California Buckeye

Panicle: a loose branching cluster of flowers. All photos this article by Cheryl Lisen Panicle: a loose branching cluster of flowers. All photos this article by Cheryl Lisen

Aesculus californica One of the first native plants to leaf out each year is California buckeye. Buckeyes don’t even wait for spring, leafing out in mid-winter, when moisture from rains is abundant. In California’s dry summer climate, many native plants have adapted to grow during the wet season and go dormant in the dry season;…

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Forest Health and Fire Resources Program Update

Burning tenaa, also known as dogbane, when it is dormant helps clean up decaying stalks, adds nutrients to the soil, and can help reduce competing grasses. Photo by Alicia Bales

Southern Humboldt Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project The Trees Foundation Forest Health and Fire Resources Program has been hard at work in 2024. We began the year collaborating with project partners California State Parks, Humboldt Redwood Company, Briceland Fire, Elk Ridge Forestry, Eel River Wailaki (ERW), Native Health in Native Hands (NHNH), and numerous…

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The Richard Gienger Report

This shows the special headwaters of the Mainstem Eel River above the Scott Dam (foreground). About 288 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat has been blocked for more than a century. Photo by EcoFlight

The following is an open letter I wrote in early December 2023. It remains valid today and in the coming months and years as an effort to reform (“modernize”) forest stewardship that includes a model of co-management. Perhaps the most appropriate and pressing place to achieve this is the 50,000-acre Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF).…

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26th Annual Coho Confab

The Smith River

September 13-15, 2024, Smith River By Salmonid Restoration Federation SRF, with the support of California Department of Fish and Wildlife, will host the 26th Annual Coho Confab at the beautiful Rock Creek Ranch on the South Fork of the Smith River. The pristine Smith River is the largest undammed river in California and is located…

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Every Day is Earth Day

While for many of us “Every day is Earth Day,” Trees Foundation is highlighting the annual renewal of our commitment to the Earth with this issue of Forest and River News. We hope the community joins us this Earth Day on April 22nd—the “how” is up to you! We suggest simply getting outside, taking a…

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The Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference, March 2024

The Garcia River tour, at the SRF Conference, will visit habitat enhancement sites in the Garcia River estuary. Photo courtesy The Nature Conservancy Test

Holding Space: Creating Habitat and a Platform for Innovation Salmonid Restoration Federation Salmonid Restoration Federation (SRF) produces the largest salmon restoration conference in California, convening a diverse range of people in the watershed restoration field including planners, engineers, policy makers, students, Watershed Stewards Program members, consultants, academics, tribal members, on-the-ground practitioners, and landowners. It is…

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South Fork Eel River 2023 Pikeminnow Survey Provides Encouraging Results

UCB divers after lunch on Day 2 (l to r): Phil Georgakakos, Gabe Rossi, Jim Greenberg, and Rachael Hein. All photos this article by Pat Higgins

By Pat Higgins, Managing Director, Eel River Recovery Project The Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP) conducted its eighth annual survey of invasive Sacramento pikeminnow on the South Fork Eel River from Rattlesnake Creek to Standish Hickey State Park on June 28 and 29, and results were surprising. The invasive pikeminnow population was far lower than…

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Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council: Part of the Web of Groups Working Together to Rebuild Our Relationship to Fire

The October 19 cultural fire burn at the Southern Humboldt Community Park—the first Cultural Burn in southern Humboldt in over 150 years—is a great example of southern Humboldt collaboration in action. Collaborators included Eel River Wailaki, Native Health in Native Hands, Wailaki Cultural Fire Crew, Trees Foundation, Briceland VFD, Garberville VFD, Humboldt County Prescribed Burn Association, Southern Humboldt Community Park, and local volunteers. The burn was conducted where a natural Hazel Grove lives. The hazel, or lachindé in Wailaki, is an important basket-making material and provides healthy nuts for animals and people. The hazel has been managed for many thousands of years till recently and now is not producing nuts and the stems of the bush are not able to be used for baskets or other uses without being maintained with fire and pruning. Photo by Kai Ostrow

Submitted by Gail Eastwood, Chair, Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council If you watch busy ants around an anthill for a while, you’ll see many ants industriously moving a bit of grain or chaff or something. It appears to be part of a coordinated effort to achieve some mutual goal. But where is the commander? Who’s…

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