Questions swirl as carcasses rot at Lake Merritt and beyond. We talked to experts and explored 100 years of local fish-kills. by Natalie Orenstein and Darwin BondGrahamSeptember 2, 2022 Scientists are hard at work trying to home in on the cause—or likely causes—of the algae bloom that’s led to mass death for marine life. Credit: Amir Aziz “Mystery epidemic kills […]
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Exciting news! Rangers Josh Crosbie and Keith Gray recently observed a beaver dam at Maxwell Farms Regional Park. Beavers are important “ecosystem engineers” that help create habitat for other species. Beavers are also a “keystone species,” which means they have a disproportionately positive influence on the species and environment around them. Beavers help sequester carbon […]
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Wildlife officials and ecologists say urgent and drastic measures are needed to eradicate mice, a threat to island’s endemic speciesMaanvi Singh in San FranciscoFri 17 Dec 2021 A plan to eradicate a “plague-level infestation” of invasive mice on California’s Farallon Islands by dropping poisoned bait from helicopters has been approved by state officials. After hours of impassioned […]
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A controversial plan to poison rodents on the Farallon Islands is coming up for a key vote after years of debate. The federal government proposes to airdrop poison pellets on the islands to kill tens of thousands of invasive house mice that have wreaked havoc on seabirds and the local ecosystem. The islands are a wildlife refuge with the largest seabird breeding colony in the contiguous United States. In a twist, the plan has […]
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NOAA is announcing $15.2M in funding for harmful algal bloom (HAB) research projects throughout U.S. coastal and Great Lakes waters. HABs can produce toxins or cause other harmful effects that can damage ecosystems, disrupt our seafood supply, impact economies, and threaten human health. Marine and fresh waters of the United States are increasingly impacted by […]
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By Mary Papenfuss06/25/2021 The tule elk, endemic to California, died over the last two years, confined inside an eight-foot fence to a 2,200-acre portion of the 71,000-acre public seashore. The elk are fenced to stop them from competing for forage with commercial beef and dairy operations allowed on the public land. The elk are dying […]
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Will Houston | whouston@marinij.comSeptember 13, 2021 Fifty-nine years to the date since President John F. Kennedy signed the legislation establishing the Point Reyes National Seashore, the Biden administration approved a controversial plan on Monday to allow the park to kill some of its tule elk and to extend how long commercial cattle ranchers can rent […]
Read More THE MOTHER OF ALL GROUPS August 24, 2021, 11:03AM The misguided proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to scatter a ton-and-a-half of cereal bait laced with the deadly Brodifacoum anticoagulant blood thinner from helicopters, right in the midst of our Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, is unfortunately not dead yet. This controversial […]
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Olivia Rosane Aug. 25, 2021 Extreme heat waves have made this a devastating summer for the endangered salmon species of the U.S. West Coast. In mid July, California wildlife officials warned that almost all of the young Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River would likely die because of lower water levels and higher water temperatures. Weeks later, a conservation group further north shared disturbing footage of […]
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Warming temperatures threaten an entire run of Chinook salmon, which California officials blame on drought, climate change and a Trump-era water policy. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Facing another summer of catastrophic fish kills, California lawmakers and fisheries managers on Tuesday blamed a Trump-era water policy and climate change for the sizzling water temperatures threatening to erase an entire run of Chinook salmon. “We’re witnessing the collapse of this iconic species right in front of our eyes,” said state Senator Mike McGuire, a Democrat from Santa Rosa. […]
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By: SN&R Staff August 5, 2021 By Dan Bacher In an extreme drought year where nearly all juvenile Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon are expected to die before spawning due to alleged water mismanagement by the state and federal governments, the return of a record run of adult spring run Chinook salmon on Butte Creek this […]
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By The Times Editorial BoardJuly 26, 2021 The news reports about the California salmon wipeout got a good chunk of the story right: Record-breaking heat waves made Northern California rivers too warm to sustain migrating chinook salmon, and virtually all of the salmon in the Sacramento River this summer have died, or will die, before reproducing. Any eggs that were […]
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The Marin County Superior Court ruled that the county in Northern California failed to adequately protect coho salmon and their habitat in the San Geronimo Valley. Marin County originally planned to adopt a streamside conservation ordinance to preserve vegetation, maintain water quality and prevent erosion in 2007 when it last updated its countywide plan. But […]
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The Biden administration is doubling down on a plan to airdrop tons of poison-laced bait on the Farallon Islands near the Golden Gate to eradicate invasive house mice that have overrun […]
Read More Here we go again …. The Farallones “Poison Drop” is coming back before the California Coastal Commission. Richard Charter has created a new video, 1 ½ minutes, explaining the whole thing.sOn May 12, 13, or 14, 2021, the California Coastal Commission will decide whether or not to permit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to […]
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BOB NORBERGTHE PRESS DEMOCRATNovember 21, 2007 The fall run of chinook salmon started slowly on the Russian River and, biologists said Tuesday, it hasn’t gotten any better. So far, 950 fish have been counted passing through the Sonoma County Water Agency’s fish ladder near Forestville, which would make this year the smallest run in the […]
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Rooted in Roman law, the public trust doctrine recognizes the public right to many natural resources including “the air, running water, the sea and its shore.”
