August 19, 2009
Greetings from the Humboldt Watershed Council. We are honored to submit an essay for this edition and decided to give everyone a little history and an update about what we are up to today. Humboldt Watershed Council is now one of the older and more inclusive environmental groups in Humboldt County. The Humboldt Watershed Council (HWC) was created about 12 years ago to put a spotlight on the intense logging practices of the Pacific Lumber Company (PL) that resulted in damage to water quality, habitat stream conditions, and private property in the Freshwater drainage. The HWC was driven by a collection of residents from the affected area and put its energy into creating a collective voice to the water and forestry agencies, politicians, and the general public. They successfully petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to list several watersheds as sediment-impaired under 303(d) of the Federal Clean Water Act. During its early years, HWC focused on forestry rules, THP (Timber Harvest Plan) monitoring and litigation, and the Headwaters Forest acquisition, where it played a prominent role in fighting for a scientifically credible HCP/SYP (Harvest Conservation Plan//Sustainable Yield Plan). In about 2002, the HWC focused its energies on the application of the Clean Water Act to our impaired watersheds. It organized public and scientific testimony for Regional Water Board meetings and evidentiary hearings, filed regulatory petitions, participated in mediation, and initiated litigation to force the State and Regional Water Boards to develop the unprecedented Watershed-Wide Waste Discharge Requirements (WWDR) for logging. The concept of WWDR served as the interim measure until Water Quality began development and implementation of today's Total Maximum Daily Load.
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After a few organizational meetings and some all-day strategic planning sessions, the near term and intermediate goals of the HWC began to coalesce. Guided by the principles and visions of the original group, the Mission, Vision, and Principle statements evolved to reflect today's objectives:
Humboldt Watershed Council is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization made up of Humboldt County residents, watershed groups, and community organizations that are concerned with the degradation of our watersheds, and the tremendous impact this has upon our health, safety, property, and quality of life. We believe that maintaining the health of our watersheds is important not only for wildlife and the environment, but for the people and businesses that call Humboldt County home. We believe that a healthy environment is key to a healthy community. We support efforts to create and maintain a sustainable economy by conserving the resource base upon which it depends.
The Mission of Humboldt Watershed Council is to educate its members, the public, and government agencies on Public Trust issues related to air, land, water, and wildlife; and to defend this Trust and related private property rights through social, legal, economic, and political remedies.
The Vision of Humboldt Watershed Council is to protect, restore, and maintain the natural function and beneficial uses of Northcoast watersheds, balancing long term benefits for human communities and the environment.
While our 2009-2010 goals and work objectives do not list forest and river issues at the top of the list, it is because funding and membership issues will need to be successfully addressed before the others can be considered.
* Outreach and Membership
* Fund Raising / Grant Writing
* Revive "Voices" as a quarterly periodic publication and a monthly newsletter
* Establish a "State-of-the-Art" interactive Website
Develop Public Workshops "State of the Watershed"-Tentatively set for Oct 09.
* Actively monitor and participate in the Humboldt County General Plan--work toward a policy statement re: Restoration of a Wild Salmonid Fishery
* Actively monitor and work on gravel mining reform
* Archival of HWC historical records.
* Forest Issues (Humboldt Redwood Company Monitoring)
* Water Issues (Elk River and the Van Duzen River)
* Gravel Issues (River, Estuary, and open-pit mining on agriculture lands and in river deltas)
* Work on determining "Long-term threat assessments" using a multi-group platform.
Many of these work objectives are actively underway. A new interactive website was recently launched as described below. Over the last several months, a delegation from the HWC has personally met with the planners and staff working on the General Plan update. It has made a number of presentations to the Planning Commissioners and submitted many written comments, suggesting language changes and new additions. The HWC is committed to working within the system to affect long-term and
sustainable change.
The Humboldt Watershed Council newsletter, Voices of Humboldt County, has been revised and is now an interactive forum. We recently launched Voices of Humboldt County website that can be found at www.voicesofhumboldtcounty.com The website is an interactive state-of-the-art communication tool developed by our director and IT manager, Deane Rimerman. A visit to this website will reveal dozens of environmentally germane topics that can be updated by members or visitors who can add postings, documents, photographs, or comments. As members and visitors become more active by adding content, the site will gain elevated visibility within the global internet. As new watershed groups join, new pages will be added and devoted to each group. Even if the member already has a website, its core content, notices, agenda, and announcements can be posted here as well, plus live links to the website.
The Humboldt Watershed Council is seeking memberships from ALL watershed groups, whether a formally structured group or loosely organized neighborhood group, and from individuals, students, families, and from ALL environmental organizations no matter their size or type. With the collective memberships of these groups, HWC's membership will soar. We can speak with collective strength when called for and can lend the tools and function allowed under our 501(c)(3) status, to those members without
such standing.
This has been only a thumbnail sketch of the very far-reaching success Humboldt Watershed Council has had over the past twelve years. The impairment of our watersheds is a huge problem with social, economic, and environmental components. There are many challenges ahead. Over the next few months we will be publishing additional updates in Forest and River News as we move forward to meet these new challenges.
For more information about the Humboldt Watershed Council visit:
www.voicesofhumboldtcounty.com or email cqjess@sbcglobal.net.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Summer 2009