Forest & River News
The Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference, March 2024
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…
Read MoreEditor’s Note
We have chosen “Collaboration, Cooperation, and Communication” as our theme for this issue of Forest and River News, but collaboration has always been at the very heart of Trees Foundation. It is our raison d’etre, but as we all know, it isn’t always easy. Trees Foundation is growing (see here) by evolving and adapting to…
Read MoreMessage from the President
The seasonal changes of Fall and Winter often inspire us to reflect. To say we are living in turbulent times describes more than just our climate-driven weather patterns. However dark the impending storms may feel, Trees Foundation and our partner groups have always tried to focus on nurturing our connections to the land to create a…
Read MoreGrowing Trees Foundation
Building Capacity for Collaboration and Environmental Resilience This year has been one of tremendous change and growth for the Trees Foundation. We bid farewell to our long-serving and well-loved Board President Susy Barsotti, and we welcomed a new Board member, John Wilhelm. We also said goodbye to our newest staff member Mary Gaterud, who left the…
Read MoreTrees’ Indispensable Role as a Non-Profit Incubator
By Pat Higgins, Eel River Recovery Project Managing Director In Spring of 2011, I went to the Trees office in Garberville with my old friend Paul Trichilo, and we met with Trees staff Barbara Ristow and Jeri Fergus and Board member Bill Eastwood. I had been contracting with Friends of Eel River (FOER) trying to…
Read MoreSouth Fork Eel River 2023 Pikeminnow Survey Provides Encouraging Results
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…
Read MoreSouthern Humboldt Fire Safe Council: Part of the Web of Groups Working Together to Rebuild Our Relationship to Fire
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…
Read MoreIf You Build It, Will Coho Run? Marshall Ranch Ponds Constructed to Maintain Redwood Creek Summer Flows
By Dana Stolzman, Executive Director, Salmonid Restoration Federation The Build Up Coho salmon persist in scattered watersheds throughout the North Coast of California, especially in forested tributaries that provide habitat refugia. Redwood Creek is a rare example of a human-populated watershed that still retains intrinsic potential for coho salmon recovery. For over 10 years, the…
Read MoreInstitute for Sustainable Forestry: A Brief Retrospective, Current Update on Projects, and Looking Ahead
Submitted by Chip Tittmann, President; Greg Condon, Treasurer; Gray Shaw, Secretary; and Board Directors Richard Gienger, Jeff Hedin, Liz Harwood, and Connie Smyser Over the last 39 years, ISF has built a legacy of promoting forest health, forest protection, and sustainable forest products utilization in NW California, all while collaborating with local NGOs, Tribes, and public…
Read MoreSPAWN Nursery: The Power of Community Over 20 Years of Propagating Native Plants
By Audrey Fusco, Nursery Manager and Restoration Ecologist, Salmon Protection and Watershed Network The SPAWN restoration nursery, seaturtles.org/nursery, grew out of the desire to restore creek habitat for coho salmon by utilizing local genetic stock of native plants that were not available in any nursery. Beginning as a volunteer effort, we sought experts to mentor…
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