fastest dam removal on record with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). They then announced a 6-month delay in their plans. This was all for the sake of securing broad stakeholder agreements on decommissioning, which at this point is heading in the right direction.

We continued with our Endangered Species Act cases against both FERC and PG&E, putting on the pressure to ensure that dam removal is prioritized, and that the project is better managed to limit harms in the meantime. In 2024 PG&E began working on a license amendment, which would add many of the interim protective measures we are seeking in our lawsuit.

Looking ahead to the future, we began assessing post-dam removal restoration. Using the Klamath as a model, if PG&E is really trying to begin dam removal by 2028 (an incredibly lofty goal at this point) they are already years behind in studying, planning, and preparing for restoration efforts like revegetating the Pillsbury reservoir. We are working to generate some of the research to inform their restoration strategy and create a regional collaborative process.

Leading the Great Redwood Trail Friends Coalition

The Great Redwood Trail is only opportunity to clean up the decades of pollution left by the Northwest Pacific Railroad, including blocked fish passage to numerous tributaries, failed culverts bleeding sediment into the river, toxic substances including oil, fuel, and other hazardous waste, as well as the great amounts of physical debris and trash along the right of way and in the river.

Our Great Redwood Trail Friends coalition worked to protect public access to the Van Duzen River and the future trail at Fisher Road, where private property owners illegally blocked a public road. Public access to long privatized wild spaces, and to the river itself, is an important benefit of the Great Redwood Trail and a necessary element of growing support for the magnificent Eel River.

We provided in-depth comments on the Great Redwood Trail Agency’s draft master plan and PEIR scoping, and we continued our behind-the-scenes efforts to ensure that the concerns of Indigenous people are being heard. In our engagement with GRTA staff we continue to emphasize that the Agency is held to the same legal agreement the NCRA entered into nearly 30 years ago to clean up their mess.

Protecting the Public Trust and Groundwater

Our public trust lawsuit against Humboldt County, challenging their failure to manage groundwater use to minimize impacts on surface water in the lower Eel, passed a significant hurdle in 2024. The court ruled the case could continue, despite the County’s motion to have it dismissed. We secured an additional expert witness and spent a lot of time and resources confirming that the data we have received from the County supports our claims about groundwater use and its impact on surface flows. By the end of 2024 we had a schedule for the case through the next year and a likely trial date in August 2025.

Keeping Water Where It Belongs in the River

Throughout 2024 we continued with three protests of applications for appropriative water rights, working closely with state and federal agency staff to ensure that these projects have appropriate conditions like bypass flows and other mitigations. We also worked with a team of super volunteers to elevate with California Department of Fish and Wildlife leadership our concerns about the lack of compliance with the department’s legal mandate to study and publish flow recommendations. Thanks to our advocacy, this work has advanced and the department is now preparing the recommendations based on research completed several years ago.