The public trust doctrine requires the sovereign, or state, to hold in trust designated resources for the benefit of the people. Traditionally, the public trust applied to commerce and fishing in navigable waters, but its uses were expanded in California in 1971 to include fish, wildlife, habitat and recreation. […]
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The danger lurks in California, too Kurtis AlexanderDec. 3, 2020 Pacific Salmon | Species | WWF Rodeo Creek in Hercules is one of four Bay Area waterways where scientists found lethal levels of 6PPD-quinone, which researchers say is killing salmon. Paul Kuroda / Special to The ChronicleScientists in the Pacific Northwest say they’ve solved a […]
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Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife December 15, 2020 By Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute In December 2019, at the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s annual Assembly of States Parties in the Hague, the Pacific island state of Vanuatu made an audacious proposal: Make ecocide—the destruction of nature—an international crime. “An amendment of the Rome Statute could criminalize […]
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Dec. 3, 2020 Scientists in the Pacific Northwest say they’ve solved a long-running mystery behind the region’s dying salmon, a discovery that may explain what’s harming fish elsewhere around the globe, including California. In research published Thursday, a team of university and government scientists identify a toxic material derived from tire treads that is washing […]
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Felta Creek The logging plan known as Fox Meadows includes critical sections of Felta Creek, known as the last refugia for Coho Salmon. This property was purchased by a land developer for investment purposes and had many previous violations with local jurisdictions. A group formed, Friends of Felta Creek, that elicited help from Forest Unlimited, […]
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Enforceable transparency and analysis to replace years of failure to comply with existing water quality and flow standards. SACRAMENTO, California — Three California environmental nonprofits secured a landmark settlement agreement with the California State Water Resources Control Board to uphold the common law Public Trust Doctrine and other legal protections for imperiled fish species in […]
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I am a ghost of coho salmons past, once born and raised in Dutch Bill Creek, below Occidental. My last reported sighting there was in the 1960’s. I speak for all salmon and wildlife species not able to attend your meetings. Do you realize that as public servants and supposed stewards of the Russian River […]
Read MoreCalifornia Appellate Court Upholds Water Board’s Broad Drought Response Authority California’s Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District recently upheld the State Water Resources Control Board’s temporary emergency drought response regulations–enacted in 2014-15–as well as related curtailment orders the Board issued to specific water users to implement those regulations. In doing so, the Water […]
Read MoreRyan Burns / Wednesday, May 13 @ 11:10 a.m. / News In a major development for both water rights and the environment on the North Coast, an unlikely coalition of five regional entities today filed a plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to take over the Potter Valley Project, a hydroelectric facility that […]
Read MoreOfficial release from the Two-Basin Partnership Santa Rosa, Calif. – Today, five diverse entities jointly proposed an ambitious plan to advance restoration of Eel River fisheries while maintaining water security for Russian River basin water users. The Feasibility Study Report (Report) Project Plan was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the next […]
Read MoreGokce SencanSeptember 10, 2019 This is part of a series on issues facing California’s rivers. Water managers across the state face new and more extreme challenges as the climate warms—from balancing the sometimes conflicting needs of urban, agricultural, and environmental water users to reducing risks from fires, floods, and droughts. We talked to Grant Davis, general […]
Read MoreState forest management policy is a major factor in the loss of salmon populations and the potential recovery of salmon populations. And – as it turn out forest management is a large part of the long term problem or long term solution of the climate change issue. I think the voting population is ready for change. […]
Read MoreCarbon dioxide emissions may trigger a reflex in the carbon cycle, with devastating consequences, study finds. Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office July 8, 2019 In the brain, when neurons fire off electrical signals to their neighbors, this happens through an “all-or-none” response. The signal only happens once conditions in the cell breach a certain threshold. […]
Read MoreKevin Stark Monterey Bay — long considered an environmental success story—is now facing a new threat: tiny particles of plastic from single use drinking and food containers. And scientists are finding that it’s far worse than they suspected. The bay is a national marine sanctuary, a place where environmental protections and sustainable fishing have transformed […]
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