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Remembering Jene McCovey
August 11, 1951—February 8, 2021 Yurok elder Jene McCovey (August 11, 1951—February 8, 2021) will be greatly missed on the North Coast as a dedicated and inspiring environmental leader. In 2014, Jene was presented with the Circle of Courage award by the Women’s Intercultural Network, and in 2018 she was chosen for the Sempervirens Lifetime…
Read MoreA Day of Action to Undam the Klamath
Fishermen and Environmental Activists Join Tribes in Asking Warren Buffett to Take Down Klamath River Dams This article was originally published as the cover story for News from Native California, Volume 34, Issue 2 (Winter 2020-2021). On October 23, tens of thousands of people joined members of the Karuk, Yurok, Klamath, and Hoopa Valley Tribes…
Read MoreFight of the River People
The Generational Push that Brought Berkshire Hathaway to the Table and Put Dam Removal Back on Track This story was originally published in the North Coast Journal on March 4, 2021 with support from the Community Voices Coalition, a project funded by Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation to support local journalism in…
Read MoreTipping the Scale: With Large Dams Coming Down, Small Ones are Going Up to Restore Balance in Impacted Watersheds
When I moved to the Mattole watershed nearly a decade ago, my new neighbor gave me my first lesson in wood loading. Which is to say, he gently schooled me for foraging firewood from the river bar. He explained how woody debris remaining in the river is critical for creating fish habitat, and offered a…
Read MoreFrom Roy’s Dam to Roy’s Riffles: Removing the Top-Priority Barrier for Central California Coho Salmon
A free-flowing creek replaced a nearly 100-year-old dam in Central California this past year, thanks to a decades-long restoration effort that is intimately tied to the genesis of the Marin County-based Salmon Protection And Watershed Network, or SPAWN. In December 1996, Todd Steiner stopped to look at an old fish ladder on the San Geronimo…
Read MoreReckoning with Fire in the Klamath Mountains and the West
Fire Management in Northern California and Oregon By Will Harling,MidKlamath Watershed Council “Indian know, and bye-un-bye White Man say he know too, but Indian say, WHITE MAN YOU KNOW TOO LATE.”—Klamath River Jack, May 27, 1916, in correspondence with U.S. Forest Service Ranger Jim Casey Sometimes it feels too late. Like the boulder has rolled…
Read MoreOf Fire and Myth: Will Harling, Bigfoot, and the Power of Place
This story originally appeared on the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network blog, at fireadaptednetwork.org To have stories like this one on Fire Adaption delivered to your inbox weekly, visit bit.ly/FACNetSubscribe. By Lenya Quinn-Davidson I grew up in the heart of Bigfoot Country. Trinity County, California: a place where stories of Bigfoot encounters are common, even…
Read MoreRoadside Fuels Reduction for Neighborhood Safety
By Ali Freedlund, Mattole Restoration Council Picture this: A lovely country lane where multiple residents rumble from their driveways en route to the post office or store. On their way they pass a wall of thick, impenetrable brush and a hillside dense with fuels, until they carefully cross a narrow, one-lane bridge. They just catch…
Read MoreTime to Forge a New Relationship with Fire in the Eel River Watershed
By Eel River Recovery Project The rapid onset of climate change is partly responsible for the one million acre plus August Complex Fire that has burned vast areas of the east side of the Eel River watershed in 2020, but there are also legacy problems adding to increased fuel loads and the severity of the…
Read MoreFire Prevention & Preparedness
By Anna Rogers, Sanctuary Forest This year we experienced what it’s like to live in the shadow of a gigafire—a fire that burns over a million acres. What began as many small lightning-sparked wildfires rapidly grew into the massive August Complex fire—now the largest fire in modern California history. And it was right in our…
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