Land use plays a huge role in determining the health of a watershed. While logging, road construction, dam building, and livestock grazing wreaked great historic harm on the Eel River, today, summer water diversions and sedimentation from large-scale marijuana cultivation pose the greatest threat to the river’s native fisheries. With recreational marijuana now legal in California, Humboldt County, long a major center for its cultivation, is responsible for the development and enforcement of cultivation and land use rules that adequately protect fish, wildlife, and watersheds.
Changing Landscapes: The Eel River Estuary
February 6, 2019
Changing Landscapes: The Eel River Estuary is a documentary film in the making from film maker Barbara Domanchuk featuring a variety of projects aimed at restoring the Eel River estuary...
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FOER Discusses Cannabis Impacts on the Humboldt Chronicles
July 20, 2018
From the Humboldt Chronicle: In the July episode, we took a look at environmental issues as they pertain to cannabis cultivation -- regulation, compliance, best practices. Our guests included Drew...
Read More FOER Discusses Humboldt County Lawsuit on Jefferson Exchange
July 20, 2018
"When we're talking about the watershed impacts the impacts on fisheries and fish habitat and things that need our rivers and streams, the biggest overall by far is sediment production"...
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Defending, Restoring, and Enjoying the Eel River
July 11, 2018
Keep those Great Redwood Trail Act calls to Brown’s office coming! As previously reported, Senator Mike McGuire’s Great Redwood Trail Act (SB 1029) will dissolve the NCRA and prioritize non-motorized...
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Friends of the Eel River Demands Tougher Cannabis Regulations
June 6, 2018
Friends of the Eel River (FOER) has filed suit against the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors for failing to adequately protect our native fish and waters from the impacts of cannabis cultivation.
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FOER Comments on Hum Co Cannabis Ordinance Final EIR
March 28, 2018
Wednesday, March 28 2018 Humboldt County Board of Supervisors via email to SLazar@co.humboldt.ca.us Re: Commercial Cannabis Land Use Ordinance and FEIR Dear Supervisors; Friends of the Eel River (“FOER”) submits...
Read More Tribes, Conservationists Demand Tougher Cannabis Regulations
March 19, 2018
PRESS RELEASE Karuk Tribe • Yurok Tribe TRIBES, CONSERVATIONISTS DEMAND TOUGHER CANNABIS REGULATIONS Excessive Number of Cannabis Operations Threatens Humboldt’s Fish, Wildlife, and Water Quality Eureka, Calif. – Representatives from the Karuk...
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Humboldt, We Have A Problem
March 19, 2018
When I first started working on northern California’s Klamath River 15 years ago, the running joke was that there were two things worth talking about: kind bud and spring chinook....
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