Where We Are & Where Came From
The struggle to reform the management of Jackson State Forest may someday serve as a textbook example of how persistent, effective public pressure can force the government to shift from narrow, parochial interests to broad public interests.
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Reining In the Cows (and Goats): EPIC Gets Results on Uncontrolled Grazing
In recent months, EPIC has acted to highlight and rein in inappropriate grazing on public lands along the North Coast. We've made real progress documenting and changing routine but destructive grazing practices on lands the public owns. These not only include our national forests, but also wildlife areas managed by the California Department of Fish and Game, and even State Parks.
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Piercing The Redwood Curtain: Does A Redwood Park Need A Faster Road?
The brouhaha over the CalTrans proposal to rework the Highway 101 grapevine at Richardson Grove State Park dominates the news from Piercy. It's a tale shaggy with loose ends, bristling with points of controversy, and morphing radically from perspective to perspective. Attendance at public hearings has been too large to permit anyone to talk long enough to clarify fully even one vision of the needs for and impacts of the project. Consequently, no one inside or outside CalTrans seems to competently grasp the whole picture. Everyone is blundering.
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Increasing OHV Use Threatens Our National Forests
Recreational use in our National Forests has increased dramatically in recent decades, with off-highway vehicle (OHV) use as one of the fastest-growing forms of outdoor recreation. The number of OHV owners and users has risen sevenfold in less than 30 years--from about five million in 1972 to 36 million in 2002. In California alone, there are over 1,101,980 OHVs currently registered.
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The Importance of Working Easements for North Coast Forests
North Coast forests can provide a wealth of products and services--from a variety of high quality wood products to clear running water, fish and wildlife habitat, and other ecosystem services.
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DIGGIN' IN: The Gienger Report
Since arriving in the Mattole Valley of Humboldt County in 1971, Richard Gienger has immersed himself in homesteading, forest activism, and watershed restoration. Richard's column covers a range of issues including fisheries and watershed restoration and forestry, plus describes opportunities for the public to make positive contributions in the administrative and legislative arenas as well as in their own backyards.
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You Are Invited to the 11th Annual Coho Confab: August 15-17, 2008 on the Smith River
The Coho Confab is an informal symposium to explore watershed restoration, learn restoration techniques to recover coho salmon populations, and to network with other fish-centric people. Participants and instructors learn from each other's experience and share skills and practices that can be applied to restore habitat in their home watershed.
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Editors Note
North Coast public lands are a treasure that distinguishes our region. These enclaves safeguard rushing rivers and clean drinking water, ancient forests and wild solitude, support sustainable economies, and enrich communities. Yet all too often public trust values are threatened by commercial excess, agency disregard, and myopic "wise-use." Frequently it is citizen vigilance and participation in the stewardship process that guarantees ecologically-sound and culturally-sensitive management of these municipal, state, and federal lands.
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